"Making disciples?

Making Disciples?

The purpose of these articles is self-examination. Self-examination is a painful process, but a necessary one. The Apostle Paul recommended self examination. Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test! 2 Corinthians 13:5 ESV An important part of being in the faith is making disciples.

It seems to me when Jesus gave the command to go and make disciple, Matthew 28:18-20 and Mark 16:15,16 he meant that as a matter of first importance. First and foremost it was the job of the Apostles to make disciples. To seek out the lost and lead them to salvation in Jesus. That is job one for us today. But, sometimes our energies are focused so much on policing one another that we forget to go and make disciples. I think many of our young people wonder where things went wrong.

Church doctrine and discipline are acutely important and should never be ignored. But sometimes I wonder if we over step our bounds and make it our business to police the brotherhood. There are those in the church that appear to work full-time at this. Sometimes we get so inwardly focused we forget that there are still those that are lost out there in the world. I think many of our young people wonder, what happened to our call to make disciples for Christ?

Is it perhaps time we got busy on soul seeking missions, rather than fault finding missions? Congregations of the Lord's church have ceased to exist because of arguing and the lack of evangelism. When we think on such things it becomes obvious that something needs to change.

Imagine what its like to be new to the church or to grow up in the church and see constant criticism of members of the Lord's body. This one is wrong, or that one is wrong while teaching new converts and those that grow up in the church that they are experiencing the true church. What must they think?

Is it possible that we as older disciples are displaying “behaviors” that drive our young people away?

© 2014 Leo J. Woodman

"Jesus modeled in the church"

Jesus modeled in the church

I think people are searching for the real church, the one they read about in the Bible. They want to see the sincere love and faithfulness that they find in the scriptures. They want to have true fellowship with God and his children. They want to see examples of true discipleship. They want to see true unity in the body. They want to be involved in the cause of Christ. They want to be on mission for God. They want to see Jesus modeled in the church.

We are called to be disciples of Jesus, not Peter or Paul, not Stone or Campbell but disciples of the Son of God. We must learn from Jesus. We must emulate him in our lives. Young people coming up in the body of Christ want and need to see Jesus in his body. If they see hypocrisy and in-fighting they see something other than Jesus. Jesus didn't practice such things. If he had, he would not have qualified as our savior. The only people Jesus pointed a finger at was the Pharisees and that was for their hypocrisy. The Pharisees were very devout religious leaders, yet were totally wrong in their approach to teaching and modeling righteousness. They were self-righteous. Jesus is the good teacher, let's adopt his teaching methods. We as members of Christ body are only righteous because he has made us righteous.

Imagine if we as the church, began to teach just what Jesus and his Apostles taught without attacking other groups and pointing out their mistakes. If we would just teach the truth of the scriptures and not point to the errors of other congregations. What good does it do when we have our noses in others business?

We may have great biblical knowledge and yet we may not be using it wisely. Having knowledge alone is not sufficient. As the Apostle Paul said; This “knowledge” puffs up, but love builds up. If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. But if anyone loves God, he is known by God. (1 Cor. 8:1b-3 ESV) Does our method of teaching show our love for God, or our love of knowledge and being right? What motivates us to teach and how we teach?

Self examination is crucial to healthy relationships. When we see so many young people leaving, we cannot just blame it on them. It certainly is not the Lord's fault. We as the older generation and leaders must look carefully at ourselves and ask some hard questions.


© 2014 Leo J. Woodman