Disciple Me on Sunday
Disciple Me on Sunday
Can I be successfully discipled by attending Sunday services regularly? So much attention is given to having a great Sunday service that you would hope that the event could reach the lost and disciple the believer. Of course, much attention should be given to preaching and reading of the Word on Sundays as well as any other times Christians gather together. But Sunday alone could never “make disciples” in the real biblical sense. Act 5:42…”And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.” Daily in the temple and house to house was the key to New Testament discipleship.
For the sake of comparison I calculated how many hours a year the average Christian sits under the teaching of his/her pastor. This will shock you.
15.6 hours per year!
Where do I get these numbers? Simple: There are 52 Sundays in the year – the average message is ½ hour (30 minutes) – and the average church has only 60% of its congregation in attendance on any given Sunday. If you multiply 30 minutes by 52 Sundays you get 26 hours, then take the 26 hours by an average of 60% attendance (some will never miss some will come occasionally) you have that average of 15.6 hours per year…. That’s if the average member of your church attends 31 services in the year. Amazing.
This does not take into consideration the power of the worship experience and the presence of the Holy Spirit…it is purely crunching the numbers….just over  a half of a day per year.
Consider these stats from the Nielson Company – Per year the average American watches 1800 hours of TV, spend 360 hours on the internet, 36 hours watching video on the internet and 36 hours watching video on their cell phones. Wonder why we might be losing the war in the spiritual?
This makes for a great case for small groups, mid-week teaching services and anything else you can do to make disciples of church members.
Billy Hornsby
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Comments
Jacob
Those numbers should be a wake up call to all followers of Christ! You are absolutely right, this make the perfect case for small groups and the need for actually for making disciples! Thanks for the insight and the challenge to provide opportunities to help make disciples.
Billy
Thanks Jacob. It is a little alarming…no wonder we have so few spiritual giants walking among us…
Jerry McQuay
No wonder I feel like I’m never quite getting it done. The numbers don’t lie, Billy – but we’ve got to find ways to disciple God’s people, including the ones that we can’t seem to motivate to get into a small group or come to a midweek class. I’m all ears!
Tony Chimento
Consider also that being in church and listening to a sermon is pretty important. But it is hugely one dimensional, in that one person is speaking and the other is listening. When the disciples walked with Christ, there was so much Q&A going on. Being in a church service does not obviously accommodate much Q&A. Like you said, anything else we can do like small groups will go a long way to driving home discipleship. Thanks for the great post.
Steve Crowder
Amazing stats, Billy! I plan to use this info in my message Sunday to bring an awareness of the spiritual needs that currently exist in our community. Thanks for taking the time to share that with us!
Wes Dunn
Wow- thanks for all the great info Pastor Billy. Great great stuff here. Very encouraged. My wife and I helped launch a plant 3 years ago and I wish we had read some of this before! Ha.
Blessings,
Wes
Steve Coerper
Hi –
I chose your post as “homework” for today’s program. It speaks to my passion: building DISCIPLES – our great commission. Would you be bold enough to post how the American way of “doing church” is often counter-productive? How a top-down formalized hierarchy damages both the “clergy” and the “laity”?
And might you consider being a guest on my BlogTalkRadio program?
Best,
Steve
Desmond Frey
Billy, these numbers are staggering. Living here in Europe, I wonder what the stats would be in our country? I will share them with our people this weekend. Should be a great motivator. Thanks for doing the research.
Desmond
Hope Glogen
Very alarming! No wonder we are loosing America to secularism… We blame politicians, Hollywood and liberal groups for that, while ignoring the command of Christ as leaders and shepherds of the flocks that Christ has entrusted us with: “go and MAKE DISCIPLES” Matt.28:19. Isn’t de-moralization of society a direct result of a weak and powerless church? We should start changing focus from drawing crowds to our churches by our political correctness and “cultural relevance” to obeying the command of Jesus and disciple our congregations to the level where they can make mature disciples themselves. The change of focus will most likely decrease our attendance numbers and, therefore, the funding, but those who will attend and be discipled will be true light and salt and, as a result, will make a greater difference in the society than luke-warm congregations that crowd our mega church buildings today.
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