Year: 2014

In Matthew 28, Jesus commands us to go and make disciples of all nations.  At SEND we are committed to planting reproducing churches among the unreached because the Church is God’s primary means for making disciples through the ages.  Without discipleship, church planting is reduced to shuffling sheep around and does not bring much glory to God. My concern is that we are often ready to talk about discipleship, but much less ready to actually live it out.  I recently took part in a discipleship course in a local church.  We talked about discipleship and its importance in our lives and I expected that we would somehow start “doing it” but that didn’t really happen in a significant way.  Then I thought that perhaps we would “do it” after we had established a bit more of a foundation, but that did not really happen either.  In a personal conversation, a… Read the whole post

When Paul wrote about his ministry for the church in Colossians 1:24-29 his focus was not on church programs or church services. Rather his focus was “to make the word of God fully known” (Col. 1:25 ESV), “that we may present everyone mature in Christ” (Col. 1:28 ESV). When we focus on buildings and program events our ministry can become more about performance of a few with a rather passive majority. It is possible that being a Christian is equated with attending a church service. Programs aren’t bad, they are essential. But programs without discipleship (making the word of God fully known and pursuing maturity in Christ) will not build the church. Paul saw his ministry for the church as a stewardship from God to make the Word fully known. He proclaimed Christ “warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.” (Col.… Read the whole post