The Great Commission
I have re-read the Great Commission in Matt 28 recently, and I have some observations about (a) the commission, (b) what we in the church have called "discipleship", and (c) how we often reduce the Commission to less than its full self. First, the Great Commission is as near a complete definition of what it means to be church that you will ever find. "Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all I have commanded." The Commission has three main parts: making disciples, baptizing disciples, and forming disciples. In other words, evangelism, sacrament, and formation. Doesn't this sum up a lot of what the church is about? Second, the Great Commission uses the idea of disciple-making in a different way than most evangelicals do. In Matthew's Gospel, Jesus charges his followers to make disciples... of whom? People from "all nations." Those would be th...