By Darrel Rowland
The emphasis on making disciples is not subtle at Mountain Christian Church.
It”s displayed in three-foot-high letters inside the church building. It”s in the bulletin every Sunday. It”s emphasized everywhere from new members classes to gatherings of the church”s top leadership.
“The purpose of this church is to make disciples””more and better disciples.”
“One thing that has helped us perhaps as much as any other thing is a crystal clear focus with a mission that everyone understands and knows,” senior minister Ben Cachiaras says. “Every line item in our budget we hold accountable to that mission, every staff role, every program, every sermon we preach.”
In the past 10 years the church northeast of Baltimore, Maryland, has grown from 900 to about 3,300 each weekend. Mountain Christian strives to make new converts instead of growing mainly through transfers. Those new members are guided through a spiritual transformation known as the MountainWalk, which gives members a tangible path to follow and a way to measure their growth.
Churches aspiring to follow the biblical pattern must constantly and ruthlessly evaluate themselves by asking, “What is the target? What”s the true goal here? How do we define a win as a church? We can”t be satisfied with the ABC”s””attendance, buildings, and cash. You can”t justify that biblically.”
Despite the church”s rapid growth, Mountain”s leaders “don”t celebrate attendance as the win.” They do laud numerical growth when it achieves the true objective: “a fully devoted follower of Jesus Christ, a disciple, a full-on, Christ-following, loyal devotee to the kingdom of God who is prepared and equipped for every good work,” Cachiaras said.
“That sounds so stupidly simple. But if we”re just honest, until we ask “˜are we getting that job done,” then everything else we talk about is a waste of time.”
Mountain, which doesn”t offer adult Sunday school, counts on small groups and midsize seminars more than its weekend services to create disciples.
“We have a kind of trickle-down approach. In addition to the sermons and classes we teach, we feel that if we can invest in leaders of small groups, and make out of them mature, grounded disciples, they are the ones who”ll have the best impact on the people in their groups” Cachiaras said.
“I think churches for too long have allowed themselves to believe if we”re holding this many Bible classes or people are gaining this kind of Bible knowledge or information dissemination, we”ve just assumed that we”re accomplishing our purpose. But that may or may not actually develop a disciple.”
Darrel Rowland is public affairs editor of The Columbus Dispatch and an adult Bible fellowship teacher at Worthington (Ohio) Christian Church.
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