Discipleship and Church Strategy: What Is Your Focus?

"Then Jesus came near and said to them, 'All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age." -Matthew 28:18-20, HCSB

This is the famous Great Commission passage, which happens to be the exact passage I opened up with my recent post, Discipleship: An Introduction, with. On Tuesday, I continued this series on discipleship, which is at the core of everything the Christian should be doing. Our primary concern should be to make disciples. It is the command Christ gave us to accomplish while waiting for His return (the end of the age).

This also applies to the Church as a whole. The mission of the Church should be discipleship. Not huddle groups and bible classes; discipleship is the job of every believer, not just a few "teachers." Every single Christian is to "go."

I've noticed an interesting thing, though. We almost always leave verse 18 off when we are talking about the Great Commission. If the last command of Christ is so important, why not include all of it? Sure, verse 18 isn't directly a command. However, it may be even more important, as it gives Christ's reasoning for verses 19-20.

The entire reason that Christians share the gospel, lead people to Christ and assist in the convert's journey into discipleship is because Christ has all authority in heaven and on earth. He is the supreme Lord and King over all. Everything we do is to glorify this King. He runs the show, and we lift Him up the whole way.

We can disciple and strategize and teach all day, and never accomplish the Great Commission. You see, if we forget that the entire reason for discipleship and church growth is the glory of our Lord, we are nothing more than a group of pagan idol worshippers, recruiting people to worship ourselves and our ideas.

We keep God and His Word at the center of everything we do, and we especially keep the very focus of God's Word (the gospel) at the forefront of what we are doing. If we remove the bright torch that is the glorious gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ from our focus, we will be left to be devoured by wolves and trip over our own feet in the darkness of this world.

The gospel, and the glory it brings God, is why we disciple. Without the gospel, you are simply leading people down a path of which even you cannot see. If you are leading people without a focus on their salvation in Christ and the glory of God in that, then you are leading people for an eternity away from God. That, my friends, is not a good direction to be headed.

At the Bottom of Your Receipt

I work at Kroger, as I may have mentioned on here before. It can be a joyful experience at times; others, it's a nightmare. The public can drive a man to madness, it's true. And as a member of the retail business, I am assigned a number of seemingly meaningless tasks that I must perform when bagging groceries, running a cash register, or working the customer service desk. One such task is the pushing of the Kroger 1-2-3 Rewards Mastercard.

This card is a credit card offered to Kroger Plus members after they have shopped at their friendly Kroger store a certain, and unknown, number of times. A prompt will pop up on the screen of the cashier's keyboard, reminding the cashier to prompt the customer about this offer. Information about the card is on the bottom of the customer's receipt. There are two ways to present this information:

-Option A: Excited. Passionate. On fire. "By the way, customer, you happen to qualify for a new Kroger 1-2-3 Rewards Mastercard. In addition to having your Kroger card on the back, this card will help you out with your shopping. It allows for an additional five cents off of each gallon when filling up at our Kroger fuel station, which we all need now that gas prices are going up and up, huh? Also, in addition to your normal savings, you can save even more money at Kroger. After accumulating a certain number of points, you will be sent cash voucher checks with rebates of five, ten, even twenty dollars to use in store. After you collect a few of these, which takes very little time, you can bring them into the store and use them to save money on your groceries. Any more information is available at the bottom of your receipt, including how to easily sign up for this card. Thank you for shopping with us here at Kroger, and we hope to see you again."

-Option B: Listless. Uncaring. Forced. "Hey, there's some info about a Kroger Mastercard at the bottom of your receipt. If you're interested, and I'm sure you aren't, it's down there. Thanks."

This forked road of options is one that all cashiers must come to multiple times a shift: do we care enough about this card and this company to legitimatelly try to sell this card, or will we halfway do it? Usually, the latter option is the preferred method of attack. It's easier. It shows less devotion, but more devotion would be weird; who wants to be a Kroger freak? Unfortunately, this very attitude is often carried over to our feelings and methods of sharing God's truth with others.

Think about it: we as Christians typically will take the easy road out when it comes to sharing His Gospel with others. Sometimes that means saying as little as possible to make our conscience feel like we "shared the Gospel." Sometimes it means saying nothing. This is a troubling attitude that many, if not all, Christians must face at some point. Do we really care about His message? Are we too worried about saving face and not being a "God freak" to say anything? Not to mention, it takes work to share! We have to find a way to express our faith in a conversation, make it creative enough to resonate with the person, and find a way to not go overboard. I'm tired thinking about it. Does God really expect us to try as hard as we can to spread His good news?

After Christ drove out demons from him, a man in Luke 8 went crazy for Christ:

"And off he went, proclaiming throughout the town all that Jesus had done for him." -Luke 8:39b, HCSB

This kind of reaction was not uncommon of people who Christ touched. Often times, Christ even had to make sure they didn't tell people what He had done, just so a riot or something wouldn't begin. The disciples of Christ took things even further in Acts:

Pretty soon after Christ's death and resurrection, the local religious leaders in Jerusalem made it illegal to speak of the good news of Christ. This did not deter the disciples; it only made them go stronger. Peter and John were arrested after "provoking the people" with the word of Christ. In the time before they got arrested, many people came to know Christ (Acts 4:4). In Acts 13, we see that the disciples were facing persecution in Antioch (Ant-E-ock) and yet they still shared the Gospel until they were run out of town. So then, in chapter 14, we see them going to Iconium (have fun saying that) and getting run out of town for speaking "in such a way that a way that a great number of both Jews and Greeks believed (Acts 14:1)."

You see, the early Christians were completely enthralled in Christ. He was their life. Everything they did revolved around him. Look at the early church as described in Acts 4:32, where it says "they held everything in common." Clearly, this isn't saying that they have literally everything in common: Peter was a fisherman redneck, and Matthew was a number-cruncher. Guarantee they didn't have the same interests in pastimes. Yet, they had everything in common because Christ was their everything. Everything in their world revolved around Christ and His mission for their lives. If everything in your life revolves around Christ, you have everything in common with another who is equalled as obsessed with Christ. This is a level of passion I desire to obtain. That's the kind of Christ follower I wish so badly to be, and I would venture to say that should be how you want to be, also.

Are you so passionate about Christ that you refuse to take the easy way out of His plan for your life? Are you willing to talk to anyone about the greatness of the Savior of the world, or will you talk about Him as if he were nothing to you? Do you genuinely care about the advancement of the Gospel, or do you genuinely care about the advancement of your coolness?

Countries of the Day, Part Two: Comoros

Note: Colombia was the "Country of the Day" for January 10. However, while I personally prayed for Colombia, my desire was for the blog to be devoted to Anthony Horsman and God only. Therefore, I have combined two countries today, in order to stay with a country every day.

Thank you for bearing with me today as I am now posting my second "Country of the Day" post, and have a "Retro Bible" post to write in a bit. The plan is for these posts, beginning tomorrow, to be written in the morning, and therefore you will be able to ponder them throughout the day. Whether I actually am able to get up early enough to read, pray, and post will be determined.

Comoros is a small group of islands off the coast of southeastern Africa, near Madagascar. The nation has been unstable since 1975, when they became independent from France, having multiple power struggles since. As I said, it is a small group of islands, and therefore it's population reflects this: 773,407. This bears a strong contrast to Colombia, huh? As with the other island groups we have looked at, Comoros appears to be fairly healthy. They even seem to have missed out on the HIV/AIDS epidemic that is killing mainland Africa just a few miles west. They are fairly poor, however, with 60% of the population below the poverty line.

The sad news, as seems to be a consistent theme as we look at these countries, is that this nation doesn't know Christ. Reports from CIA World Factbook say that 98% of Comoros is Sunni Muslim, which isn't surprising, per say, but all the same sad. 2% are Roman Catholic, but that doesn't change that this is heartbreaking. 2% says that, out of nearly a million people in Comoros, only around 15,500 people know Christ. This is a shame, and I bet most of you have never even heard of this nation!

As we continue to crawl through the nations of the world, I hope you realize how urgently American Christians, as well as Christians all over the world, must get their act together and reach out to these people. Every one of the lost people in Comoros, Columbia, China, and every other country I've profiled, and every country in the world is going to Hell if they do not know Christ. There are literally billions of people in this world that do not know Christ and are headed for an eternity of suffering. Church, what are you doing to reach them? There is no time to waste!

God, You are great. We thank you for Your grace, and stand amazed in your presence. And God, we pray first for the people of Comoros. Many of them do not know you, God. They are bowing and praying and fasting for Allah, who is a false God! He, despite what people like to say, is not you! Yet, we as Christians call ourselves followers of You and still sit on our comfy seats in our homes and keep Your Word and Your light hidden. God, we pray that you not only the Christians of Comoros, but that all who call themselves followers of you would bow their knees to You and submit to Your Will. We have been called to tell the nations of Your Name, yet we don't even tell our own. God, strengthen us. Help us do Your work. In Your Son's Name, Amen.