As part of Skye's blog tour, we were invited to submit a question for Skye to respond to.  As I do believe that discipleship is a frontier issue for the church in the West, and given our massive accomodation to the 'spirit of the age' - consumerism.  I decided to ask him what he thought of our chances.  Here is the question:

Alan: "Are you hopeful that we can recover an authentic discipleship ethos in the church given our enculturation by consumerism?" And here is his answer....
 
Skye: Yes, I am hopeful. I’m an apprentice of Jesus Christ—hope is what we bank on. As I outline in The Divine Commodity, I believe the church in North America is dreadfully imprisoned by the worldview of consumerism. But as the church continues to lose its privileged position in our culture, as outlined in the much talked about Newsweek article last week, I believe an opportunity for renewal is occurring. But this renewal will not come through massive upheaval or aggressive church initiative within the political, cultural, or commercial spheres. I believe the recovery of authentic discipleship will happen life-to-life, relationship-to-relationship, disciple-to-disciple. (Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?)
 
The overwhelming witness of Scripture is that God transforms the world using the smallest and most unlikely methods—the outcasts, the underdogs, the forgotten, and the under-resourced. Last week was Passover and Easter. In one story the most powerful empire on earth is defeated and plundered by a band of poor slaves in communion with God. In the other story, the powers of evil and hell are defeated by the death and resurrection of a poor itinerant preacher from the backwaters of Galilee.
 
Beyond the testimony of Scripture, a glimpse at the state of global Christianity shows that many of the places where the faith is growing most rapidly are also where it lacks a privileged position. China may be the most vivid example, or among the Dalit (Untouchables) of India.
 
For those church leaders that have great concern over the “decline” of Christianity in America and the lack of genuine discipleship, I believe The Divine Commodity carries a message of enduring hope. God may be simply refining his church and burning away the cultural dross that we’ve acquired from our wandering in the Constantinian wilderness. This refining may be painful as we lose institutions, facilities, and even some previously impactful ministries. But in the end I have great confidence that Christ’s Church, even in America, will prevail and disciple will be made. For when we are weak, then we are strong.

to take the blog tour where Skye responds to many other questions, go to previous post and click away...