Home Podcast Doug Sweeney: Discipleship Isn’t Sexy, but We Need To Get Back to...

Doug Sweeney: Discipleship Isn’t Sexy, but We Need To Get Back to It

“I’m a Lutheran and in my church circles, we don’t talk about revival a lot.”

“In recent years, you know, there’s been some horrible things that have happened in our society. There’s been some horrible things that Christians, even Christian leaders have perpetrated on other people in our society. We’re in the midst of some pretty difficult culture wars.”

“More often than not, in my experience, it’s the priorities and the language of the culture wars that shape the ways in which Christians think about their place in the world and their role as believers in society.”

“I’m hoping for the renewal of basic, genuine Christian discipleship in the church. I want Jesus and the gospel and the Bible to fill people’s minds, to shape people’s lives, to shape the ways in which they operate in the world. I don’t want those things to be marginalized by the language and the priorities of the culture wars. And I think they are being marginalized for all too many Christians by the language and the priorities of the culture wars.”

“There’s nothing terribly sexy in a worldly sort of way about the kind of discipleship I’m advocating. It’s basic Christianity.”

“We’re so addicted to our favorite tweeters and so on that we don’t leave any time in our lives anymore for doing the things that Jesus actually asked us to do.”

“Discipleship biblically is a process of learning from Jesus, learning about God and learning about his will, and learning about the ways in which he wants us to live our lives from the master, Jesus. And you just can’t do that without some spiritual discipline, without some careful, devoted, detailed, even painstaking attention to what God tells us about Himself and His will for us in Scripture and those things.”

“I think part of the struggle today is that it’s not just that people don’t know enough about the Bible; it’s that they don’t know enough about what God has planned for them and their participation in his work.”

“I don’t want to sound like I’m more down on Christians than I really am, sure. Generally speaking, I think a lot of people, particularly the kinds of people who listen to this podcast, are trying their best to be faithful to the Lord and do the right thing in pastoral ministry.”

“Most people in most of our churches know a lot more about the culture wars, they know a lot more about Hollywood movies, they know a lot more about sports than they know about God, than they know about the Bible. And the way they spend their time and spend their money seems to suggest that they care more about those things than they care about the Lord and following the Lord in their daily lives.”

RELATED: Kristen Padilla: What the Church Is Missing When It Comes to Women in Ministry