2. Those who focus on the second half
Churches that focus on the second half of the Great Commission think almost exclusively about those who are already Christian. The church is passionate to help believers grow, but even growing Christians would hesitate to bring their friend with them to this church. As much as the first type of church feels “overly seeker,” the second type of church feels like a Bible college class and very disconnected from people outside of the church. The messages are not understandable to someone who is not yet a believer and the activities of the church feel inaccessible to someone early in their faith journey. “Mission” is something that is merely outsourced to missionaries as the church does not view their local context as a recipient of that mission.
3. Those who focus on both.
Churches who focus on both sides of the Great Commission believe the two sides are inseparable. We are responsible to care for and teach those that we reach as we are commissioned to make disciples, not just make decisions. And those that we reach must be sent out to impact their world. This is where we must land. The dichotomy that is sometimes set up between discipleship programs and evangelism is a false dichotomy and not an option Jesus gave us. If evangelism does not result in discipleship, it is not the evangelism that Jesus envisioned. If discipleship does not result in more evangelism, then it is not really “teaching people to obey.” The end result of discipleship is not “teaching them everything” but “teaching them to obey everything.” It is transformational, not informational.
Lesslie Newbigin said, “We have corrupted the word ‘church’ by constantly using it a non-missionary sense.” The church has a mission. And that mission is to make disciples and teach them to obey all Jesus has commanded. We need churches that focus on both.
This article about the three types of churches originally appeared here.
