"Go and make disciples..."

Good Morning,

Matthew 28:18-20 (NIV)
Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

For almost all Christians these are among the most known and often repeated verses in the entire Bible...(Along with John 3:16, of course.) We have used these verses as our incentive to go out and evangelize both near and far. We know that this "Great Commission" is what we are supposed to do. This morning the verse that came across my desk was verse 19, "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations..." It them struck me that for too many of our religious institutions we sort of miss this part of our commission to be obedient to what Jesus told us.

What I mean is that we seem to be led to speak the Gospel message, go out and evangelize to bring people to the Lord, but we kind of lose our focus after that. Yes, we do much in our efforts to bring people to know Jesus, but then, well, we're not so pretty good at the "disciple" part of this section of Scripture. For too many of our congregations, we kind of drop the ball a bit there.

It's the discipling part that God has sort of laid on my heart this morning. That is...What are we doing for those who accept Jesus as Lord and Savior so that they become firmly grounded in the faith? Here's where, I think, the rubber meets the road, so to speak. Too often people come to Christianity, are applauded for what they've done, given a Bible, and told, "Now go and live a good Christian life." They're told that without really knowing or understanding what it is to actually LEAD a good Christian life. Yes, they've been told, in Jesus words, "Go and sin no more," but what practical steps are we taking to be sure people have a solid foundation in the faith that they've embraced?

Now, I don't have all the answers here, for sure. And, I really hate it when I see and actually point out some challenge...then don't have a specific answer as to how handle it and alleviate that challenge. I would guess those answers would come from people much more educated and knowledgeable than me. I do know that our individual congregations probably need to put a bit more emphasis on the "discipling" part of our ministries than we currently do, without losing focus on the evangelizing part, as well. We probably need to seek out and find those who have that passion to be active in discipleship activities in our local churches. I know there are people in our congregations who have the talent and ability to truly disciple those who have felt the touch of the Holy Spirit, repented of their sins, and are looking for guidance toward their futures.

We need to find those folks, nurture their talents, and help them to help others. I guess, we need to "disciple" those who will do the "discipling"...if that makes sense.

Sometimes, I guess, we first need to see the problem clearly before we can actually take steps in the solving of it. I hope we all see this clearly.

Love, peace, and blessings,

David