The Lost Art Of Discipleship

"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

- Matthew 28:19-20 NASB

These words were the last thing that Jesus uttered before He returned to heaven. We all know them as the "Great Commission". In this charge, Christ laid out a specific plan for what He wanted his followers to do. There is no ambiguity, there is no second guessing. Jesus wanted those who followed behind Him to make disciples. Yet, despite the self-explanatory nature of Jesus command, for many churches this passage becomes the "Great Omission"


While many churches like to think that they are accomplishing this task, the hard facts are that they are failing miserably. According to Avery Willis, author of the Master Life Discipleship Program:

"... the churches of the Southern Baptist Convention reported losing 569,636 in discipleship training enrollment. That is 25% in one year! Ed Young presented the situation at the SBC Pastor’s Conference and said that the churches are losing six out of eight young people when they graduate from high school.When he asked a CEO to evaluate the statistics of the SBC he said, “You are going out of business.”"

So lets be clear in our understanding and define discipleship. Discipleship is a process. This process can be summarized in three steps:

1. Conversion - this step although not mentioned specifically here is implied (Luke 14:27)

2. Baptism - a believer must outwardly identify himself with Christ's death, burial, and resurrection (Roman6:1-11)

3. Teaching - a believer must be taught to understand and practice what is commanded in God's word (I Timothy 4:12-13, II Timothy 3:16)


When I was coming along the emphasis was on soul-winning. We would pass out tracts, knock on doors, have revivals, do bus campaigns all with the goal of getting students to pray a prayer. Today, I see many churches that emphasize education. They have fellowship groups, huddle groups, accountability groups, ad infinitum. These churches train, and equip people until truth is coming out their ears; yet they fail to practice the evangelistic exercise of their faith. Both of these approaches ignore the "whole counsel of Scripture" and are therefore wrong.

If we are to return our churches back to a biblical model, one of the first things that we have to do is get back to the fundamentals and one of the first among these is making disciples. This process takes time and is not easily measured with numbers. In fact, we may not see the whole impact of our adherence to this command until we stand before the Lord. Then, hopefully, we will hear Him say,

'Well done, good and faithful (not fruitful) servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!'
- Matthew 25:21 NIV