What Is the Role of Discipleship in the Church?

　　Transcript from the video above, edited for readability.

　　The role of discipleship in the local church has got to be... one hesitates to use the word primary. It's just got to be up there. It's got to be high on the list of priorities. When you think about why God designed the church, how God designed the church, so frequently in the New Testament record, you see the language of growth and maturity. Growth in the Christian life is not a individual project, it's a community project. We need one another. And so God in his kindness for us, doesn't just save us, rescue us from drowning to leave us kind of shivering on the shore. No, he puts us in a body so that we might grow and prosper.

　　So you have Paul in Ephesians chapter four, talking about the role of the body, the importance of the body, helping each member of the body to move into maturity, knowing God better, able to avoid false doctrine, understanding what it means to use our gifts together. All of this happens in the context of the local church, such that when it's functioning well, each member of that body is encouraged in its growth, this is what I understand discipleship to mean, growth in our faith in Christ and in our obedience to Christ.

　　And so the church has got to take seriously its responsibility to own its role in discipleship and take seriously it's facilitating of its members, both as individuals and as a church, the responsibility to encourage the faith, the obedience of the members of the body.