BLOG 4.23.19. EVERY BELIEVER’S MANDATE IS TO BE A DISCIPLEMAKER

BLOG 4.23.19. EVERY BELIEVER’S MANDATE IS TO BE A DISCIPLE-MAKER

Jesus’ final mandate, or commission was the goal was to declare God’s new creation to every corner of the human community, and that they were to be the agents of that search-and-rescue mission as each of them did exactly what Jesus himself did: ‘make disciples’. That’s the mandate to every follower of Jesus Christ, … and that’s what took place in the generations that immediately followed his ascension. It was produced the spontaneous growth of the church, so that within a couple of centuries is was a major force in the Roman world.

Look, for-instance, at a profound statement written by the apostle Peter to a group of churches in Asia Minor:

May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge

of God and of Jesus our Lord. His divine power has granted to us

all things that pertain to life and godliness,

through the knowledge of him who has called us

to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us

his precious and very great promises,

so, that through them you may become partakers

of his divine nature, having escaped the

corruption that is in the world

because of sinful desire.  (II Peter 1:2-4)

Marinate your mind in that awesome passage for a few minutes. That is an incredible description of a disciple, a combination of both the knowledge of God-in-Christ, and the divine power incarnating it in people like you and me. But then stop and reflect that such disciples don’t spring up spontaneously and in isolation—they are the product of faithful disciples becoming the vessels of that disciple-making mandate. The church existed primarily in small house gatherings, or in small clandestine communities which were very intimate and all ministered to one another in the often-dangerous context of unfriendly religions, or the hostility of the Roman empire. But everyone was highly self-conscious of the missional essence of their faith, and that faith was contagious. Disciples made other disciples spontaneously by their knowledge and by their incarnating the radical new life-style of God’s new humanity.

Within those small colonies there emerged a natural leadership by those who were the most mature in knowledge and in example. They were the product of faithful disciple-makers. They were, as Peter would say, models of the message to the others. But note: they emerged from within the communities and among people who looked to them for leadership. In the Greek language, they were called presbuteroi (elders), or episcopoi (overseers). But, note: they were home grown where they were in intimate relationship with the disciples for whom they were accountable to Christ, the Chief Shepherd. They had teachers and models of the message, i.e., disciple-makers.

But several centuries down the road, and when the church had become a dominant force in the empire, the emperor Constantine declared himself a convert, and then wanted to bestow on the church all of the accoutrements exhibited in pagan religions, such as sacred meeting places, and vested priests. That was a huge tragedy, and was a major subversion of Christianity. A sacralized priesthood, and sacralized places of worship became a sine qua non of the faith and the wholesome model of leadership emerging from the faithful and knowledgeable practitioners within the community, became a class called clergy (learned ones) who performed the rites, but too often became strangers to the laity. As the church now is in an often-malicious post-Christian culture, I want to be a voice to reclaim the mandate of disciple-maker and dispatch the dominant (and subversive) role of clergy, and reclaim the New Testament role of leadership that emerges within the community, and of disciple-makers..

About rthenderson

Sixty years a pastor-teacher within the Presbyterian Church. Author of several books, the latest of which are a trilogy on missional ecclesiology: ENCHANTED COMMUNITY: JOURNEY INTO THE MYSTERY OF THE CHURCH, then, REFOUNDING THE CHURCH FROM THE UNDERSIDE, then THE CHURCH AND THE RELENTLESS DARKNESS. Previous to this trilogy was A DOOR OF HOPE: SPIRITUAL CONFLICT IN PASTORAL MINISTRY, and SUBVERSIVE JESUS, RADICAL FAITH. I am a native of West Palm Beach, Florida, a graduate of Davidson College, then of Columbia and Westminster Theological Seminaries.
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One Response to BLOG 4.23.19. EVERY BELIEVER’S MANDATE IS TO BE A DISCIPLEMAKER

  1. Jermaine Ladd says:

    I am so glad I know a man who sees the officiating of the church as a major mistake. The church must get back to the basics as recorded in Acts and the epistles.

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