The great weakness of the American church’s approach to discipleship is that we have largely focused on discipling the individual, but not the church.

We have worked to train individuals to follow Jesus, often with behavioral emphasis, but haven’t worked to form the church as a communal society with a unique being and mission in the world. This focus on individual discipleship has led to a failure to form a foundational ecclesial identity that can sustain the church in her call to be an alien people.

This failure of formation contributes to the polarization of the church today, as the lack of ecclesial formation has left the church vulnerable to be discipled by the political identities, left and right, of American culture. Focusing on the individual, the church has outsourced citizenship formation to America; America has taken up the mantle, working to form the church in America’s own vision, mission, and purpose in the world.

We are not able to be the church today because we haven’t been discipled to be the church. The result? A divided Body of Christ engaging in open warfare against each other, and against the world we are sent here to love.