Dear Sir,
I agree very much with Bobby Jamieson’s article (en, September) that one needs to carefully evaluate any church programmes to see if they remain useful or if they should be abandoned. And certainly it would be wonderful if pastors, simply by their preaching, teaching and example, would cause evangelism and discipleship to become ‘normal parts of every single church member’s life’.
However most of today’s church are very ignorant of the basics of the faith and how Christian culture/worldview differs from the secular. The early church conducted courses, some of which lasted two to three years and involved tests on what was learnt before a person was baptised and allowed to join the church in worship. This is the reason for very old churches having the baptistry as a separate building (e.g. at Pisa, c.1150). Believers were not allowed into the church building itself before completing the course and being baptised.
