John Biegel on Deliberate Discipleship as a Means to Respond to a Frantic World. This Blog Would Ask How Would You Disciple in the Church When Evangelical Leaders and Teachers are Mired in Corruption?

John Biegel who leads the EFCA’s Cornerstone Church in Annandale, Virginia took on the issue of deliberate discipleship in a way to respond to a frantic world. He discussed his views with EFCA President Kevin Kompelien. But, even if well intentioned, this blog has a question. How would you disciple if the leaders and teachers of evangelicalism are mired in corruption themselves? How is the church any different than the world? 

“You can impress from a distance, but you can only impact up close.”

Howard Hendricks

“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.

Isaiah 55:8-9 ESV

John Biegel

This is a post that I have been meaning to do for a while. John Biegel replaced Bill Kynes when he retried from leading Cornerstone, an EFCA church in Annandale, Virginia. I wrote about Bill Kynes retirement in, “Bill Kynes, Influential Pastor in the EFCA and Who Led Cornerstone Evangelical Free in Annandale, Virginia for 36 Years, Retires.” Plus I analyzed his final sermon in, “Analysis of the EFCA’s Bill Kynes Final Sermon at Cornerstone Evangelical Free. Bill’s Description of the Evangelical Church Clashes with the Reality of its Problems.” Then this blog wrote about John Biegel taking over in, “John Biegel Becomes Senior Pastor at Cornerstone Evangelical Free in Annandale.” John Biegel wrote an article about discipleship at the EFCA blog last summer and had a discussion with EFCA President Kevin Kompelien which you can watch above.

John Biegel on Discipleship. First What He Communicates…

John Biegel wrote an article about how evangelical churches should disciple people in today’s world and the challenges that exist. Biegel describes the world as being frantic and full of information overlord. Through news, social media, and other websites people are being taught what to think. Evangelicals are being defined by their culture around them. And all this is a plan by the deceiver to misled people through a sophisticated propaganda campaign. Its both a battle for the heart of unbelievers but also believers. The evangelical church often feels compelled to respond to these issues on by engaging by the world’s methods and standards. In his response Biegel quotes from Zack Eskwine, who wrote The Imperfect Pastor and says that churches run the risk of doing “large things famously and fast.” This is actually a trap. This blog would like to point out that many pastors are influenced by Zack Eskwine.

John Biegel argues that the church should not compete against the world’s efforts. Instead they should turn toward deliberate discipleship inside the church. Biegel defines this kind of discipleship as, “discipleship that is intentional, unhurried, steady and reliant on the means God has provided.” While some may consider this foolish, this is the way to respond and engage. But consider what Biegel says in what I consider to be a key paragraph.

“And so perhaps the way for us to best engage in this war, in the Spirit’s power, is what has been called the ordinary means of grace: the regular preaching of the Word, corporate worship, prayer, fellowship, baptism and the Lord’s Supper, things that have characterized the Church since its inception. What appears ordinary to us is actually quite extraordinary, because it’s how God, in His grace, has appointed to make and mature disciples of Jesus.”

He then closes out his article by asking if your ministry is ready to disciple people in ways that are slow, patient, intentional, and deliberate ministry. As John Biegel says this is ministry that forms people to be like glaciers, and not avalanches. For context on this summary I would encourage you to read the article in, “Deliberate Discipleship in a Frantic World.”

Some Questions for John Biegel

Despite what John Biegel says about discipleship I have some concerns and questions.

1. Is John Biegel aware and up to date on the evangelical scandals, and abuse that exists so that he won’t use abusive discipleship materials from questionable ministries?
2. What is viewed as discipleship? For many evangelicals discipleship is a legalistic view of taking a hammer and beating the shit out of someone until they fit into the per-conceived mold. And despite what he told Kevin Kompelien, evangelicals and patience do not exist in the same sentence. Evangelicals are notorious about this issue. Just the mere thought of discipleship puts my stomach in knots.
3. How would John define frantic? There are some evangelicals who use church to bog people down and overwhelmed them as well. Is John’s goal not to have a local PTA or neighborhood group not overwhelm a person so that Cornerstone itself can overwhelm someone? Does John have any idea how hard it is to say no in an evangelical church? Many evangelicals churches look at people as indentured servants or free labor.

And When the Church Uses People Who are Caught Up in Corruption for Discipleship?

One of the things I see regularly in church is that when I have popped up in churches is how many still use people embroiled in evangelical scandal. And I see that in the EFCA as well. There are still some churches that use scandal prone individuals such as James MacDonald or even Ravi Zacharias in teaching material or references within sermons. But there is more….the EFCA just had their theology conference which this blog wrote about in, “A Look at the 2023 EFCA Theology Conference.” At their theology conference spoke D.A. Carson. Now Carson was a participant in the Sovereign Grace Ministry sex abuse scandal. He defended C.J. Mahaney in the scandal, and when a person told their story of being raped inside a ministry activity at SGM Survivors, D.A. Carson used his platform at The Gospel Coalition to attack and go after the sexual assault victim. What took place is similar to what Guidepost Solution wrote about in context to the Southern Baptists. On this issue there is little difference between what happened in the EFCA and what took place in the Southern Baptists. You can read about it in more detail in, “A Starting Point to Discuss the EFCA and Sex Abuse. D.A. Carson’s Attacking a Sex Abuse Survivor in the SGM Sex Abuse Scandal is No Different Than What Frank Page Did in the Southern Baptists.” So I can imagine that John Biegel probably has a number of D.A. Carson’s book in his office. And he probably uses for reference on blog articles, sermons or building discipleship material. So if Biegel uses someone who attacked a sexual assault victim, and doesn’t know even the basics of what Christianity is…then what does that say about discipleship? Dave Harvey was also known for covering up sexual abuse inside Sovereign Grace as well. SGM Whistleblower Brent Detwiler wrote about Harvey at his website as well.

Closing Thoughts…

While John Biegel may be well intentioned, the fact of that matter is that he is saying does not have practical sense. One other concern to raise is when he states in the interview with Kevin Kompelien when he mentions the talk of satanic work by the deceiver to misled people. Now Cornerstone as a 9 Marks or The Gospel Coalition church is not like hyper charismatic where there is a demon under every bed, desk, etc… But the fact of the matter is the fact that John even raises this shows the problems and flaws of evangelical theology. If it can be cast onto Satan then where does personal responsibility come into the picture? Or how about this take…if John Biegel is going to use for discipleship people who have been involved in covering up sex abuse or defending the people in a sex abuse scandal could it be said that pastors like John Biegel are deceived and fell victim to a propaganda campaign by the great deceiver and the father of lies? I could go on, but for now I think this topic will be left here. Either way this blog would suggest that what John Biegel is saying has deep flaws. But then again as a refugee from evangelicalism I would also state that in order to be an evangelical means sticking your head in the sand and avoiding these types of questions. That is why American evangelicalism will never right itself.