"Make Disciples"

In a time when church leaders imitating business leaders is all the rage, having a clearly defined statement of vision, mission and values is becoming increasingly common. Don’t get me wrong – I clearly see the value of defining our “organizational DNA,” so long as it reflects what is revealed in Scripture. Our congregation has gone through more than one iteration of these “genetic” elements.

And now local congregations and their networks have categorized different kinds of church DNA. Some churches define their vision, mission and values in “attractional” terms, describing the focus of the church as attracting as many as people into a building as possible. Because this very blatantly reflects the influence of our consumer culture, some have bailed out of this “model” and adopted “missional” DNA. These churches focus on getting people out of the church and into the community, serving the community in a variety of ways whether or not anyone ever comes into the church building. Lately both of these models have come under fire: “attractional” because it tends to produce a congregation of immature, superficial Christians, and “missional” (especially when built on a foundation of attractional) because immature Christians are incapable of significantly impacting the community in a Kingdom way. (It might be best to keep some believers inside the four walls of the church and not expose the community to them.)

These are current organizational trends in the American church world. However, it seems to me that Jesus left us with some assignments and instructions on how to fulfill those assignments. Let’s take another look at the “Great Commission”: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:18-1). It seems fairly straitforward, doesn’t it: “Make disciples.” If Jesus were to define the organizational DNA of his local church, the mission statement would read, “To make disciples,” the vision statement would read, “A church that makes disciples,” and the #1 value would be, “making disciples.” It might be helpful to provide some definition. The word Jesus used (Greek matheteuo) to describe the object of our mission simply means “to follow the precepts and instructions of someone.” A “disciple” is a learner, pupil, apprentice, adherent or follower. A “discipler” is a teacher, instructor or tutor.” In the New Testament, a “disciple” (the most common descriptor of a Jesus follower) refers to someone who has dedicated their lives to learning the teachings and the way of life of their Master, i.e., Jesus. Consider the use of the word “disciples” in the book of Acts: “In those days when the number of disciples was increasing” (6:1). “The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly” (6:7). Notice that it wasn’t church members or attenders that were increasing – it was disciples. “Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples” (9:1). Attenders would have been no threat to Saul. The word “Christian” came later. “The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch” (11:26). In Antioch, “They preached the gospel in that city and won a large number of disciples” (14:21). Early believers were willing to pay a price to follow Jesus: “strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. ‘We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,’ they said” (14:21).

The question remains, How do we go about making disciples? Did Jesus give us any instructions about the disciple-making process? In fact, the first part of Jesus’s instructions was, “baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19). “Baptizing” implies a clear presentation of the Good News of Jesus and a clear response of repentance and faith. You can’t make someone into a true follower of Jesus without them making a decision to turn from doing their own thing, living their own life their own way, and apprenticing themselves to Jesus. That’s the essential starting place of the disciple-making process, but it doesn’t end there. “Teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:20). Responding to the Gospel in faith from the heart leads into a lifetime of learning and obeying. Jesus provided us with key “commands” that he expects us to obey. True discipleship is not just a friendly nod in the direction of Jesus, it’s much more than attending religious events; true discipleship is a clear and consistent determination to live out the Kingdom lifestyle Jesus came to teach and model. (As Paul understood, a leadership development process is simply an intensification of the discipleship process. “He took the disciples with him and had discussions daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus” (Acts 19:9).)

For us, the commission to “make disciples” involves three simple but essential dynamics – these are the things we are committed to as a local church – these are the commitments and practices that will make disciples:

1.  Gathering, to worship and fellowship.

2.  Growing, the spiritual formation of Christian character, the image of Christ being formed in our lives.

3.  Going, representing Jesus in every area of our lives as salt and light, discipling disciplers.