Barna: True Discipleship Missing in Many American Churches
By Fred Jackson
(AgapePress) – A well-known Christian researcher says the church in America today is composed of many converts, but shockingly few disciples.
George Barna bases his conclusion on two years of research into the state of discipleship among those who say they have accepted Christ as their savior.
In one of the most disturbing findings, Barna says when Christian adults were asked to identify the most important goal for their life, not a single person said it was to be a committed follower of Christ, or to make disciples of Christ.
Other findings included that the vast majority of born-again Christians do not believe absolute truth exists. And less than 1% thought there was a connection between their efforts to worship God and their development as a disciple of Jesus.
In addition, when given 13 basic teachings from the Bible, only one percent of adult believers firmly embraced all 13 as being Biblical principles.
Barna notes that part of the problem is that while most churches have plenty of teaching programs, very few have developed a well-conceived model of what discipleship really is.