Jen Wilkin on Discipleship and Teaching the Scriptures

This is my why. This is what I want my ministry to be about.

It’s the very thing that Jen Wilkin lays out in this chapel message given at DTS. Citing some our significant current realities around discipleship, theological formation, Bible literacy, and popular ministry philosophy, Jen calls churches and ministers to own the great commission with a larger vision for Biblical discipleship and resolve to teach the scriptures.

As demonstrated by the State of Theology report, Biblical and theological literacy in the local church has been on a steep decline. We need robust discipleship and active learning environments in our churches, yet our ministry philosophy often places too great of a value on community at the expense of learning. The Church needs to shift its approach to discipleship by actively teaching, equipping, and empowering believers to study the Bible for themselves and receive foundational theological formation.

We need to raise the bar. We need to bridge the expert amateur divide. We need to give our people more Bible, not less. We need a compelling vision for making disciples and following Jesus in all of life for all of life.

This is a matter of great importance and urgency to me.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery: “If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.”