What’s Descriptive for One is Not Prescriptive for All

While we tout the ideal of simple approaches, we are anything but simple people. Each person requires a distinct amount of intentionality, and we each require ongoing evaluation to determine our needs since we all are constantly changing.

Finding a thorough strategy for a church is daunting, but designing a specific plan for each member seems downright infeasible. We need a simple approach for the masses that will allow us to develop a detailed strategy for each individual.

Regardless of the overarching immensity of such a looming call, that ideal is Christ’s expectation of his Church. The task of making disciples is a unified command but requires diverse approaches.

Each person is undeniably and remarkably different. We each come from contrasting backgrounds with varying needs. While we all start as infants in Christ, we come from different environments with certain dispositions, surrounded by unique relationships and carrying distinct baggage to which no other person can entirely relate. 

Generalized approaches can never fully address distinct disciples.

With the massive task of discipling so many complex people, our efforts inadvertently drift towards ignoring the individual while emphasizing the institution. We often desire to formalize a contextual practice into a universal program, personalize a strategy that worked on one and mandate it upon others, or idealize a utopian scenario at which we will never arrive. We tend to prioritize a program’s values over a person’s needs.

In our churches, we employ broad approaches for unique individuals. While God does use our vast corporate attempts, we discover within the biblical narrative and within our particular experiences that God moves uniquely with each specific person. What is descriptive in the life of one is not necessarily prescriptive in the lives of all.