Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Which one is the great commission?

Go therefore and build church buildings in all nations, telling them to come, & leading them in the sinner's prayer. And surely I will be with you at the rapture.
OR
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 keep all that I commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.


Questions I have received concerning this.
What do you think is a good way to encourage and challenge our brothers and sisters to do so?
Teaching scripture concerning it is good for those who accept and act upon it's validity. But the main way would be to actually make disciples spend time and pour God's truth into our brothers and sisters. To make disciples is to lead them to Christ (if necessary) & teach them to treasure all the things of the person of Christ. The heart of disciple making is to know God loves you and to be His disciple, then anything Christlike God has put in you put into others as the Spirit leads.

What's wrong with planting churches?
In the sense of the goal being to have a church building that people come to, Jesus never commanded it. He commanded us to make disciples, if we aren't doing that we shouldn't be wasting our time doing things He didn't command. Those things aren't as effective for His kingdom as what He did command.

What's wrong with spreading the gospel to other nations? 
Spreading the gospel is included in discipleship. Evangelism is step one in discipleship. Baptism comes right after conversion (see when people are baptised in Acts).
"baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit"

People generally need to be Christians or at least seeking in order for them to be disciples... 
True, someone must be a Christian in order to be a disciple of Christ.
To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free." -John 8:31-32

Telling people to come to church & leading them in the sinner's prayer often creates false or perpetual baby Christians because no one ever teaches them how God loves them. They just hear sermons and teaching that can be over their head and are primarily one way lectures.

I ask you this,
Which is better?
To plant a church that people come to once a week
To plant God's Word (Jesus) in someone's heart who will go out with God's Word and spread it

Revised 10/31/11& 5/9/14