When do the training wheels come off?
Last week, Jeremy at “Till He Comes” wrote a very good post called “Always at Training, Never Trained.”
This is a great post to consider during my current series on discipleship.
After talking about different “tracks” and “traps” that people often get caught in, Jeremy concludes with this paragraph on “On the Job Training”:
This is why Jesus never really did any formal training with His disciples. It was all “on the job training.†Sure, He taught and instructed them, but it was almost always on the way to something Jesus was going to do, or as a debriefing for something He had already done. Eventually, He just kicked them out the door with a pair of shoes and a shirt, and said, “Come back in a few weeks and we’ll talk about how it went†(Luke 10).
There is a tendency in the modern church to see training as the goal. Most traditional church meetings are geared to training: what to believe especially. Most Bible studies are also geared toward training. Very little in the modern church actually gets people involved in the lives of others.
Training is not our goal.
Thanks, Alan.
All of your posts are so good. Have you ever thought about writing a book?
Alan,
You are so right with your statement, “Training is not our goal”, also when you say,”Most traditional church meetings are geared to training: what to believe especially”
Training people WHAT to believe is brainwashing.
Making disciples includes helping them to read, and understand,for themselves,what the Spirit is saying in the Scriptures,to be wise enough to question what is taught, as good Bereans should, and is a very different kettle of fish to what tradition has done.
Jeremy,
I’ve thought about it. I’m hoping to finish my dissertation before I write anything else.
Aussie John,
I’m glad you always bring up the Bereans. 🙂
-Alan
Alan,
I cannot understand those who claim to be Christians, who base their belief on information they have been told, rather than what they have discovered for themselves.
Congregations I have taught were reminded from time to time that they needed to always check what I was teaching against the Scriptures. I believe any who don’t are foolish indeed.
What a thrill it was have someone come to me with an open Bible, to question, or check on something, and to know that at least some of the people I taught were actually checking the Scripture to see if what I taught was so!
Aussie John,
It sounds like you were pointing them to the real teacher.
-Alan
What is your dissertation on? I think you mentioned it before, but now I forget.
Jeremy,
The title of my dissertation is “Mutual Edification as the Purpose of the Assembled Church in the New Testament: A Study in Biblical Theology.”
-Alan