Making Disciples

In John 17:4, Jesus prayed to the Father, "I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do."  Jesus knew what the Father had called Him to do. But do we know what the Father has called us to do? 

There seems to be a great deal of confusion in the Church about what our mission is that God has given to us. And if the leaders are confused, then how can the average church member possibly understand what God has called us to do? The more disturbing question is whether the Church as a whole has adopted the wrong mission and as a result we have not fulfilled what God has intended.   

Consider this often-debated question, “Does God just want us to get people saved and bound for heaven, or does He care about our lives in this world as well?”

Based on the ministry strategies that have been employed over the last 100 years, I believe it’s fair to say that a major emphasis of our efforts in the Church has been to get as many people saved as possible and not to disciple new believers. We have held mass evangelism crusades in stadiums all over the world. Our churches gather the best speakers, musicians and programs, all designed to attract as many people as possible to the church so the pastors can present the gospel to the unsaved. All of these methods are centered upon “professional” leaders delivering the gospel message and not on equipping all believers to carry out the work of ministry.

Should the number of people who have prayed to receive Christ be our measure of success? Is this completing the work that God has given us to do? If we think so, then I believe we have adopted an extremely narrow view of what God wants from us. Being saved from our sins, while essential, is only the beginning. God wants us to grow in maturity to become obedient followers of Jesus who are able to make disciples. Jesus wants us to fulfill His command “to make disciples of all nations.” We have paid a terrible price by focusing so much on just getting people saved and not enough on making them disciples who can and should change the world.

Those of us in the church have not put enough emphasis upon discipling people so that they become the seed that Jesus talked about falling onto good soil and producing a crop 100 times what was sown. Is it any joy that so many sprang up “quickly” and then “withered” (Mt. 13:5-7) or were even­tually "choked"?

Strangely, effective discipleship is the best way of getting as many people as possible saved over the long term. The church has largely bypassed the difficult work of disciple-making in favor of mass communication strategies. Discipleship starts out slow, but if done properly builds exponentially to encompass far more people than the quick and easy mass strategies that may get people into the Kingdom quickly, but do not adequately disciple them. Discipleship harnesses the enormous power of all believers to be disciple makers not just the professionals.

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Listen to the words of John Wesley, who cried that "The world is my parish."

He said, "You have nothing to do but save souls. Therefore, spend and be spent in this work. It is not your business to preach so many times; but to save as many souls as you can; to bring as many sinners as you possibly can to repentance; and with all your power to build them up in that holiness, without which they cannot see the Lord."

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Prayer Requests

Pray for short-term volunteers who are contemplating future mission trips.

Pray for openings to share the vision with other churches and Christian groups.

Pray for the safety of Christians that they may be able to gather in peace to encourage one another.

Pray for the Unreached  Baghban of India

Population: 500,000
World Popl: 500,000
Main Language: Hindi
Main Religion: Hinduism
Bible: Complete
Status: Least-Reached
Christ-Followers: Few, less than 2%

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