What Making Disciples Is All About

 

I don’t know what your experience coming to Christ was like, but I remember mine. I started asking my parents questions, had a meeting with the pastor, prayed a prayer, got baptized. . . and that was it. It was like once I got up out of that water the church felt like their job was done. Another one won to heaven! Hallelujah! 

Here’s the problem, though. Getting people to Christ is only the first step. If we bring thousands of people to Christ, but fail to continue to disciple them and guide them in their newfound faith, we haven’t done our job as the Church. In fact, I would go so far as to say that we are disobeying the command of Jesus. Let me explain.

In Matthew 28.19-20, Jesus says, “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” (ESV). 

Jesus didn’t say to go and make converts. He didn’t say to go and lead people to Him. He said to make disciples. He said to baptize. He said to teach them to observe and obey. That is much different than leading someone to Christ, having them pray a prayer or sign a card, and then sending them on their way. I think that leading them to Christ is the first step: absolutely. But it’s just the first step. If we stop there we aren’t following through with what Jesus is actually commanding us to do. 

The word disciple means “a person who is a pupil or an adherent of the doctrines of another; follower” (dictionary.com). How can a person adhere to the doctrines of Jesus or follow Him unless they know how to do so? How can they grow in their faith without someone to guide them and mentor them? Making disciples means more than just getting people saved. It means committing to walking alongside that person, as long as it takes, and showing them how to be a disciple of Jesus. That’s the essence of what Jesus is saying in the Great Commission.

Our goal should, and always will be, to win people to Christ and to help them receive salvation and forgiveness for their sins. However, in order to be faithful and obedient to Jesus’s commands, we must also commit to walking alongside those people and guiding them in their new faith. That is what making disciples is really all about.