Disciple like Jesus

Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Matthew 28:19 is the Great Commission, and I would wager a guess that pretty much every Christian at least knows the verse, if not the book or the chapter and verse number. It’s likely mentioned frequently when talking about missions work, especially in other nations. It’s a command that all Christians should know and strive to follow each day, but do you know how to make disciples?

I reckon that almost everyone knows the Great Commission from Matthew 28:19, but do you know that’s not the entire command?

Here’s the whole thing from Matthew 28:19-20: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

A lot of times, Christians translate this verse to, “Go, therefore, and make believers of all nations.” But that’s not what it says. It says to make disciples. And a disciple is so much more than someone who just believes in something. A disciple is a student, a deep studier of someone’s teachings. They are experts in the knowledge of their master or teacher. Everything the master has ever taught, the disciple knows.

There’s a footnote for my Bible from the word “disciple,” that adds a few words, making Matthew 28:19 say this: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of, and disciple, all nations.” Disciple is as much a verb in English as it is a noun. When you disciple someone, you teach them everything you know with the goal that they will be able to teach someone else all that you know.

We, as Christians, as the Church, are incredibly good at making extras out of nonbeliever converts. Extras as in movie extras. Here’s what I mean: In a church, the pastor, deacons, and a few members tend to be main characters—they’re always involved in some way—and the rest of the congregation are just unnamed characters who fill out the void space in the movie so it doesn’t look like it was filmed in a vacuum. If you ever read the credits, they don’t even have names: they’re listed as “extra 1, extra 2,” etc.

And there are so many “extras” in the Church. They don’t speak, they don’t participate, they don’t really contribute, they just fill up the empty space in the pews. And when they die and they go to the credits, the Lamb’s Book of Life, their name won’t be there. And it’s not because they didn’t have a chance to be there; it’s because no one bothered to give them what they needed to become a main character.

Extras and background characters don’t know much about the plot of the story. One may be there to show a character along, to be a stepping stone, but they generally know nothing and serve little purpose to the theme. Main characters, on the other hand, have a deep knowledge of the workings of the story and are contenders and participants in the plot.

As Christians, as evangelists, as teachers and leaders and disciples of God, it’s our job to teach new believers how to step away from the role as an extra and become main characters. Because that’s what a disciple is: a main character. They have to know the plot that God’s writing, know how He works, understand what He teaches so that they can be active participants.

So many new believers are convinced to leave the Church, to not follow God, because they are confronted with the world and are unable to combat that with the teachings of Jesus. They don’t know enough about Him to deny the accusations and grasp of sin. They don’t know enough to resist temptation; some don’t even know they should resist temptation. They’re left hanging high and dry with scavengers picking at them, the sun burning them, and they can’t help themselves off the hook because they don’t know how.

And why is that? Because they weren’t taught how. It’s going to hurt, but I truly believe we, as believers, have a real habit of just believing that getting someone into church is enough, getting them to show up is the end goal. But it’s just not. We’re way too lazy about the work we’re here to do.

The end goal is more than getting someone into a pew or a Sunday School classroom. It’s teaching, instructing, loving, caring for, and preparing them to leave the safety of the church with the knowledge they need to protect themselves, and go out fishing for a person of their own to bring back and disciple in the same way.

We’ve frankly forgotten how to spread the Word of God like Jesus, Peter, and Paul did. God doesn’t care about the number of people sitting in your pews. He cares about the number of souls destined for Heaven. And it’s time we stop being lazy and start caring for souls the same way He does.

Stop the Christianese

I’ve heard this term, Christianese, a lot more as I spend an increasing amount of time in the greater church community by listening to podcasts and sermons from some of the bigger, younger names out there. It’s a term more often used by the millennials than Gen X or Baby Boomers, but it’s relevant all the same.

Christianese is our own, believer-based language that we use frequently to communicate aspects of our belief and portions of God’s character because we’ve developed a vocabulary specific to these things. If you don’t really know what I mean by Christianese, think of it as our dialect, our jargon, our vernacular.

The thing about Christianese, and indeed, every other dialect of any language, is that only those who have the necessary living experience with the language can understand it. And that leads to my grievance against Christianese. In the church, it might be fine, but we cannot go about using it when we speak to nonbelievers.

The story behind this is more personal than my other articles, but I’m not writing this just because I don’t like it. I’m writing it because I think changing our language when we speak to nonbelievers will help us show Christ to that many more people.

I grew up in the church. I was there pretty much every Sunday, Wednesday, and any other day there happened to be something going on. I did all the activities: every Vacation Bible School, every youth event. I sang in the choir as a child, and I picked up jobs in the other churches I attended, too. But I went because that’s what my family did. I went because I thought that’s what I did. But my heart wasn’t in it.

I knew all the answers. I had all the lines down. The head knowledge was absolutely there. And I was a pretty dang good actor, too, if I do say so myself. I can’t say for sure, but I don’t think too many people questioned me. But while I knew God, I didn’t know God. I didn’t have a relationship with Him. But I was always in the church, so I had a pretty good view and understanding of the church and how we did things.

I remember sitting in Sunday School and listening to my teachers. I would cringe when I heard them use certain words to describe the actions of God towards us, not because of the actions, but the way they were described. I thought they were childish, silly, and entirely nonsensical.

One of the phrases that always sets me off is, “You have to fear God.” Not because it’s not true. It is true. But the words don’t compute when you hear, “God loves you. Love God.” That’s because nobody really bothers to explain it. We all just assume everyone understands that when we say, “Fear God,” what we really mean is respect God. Respect His power, His ability, and His grace and mercy, knowing that it could be turned against you should you not accept Him into your heart. Although, what does that even mean to a nonbeliever? It doesn’t make sense unless you already know the Bible.

And listen, if I didn’t understand that as a teenager growing up in the church, nonbelievers and new converts have no chance of getting it. The knowledge and experience just isn’t there for them.

I was always confused by these lines, too, “I just had a feeling,” and, “I just heard God speaking to me so clearly.” I never understood those because I never audibly heard God speak to me, and I couldn’t separate my own feelings from whatever feelings these people were experiencing. These are phrases that create undue confusion for a lot of people.

So, we need to knock that off when we’re talking to nonbelievers and new believers alike. We’re feeding them phrases based on the meat of the Bible when they’re still struggling with the milk. It’s like trying to go to Russia and preach the Gospel in Portuguese. It just won’t work. If you want to speak to Russians about Christ, you have to speak Russian.

Similarly, if you want to talk to nonbelievers about Christ, you have to speak their language. We have to find a way to put our experiences with Christ into a tangible, understandable format for those who have no experience with Him. Otherwise, you’re going to get a lot of “Christians” who aren’t actually saved and don’t know how to pursue a relationship with Christ. And even worse, you’re going to create a lot of people who avoid Christianity because we sound like a bunch of loons.

Hey, in your midweek Bible study with your small group, or among friends you know have developed a deep relationship with Christ, use the Christianese. It works there. But keep it away when you’re talking to those who don’t know our language. It’s hard enough to show them who Christ is without adding a language barrier to the difficulty.