Church must focus on discipleship as God continues to ‘expose unrelenting scandals’: Exponential Conference By Leah MarieAnn Klett, Christian Post Reporter
At a time when God is “exposing a lot of the unrelenting scandals” within the Body of Christ, the Church must “redefine success” and place a strong emphasis on discipling the next generation, according to pastor and author Pete Scazzero.
During the opening session of Exponential’s Reset Summit on Wednesday, Scazzero, who co-founded Emotionally Healthy Discipleship after leading New Life Fellowship Church for 26 years, told host Todd Wilson that COVID-19 has presented an “invitation” to church leaders to reset.
“I do think there’s an invitation from God for the Church globally and not just here in North America, and it’s a very, very important moment,” he said.
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Pre-COVID-19, elements like large crowds, worship experiences, and numbers multiplying could “hide some of the lack of integrity … beneath the surface,” Scazzero said, adding: “It seems like God is exposing a lot of that with the unrelenting scandals that have been hitting the Church, especially in the last few years.”
If the Church is “going to make it long term sustainably doing mission out in the world,” its foundation needs be “very solid,” he said — and that means having a “depth of discipleship and leadership development that’s not simply skill development and out of our gifts, but actually out of our inner life with God.”
“[We need to be] spending the same amount of time on our inner life that we’re spending on our outer life of getting the mission done,” he said. “I think that’s been disproportionate. I don’t think we’re going to be able to get away with that much longer.”
Though an “increasingly secularized” culture can partially be blamed for the crisis in the Church, Scazzero stressed “that’s not our biggest problem,” as “the early Church did just fine in a totally secular pagan Roman Empire.”
“I’m much more concerned about us; our inner life as the Church and our integrity. Because if we’ve got that together, we’ll do fine regardless of what’s happening out there in the empire of the world and the secularization of the culture around us. The challenges are not out there — they are in here.”
