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Jesus sent the disciples out into the community
and said: Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals;
and greet no one on the road.
Whatever house you enter, first say,
‘Peace to this house!' And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person.
–Luke 10:4-6

Dear Sisters and Brothers,

I and conference leaders have been traveling around the conference meeting with clergy and laity to ask what you are learning about discipleship and what can we do to better serve our community. It has been rewarding to hear people indicate the following:

• Membership is not discipleship. Discipleship is a commitment to grow in faith and follow Jesus every day.
• We are seeing discipleship awakened in people by serving in mission.
• Discipleship today means trying new things, like different types of worship experiences. It is okay if everything you try does not work. Discipleship is risk taking.
• We need to listen to the people in our communities and what their hopes and pain are and offer a discipleship journey that meets them where they are.
• Disciples make disciples. We need to help our present people to go deeper in their faith to reach others.
• Authenticity is what the world desires, not a hollow message and shallow church.

Wow! We are growing deeper in our understanding and commitment to making disciples in the 21st Century. I am grateful for the teaching of our pastors and lay leadership that is leading to this deeper understanding and commitment. I also encourage your congregation to continue to grow in your understanding. I encourage congregations in church council meetings and small groups to ask these questions:

Why do people need Jesus?
Why do people need the church?
Why do people need our church?
Is our church connecting with people who need Jesus?

One of the great challenges of discipleship today is that most of today's disciples grew up in a convergent world. A convergent world is where people generally thought alike and had similar experiences. For instance when someone new moved into the community they usually asked a neighbor, "Where is the grocery store, who is a good doctor and where is a good place to go to church?" Today we live in a divergent culture, which asks, "Why go to church?" We have prepared the church for the first question, where is a good place to go. We focus on signage, fixing up the entry ways and developing a nice brochure about the church. While these are important, they do not answer the question that many are asking today, "Why go to church?"

We are not prepared to answer this question because it was probably never our question. Most disciples today never asked why go to church, they asked what's a good church to go to? When we are asked why go to church we probably talked about things like: our church is friendly, we have a great choir, or our preacher is inspiring. Divergent culture wants to know what will be different if I went to church; why do I need Jesus, after all I am a good person; how will church help me deal with a bad job or my daughter's alcoholism; or I have a good life now, so how will church make it better?

For an excellent article about the church in this cultural shift go here.

There are great days ahead. People recognize that membership and discipleship are not the same thing and that today we are going to have to take more risks to transform lives and communities. Together we will adventure through this new territory and, with God's help, we will experience the blessings God has for us.