Making Disciples: The Imperative above Missions - a podcast by Jonathan Michael Jones

Mike Breen recently posted a blog
centering around why the missional movement will fail. I was shocked upon first
reading these words; yet, the author makes the point that radical
disciple-making is the church’s call above going. Breen says:

We
took 30 days and examined the Twitter conversations happening. We discovered
there are between 100-150 times as many people talking about mission as there
are discipleship (to be clear, that’s a 100:1). We are a group of people
addicted to and obsessed with the work of the Kingdom, with little to no idea
how to be with the King.[1]

 

In the Great Commission (Matt
28:19-20), Jesus commands his followers to go; the imperative, however, comes
after the word, go, when he subsequently commands his people to make disciples,
i.e. the purpose of going and indeed the end means of missions is to glorify
God by forming people who love and obey him. Thus, the imperative is often
wrongly placed on going rather than disciple-making. Furthermore, the Greek
context of the Great Commission implies not merely going to make disciples but
rather to make disciples as you are going, i.e. going is not a separate event
but is rather what we do in our daily rhythms of life. Making disciples then
should be part of our daily walk. I submit that we have missed the point of the
Great Commission because we have missed the point of a disciple and the
Christian life altogether. There are two glaring aspects of our call that we
have missed.

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