We’re here to make disciples.
Much popular preaching in the section of Matthew 28 that we’re taken to calling ‘the Great Commission’ gets my goat. It can amount to an exhortation to get the punters in by any means necessary as though the most important thing we’re doing is introducing new people to Jesus.
Here’s the thing, Jesus tells us to go in all the earth making disciples which he clarifies includes baptising them and teaching them to obey all he commanded.
Our mission is not just starting someone on a journey through the Christian life, it includes the whole of their Christian life too. It is actually our job to help them grow into mature Christians, help them navigate the various things life throws at them, and help them die well if the Lord has not returned.
The Great Commission is as much about teaching and pastoring as it is about evangelism and church-planting.
The Church Angle
To put it another way, we shouldn’t just plant hundreds and hundreds of churches, we should build strong and healthy churches. The assumption I’m making, which is challengeable, is that strong churches grow strong disciples. I suspect that there are things that go under the heading of ‘building strong and healthy churches’ which don’t contribute to growing strong disciples, but I’m defining a strong and healthy church as one that does grow disciples to maturity.
Maturity is the goal
What we mustn’t do is oppose these two things. It would be tempting for someone like me, whose disposition and gifting tends me towards teaching rather than evangelism, to just try to flip the script. Discipling believers and evangelism shouldn’t be opposed. Growing stronger churches and planting new ones shouldn’t be opposed.
Therefore, we need to stop suggesting that the reason we’re here and the reason churches exist is to make converts. That’s part of it. We’re here to bring glory to Jesus by the display of the wonder of the church in mature Christians. We’re here so that the knowledge of the glory of the Lord covers the earth like the waters cover the sea (Habakkuk 2). That’s as close to a vision statement as I’m up for writing.
This means that strong churches are as important as new churches. It means that mature Christians are as important as new Christians. Jesus is excited by your growth in character too.
Let’s not imagine that helping someone who has been a Christian for decades to repent of a particular sin and grow in character is somehow less the great commission than helping someone meet Jesus for the first time in their repentance.
Reading the Times
However, we do need to read the times and seasons, like those proverbial men of Issachar (1 Chronicles 12). We live in the UK in a discipleship crisis. Most wealthy areas of the countries are relatively well-served by gospel-preaching churches, even by word and spirit churches. Poorer areas aren’t. Everywhere could do with more, but that disparity is important for us to notice. There will be exceptions to those generalisations, of course.
Some churches are strong, others less so. It’s harder to generalise here, but our discipleship crisis comes from somewhere and we can’t ignore that some of the blame is at our door.
My world talks a lot about church-planting. We need more churches in the UK, especially in a number of harder and poorer areas. We don’t talk so much about strengthening churches and growing people to maturity. We need both.
This is, of course, one of the reasons why we need to work in teams. Leadership being plural helps us safeguard this both/and. Someone like me needs to work in church leadership alongside those who are more evangelistically inclined.
It also means we should always be pushing for both things. It means we should always rejoice in both things. It is good when a sinner repents… whether they’re already a saint or just becoming one. Let’s teach people to obey all that Jesus commanded. Let’s assume that baptism is the thing we should ‘count’ rather than when someone first meets Jesus in a prayer of faith. Let’s assume that Jesus meant what he said.
Photo by Claudio Schwarz on Unsplash
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