Discipling in the family
Written by Alan on 2007-07-16 08:41:28
A significant part of biblical discipling should occur in the family. Deut 6, Eph 6:4, etc).
Timothy, as an evangelist, was instructed to teach older men, younger men, and older women.
The Roman Christians were commended as full of goodness, complete in knowledge, and competent to instruct one another. The goodness and the knowledge apparently were prerequisite to instructing one another. It would be a mistake to assume that every Christian is thus qualified, or even that every member of the Roman church was qualified. But the church as a whole had the necessary qualification, in Paul's absence, to instruct "one another".
The main issue with discipleship in the shepherding movements and the ICOC in particular has been the unbiblical authority over one another.
In the business world, it is an axim that there is no accountability without consequences. But members of the church are not authorized biblically to inflict consequences on one another to enforce "accountability". So in that sense of the word, we cannot hold one another accountable. We are to encourage, warn, exhort, even rebuke. But with very limited exceptions (eg. 1 Cor 5), it stops there. Even in the exceptional scenarios, the action is taken by the church leadership, not by individuals.
Bottom line, the problems with discipling arise because of unbiblical authority. |
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