Notes

[1] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship (New York: Touchstone, 1959), 77.

[2] The State of Discipleship: A Barna Report Produced in Partnership with The Navigators (2015).

[3] Christian Smith and Melinda Lundquist Denton, Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009).

[4] Smith and Denton, Soul Searching, 164.

[5] Interestingly, the rest of the New Testament —Romans through Revelation —doesn’t use the term disciple. Some people have tried to make a big stink out of this. But the absence of the word disciple outside of the Gospels and Acts doesn’t seem to be a big deal. Other, similar terms are used after Acts, such as “believers,” “holy ones,” “children of God,” and other intimate terms like “brother and sister.” These are used to describe Christians. For a thorough study in the meaning of the term disciple, see Michael J. Wilkins, Following the Master: A Biblical Theology of Discipleship (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1992).

[6] The State of Discipleship, 35.

[7] The State of Disciplehip, 36.

[8] David Kinnaman, You Lost Me: Why Young Christians Are Leaving the Church . . . and Rethinking Faith (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2011), 22.

[9] Thom Rainer and Sam S. Rainer III, Essential Church? Reclaiming a Generation of Dropouts (Nashville: B&H Publishing, 2008), 4, cited in Drew Dyck, Generation Ex-Christian: Why Young Adults Are Leaving the Faith . . . and How to Bring them Back (Chicago: Moody Press, 2010), 17.

[10] David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons, UnChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity . . . and Why It Matters (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2007), 23

[11] Rodney Stark, cited in Dyck, Generation Ex-Christian, 187.

[12] See Peter Steinfels, “A Challenge for Churches: Adulthood Takes Its Time,” The New York Times, December 8, 2007, www.nytimes.com/2007/12/08/us/08beliefs.html?pagewanted=print&_r=0.

[13] On the current climate of Christianity and culture, see the recent and excellent book by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons, Good Faith: Being a Christian When Society Thinks You’re Irrelevant and Extreme (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2016).

[14] Kinnaman, You Lost Me, 21.

[15] “Faith in Flux: Changes in Religious Affiliation in the U.S.” Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, April 21, 2009, http://pewforum.org/PublicationPage.aspx?id=1154, cited in Gabe Lyons, The Next Christians (Colorado Springs: Multnomah, 2010), 22–23.

[16] Kinnaman, You Lost Me, 116. Another 31 percent said that church was boring; 24 percent said their church didn’t prepare them for real life.

[17] Josh Packard and Ashleigh Hope, Church Refugees: Sociologists Reveal Why People are DONE with Church but Not Their Faith (Littleton, CO: Group Publishing, 2015).

[18] Packard and Hope, Church Refugees, 61.

[19] Packard and Hope, Church Refugees, 133.

[20] Cited in John S. Dickerson, The Great Evangelical Recession: Six Factors That Will Crash the American Church . . . and How to Prepare (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2013), 29.

[21] American Religious Identification Survey statistics: Barry A. Kosmin and Ariela Keysar, ARIS 2008 (Hartford, CT: Trinity College, 2008), 3, cited in Lyons, The Next Christians, 5.

[22] John Dickerson surveys four highly credible studies that all conclude that the percentage of genuine Christians —not just those who claim to be born again —is 7–9 percent; see Dickerson, The Great Evangelical Recession, 27–34.

[23] Ed Stetzer, “The Epidemic of Biblical Illiteracy in Our Churches,” The Exchange, July 6, 2015, http://www.christianitytoday.com/edstetzer/2015/july/epidemic-of-bible-illiteracy-in-our-churches.html.

[24] A biblical worldview is defined by Barna as “believing that absolute moral truth exists; the Bible is totally accurate in all of the principles it teaches; Satan is considered to be a real being or force, not merely symbolic; a person cannot earn their way into Heaven by trying to be good or do good works; Jesus Christ lived a sinless life on earth; and God is the all-knowing, all-powerful creator of the world who still rules the universe today. In the research, anyone who held all of those beliefs was said to have a biblical worldview.” Ed Stetzer, “Barna: How Many Have a Biblical Worldview?” The Exchange, March 9, 2009, http://www.christianitytoday.com/edstetzer/2009/march/barna-how-many-have-biblical-worldview.html.

[25] Stetzer, “Barna: How Many Have a Biblical Worldview?”

[26] George Barna and Mark Hatch, Boiling Point: How Coming Cultural Shifts Will Change Your Life (Ventura, CA: Regal, 2001), 90.

[27] “Indeed, Allah will not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves” (Al-Ra’d, 13:11).

[28] Eugene Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction: Discipleship in an Instant Society (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2000), 133.

[29] Jonathan Dodson, Gospel-Centered Discipleship (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 18 (emphasis in the original).

[30] I changed “you” to “me” in this rendition of Philippians 2:13.

[31] George Barna and David Kinnaman, eds., Churchless (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale Momentum, 2014), 80.

[32] “Christians: More Like Jesus or Pharisees?” June 3, 2013, http://www.barna.org/faith-spirituality/619-are-christians-more-like-jesus-or-more-like-the-pharisees#.VpfRuTaJnww.

[33] Dodson, Gospel-Centered Discipleship, 36.

[34] Dodson, Gospel-Centered Discipleship, 40.

[35] David Kinnaman, You Lost Me: Why Young Christians Are Leaving the Church . . . and Rethinking Faith (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2011), 190.

[36] The State of Discipleship, 90.

[37] Dodson, Gospel-Centered Discipleship, 64–65.

[38] Ibid.

[39] Ibid., 40.

[40] David Kinnaman, You Lost Me: Why Young Christians Are Leaving the Church . . . and Rethinking Faith (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2011), 12–13.

[41] Particularly fascinating is the Reveal study done on Willow Creek Community Church, which showed that its many programs have not been producing the Christlike growth they thought. Greg L. Hawkins and Cally Parkinson, Reveal (South Barrington, IL: Willow Creek Association, 2007).

[42] Kinnaman, You Lost Me, 28–29, 120.

[43] The State of Discipleship: A Barna Report Produced in Partnership with The Navigators (2015), 87.

[44] See the blog by pastor Benjamin Corey that went viral a few years ago: “10 Reasons Why People Leave the Church,” August 7, 2013, http://www.patheos.com/blogs/formerlyfundie/10-reasons-why-people-leave-church. Of the top ten reasons that pastor Corey lists, at least five (perhaps seven) have to do with relationships.

[45] See Christopher Ash’s fantastic and incredibly thorough book Marriage: Sex in the Service of God (Vancouver: Regent College Publishing, 2005).

[46] See, for example, 1 Corinthians 7:1-40; Ephesians 5:21-33; and the Song of Songs.

[47] The classic example, of course, is David and Jonathan. We also see examples of intimate friendships between Jesus and John, Elijah and Elisha, and Paul and several of his coworkers, including Timothy, Titus, Priscilla, Aquila, and Barnabas.

[48] See Greg Ogden, Transforming Discipleship: Making Disciples a Few at a Time (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2003), 59–74.

[49] Jonathan Dodson, Gospel-Centered Discipleship (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 108.

[50] The State of Discipleship, 45.

[51] The State of Discipleship, 85

[52] Dodson, Gospel-Centered Discipleship, 107.

[53] Bill Hull, The Complete Book of Discipleship: On Being and Making Followers of Christ (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2006), 67.

[54] Greg Ogden, Transforming Discipleship: Making Disciples a Few at a Time (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2003), 31.

[55] The State of Discipleship, 87.

[56] Sherry Turkle, Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other (New York: Basic Books, 2012), 1.

[57] Giles Slade, The Big Disconnect: The Story of Technology and Loneliness (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2012).

[58] The State of Discipleship, 87.

[59] Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2001).

[60] Josh Packard and Ashleigh Hope, Church Refugees: Sociologists Reveal Why People are DONE with Church but Not Their Faith (Littleton, CO: Group Publishing, 2015), 61.

[61] Packard and Hope, Church Refugees, 82.

[62] Dodson, Gospel-Centered Discipleship, 108.

[63] “Barry” is a composite figure based on several Christian business owners I’ve known over the years. While the specifics do not come from one particular life story, the general thrust of Barry’s business does.

[64] For an excellent overview of this idea, see Nancy Pearcey, Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from Its Cultural Captivity (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2004).

[65] The State of Discipleship, 46.

[66] The State of Discipleship, 88.

[67] David Kinnaman, You Lost Me: Why Young Christians Are Leaving the Church . . . and Rethinking Faith (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2011), 75.

[68] Ibid., 140.

[69] Ibid., 101.

[70] Ibid., 101 (emphasis added).

[71] The State of Discipleship, 35.

[72] Ibid., 36.

[73] For solid look at this theme, see Tim Keller, Every Good Endeavor: Connecting Your Work to God’s Work (New York: Riverhead Books, 2014). For a super compelling and rather artsy treatment, see John Mark Comer’s Garden City: Work, Rest, and the Art of Being Human (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2015).

[74] Quoted from Kuyper’s inaugural address at the dedication of the Free University, which can be found in James D. Bratt, ed., Abraham Kuyper: A Centennial Reader (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1998), 488.

[75] John Mark Comer, “Garden City” sermon series, accessed February 29, 2016, http://bridgetown.ajesuschurch.org/teaching/work-series/the-garden-city/.

[76] Kinnaman, You Lost Me, 207.

[77] The State of Discipleship, 57.

[78] Ibid., 59.

[79] Josh Packard and Ashleigh Hope, Church Refugees: Sociologists Reveal Why People Are DONE with Church but Not Their Faith (Littleton, CO: Group Publishing, 2015), 96.

[80] Ibid., 122–125.

[81] Ibid., 122.

[82] Ibid., 123.

[83] The State of Discipleship, 91.

[84] Michael J. Wilkins, Following the Master (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1992), 72–73.

[85] Mark Noll, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1995).

[86] Mark Noll, “The Evangelical Mind Today,” First Things, October 2004, accessed February 29, 2016, at http://www.firstthings.com/article/2004/10/the-evangelical-mind-today.

[87] Walter Martin, quoted in Drew Dyck, Generation Ex-Christian (Chicago: Moody Press, 2010), 101.

[88] Packard and Hope, Church Refugees, 81.

[89] Dyck, Generation Ex-Christian, 36.

[90] David Kinnaman, You Lost Me: Why Young Christians Are Leaving the Church . . . and Rethinking Faith (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2011), 127.

[91] See Matthew 16:5-28; Luke 18:1-43; John 21:15-19.

[92] Greg Ogden, Transforming Discipleship: Making Disciples a Few at a Time (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2003), 89.

[93] Ogden, Transforming Discipleship, 89.

[94] See Clinton Arnold, “Early Church Catechesis and New Christians’ Classes in Contemporary Evangelicalism,” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 47 (2004): 39–54, accessed February 29, 2016, at http://www.etsjets.org/files/JETS-PDFs/47/47-1/47-1-pp039-054_JETS.pdf.

[95] The first of several posts was called “Intersex and Christian Theology,” October 13, 2015, http://www.patheos.com/blogs/theologyintheraw/2015/10/intersex-and-christian-theology/.

[96] Dan Kimball, They Like Jesus but Not the Church: Insights from Emerging Generations (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2007), 218.

[97] Brandon Hatmaker, Barefoot Church: Serving the Least in a Consumer Culture (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), 78.

[98] See Hatmaker, Barefoot Church, 74–78.

[99] Josh Packard and Ashleigh Hope, Church Refugees: Sociologists Reveal Why People Are DONE with Church but Not Their Faith (Littleton, CO: Group Publishing, 2015), 21.

[100] Packard and Hope, Church Refugees, 104.

[101] George Barna and David Kinnaman, eds., Churchless (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale Mometum, 2014), 42.

[102] David Kinnaman, You Lost Me: Why Young Christians Are Leaving the Church . . . and Rethinking Faith (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2011), 114.

[103] Ibid., 119.

[104] Austin New Church (ANC) started doing this several years ago. See Hatmaker, Barefoot Church, 119–121.

[105] This phrase is from Packard and Hope, Church Refugees.

[106] Joshua Ryan Butler told me this in an e-mail on January 14, 2016.

[107] Check it out. It’s an awesome ministry: http://projectbayview.com.

[108] Kimball, They Like Jesus but Not the Church, 20.

[109] Cited in Mark DeYmaz, HUP: Should Pastors Accept or Reject the Homogeneous Unit Principle? (Dallas: Leadership Network, 2012), 14.

[110] Martin Luther King said this in a speech at Western Michigan University on December 18, 1963: “We must face the fact that in America, the church is still the most segregated major institution in America. At eleven o’clock on Sunday morning when we stand and sing and Christ has no east or west, we stand at the most segregated hour in this nation. This is tragic. Nobody of honesty can overlook this.”

[111] Bob Smietana, “Sunday Morning Segregation,” Christianity Today, January 15, 2015, http://www.christianitytoday.com/gleanings/2015/january/sunday-morning-segregation-most-worshipers-church-diversity.html.

[112] See Jarvis Williams, “Racial Reconciliation, the Gospel, and the Church,” September 25, 2015, http://9marks.org/article/racial-reconciliation-the-gospel-and-the-church/.

[113] See Ken L. Davis, “Designing Worship for Multiethnic Churches (Part One),” Journal of Ministry and Theology (Spring 2004), accessed March 4, 2016, http://www.summitu.edu/Assets/uploads/Summit/import/www.bbc.edu/journal/volume8_1/designing_multicultural_worship.pdf.

[114] For an excellent defense of what I argue in this chapter, see Rodney Woo, The Color of Church: A Biblical and Practical Paradigm for Multiracial Churches (Nashville: B&H Academic, 2009); J. Daniel Hays, From Every People and Nation: A Biblical Theology of Race (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2003); Jarvis Williams, One New Man: The Cross and Racial Reconciliation in Pauline Theology (Nashville: B&H Academic, 2010); Derwin Gray, The High-Definition Leader: Building Multiethnic Churches in a Multiethnic World (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2015). Or a great place to start is the series of articles put out by 9 Marks in summer/fall 2015: http://9marks.org/journal/multi-ethnic-churches/.

[115] While racism is the belief that one’s race is superior to others, ethnocentrism is the tendency to look at the world through one’s own cultural perspective. The subtlety of ethnocentrism comes when you believe, like the racist, that your ethnicity is superior.

[116] See Dan Kimball’s eye-opening chapter titled “The Church Is Dominated by Males and Oppresses Females,” in They Like Jesus but Not the Church (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2007), 115–135.

[117] See for instance Deuteronomy 32:11-12; Isaiah 42:14; Hosea 11:3-4; 49:15; 66:13; Matthew 23:37.

[118] See the incisive book by Derwin Gray, The High-Definition Leader: Building Multiethnic Churches in a Multiethnic World (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2015).

[119] Adam Dachis, “Fish Don’t Know They’re in Water,” July 14, 2011, http://lifehacker.com/5821126/fish-dont-know-theyre-in-water.

[120] My friend Derwin Gray, a pastor at one of America’s largest multiethnic churches, confirmed this point I’m making. Which is reassuring, since he’s been doing multiethnic ministry for a couple decades.

[121] Paul talks about justification by faith in Romans 3:21-26; 4:1-6; 5:8-11; Galatians 2:16-21; 3:6-12, 22-26; and Philippians 3:6-9 (implicitly). He mentions justification by faith in three of his thirteen letters. Paul talks about the Jerusalem collection in Romans 15:25-33; 1 Corinthians 16:1-4; 2 Corinthians 8:1-9:15; and Galatians 2:10. This doesn’t include the various places where he talks about churches supporting his missionary endeavors (Romans 16:2; Philippians 4:14-20) and a passage in Acts that talks about the financial need in Jerusalem (Acts 11:27-30).

[122] Five million children die every year because of hunger and malnutrition. There are 8,765 hours in a year, which means 570 children die every hour. Assuming it’ll take you about twenty to thirty minutes to read this chapter . . .

[123] See George Barna and Frank Viola, Pagan Christianity? Exploring the Roots of Our Church Practices, 3rd ed. (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale, 2012), 41. Since I cite this highly controversial book, I should add that while I resonate with many things that Barna and Viola talk about and find their overall analysis of the church to be thought-provoking, if not on the mark, there are several things I disagree with and find to be overstated, inaccurate, and worded in a somewhat condescending tone. I’ll spare you the details, but if you’re familiar with the book, I just want you to know that I haven’t uncritically drunk the punch.

[124] Rich Stearns, The Hole in Our Gospel (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2009), 216.

[125] Josh Packard and Ashleigh Hope, Church Refugees: Sociologists Reveal Why People Are Done with Church but Not Their Faith (Loveland, CO: Group Publishing, 2015), 71. See also p. 96.

[126] Along with the statistics in The State of Discipleship, see Brandon Hatmaker, Barefoot Church (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), 99–117.

[127] I don’t love the word tithe, since it literally means giving one tenth of your income, which is nowhere mandated in the New Testament. But since the word tithe is the common term used for “giving money toward ministry,” I’ll keep using it in this chapter, despite its literal meaning.

[128] This is the whole point of 2 Corinthians 8–9, where Paul praises the churches in Greece and Asia Minor for helping the poor believers in Jerusalem.

[129] One of my favorite stripped-down churches is Austin New Church in Texas (the church Brandon Hatmaker helped start). Or the Church under the Bridge that meets —you guessed it —under a bridge in Waco.

[130] Doug Nuenke, ed., Five Traits of a Christ-Follower (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2015), xii–xiii.