2. Making disciples must be intentional.
I’m concerned that in the past 10 years, all of our talk about being “missional” and “incarnational” has boiled down to one simple fact: We use new words to describe what we were already not doing.
If we, as already reconciled-to-the-Father followers of Jesus, do not live our lives with the intentional purpose of making disciples, we won’t.
Many of our churches often function simply as social clubs where the “already convinced” gather together to live as those who do not really believe that they are called to join God’s mission of reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:18). Consider these questions:
- If your congregation did not exist, would the community you live in be aware of it?
- What makes your local church any different than a book club?
- How does your community take personal ownership of the task of making disciples?
These are the types of questions that I’ve been asking myself for over a decade. Being a “church kid” my whole life means that I’ve been in quite a few churches over the years and I’ve seen and been a part of many that simply did not have any focus on intentionally making disciples.
So what does intentional discipleship look like? Great question.
When I was a teenager, I was fortunate to be a part of a church where my good friend Jason was the pastor. I can vividly remember his continual challenge, encouragement and teaching on the importance of making disciples. The sermon that I remember always cast a vision of this, and I saw it modeled in all that the church did.
And guess what? The church grew … and many people were becoming followers of Jesus who made followers of Jesus. It didn’t happen overnight, but it did happen. I saw first-hand how being intentional made a huge difference.
