Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28.18-20 (NIV).
These words of Jesus, spoken to His disciples after His resurrection and prior to His ascension into heaven, have come to be known through history as the Great Commission. Churches talk a lot about the Great Commission, but any honest assessment of contemporary Christianity in North America must acknowledge that making disciples has not been a strength of most congregations. I tend to think this is due to a faulty understanding of what a disciple “looks like in real life.” For much of the last century, churches have focused on discipleship by making members, which is not altogether a bad thing. Membership in a local congregation is certainly an important avenue for growing in grace as a disciple of Jesus. However, membership and discipleship are not synonymous; a member focuses on an organization, while a disciple focuses on a relationship with his or her teacher. In reality, most churches would define a “good church member” as someone who is an asset to the congregation; however, a disciple is someone who is an asset to the Kingdom of God. A disciple is an individual who has received Jesus Christ as Savior by faith and who follows Him as Lord, in a living day-by-day relationship. As a part of following Jesus in faith, a disciple seeks by God’s grace to glorify Jesus through gathering with other Christians, growing in the knowledge of God and of His Word, giving of God-given abilities and resources in order to further Jesus’ ministry, and going into the world to participate in Jesus’ mission of making even more disciples.
One of the most important lessons I learned in seminary was from a simple off-the-cuff statement by a classroom professor: “Remember, shepherds don’t make sheep…sheep make sheep!” In other words, if pastors seek to simply make church members, then church members will simply make more church members and perpetuate congregations. However, if pastors make disciples of Christ, then disciples will make more disciples and ultimately play a vital role in Christ’s ongoing work of “turning the world upside down” (Acts 17.6).
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