Is Discipleship the Wrong Paradigm for the Church Today? | A Conversation with Kyle Strobel

Is Discipleship the Wrong Paradigm for the Church Today? | A Conversation with Kyle Strobel

Kyle Strobel is a theologian at Biola University focused on spiritual theology, and he is the head of the Institute of Spiritual Formation at Talbot School of Theology. He’s also a teaching elder at his church. He, along with John Coe, has written what I consider to be one of the best books on prayer titled Where Prayer Becomes Real.

Earlier this year via his Substack, Kyle sent out a blog titled “Why Discipleship Doesn’t Work,” which pointed to the release of a mini-course on his Substack on “Reimagining Discipleship.” In it, Kyle questioned the entire discipleship framework that has been re-emphasized for the last 30+ years. Kyle’s major contention is that the framework of disciple and discipleship is a pre-Pentecost approach to following Jesus, it’s not found in the New Testament after Jesus’ ascension, and it is thus not a paradigm the church is meant to follow.

I resonated with a lot of what Kyle had to say but also found several things where I think he overstates his case. So we decided to record a conversation exploring the question of whether or not discipleship is the mission of the church today and the paradigm for spiritual growth.