Matthew 28: 18Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”(NIV)
I saw some disturbing statistics this summer that crossed church district and denominational lines. The number of conversions, baptisms, and new church members did not match in any way shape or form. Many churches reported dozens of salvations to go along with less than 10 baptisms and new church members. Luckily, I wasn’t the only person who saw the disparity in these numbers and district and denominational leaders called churches for a renewed commitment on baptisms and making disciples.
I recently read the blog of a controversial pastor who keeps score of the number of people he leads to Christ. This number has grown to over 3000(according to his blog) while the church he pastors has about 60 attenders. I have often wondered what happens to these people after he knocks on their door and leads them to Christ. Still, another pastor(on the complete total opposite end of the spectrum of pastor #1) reports hundreds of salvations in weekly services and their church is known for their large baptisms of hundreds of people at a time and their commitment to evangelism.
I do agree with counting conversions. I’m not one of those “numbers don’t matter” people, but have we turned people into Convert #972 instead of Disciple of Christ John or Jane Doe. Will Jesus look out among us and ask,”Ok, who raised your hand to receive me? Did you repeat what the pastor prayed exactly? Were you brave enough to walk to the front?” Do we have churches full of people who are gung ho to serve yet don’t know how to disciple someone? Being on a parking team or helping take up the offering can be a step towards becoming a disciple of Christ, but it doesn’t mean you are a disciple simply by doing these types of things.
As a pastor, I feel my mission is to make Disciple-Making Disciples. My end goal isn’t to have people plugged into different ministries so that the church has something to “offer.” If we aren’t training our people to share their faith-not just their testimony for the purpose of salvations-but for the reproducing their faith in others then are we really accomplishing the Great Commission?
I am striving now to clearly define what a disciple is for our church. Our hope is that people will be Rooted in The Word, Relationships, and Service. We are asking these 3 questions:
1. Are you growing in knowledge and obedience to God’s Word?
2. Are your relationships honoring God and helping you become more like Him?
3. Are you actively serving the church and community?
Any church or pastor who is actively seeking to reach the lost should be commended, but we’ve got to start converting converts into disciples. What do you think? Am I completely off base here?
Love this. It warms my heart to see pastors thinking about these kinds of things. Actually doing this in churches requires a real shift from what’s been done and the prevailing mindset, but it can be done. It must be done.
I am so glad that you and several other of us pastors are starting to ask these questions. I am for conversion for sure…but I believe Jesus is made famous even more by the disciples that are going and making disciples who then make disciples, etc. For far to long the Church in America has focused on addition and it is time to get back to Jesus Plan A which was for the Church to be about multiplication by making disciples of Christ.
Read the Parable of the Sower…Jesus points out that many people are bad soil. Some will except Christ but will not truly get it. That is another reason we need to focus on discipleship. But in most churches Pastors are focusing on pleasing all the bad soil in their Churches…and not planting in good soil and staying to see them grow into disciples who make disciples.
A great book on this subject is The Master Plan of Evangelism by Robert Coleman.
Good stuff…keep it up Heath.
Great post, Heath. The cost of grace for conversion is cheap but the cost of discipleship is death of self. Making converts is like setting dynamite off on the face of a mountain. Things may move and shift but the embedded rock remains unchanged. Making disciples is digging and planting the dynamite deep into the rock and the whole mountain slowly crumbles. Great stuff man. Keep serving.
Dude, this is a great post! I think in so many ways the “modern” church is allowing discipleship to fall through the cracks. We are most definitely called to make disciples. The problem is we haven’t really defined, or perhaps at times misdefined, “disciple”. It’s about more than sin management. It’s about seeing both pieces of the Greatest Commandment manifested in the lives of those who experience conversion.