DSMN 500 - B04 Disciple Making in a Healthy Church Paper..pdf

The Pastor in Discipleship……………………………………………………………………….4

Application……………………………………………………………………………………….8

In speaking of the Church, Paul writes:

Here, Paul explains the structure of the Church as it concerns the health of the whole and the

discipleship of individuals within it. First, the undeniable head of the Church is Christ. Without

the head, a body has no function. The same is true of the Church if the head is removed. Second,

the body is held together by the gifts and ministry of each individual part. This is a simple

principle. If each person within the Church is growing in all aspects of Christlikeness, then each

part of the body will be healthy. When each part is healthy, the whole body is naturally healthy as

a unit. Finally, the headship of Christ paired with the health of each member of the body

produces the growth of the whole body together. Therefore, the church, following the leadership

and headship of Christ, grows individually and corporately as it carries out the mission of Christ.

disciple, Peter, would be the rock on which He built His Church. It does not take much reading

and Confidence (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishing Group, 2013), 39.

through the book of Acts to see the beginning of this building of the Church. In Acts 2, Peter

made disciples who made disciples who made disciples and so on.

type of multiplication the early New Testament Church did is due to a wayward focus. The focus

has shifted in modern churches from making disciples to making converts. They write, “We

believe that discipleship should be the core focus for the church.”3 God’s Word agrees, which can

be seen through the metaphor of the Body of Christ above. The Church, as designed by Christ, is

intended to develop a unity as each member grows resulting in the growth of the whole. The

unity that develops is around the mission, which is to make disciples of all nations.

the churches role in the kingdom mission to make disciples? The answer to this question is

simple. Throughout Acts 2, as one traces the narrative of the first body of believers, the role of

the church begins to take shape. The church is designed to provide encouragement, training, and

preparation for believers actively making disciples. This role is accomplished through prayer,

praise, preaching, and fellowship. The church, with unity of mission, corporately prays for

God together for who He is, what He has done, kingdom success, and allowing them to play a

part. (Acts 5:41) Central to the training and preparation for the mission of making disciples is

3 Jim Putman and Bobby Harrington, Discipleshift: Five Steps That Help Your Church to Make Disciples Who Make

Disciples (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2013), 31.

saints for the work of the ministry…” (Ephesians 4:12). Finally, the church is central to Christian

central hub for preparing, growing, encouraging, and sending disciples who make disciples.

other places in the New Testament. For one, the call to make disciples of all nations (Matthew

28:19-20) is just as much a command to the pastor as to the other members of the body of Christ.

Although, more specific to the pastoral role is the biblical guideline, “And He gave…some as

pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of

the body of Christ…” (Ephesians 4:11-12). In the grammatical structure of verse 12, “pastors and

teachers” seems to refer to the same role. This is to emphasize the idea of the teaching shepherd.

Therefore, the primary role of the Pastor, as it pertains to discipleship, is to train and equip the

membership to do that work.

shape. The first picture is inherent in the word Pastor, which means shepherd. Comparing the

pastor to a shepherd provides several illustrations as to how the Pastor equips the saints for

discipleship. The first is that the pastor is to be a leader of the church entrusted to him. As the

leads the sheep, so they do not wander off into danger or separate from the group. In the same

way, the pastor leads the congregation, both individually and corporately. The second is that the

them and speaking to their error according to God’s Word. Finally, the pastor is to care for the

In The Purpose of God: Ephesians, R.C. Sproul speaks to shepherd aspect of pastoring saying,

the context of equipping the saints to make disciples.

Galatians to Colossians, Robert Picirilli writes of this title, “Teacher (Greek didaskalos) is the

more direct name of the office, indicating the “pastor’s” major function.”5 The major function of

the pastor, as it pertains to equipping the congregation to make disciples, is to teach them the

why, what, and how from Scripture. In Matthew 28:19-20, the great commission does not stop at

“make disciples of all nations,” but presses on to “teaching them to observe all that I commanded

you…” The pastor is, in a sense, the first mover in this process, preparing the body to replicate

the process in others. This is accomplished by teaching the biblical principles and exercising the

process as an example.

of that body. The gathered believers have two functions in the process of discipleship. The first

role is, as malleable clay, to be molded and discipled themselves. Paul writes:

Picirilli, First Edition, The Randall House Bible Commentary (Nashville, TN: Randall House Publications, 1988),

suggests that, “Maturity finds its full expression when the believer fulfills their God-given role.”6

While the role Dempsey asserts is in reference to spiritual gifts, the role of every believer is also

to make disciples. Therefore, as the body grow spiritually it is only natural for the body to grow

physically.

function is to, themselves, become multipliers through making disciples. After all, the whole

point of being made a disciple is to bring one to the position that he/she can make more disciples

who make disciples. Jesus’s words in Matthew 28:19-20 were meant to resonate to all believers,

not just pastors and church leaders. The “work of the ministry” that pastors are equipping the

saints for is to go and make disciples. Sproul suggested that, “The Church is to be a mobilized

army.”7 That army is not meant to be a fighting force, but to be a disciple making force.

Discipleship is the primary work of the saints, as both a personal, spiritual endeavor and as a

Peter suggests that to be a good steward of God’s gift to each individual member of the body of

Christ, one must utilize that gift to serve the body. He then offers several examples. If one’s gift

is service, then they should serve above and beyond normal in the strength to serve which only

comes from God. The purpose, no matter what the individual gift, is to bring glory to God

through utilizing that gift to serve the body of Christ.8

these two reasons for the giving of gifts in mind, the role of spiritual gifts in discipleship

becomes clearer. The old adage is “no one is great everything, but everyone is great at

something.” The best way to address the role is by illustration. Consider someone with the clear

gift of evangelism. Basically, every time they share the gospel someone gets saved. Imagine that

hundreds of converts, but discipleship of those converts would likely be an afterthought at best.

Conversely, place that same person in a congregation with a mix of gifts (teaching,

making disciples individually, but, rather, reinforces the individual replication by filling in the

associational mission boards (ABA, not SBC), but our main missions direction is church

planting. We, for the last 2-3 years, have been the sending church and sole partner with a

homegrown missionary to Omaha, NE. The church is six months away from becoming

completely independent. We have been building up another fund in preparation for our next

church plant. I will admit, its a strange dynamic for a traditional type of church, but our body is

dedicated and active in the work in Omaha.

Healthy Church Assessment is out. The church could improve greatly in many of the areas

mentioned in the assessment. A couple that stick out above the rest are evangelism and building

relationships with other churches in the community in order to cast a gospel net over our city. As

to evangelism, the only encouragement on this front comes from preaching. It seems as if the

church would benefit from specific training for and sending of members to share the gospel.

likely due to our church being one of the only American Baptist Churches in the area. For

whatever reason, the older people are somewhat hostile to Southern Baptist churches. Along with