Make Disciples

Some days, I just want to write about what is on my heart... today is one of those days. So here goes... when I was a student at NC State, I got involved with a movement that became know as the "discipling movement". Basically, the focus of the movement was that disciples were to mature one another and new disciples were to be made. That was the concept and I believe that the Bible fully supports that idea. I was often convicted and sometimes encouraged through this movement. Unfortunately, things went too far and people were hurt.

The result of the movement was that people began making disciples of themselves and abused each other. Controlling the person that you were "discipling" became the focus of the relationship. A good thing jumped the track and became a bad thing. Many people came to know the Lord that otherwise would have not heard the Good News. Many others left the movement damaged by the control that others had been exercised in their lives. Some are still dealing with the harm that they endured.

In my mind, this is a baby and bathwater issue. Do we throw away the good along with the bad because the movement went off the track. Or... is there a way to learn from the past and take the good and leave out the bad? One thing is certain, we are commanded to make disciples.

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matt 28:18-20, ESV)


Jesus stands before His disciples and tells them that "all" authority, "all" power in heaven and earth had been vested in Him. The president has some power. The governor has some power. We respect that power that is placed in those offices, but Jesus says that every bit of all power had been given to Him. And then, clothed in that power, He tells... no commands them (and us) to make disciples. They were to spend their lives, their money, their talent, their everything helping people to know Him. Not just know about Him, they were to become like Him. Paul says it like this... my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you!

Until Christ is formed in you... get the idea. The outcome of our faith is that we become like Him. We are born again, this time to a heavenly Father and it is His Son's image that we are to pursue. Here is the difficult question for each of us... am I a disciple? Is Christ formed in me? To make a true disciple, I have to be a true disciple. Can someone spend time with me and see Jesus? Tough question. Many of us have spent a lifetime in the in the pew, listening to thousands of sermons and singing thousands of songs... but we don't look like Jesus. We were never truly discipled. No one ever took us under their wing and demonstrated what a life lived like Him looks like. We were told that we needed to be saved, we did what we were told and then we sat down.

Jesus says that when we make the decision to follow Him, that is the beginning of life. When you and I come to faith, when we are immersed in the waters of baptism and have our old life washed away, we are to begin the new life of becoming His disciple and making other disciples, God includes us in His redeeming work. We get to work with Him to change the world... and that begins with the guy or gal next door, down the street, around the corner or in the cubicle next to mine. He says tell them your story. Tell them about how you meet a Savior and what your life has been like since then. Make disciples of Jesus. That is the command from the One that has all authority. Change your neighbor, change the world. One life at a time... introduce them to Jesus.