Arrived at another passage of scripture this morning that makes me pause. Revelation is as they say, “not for the faint of heart.”  Those familiar with the specific details of chapter 17 understand this perspective well.

The Apostle John is summoned by an angel to witness the judgment of the “great harlot who sits on many waters” (v. 1).  The question that arises is, who or what is this great harlot?  The context of the passage and the flow of the book identifies this harlot as an end times amalgamation of religionists (v. 15).   Included in this organization of global religionists is of course the apostate church.  This fact is what causes some consternation among believers today.

The apostate church is not a future condition.  The apostate church is here already. This condition goes well beyond the “wheat and tares” condition described by Jesus in Matthew 13.  My guess is that nearly every church in America has a couple of tares hiding out in the wheat.  The apostate church is defined as that so-called church that might still wear the name Christian but has denied Christ as only Savior and Lord.  That church will form the foundation of the Tribulation global religion.

This should not cause believers to despair but instead should encourage us to grasp the importance of contending for the faith daily.  One way we can do that is through focused and intentional discipleship. What is intentional discipleship and how would individuals and churches go about implementing this?

There are any number of processes and strategies being promoted today.  One that I like is described in a recent article on the Transformative Church website (http://www.transformativechurch.org) entitled, “Five Changes Churches Need to Make to Be Disciple Makers.”

The strategy incorporates five shifts that churches can undertake to fully engage people in disciple making.  They are:

1. Shift from reaching to making.  This involves going beyond merely training people how to share the gospel to teaching them through relationship over a longer period of time.  This goes to the heart of how to reach “Millennials” today.  I’ll speak more about this in future posts.
2. Shift from teaching to modeling.  This can be a tough shift for church leaders who are accustomed to teaching others and not modeling for others how it is done. Modeling involves being a disciple and being led by Jesus.  A leader’s inability to make this shift will thwart disciple making before it has a chance to start.
3. Shift from ingesting techniques to putting into practice the truths learned.  At some point those being discipled will begin to put into practice those things learned and demonstrated by their mentor.  Jesus taught His disciples Kingdom principles, demonstrated them for their learning, then He sent them out to do what He had taught them and demonstrated for them.
4. Shift from connecting to transforming.  The body of Christ is meant to worship God and bring honor to His name through word and deed among other things.  A constant focus on being missions minded, what some are calling missional is important because transformation happens as believers engage their local communities in tangible ways as demonstrations of their faith.
5. Shift from attracting to deploying.  Are we a lean, missional minded disciple making body or are we more focused on secluded, insulated living where we can become immersed in a Christian version of the world?  The church must get beyond the need to see attendance numbers increase.  Instead, we must seek to deploy people into our communities for Christ-centered ministry. My thinking is that as we do that Jesus will build the church.  It might surprise you what it will look like though.

This is but a short synopsis and I encourage you to read the entire article and series of which this one is a part.  The point is that relational disciple making, mentoring, modeling, sending rather than attracting, and developing people the way Jesus developed the twelve will in the end have a much greater impact on our communities and world and will strengthen the church to become exactly what God wants us to be.

It is important that we understand the times we live in and take appropriate action to tell the gospel story of Jesus Christ, the only name by which man will be saved from the judgment to come.

More to come on this subject.

Your thoughts?