This past Sunday we began talking about disciples making disciples by asking the simple question, "What is the Purpose of the Church?" To help us approach this differently, we asked, "What is a win?" How do we define winning as a church? If our church sees ______________ happen, then we know we are winning. We talked about the importance of our church being on the same page and how we need to align winning with Jesus' definition. We studied the Great Commission from Matthew 28:18-20 and learned that Jesus defines winning as people "who make disciples who make disciples." The impact of that means we need to align individually, as well as a church, into people who make disciples who make disciples. We also looked at John 17:4, and we learned that Jesus had work He needed to complete in addition to the cross. That work was making disciples who were ready to make disciples. He spent three years modeling, teaching, and preparing the first disciples to make disciples. So, we are going to define winning as making disciples who make disciples because that is what Jesus did. Obviously, this will impact our church in too many ways for me to list here. We will begin unfolding some of those in the weeks to come.
This coming Sunday we will ask a second question. What is a Disciple? Just as it is important for our entire church to be on the same page in regards to what a win is; it is equally important that we all operate with the same definition of what a disciple is. Imagine a church where we all define what a disciple is differently. We need to have the same definition so we all know what the target is. In Matthew 4:19, Jesus said to Peter and Andrew, "Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." This verse is how Jesus defines what a disciple is. I figure using his definition is better than any you or I can come up with. It has three parts to it:
- Know - to follow Jesus ("Follow me")
- Grow - to become like Jesus ("I will make you")
- Go - call others to do the same ("fishers of men")
On Sunday, we will dive into what all of these mean and begin to discover if we are disciples the way Jesus defines disciples.
In Christ,
Mark Smith, Pastor of FBC Jacksonville, AR
