My (rather lengthy) thoughts are below:
As a fairly new Christian, I have been frustrated at the lack of discipleship in the church as a whole especially for new believers. For some reason, there seems to be the belief in the church that American believers are uninterested in or unable to learn more about this faith to which we have been called.
The truth is that many of us new believers came to the Lord out of the "New Age" movement and we are tired of fluff. We are ready to learn to learn the weighty truths of Christianity in their wholeness.
On my own, the Lord has led me to learn about church history, historic church creeds, origins of the Bible and various other aspects of Bible study as well as prayer. I was blessed that the Lord led me to Bible-believing preachers online (such as Chuck Smith, Greg Laurie, John MacArthur, R.C. Sproul, John Piper and others) who little by little, taught me in the ways of the faith.
I agree with you that the focus of the church should be on discipleship. How frustrated I would become as we visited churches and were admonished to evangelize without being given the knowledge, tools or guidance to do so!
My recommendation is that every church, no matter how large or how small, focus on making disciples as we are commanded in the Bible. Instead of just a new member's class, perhaps a book, e-book, website or podcast with all the pertinent information needed to start the journey, including excellent references for further study, be offered to all in the church.
Church members, then, will have to prioritize our lives to make time for learning the faith. I believe that if we were told it were important to do so, more of us would be likely to make our faith the center of our lives instead of an afterthought.
I am sorry to have rambled on but this topic is very near and dear to me.
If you can actually stand any more of my opinion about the importance of studying the word of God, go to my blog at http://www.BibleMomsBlog.com.
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