About this Course
In A New Focus: Membership to Discipleship you’ll explore the key characteristics that distinguish membership-focused churches from discipleship-focused churches. When churches focus primarily on membership, they often become centered on attendance, buildings, and budgets—measurable metrics that provide a sense of control in an uncertain world. The identity of the church becomes tied to a place, a worship service, and clear boundaries about who belongs and who doesn’t. But what if the church reclaimed its original calling as a movement of disciples—apprentices learning to follow the way of Jesus in their everyday lives?
What You’ll Be Able to Do:
- Understand the key characteristics that distinguish membership-focused churches from discipleship-focused churches
- Recognize how the order of belief, behavior, and belonging shapes congregational culture and practice.
- Reflect on your own congregation’s focus and consider where shifts might be needed to more fully embody the way of Jesus.
- Develop a clearer vision for what it means to be a community of disciples who follow Jesus in everyday life for the sake of the world.
Rev. Dr. Steven Thomason is an artist, pastor, and teacher, passionate about studying and teaching the Bible. He earned a Ph.D. in Congregational Mission and Leadership from Luther Seminary and is the Dean of the Chapel and Associate Professor of Spiritual Formation and Discipleship for Luther Seminary.
He is the author of “A Cartoonist’s Guide to the Bible” and “The Visual Preacher: Proclaiming an Embodied Word.” In his work as an artist, he regularly focuses on writing and drawing about Spiritual Formation, Biblical Studies, Theology, and Art.
He is a graduate of Wheaton College, where he studied art (BA, 1990), Bethel University, where he focused on Biblical Studies (MDiv, 2002), and Luther Seminary (Ph.D., 2015).
