I can’t say that I’m very interested in free diving, but I accidentally came across this video while looking for something else yesterday. I found it mesmerizing to watch this diver hold his breath and move through this amazing underwater world. Worth a few minutes to watch. Beautiful job, National Geographic!
Well, I’m not really a very good one either, but let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves.
The title of this post is a sentiment that I’ve heard from time to time over the last several years. I’ve heard it expressed in a few different ways, but several people have told me something that goes like this:
You don’t understand… Not everyone is like you and can do the things that you do. We aren’t all evangelists.
Or they might possibly connect the discussion to spiritual gifting:
You know, I just don’t have the gift of evangelism, so sharing with others isn’t what I do.
Or finally, suggesting the same about others:
God doesn’t give the same gifts to everyone, so we can’t suggest that everyone should be able to share with others in the same way that you do.
These concerns – really, objections – typically come up with Christians that I’ve spoken with as we’ve discussed that being a disciple of Jesus means making a disciple of Jesus. In fact, based on this experience, I would even dare to say that some reading this post will likely say that I raise this issue because I have a gifting of evangelism and am sensitized to this, thinking that everyone should go and constantly evangelize others (I’ve heard that one too! ?).
But please hear me when I say that this is not who I am. Yes, I do go to evangelize. I do walk up to people on the streets, start a conversation and ultimately share my testimony, the Gospel, or both with them. And there are times that I walk away from those conversations having truly enjoyed how it went.
But I promise you that each time that I do, it is a matter of decision. I’ve scheduled that time because I know that I need to specifically set aside the time to go, or I won’t go. I’ve put together the things that I need for that time and walked out the door, obligating myself to go and do it…because it doesn’t come naturally to me.
Instead, for me, the truth is something quite different. I have needed to learn from others the importance of going, how to share, and what to do as a next step after I have completed the initial steps of connecting and sharing the Gospel. And it is this process that I have been through that I believe the scriptures speak of and teach us.
Just before returning to heaven, Jesus told his disciples that they would speak for him locally and beyond. He said:
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
Acts 1:8
So we see that Jesus intended for us to share with others, yet I wonder where the confusion comes from about whether or not we are called to share with others, to be evangelists. Personally, I think that it is related to a fear of rejection for our faith. We think that by sharing with others we will no longer be in relationship with those that know what we truly believe. And it is possible that this is true, that we might be rejected.
But I think that the most difficult part is that we might use the listing of the spiritual gifts that are intended to build up the church as an excuse why we shouldn’t do one of those things because that is currently not one of the areas where we are strong.
Let’s take a look at what that scripture says:
So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
Ephesians 4:11-13
We can see clearly here that there is a reason that Christ gave these gifts. Of course, it should be the case that those with these gifts are exercising them regularly, but that actually isn’t what Paul says here. Instead, he says that it is to equip the people to serve!
If we are to follow the plans and commands of Jesus, I believe it means that we need to bring forward those who have each of the gifts and allow them to teach so that the body will be equipped. Some of that teaching may not look like what we are used to in our churches, but I believe that it is very important if we truly desire to see the body of Christ around us built up into maturity and the fullness of Christ.
Our church in Colorado recently sent out a newsletter that included a link to a conference called the Multiply Vineyard Summit. I particularly enjoyed two of the sessions that I saw given by Ralph Moore. His message was directly aligned with the work that we’re doing here in Italy.
Ralph starts with some recounting of his work over the last several decades, and then subsequently goes into the “how” of the work, speaking of disciples making disciples. Hope you enjoy!
From 12 People to 2300 Churches
Disciples Making Disciples: The Key to Multiplication
Paul has previously made two journeys having shared the Gospel, strengthened the new disciples, and started new churches along the way. Each of the previous two journeys has seemed to be slightly different in his approach in that the first journey was filled with Gospel sharing and starting new churches with Paul leading the way. The second journey seemed to have a greater emphasis on taking others along and starting a new team of leaders who would work along with him. Now, in this third journey, it appears that Paul will focus more on teaching and training his current and new leaders to do the same things that he has been doing with the result of having some of the greatest fruitfulness of his work yet.
Leaving from Antioch at the end of Acts 18, Paul heads back to the churches that he started in the Galatian and Phrygian areas. This would probably include the churches of Lystra, Derbe, Iconium, and Pisidian Antioch, as well as believers and churches at Troas and Pergamum and those areas in what is now northwestern Turkey. He seems to clearly love the believers in these churches as they are the ones that he visits first in each subsequent journey after he initially started the churches.
On his previous trip, Paul had taken Priscilla and Aquila to Ephesus and left them to work with the church there. While they were there, they met a man named Apollos who had been teaching the people but was only familiar with the baptism of repentance of John the Baptist. Priscilla and Aquila taught Apollos who became a faithful worker there in Ephesus and then set off to Achaia to teach among the people in Corinth also.
Some time after Apollos left Ephesus, Paul arrived and continued the evangelistic work there, teaching in the synagogue. Some of the Jews didn’t believe, though, so Paul took those who did and began a process for two years to teach and train the believers, and in Acts 19:10, its says that as a result of this all of the Jews and Greeks in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord. At the same time, we can see that several new churches had started in many other cities where we don’t see that Paul went himself. These included the churches in Colossae, Hieropolis, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. Clearly, a movement of disciples who follow Jesus had started because now we can see disciples making disciples and starting new churches. A movement was brewing!
There were many miracles that God did through Paul, and all of the work, both through his own evangelism as well as his teaching and training of others, was having a significant effect on the people in that area. We can see that there was even a riot that started because the business of the silversmiths who made idols of the Greek goddess Athena was being affected by Paul’s work. The followers of Jesus were putting away the old things of the past such as their idols and their sorcery and moved on to worship God through Jesus.
After this fruitful time in Ephesus, Paul moved on to the Macedonian churches to encourage the believers in Philippi and possibly also the Thessalonians and other cities and churches in the area. He also stopped through the Archaia peninsula in Greece, likely to see the church in Corinth and others. All of this while on his way to Troas, to where we believe Luke, the writer of the book of Acts was from.
When Paul arrived in Troas, he spent time meeting together with many, if not all of his leaders from across most of the areas where Paul had started churches. Paul taught his leaders and others for an entire day and then moved on. After sailing through a few port cities and landing in Miletus, Paul called for the elders from the church in Ephesus. Praying with them, he exhorted and commissioned them to remain faithful and continue in the work that God gave them before returning back to Jerusalem.
In Acts 15, after Paul and Barnabas had returned from their first journey, they stayed in Antioch for some time, sharing what God had done during their missionary journey. While they were there, some men had come from Judea – probably directly from the church in Jerusalem – and were preaching that the churches must continue to follow the law of Moses to be saved. This meant, for example, that the men in the churches must all be circumcised. Paul and Barnabas debated them, but ultimately didn’t come to a resolution, so they decided to appeal to the apostles in Jerusalem for a ruling on this issue.
In addition to Barnabas accompanying Paul in going to Jerusalem, Paul later says in Galatians 2 that Titus, who was probably from Antioch, went with him to Jerusalem as well. It appears that Paul’s goal in this trip is to not only have a ruling on the specific issue of circumcision, but also to confirm that the freedom in Christ that Paul believes in and has been preaching is the same message that the apostles believe and are teaching as well. It seems that the teaching from these men from Judea have thrown that into doubt for him, so he wants to confirm that they are all “on the same page” in a sense.
Having previously discussed Peter’s encounter with Cornelius and his household having received the Holy Spirit, the apostles see that God is continuing to have many more Gentiles come into the Kingdom of God, believing in Jesus. As a result, they write a letter to the churches explaining that, yes, there are certain practices that should be avoided, such as eating food that has been sacrificed to idols, from various kinds of sexual immorality, eating meat from strangled animals, or drinking the blood of animals (yuck?). But absent, of course, is any requirement that they will need to be circumcised.
As a result, Paul’s message is vindicated and it is confirmed that his Gospel message that Christ is for everyone, setting the requirements and weight of the old law aside. Paul and Barnabas initially take this letter back to Antioch with two men sent from the apostles to confirm its authenticity and then continue teaching in Antioch for some time.
Paul has an idea to go back and encourage the churches, but he and Barnabas separate over a disagreement over whether or not to take John Mark with them given that he had left them early-on in their last journey. So Barnabas takes John Mark and goes to Cyprus while Paul decides to go north by land route to Syria and Cilicia to visit and strengthen the churches there.
Like me, you may be wondering where these churches in Syria and Cilicia came from given that Paul is visiting them, and the letter from Jerusalem addressed them specifically. We don’t know precisely, but there are several important things that we can say that show that, despite us not seeing that Paul specifically started these churches, we know that he was there and active in sharing the Gospel.
So, having traveled to these churches and strengthening them, Paul now heads back up to the churches that he started in Asia Minor, the Galatian churches that he had started on his last trip. Paul delivers the message from the apostles in Jerusalem and the churches were encouraged and continued to grow.
Along the way, Paul meets a man named Timothy that the churches recommended and takes him along with him. Interestingly, especially after all of the disagreements with the Jews about circumcision having just wrapped up, and even on this trip delivering the message of the letter from the apostles in Jerusalem, Paul decides that he should circumcise Timothy who was a Gentile to make it easier to approach the Jews that they would be meeting. Nothing would stand in the way of the Gospel going forward!
As they continue to travel to the west, they go through several areas, but land momentarily in Troas, which appears to be the hometown of Luke – the writer of the Gospel of Luke and the book of Acts – because suddenly in chapter 16, verse 10, the pronoun switches to from “they” to “we”, and so now it appears that Luke begins to travel with Paul and his team.
While there in Troas, Paul has a vision of a man calling him from the district of Macedonia which he interprets to be a call for them to come share the message of the Gospel, so immediately they leave and head off to Macedonia, landing in the city of Philippi, now part of modern-day Greece and their first landing in what we now call Europe.
Two very significant things happen in Philippi. First, Paul and the team would regularly go outside of the city next to a river, a place that people would regularly gather for prayer. The first time that they went, they met Lydia, a Gentile woman, and some other women. In sharing the Gospel with them, Lydia believed and invited them into her home, starting a new church there in Philippi.
The second thing that happened was that Paul and Silas were put in prison because Paul had driven out a spirit from a slave girl who could tell people of the future. The girl’s owners made their money this way, so they stirred up the people and Paul and Silas were put into prison.
Paul and Silas had been beaten and chained while in prison, but in the middle of the night, a violent earthquake came, shook their chains loose, and opened the doors. The jailer would lose his life if he had lost any of the prisoners, but despite all of the chains being loose, the prisoners had stayed. Through this, Paul shares the Gospel with the jailer who believes in Jesus, and both he and his household were baptized in that night.
After having been appeased by the magistrates and city leaders for imprisoning them against Roman law, Paul leaves Philippi, probably leaving Timothy and Luke there to continue the work. Taking Silas, he continues his journey to Thessalonica where he again preaches in the synagogue, this time for three weeks. Some Jews, and a large number of Greeks believed. Among those that believed were Aristarchus and Secundus who would later travel with Paul as part of his team of leaders.
However, again, similar to some previous that they visited cities, some of the Jews were jealous that they were making disciples of Jesus among the people. They whipped up a mob and went to Jason’s house where Paul and team were staying while in Thessalonica. They didn’t find them, but ultimately Jason found himself in trouble for housing Paul and his team and had to post a bond to be released from prison.
Paul and Silas then escaped in the night and moved on to Berea. They preached again in the synagogue and many believed, including Sopater who like Aristarchus and Secundus from Thessalonica, would also join Paul as part of the leadership team in the future. But the Jews from Thessalonica followed them and stirred up a crowd yet again against Paul and their team in Berea so the believers sent Paul on to Athens while Silas and Timothy stayed there in Berea.
While Paul was in Athens, he saw all of the Greek gods in the marketplace along with the temples dedicated to them, so he would preach about the true God in the marketplace. He was invited to come to share with the Areopagus where we see a famous sharing of the Gospel with the Greeks. At this point, a few believed, but many did not, so Paul left them and moved on to Corinth.
While in Corinth, Paul shared the Gospel in the synagogue and works alongside of Priscilla and Aquila, tentmakers who came from Rome. Silas and Timothy join Paul in Corinth and after the Jews demonstrate that they will reject the message of Jesus as the Messiah, Paul moves on to the Gentiles and begins to baptize new believers among them.
Jesus speaks to Paul in a dream telling him to continue preaching in Corinth, so unlike many of the other cities, Paul stays there in Corinth for a long time, this time for a year and a half, but after having established the church there, he moved on to Ephesus, taking Priscilla and Aquila with him. Paul leaves Priscilla and Aquila there in Ephesus to continue the work there, and then soon returns back to Antioch, completing his second journey.
In Acts 13 and 14, we see Paul and Barnabas set out on their first missionary journey together. They initially travel across the sea from Antioch to the island of Cyprus and immediately we see them establishing a pattern as they enter the Jewish synagogues and sharing the Gospel among the Jews in the towns that they visit. A sorcerer and false prophet named Bar-Jesus was an attendant of the proconsul of the island (like a governor or someone overseeing the occupied area on Rome’s behalf) and tried to prevent the proconsul from hearing Paul, something that he had wanted to do. Paul declares that he won’t be able to see, and as Bar-Jesus is blinded, the proconsul believes and is amazed also with their teaching.
Paul and Barnabas then travel again across the sea to the north into the Galatian area and make their way to Pisidian Antioch. Again, they enter the Jewish synagogue and share the Gospel. This is one of the few times that we get to see how Paul shares the Gospel with the Jews, through a retelling of their history, starting from the time that God led the Israelites out from Egypt, through the prophets and kings, and ultimately to Jesus, speaking of his preaching, his death, his resurrection, and ultimately the significance of everything that he was teaching.
From their teaching, some of the people of the synagogue followed them and they asked them also to return in the following week to speak again. Unfortunately, it didn’t go well because when they came to speak on the following Sabbath, the Jewish leaders became jealous because most of the city came to hear them speak! At this point, then, Paul told them that they would not continue with them but would go and speak to the Gentiles.
Paul made disciples among both the Jews and the Gentiles and it says that the word of the Lord spread throughout the entire region which I believe means that the people began to share with others what they had been learning about Jesus. Ultimately, the Jewish leaders persecuted Paul and Barnabas and they were forced to leave, and so they headed to a nearby city called Iconium.
In Iconium, Paul followed a similar pattern as he had done previously. They spoke at the Jewish synagogue and both Jews and Gentiles believed in Jesus. Again, the Jews who would not believe spoke out against Paul and Barnabas, but they continued to work and teach the new believers. They were also continuing to perform signs and miracles through the Holy Spirit as confirmation of their teaching.
The people of Iconium were divided, and some of them began to plan to kill Paul and Barnabas, so they left there also to continue to preach in other cities.
At Lystra, Paul healed a man who was lame and not able to walk. As a result, the people began to sacrifice to Paul and Barnabas, thinking that they were gods. Paul tried in vain to stop them, sharing about the true God with the people, but they continued to sacrifice to them.
The Jews from Antioch and Iconium who had driven Paul and Barnabas out of their cities followed them also to Lystra and won over the crowds, ultimately stoning Paul and dragged him out of the city. But with his new disciples around him, Paul was able to get back up and return into the city of Lystra.
He also went into Derbe, a nearby city, and preached there as well. Paul was particularly effective there and won many disciples.
As Paul and Barnabas began to think of returning home, they decided to return back through each of the cities, including Lystra, Iconium, and Pisidian Antioch to teach them and appoint elders among the communities of new believers, leaving behind churches as they went from city to city. In the end, Paul and Barnabas return back to their home city of Antioch to share with the church all that they had seen God do through their work.
There are a few important points that I think that I can take away from this first journey from Paul and Barnabas. Those are:
At the end of Acts 7, we see that Stephen is killed by stoning by the members of the Sanhedrin. Saul, who will soon come face-to-face with Jesus, is there as a zealous Pharisee and Acts 8:1 says that he is giving approval to the killing of Stephen. Saul begins to persecute the church, scattering the believers out from Jerusalem into many other locations.
We see specific mention of Philip both to the north of Jerusalem in Samaria as well as to the south of Jerusalem on the road toward Gaza.
We also see that Paul is headed to Damascus to look for believers there as well when Jesus encounters him, so the church has scattered in a significant way, well beyond Jerusalem to the surrounding areas.
One of the places that we see the believers go is to Antioch, which is the present-day Antakya in the southern part of Turkey, which is more than 400 miles (700 km) to the north of Jerusalem.
As they enter Antioch, we see that as they go and begin to do what they had learned to do in their community in Jerusalem. Initially, they tell other Jews about Jesus, and then some who joined them who originally came from the island of Cyprus, and even all of the way from Cyrene (present-day Shahat, Libya), started to speak with the Gentiles as well. The result was that many people believed and a new church was formed at Antioch.
As the leaders in Jerusalem heard about this new church in Antioch, they sent Barnabas to learn more and help this new church. When he arrives, he realizes that the church needs teaching and discipleship, so he goes to Tarsus and brings back Paul who stays there for a year to teach the people within the church.
At this point, it appears that there are now five main leaders in the church at Antioch. In Acts 13:1, it says that they meet together for fasting, prayer, and worship and the Holy Spirit speaks to them that they should send two of the five – Paul and Barnabas – out to do the work that he has called them to do.
From this narrative within about the start of the church in Antioch, I think that there are a few things that we could learn.
First, God seems to have used the persecution of the church to send the people out beyond Jerusalem. As Stephen is killed, persecution breaks out and the people who are following Jesus are running for their lives.
It is interesting that this is the first time that we see the church outside of Jerusalem. Prior to leaving, Jesus told the disciples that they would be his witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
But now, approximately three years after Jesus has returned to heaven, we don’t yet see evidence that word about him has gone out beyond Jerusalem, and so we see that as persecution comes from the Jewish leaders, God uses this persecution to send out his disciples just as Jesus had said.
As a side note, but definitely connected to this idea, a friend recently told me an interesting way to think about how God uses persecution. He said, “You know, if the church doesn’t do Acts 1:8, it will get Acts 8:1.” Of course, this begins to touch on a theology of persecution, which I intend to think and write about in the future, but for now, I think it is fair to say, at the least, that God will even use persecution to accomplish his purposes.
I think the second lesson is that the church is intended to be senders of those who will go out on mission to share with others in new areas about Jesus and start new churches. In the case of Antioch, we see that all of the leaders were listening to the Holy Spirit together, hearing that God had work for Paul and Barnabas to do.
The Antioch church started with the practice of the believers from Jerusalem reaching Jews and Gentiles in Antioch and forming a church, so from the beginning, we see the church initially formed as a missional outworking of the people from the church of Jerusalem, even if they were sent out as a result of persecution. As a result, I am sure that they can see the value in creating new outposts, new groups of believers outside of their current community.
Subsequently, through the teaching that Paul brings to the church, and through listening to the Holy Spirit, the leadership of the church as a whole understands that they are to continue what God started with them, now sending out new missionaries in Paul and Barnabas to continue to spread the message and see new communities started in new areas. God, therefore, desires to use the existing churches to start new churches.
Throughout the scriptures, whether in Jesus’s teachings, in the first church, or in the subsequent efforts from the apostle Paul, we can see that discipleship of Jesus leads to starting churches.
If we return to see how Jesus taught his disciples in the parable of the sower, we see that the parable ends with a harvest, or a gathering of the ripened grain. Jesus said:
“This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.”
Mark 4:26-29
In this parable, we see a picture of sowing seed (sharing the word of God, or the Gospel), then the new plant growing (discipleship), and then finally a harvest. It is this final part of gathering a harvest that I believe points us in the direction of seeing new churches planted.
At a later time, Jesus told Peter that he was the rock upon which he would build his church.
And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.
Matthew 16:18
It is clear, then, that Jesus intends to build a church and Peter is the disciple from which Jesus intends to start this process and build from.
Is this what we see happen? The simple answer is Yes. We even see that the church begins with Peter’s preaching after the disciples had been filled by the Holy Spirit.
Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”
With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.
Acts 2:38-41
Jesus was aiming in the direction of starting and building his church from these disciples, and that is what we see continued as the disciples continue to move forward in their ministry, carrying on from what they learned from Jesus.
If we skip forward in the book of Acts, I believe that we continue to see a similar pattern. Following the stoning of Stephen in Acts 7, we see that the people of the church in Jerusalem are scattered as persecution breaks out among the believers. At this time, the only ones that didn’t leave Jerusalem were the original apostles, but the rest of the people are now carrying on the movement into Judea, Samaria, and beyond.
Picking up the story in Acts 11, we see that some of the believers are sharing the Gospel among the Jews, and some, following the example of Peter, begin sharing among the Gentiles as well. Many of these people believe, so we see that the leaders bring in Barnabas and Saul who will teach and disciple the people and form a church now in Antioch as a result.
Moving on further to Acts 13, we see that the church in Antioch, inspired by the Holy Spirit, sends out Saul (Paul) and Barnabas for a new work. This new work, as we will see, is to go into new places, and establish new communities of believers, new churches, where the Gospel has not been shared. I’ve previously written on how Paul and Barnabas entered these new places and then went on to make disciples among these new believers.
Now, Paul and Barnabas have finished this first journey through the Galatian area and they are ready to return home to Antioch. But before they do, they need to affirm leaders within these communities and firmly establish the churches. So they return back to each of these communities and set them in place to be a light within their own communities:
Then they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,” they said. Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord, in whom they had put their trust.
Acts 14:21-23
So we see that Paul’s practice, following evangelism and discipleship, is to gather the community together and establish churches, presumably according to a pattern that was established prior to Paul being commissioned to go and do his missional work.
In Acts, we see that Paul took two more missional trips prior to being arrested in Jerusalem and taken to Rome. In the third trip, Paul seems to change his strategy and begins to train some of the leaders that have been raised up from within the churches that have been started.
In Acts 19, we find Paul in Ephesus where he takes the disciples that he has made and begins teaching them over a period of two years:
Paul entered the synagogue and spoke boldly there for three months, arguing persuasively about the kingdom of God. But some of them became obstinate; they refused to believe and publicly maligned the Way. So Paul left them. He took the disciples with him and had discussions daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. This went on for two years, so that all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord.
Acts 19:8-10
Here, we see that there is an amazing outcome from this time of teaching and training. All of the Jews and Greeks in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord. Awesome! But there is something further here that isn’t listed directly within this passage. We also see, although not directly within this passage but in other scriptures, a series of churches are established. These are churches in areas where we have no evidence that Paul ever went:
How were these churches established? I think it is reasonable to believe that these disciples that Paul taught not only shared the word of the Lord, but went on to establish these churches, following the same pattern that Paul followed, which was the same pattern that the believers followed before him in Antioch, who followed the pattern set by the apostles, who fulfilled the teaching that Jesus taught. As a result, I believe that the Biblical pattern is to not only evangelize and make disciples, but to establish new churches as communities of believers who will be the representation and body of Christ in this area.
It has been interesting to realize, once again, how true it is that words have specific meanings, yet depending on your experience, a particular word may have one meaning to one person, and a very different meaning to someone else.
I have seen this to be true as I have talked about the word “church” with the people around me. To many, this might mean a particular building that you go to for worship, or especially here in Italy, it might mean the Catholic church based in the Vatican in Rome. To others, it might mean a specific way of worshiping that requires a specific tradition.
Over the last several weeks, I have been writing a few posts on what I have seen as a Biblical roadmap for starting new churches, so I thought that it might be helpful to talk about what I mean when I say the word “church”.
My intent here is not to go into a lot of background definition of what the church is and what it is not. This can be important to think about, and I would definitely encourage us to go and read some articles to help provide this background. Here are a few that might help:
Instead of these definitions, I would like to take one step further and talk about what we mean when we say “church”, practically speaking. In other words, what is happening? In our case, the model comes from the description of the first community of believers after the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples in the book of Acts in chapter 2.
“Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.”
When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”
Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”
With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
Acts 2:36-47
So, what are the main elements that we see within this newly formed community?
Repentance and Baptism – Initially, following Peter’s proclamation of Jesus as the Messiah, the people repented of their sin and believed in Jesus as the Christ. This becomes the entrance into the community, a sign of a new believer.
Next, it says that they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, so here we see that there was Leadership within the community of believers. Given that this is the first community of believers ever, the apostles are doing the leading. However, in the future, and in other expressions of the church, we see additional roles of leadership. For now, in summary, I see these:
Teaching the Word of God – Acts 2 continues by saying that the people devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching. They heard directly from Jesus, who himself routinely quoted the Old Testament, so the apostles would be teaching the Word of God to the people in this new church.
Love and Fellowship – In fellowship, the people stayed together in community, united with one another around their belief in Christ and their newly-found understanding of him as the Messiah, encouraging one another to continue to grow in Christ.
Eating together / Lord’s Supper – It says that the believers broke bread together. We can assume that this means, at least in part, that the disciples were following Jesus’s command to remember his sacrifice by taking the Lord’s Supper together, receiving the bread as a remembrance and symbol of his broken body, and taking the wine as a sign of the new covenant in Jesus’s blood. Of course, these were probably not the only times they were eating together as they were also fellowshipping together and spending time together, so I think we can also assume that they were simply also having meals together as well.
Prayer – As a core component of the church, the believers continued to call out to God, speaking with him and hearing from him directly.
Signs and wonders through the Spirit – Acts 2:43 says that the apostles were performing signs and wonders. We know that the apostles received the Holy Spirit, so we see that the Spirit continued to move within the context of the church, performing signs and wonders to confirm the truth of the Word and the validity of the mission of the community.
Generosity and Giving – Within this community, they said that they had everything in common. It says that they even sold possessions to help those that were in need. We see a sacrificial use of money to help others.
Praise and Worship – We see that the community met together corporately for worship. In their case, this new church did this both in homes as well as within the temple courts.
Evangelism – The initial baptism of 3,000 people wasn’t the end of the outreach that the community would do. Instead, people were being reached and baptized on a daily basis.
As we think about the minimum requirements for the Biblical community, a church, this is what we mean. If we are missing elements noted above, we may be in community and may even call the community a church, but we are working to teach and act upon the need for these elements within the community.
There is a good video that briefly illustrates this new community of believers within Acts here:
In the community of believers outlined in Acts 2, we see that there are several components of the community that happen outside of the meeting of the church. But the meeting of the church is also an important component.
Strategically-speaking, given that we are attempting to equip new believers to also be able to lead a meeting, we use a tool called the 3/3rds Group. Below is a video that we created to help describe the 3/3rds Group. Note that we use the same structure for non-believers Bible study as well as foundational discipleship, so the video addresses these scenarios as well.
The advantages of using this type of structure include:
Our intent in developing churches this way is that it provides a structure that can be used by anyone that we are training to lead others. That said, it is important to note that we are not saying that this is the only way that churches can be led or should be led. There are certainly many parts that we like within this structure, but we certainly affirm a structure of church that effectively implements the elements of the church noted above.
Jesus said that, because he was given all authority on heaven and earth, his disciples should therefore go and make disciples for him among all of the nations. He didn’t call us to go make converts or believers. Instead, he said that we are to go make disciples.
I believe that this is a core component of the Biblical church planting process and what Jesus taught his disciples to do throughout his time of training them to continue the work that he started here on earth.
As I look at this topic, there are a few questions that I would like to try and answer. These are the questions that I’d like to consider:
As I read Mark 3-6, I see a process where Jesus is starting a training process for his disciples. In Mark 3, we see him choose 12 disciples from among the crowd of people. In Mark 4, he moves on to teach them some basic principles about the Kingdom of God. In Mark 5, he takes them out for a first missionary journey, and then in Mark 6, he sends them out to practice for themselves, gaining experience in teaching others the same things that he has been teaching them.
Let’s look at a couple of examples from Jesus’s teaching through parables that I think relate directly to this idea of making disciples. Both of them are within Mark 4 as Jesus is teaching the people and revealing the secrets of the parables to his disciples.
First, look at the parable of the sower that sows seed on four types of soil:
Again Jesus began to teach by the lake. The crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat and sat in it out on the lake, while all the people were along the shore at the water’s edge. He taught them many things by parables, and in his teaching said: “Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times.”
Then Jesus said, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”
Mark 4:1-9
As I read this, I see that there are four types of soil. Jesus later explains that these are different types of people and the seed is like the word of God. Like the different types of soil, the different people receive the word of God in a different way.
Consider this question: How many types of people believed when they heard the word? You might be tempted to say there was only one, just the good soil. However, I think that the answer here is that there were three different soils where the seed initially produced a sprout of a plant, meaning that there were three different types of people that at least initially believed, and maybe even grew for a while.
But I think that we see that in the case of the seed that fell among the rocky soil and the seed that fell among the thorny soil, we see that the believers don’t grow in the way that Jesus is hoping and expecting that they will. They are not the good soil. Instead, the good soil grows and produces a crop. This seed is marked by growth into a mature plant itself and reproduces itself as well. It is clear from the parable that this is the type of growth that Jesus is looking for. Not just belief and initial growth, but instead full maturity that leads to reproduction.
If we move down a little further, we see something similar in the parable of the growing seed. He said:
“This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.”
Mark 4:26-29
Like the previous parable of the four soils, we see a similar pattern in this case. The seed that is being sown is intended to grow fully, to grow into maturity, creating a stalk, a head, and a full kernel. It is even intended to grow, and only then, once the grain is fully ripe and ready, does the farmer bring the sickle and harvest the grain.
In both of these parables, Jesus uses a metaphor of a growing plant, but the implication is clear. Initial sprouting or stunted growth does not fulfill the intent that Jesus has for his disciples. Instead, Jesus is calling for complete growth that will produce a crop, a full harvest. It is a picture of growth, a picture of fully developed discipleship of Jesus.
This is what Jesus teaches his disciples before he sends them out.
Jesus is going to continue the disciples training by giving them some practical experience. He sends them out to do the same things that he has been doing. He gives them authority over evil spirits and then tells them to go out to other villages two-by-two. As he sends them, he says that they are to enter a house and stay there, not moving around.
I’ve wondered why Jesus tells them that they should stay in one place and not move around. Shouldn’t they be focused on spreading the message to as many people as they can? Shouldn’t they be going to all of the houses?
I think that we can get a clearer picture of Jesus’s intent if we look at a similar situation described in Luke:
He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”
Luke 10:2
It is a similar scenario in that Jesus has sent out his disciples. Again, he tells them not to move around after they find a house that will accept them and the message of peace that they bring. But this first command that he gives his disciples is instructive. As he sends the disciples, the first thing that he tells them to do is to Ask for workers. But where are these workers going to come from? Remember that, at this time, there are no other workers. These disciples are the ONLY disciples, so it isn’t like today in that there are more workers from some other place that God can send out. These disciples are asking for workers that can only come from the places that they are going.
I think this fact, that the workers must come from the harvest field, may give us a good clue as to why Jesus tells the disciples to enter a house and stay there. I believe that Jesus intends that the people in this house where they will be staying will become the workers that they are praying for as they start their journey! For that village at least, they are to become the workers that the disciples are praying for as they go out. The disciples are to stay in that house so that they can not only eat and have a place to sleep, but they will, of course, be teaching them the things that they have learned from Jesus, confirming the message by driving out evil spirits and healing people, doing exactly what they have seen Jesus do.
I believe that what Jesus taught in the parables and how he instructed his disciples when he sent them out are related. Jesus is growing his disciples, producing men who will not only believe but will grow to maturity and produce a harvest. And now, Jesus continues teaching them by sending them out to do the same thing with others that he is doing with them. It is all part of the same discipleship process of receiving from Jesus and passing on what they have received to also give it to others.
Directly within the command to make disciples, Jesus gives us some clues about what it means to make disciples. Here is what he said:
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.
Matthew 28:19-20
From this, I see at least three things that I think we should consider:
First, he says that the disciples should be made from all nations. Immediately, Jesus turns our attention from just our own people to that of others around the globe. I believe that this portion of the command actually harkens all of the way back to the blessing of Abraham when God told him that he would be blessed so that he could be a blessing to all nations. Now, Jesus restates this in a different way by saying that the disciples’ disciple-making efforts should take into account people from all nations. In this way, the blessing, just as was promised to Abraham, will be extended to all nations.
Second, he says that we are to baptize them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. There is a beginning point, of course, to the discipleship process. There is a point at which people demonstrate through baptism that they are publicly declaring their repentance and belief in Jesus, but it doesn’t end there, because he continues on to the third part…
At the end of the sentence, Jesus tells the disciples to teach them to obey everything that he has commanded them. Jesus’s disciples are to make more disciples, living the same type of lifestyle and following Jesus in the same way that they were taught. And by the way, given that Jesus commanded them to make disciples, and they are told to teach these new disciples to do everything that he commanded them to do, that means that the new generations of disciples should also make disciples. Therefore, the commands that Jesus gave to his disciples, including that of making disciples, are all commands for those of us who consider ourselves disciples of Jesus yet today.
Jesus said similar things in similar ways at other times as well. For example, one of the most simple statements that he made was when he was teaching his disciples. Very simply at one time, he said:
If you love me, keep my commands.
John 14:15
Yes, Jesus tied our love for him to obedience of the things that he taught.
In addition, he gave his disciples a command that would identify them as his disciples:
A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.
John 13:34-35
So, at the least, from these things that Jesus said, I think that we can say that making disciples means teaching others to obey Jesus and the commands that he gave us and to love one another. In these things, I see that Jesus calls us to action. Not simple thoughts or emotions, but action and movement as we become disciples and make disciples of him as well.