I came across this post from Bill Hull today.  Bill is also the author of the excellent book The Disciplemaking Pastor.  I highly recommend it if you have not read it.  It provides a much more biblically sound ecclesiology than is practice in most evangelical churches.

The post deals with the problem present in most evangelical churches – no planned discipleship.  Our history has led to this crisis.  Evangelical churches still hold to a one-time crisis conversion event.  When this event occurs the only prescribed steps of discipleship which follow are a membership class and baptism.  This has led to a spiritually anemic church.  Hull urges us to consider the biblical mandate.  Here is a brief taste of the post:

The reason the Christian faith has not transformed American culture is that it has not significantly transformed the majority of Christians. The American church has taught a gospel that most often has been unaccompanied by discipleship.When the gospel loses discipleship, it loses the permission and the ability to teach people deeply. This eliminates the process Jesus commanded, “ teach them to obey everything I have commanded you.”