This post continues a series concerning the ministry focus of GTBN.
I have myopia and astigmatism, which is a fancy way to say I wear bifocals. Without my glasses, most everything more than 12 inches away is a blur. But with my glasses, in the right prescription, what’s before me is crystal clear.
The statement, “We help the church make disciples today,” works similarly. It helps us to clearly see what the work of our fellowship is all about, the Great Commission.
The preachers reading know the text, Matt. 28:19, and that the imperative verb here translates the phrase “make disciples.” Everything else modifies the making of disciples, the going, the baptizing, and the teaching. Making disciples of Jesus Christ stands at the heart of this text so central to Baptist identify.
You’ve heard this before, so why does it bear repeating? Why is it so important that GTBN should focus our efforts here. Let me suggest a few reasons.
First, it is the command of Christ. I love the fellowship with my church family. Authentic fellowship is one function of local congregations. But Jesus didn’t command us to have our socials. He commanded us to make disciples.
Second, many churches struggle making disciples. I need not quote the statistics. Just consider the number of churches you see that are in decline. Many reasons account for this, such as an internal focus, lack of any game plan, or disconnect with the community. Some find themselves fully aware of Christ’s call but lost in a sea of possibilities that they know not where to begin.
Third, over the years many of us have misunderstood the command to make disciples. We’ve done this in two ways.
Sometimes we divorce evangelism from discipleship, placing all the emphasis on the conversion side of the gospel. The growing of believers becomes a secondary step, and in the minds of some an optional one. A pastor once told me, “The day the SBC started its decline was when we prioritized discipleship.” I can’t disagree more with this statement. But, even it if were true, if disciples are not developed to fruitfulness, who then carries the gospel forward?
With this divorce comes the idea that disciple making is strictly about growing Christians. As a result, many discipleship approaches assume one’s embrace of foundational spiritual truths as they seek to carry Christians deeper into the scripture. Spiritual depth is wonderful, but I know too many so busy digging deeply that they never deploy into the world as His witnesses.
Gateway Seminary president Jeff Iorg has said that one of the great missteps of Southern Baptists is that we’ve defined disciple making as making weak Christians strong when we should have defined it as leading non-Christians to become faithful, growing, serving Christ followers. I believe Jeff has a point.
Finally, it’s important for GTBN to focus on disciple making because any issue in church life you can imagine is best addressed this way. Our strategy identifies four priorities: church planting, leadership, awakening / revitalization, and networking (missional connections). How do we raise planters for new churches? We make disciples. How will we cultivate new ministry leaders, the next generation of pastors, and godly members who support their leaders? We make disciples. What about awakening and church revitalization? You guessed it. And networking, how do we build partnerships to develop pastors in Belize, field crews for disaster relief, or teams to engage our prisons? Yup, we make disciples.
I love our pastors, taking my job as pastor to pastors seriously. But I see no better way for us together to glorify Christ than a focused effort to this end: we help the church - your church and the 99 others in the GTBN family- to make disciples today.
Think about it. I’ll share more soon.
Jim