Making Disciples

Let's jump right into today's post. We talk about the Great Commission quite frequently, but I am struck by how often I miss what is so readily apparent in the text. The Great Commission is most often used as a call to evangelism, to sharing the gospel, but it is so much more. We are not called  just to share the gospel, we are called to make disciples, to teach people to obey everything Jesus commanded. Most of us are satisfied if we are becoming disciples ourselves, but becoming disciples is not what the Great Commission asks of us. Every one of us, every church member, every believer, should be equipped not just to become a disciple but to disciple and to teach someone else. (Perhaps we could go so far as to say that a disciple who doesn’t make other disciples is no disciple at all.)

The problem we have in many churches is that we spend most of our time, effort, and money on our least effective way of making disciples. Most churches place the greatest priority on their Sunday morning service. They spend more money, devote more staff hours, and use more resources on their morning worship than anything else the church does. We have become churches of big events, consciously or subconsciously treating events with the biggest crowds as the most important.

The problem with this method is that a large gathering of Sunday worshippers is probably the least effective way to make disciples. I’m not suggesting that corporate worship is unimportant, but corporate worship is more an outflow of an effective church than the engine that drives the church toward success. While large-group times of worship may not be effective at making disciples, a church full of disciples will have meaningful and dynamic corporate times of worship (perhaps using far fewer resources).

So how do we effectively make disciples who make other disciples? Sometimes I think we make things too complicated. We think that we have to have the latest programs, materials, and DVDs from the best-known teachers and preachers, but disciple making might actually be simpler (and cheaper) than these programs. Part of the problem with these programs is that they do not lead to reproduction. They do not equip us to teach other people, they only equip us to pass along the DVD or book from which we were learning.

So what is the answer? How do we make disciples? I’m not sure where I heard this, but I have recently taken to saying that only one thing changes people, the Spirit of God using the Word of God and the people of God.

Many people say they could never teach the Bible to others. “That’s not my gift,” they say, though it seems to me we are all called to teach others, even if not in front of a large group. But when we spend time in God’s Word, not reading a few verses here or there or a verse followed by a paragraph of devotional thoughts, but digesting chunks of God’s Word, reading books over and over again, we will find that we become teachers of God’s Word. Maybe we won’t all be preparing Sunday School lessons, but God’s Word will flow out of us in a natural way. We will be ready to instruct others because we have allowed God’s Word to instruct us. If we want to be Christians who make disciples, we must first allow God’s Word to saturate us to the point that it flows out into every aspect of our lives.

But we must also remember that God uses His people to make disciples as well. Part of the reason we cannot teach others is that we will not submit ourselves to instruction. In order to disciple others, we must be willing to be held accountable by someone else. We often count on sermons to instruct us, but as I love to say, we all love sermons that step on our toes, as long as we don’t have to move our feet. True disciple making most often comes not from sermons or even from gifted teachers, but when a handful of believers gather together to tell each other the truth in love, to hold each other accountable, and to grow in the Lord together.

I think part of the problem with discipleship trends in churches today is that we have set our goal far below scriptural standards. We have made it our goal to disciple believers through our church programs, but the real goal should be to produce disciples who make disciples. We don’t equip people to go out and disciple people on their own. At most we equip them to lead a discipleship class at church, when we should be equipping them to make disciples in their homes, at their places of work, and all around the world. This kind of quipping does not come from reading a book, completing a workbook, or listening to the best teachers; this kind of equipping comes only through the Spirit of God at work through the Word of God and the people of God. When we allow God’s Spirit to work through His Word and through His people, then we will equip people to be more than just receivers, we will equip them to be reproducers: disciples who make disciples. Hope this challenges you, One Love, Jason