The Goal of Mission (Discipleship)

"Therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world." [1] Amen.

Popularly, many people think of the "go" as the heart of the commission, where as the "make disciple" is the heart. Pastors who reinforce this erroneous idea don't see anything a missionary is doing, staying on the field one, two, three year, while he goes about preach and get people converted, they emphasize that while everyone cannot go, they can pray, support, encourage and so forth that those who can go should go. But it's due lack of proper understanding of the scriptures. GO is the command, make disciples is the work.

Getting people converted is easy with the help of the Holy spirit, making them to become disciple is the real work. To disciple them, they have to be taught, baptize them, and taught to observe all things that Jesus commanded.

If they confess Christ today, that is when the real work begins. You have to run after them, teach them again before they will drop idolatry practices; teaching them again and again before they will keep the day of the Lord holy; teaching them again and again before they will see what is wrong in alcoholism, smoking, adultery, fornication, stealing, worldliness, etc. Teaching them again and again before they can work for God; teaching them again and again before they will be able to stand on their own; know how to pay, hear from God, do personal devotion and family devotion, observe quite time, do personal bible reading, know how to listen to God, cultivate habit of fellowship, give etc. You will have to teach them again and again about  the Holy Spirit, His ministry,  His gifts, baptism of the Holy Spirit etc. You just have to keep teaching them again and again until they understand, otherwise, you have just labored to catch fish and you are too tired to process it. If you just leave it on the ground, it will get spoiled  and will not be useful for anybody. You have just wasted your efforts and the life of the fish also.

This is the reason many great crusade produce great result but no great imparts. Many of the converts of the great crusade are back into their vomit and their latter end is now worse than the beginning, all because there is no good mechanism n the ground to make disciple f them. No follow up strategy.

So, the core of the work is not "Go" it is "disciple". Many Christians including missionaries lack this understanding. They just keep going, preaching everywhere, opening new fields, raising new converts, but they don't bother about making disciples. When many of those centers soon close up, reaching them again becomes difficult, because they have known the truth, but had backsliden restore them is always very difficult. It is not just about going, it is about making disciples, anybody can go, but few can be patient enough to make disciples out of those stark illiterate staying that cannot read or write, with very low understanding of physical things let alone spiritual things, it takes a missionary heart to make disciple out of them. [2]

Converts to disciples not only cut across to mission but to everyone who want to leave a legacy: to teacher and students, to masters and apprentices, elders and youth etc. Disciple demands follow up, patience and time.

I hope you have enjoyed this piece comment, share and be inspired. Thanks for reading. 

Reference:
1. Bible, Matthew 28:18-20
2. Oluwatobi Steven Adeniyi (2015) Understanding Missions. Pg79-80