The Gap Between Comfortable Membership and Genuine Discipleship Within the Church

Abstract

According to the New Testament, the Church of Jesus Christ is a glorious church. Yet the glory of the Church has not always been fully reflected by the local Churches throughout history. Because of this, many churches are harshly criticized, they are considered irrelevant, obsolete, and are coldly rejected by many. Unfortunately, although there is no doubt that Holy Scripture is essential to spiritual growth, there are many believers who do not know even the most elementary biblical doctrines, although they have been members of the Church for years. There are many believers who are satisfied with a comfortable membership without being authentic disciples. The solution for the outcome of this state consists in a transformation of the Churches without changing the biblical message and without lowering the standards, the ideals, and without losing the purpose which is presented in the Sacred Scripture. To become mature Christians, authentic disciples, believers need biblical teaching to give them theological stability, need profound relationships to satisfy, and need to see people coming to Christ as a result of a personal testimony.

Keywords: Church, discipleship, membership, Christian, maturity