Throughout the New Testament in the Bible we see rather plainly that the primary means of growing the church is through individual members doing the work of evangelism and discipleship. This means that each person of the church in the New Testament was doing their part of the ministry in caring for others spiritually and physically, not just pastors and deacons. One of the great travesties of the American church in the 20th and 21st centuries is the failure of the individual mandate to make disciples. In Matthew chapter 28 Jesus plainly directed his followers to go, making disciples and teaching them to obey all that Jesus had taught them, and baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This passage, normally referred to as the Great Commission gives all followers of Christ the personal responsibility and individual mandate the be going, making disciples. Consider, Jesus did not look to Peter and say “you make disciples and everyone else can just sort of meet a couple times a month with you.” Jesus plainly said to all of his followers “Go to the ends of the Earth, making disciples.” So this leaves us in the present church with a bit of a conundrum. Sitting where you are now, reading this article, are you able to boldly and confidently say you are making disciples? If I were to wager, I would guess more than half of the people reading this online are not doing the Great Commission as Jesus commanded, and that disheartens me greatly! We, as the blood-bought church of Christ have the greatest motivation to care for others and building each other up, and yet look at us! Many churches today are like the Church in Hebrews, constantly going back and laying the foundation again and again (Hebrews (5:11) when instead they should be moving on from the spiritual milk onto deeper more rewarding things (Hebrews 5:11-14). If then, many in the church today are not doing the work of discipleship, let us ask why that is. Pages could be written about the finer details concerning the why and how of the churches lacking in discipleship, but it is a plain and simple answer.
Mark Dever once said in his book Discipling “The motive for discipling others begins in the love of God and nothing less. He has loved us in Christ, and so we love him. And we do this in part by loving those he has placed around us.” Or, as the Apostle Paul once said, we love because he first loved us. Discipleship is simple. Dwell on the Love God has for you and the grace he has poured out for you and allow that to naturally spur you on towards loving others. Discipleship is often doing what you normally do (not including sin), taking someone along with you, and having meaningful conversations with them about Jesus. |
Pastor MorganMorgan has been writing since middle school and worked for a year writing professionally as a news journalist for the Daily Tribune in Gallipolis. This blog is a chance for him to express his love for the Lord and all church related things through writing. Archives
December 2019
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