Latest / Real Life Theology Podcast / How Culture Is Out-Discipling the Church | Bobby Harrington

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How Culture Is Out-Discipling the Church | Bobby Harrington · Real Life Theology Podcast

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  Welcome back everyone to the Real Life Theology Podcast. Today's episode features Bobby Harrington,
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  who's going to challenge and help us understand that the problem we face in our culture today
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  and how the media and the culture are out discipling our minds. He challenges us to
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  triple down on discipling our minds to renew the teachings of Jesus. Here is the episode.
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  So I would like to begin by talking about an article that recently came out in the Atlantic
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  magazine. And the article, and you can see the picture, is the evangelical church is breaking
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  apart. And here's what they say, is that across the land, we are losing our foundations. We're
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  losing our roots. That's why Renew provides theological foundations, theological roots,
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  and a theological tribe. Theology is our driving impulse. We believe that Dallas Willard had it
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  right when he said, the gospel you preach will determine the disciple you get. We believe that
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  theology should drive everything. And we have stepped up what Dallas Willard said, if you can
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  imagine that. And here's what we say. We say the Jesus you preach, the gospel you uphold, and the
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  faith you coach will determine the disciple you get. Yeah, you can clap for that because that
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  honors King Jesus. Friends, we're at a unique cultural moment. And we're making a distinctive
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  call and a distinctive plea. We must renew the Jesus of the Bible, the gospel of Scripture, and
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  the faith that is taught in the Word of God. The Atlantic article does a good job at describing
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  the problem and a terrible job at advocating a solution. But here's what they say the problem is.
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  To quote James Ernst, the editor-in-chief at Erdman's, what we're seeing is a massive discipleship
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  failure caused by a massive catechesis failure. Catechesis, catechize, what's that? That's to
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  instruct systematically in doctrine. But I have a better word. How about disciple in doctrine?
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  How about disciple of the minds? It quotes Alan Jacobs, who's a distinguished professor at Baylor.
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  I actually really liked what he said. Here's what he said. The evangelical church in the U.S. over
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  the last five decades has failed to form its adherence into disciples. So there is a great
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  hollowness. Culture catechizes, catechize, again, to instruct systematically in doctrine.
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  Culture disciples in doctrine. The culture is out discipling our families and our churches
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  all throughout the land. And we want to renew the ways of Jesus. And there's three things today
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  that I hope will be so clear in your mind when you leave that you will leave inspired and fueled
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  up to be a disciple and make disciples and hold to the teachings of Jesus. So here they are. Number
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  one, we must triple down on discipling the minds of our people. Now, I didn't say we must focus on
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  discipling the minds of our people. I didn't say we have to double down on discipling the minds
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  of our people. I said we have to triple down on discipling the minds of our people in God's word.
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  Culture is discipling the minds of our people. It's television, radio, Facebook, Twitter,
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  podcasts, TikTok, Instagram. Ministers and pastors in most of our churches
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  get just a little bit of time to influence the minds. But sermonettes and small group vignettes
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  will not disciple the minds. It's at best two hours a week versus five to seven hours a day
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  that people are on social media. And I thought when they said five to seven hours a day on
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  social media, that can't be true until I checked and my iPhone didn't lie. It said, Bobby Harrington,
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  you average five hours a day on your phone as the phone was discipling my mind.
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  Jacob said it this way, if people are getting one kind of catechesis for half an hour a week
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  and then other dozens of hours per week by the culture, which one do you think will win out?
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  Votie Bauckham said it well, we cannot continue to send our children to Caesar for their education
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  and be surprised when they come home as Romans. I say it this way, we cannot continue to send our
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  people unequipped to schools, HR departments, TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, and be surprised
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  when they come home woke and thinking like theological progressives or atheists. We need
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  to triple down on discipling the minds of our people. Secondly, we need trusted discipleship
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  tools like real life theology. We make no apology for actually giving you a 775 page book.
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  And that is because we want to equip you to stand strong in the teachings of Jesus. Let me tell you
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  about this resource in particular. We brought together a group of people where we realized
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  progressive Christianity is out discipling in our churches and other churches are caught in
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  rigid traditionalism and legalism. And we said, we've got to take a stand.
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  We've got to do what Dallas Willard said also and have a strong gospel, a strong Jesus,
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  the Jesus of scripture, the gospel of scripture and the faith of scripture.
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  And so we brought together a group of people and we said, this is the ground on which we are going
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  to stand. So we brought people like Rick Coaster from Harding School of Theology, Tony Twist,
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  who leads a seminary in Vienna, Austria with TCMI. We had people like Matthew Bates, who is a
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  world-class biblical scholar teaching at a Roman Catholic university.
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  And then it included preachers like Christian Ray, who was actually a former Russian rock star,
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  who helped defeat communism in Russia, came to Christ, led churches in Kiev and St. Petersburg.
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  Or how about Brett Andrews, whose church, New Life Christian Church in Washington DC,
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  has planted over 300 churches and is very much in step with what does it mean today to make
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  disciples, who make disciples, who plant churches that make disciples. And in addition to that,
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  we had five women help us craft a truly biblical statement on what it means to uphold gender as
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  God teaches in his word today, especially in that one area that is under attack. And then,
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  in addition to that, of establishing that, when we pulled this together, we wanted to provide
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  a theology, catch this, for everyday disciples, elders, and homeschool moms. Scholars don't
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  create movements. Scholars can support a movement, but they can't create it. Movements are led in
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  churches by homeschool moms, truck driver teds, and elders who say, we're gonna stand on the word
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  of God. And they need resources. So we have created these resources by 16 scholars, black and white,
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  male and female, to be people who inspire a movement. And it's not just a theology movement.
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  To understand Renew, you have to understand, we renew the teachings of Jesus, but to fuel
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  disciple-making. Jesus' last words in our churches are our first priority. We want to be disciples
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  and make disciples, and we are seeking to give you all kinds of resources so that you can make
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  disciples in your context. And number three, you don't just need to triple down on Scripture.
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  We don't just need good resources like real-life theology. I'm just gonna say it. We need a tribe,
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  a movement, a network of people who are solid together. It is clear thinking.
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  It is clear theology that undergirds movements that transform lives.
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  Let me make it personal. Let me talk to you. You need the support of a theological tribe
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  for when you get weak. You need the support and confidence of a theological tribe
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  for when you are unsure. You need a theological tribe when you're tempted to cave in to the
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  culture and you need accountability from brothers and sisters who will say,
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  that's not right. That's not from the Word of God. That's from a secular culture.
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  Dalers-Jacobs puts it this way. He said, given the culture's effectiveness of out-discipling
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  churches, he said this, and I don't agree with him, but here's what he said.
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  Churches have barely better than a snowball's chance in hell of shaping most people's lives.
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  I reject that statement. We renew the teachings of Jesus to fuel disciple-making.
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  We believe in renewal. We don't only just believe it in theory. Your presence here
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  is presence as a part of a tribe where we are witnessing renewal. I'm talking about the
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  Experience Church here in Murfreesboro. I'm talking about North Boulevard here in Murfreesboro.
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  I'm talking about the crossings in St. Louis. Let's have a shout out from all the crossing
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  people in St. Louis. I'm talking about real-life ministries in Post Falls, Idaho, or Ecclesia
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  in South Carolina, or Harpeth Christian Church in Franklin, and I say to all of us,
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  you are invited to make a difference. You're invited to be a part of a network, a movement,
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  a tribe, and we won't give up. We won't let up until everybody gets a chance to be a disciple
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  of Jesus in a disciple-making church, and we're going to keep going and going and going in the
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  power of the Holy Spirit for as long as we can or until Jesus returns, and I'm so glad that you're
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  here with us today. Thank you guys for listening to this episode of the Real Life Theology Podcast.
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  I hope you guys enjoy this content. Please comment, like, subscribe. We'd love to hear
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  from you guys, and join us at Renew.org. You can visit our website, Renew.org, join our newsletter,
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  tune in to some of our other podcasts, or even download some of our free resources.
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  I'll see you guys on the next episode.