Priority One
Though I have bought into disciple-making as THE ministry of every believer, I was a bit surprised and saddened that I could find so few people who I’ve influenced that had reproduced second, third of more generations of other disciples. You see the purpose of discipleship is to make disciples that make other disciples. Nothing else is sufficient.
Consider this: It took until 1,800 AD for the world’s population to reach 1 billion. In 1910, the population reached 2 billion & by the year 2,000 it was almost 6 billion. Which means that in less than 90 years the world’s population has tripled. Every two seconds 9 babies are born & 3 people die. The net increase is 3 people per second, 10,600 people per hour, 254,000 people per day, 1.8 million per week and 93 million per year. Of the billions of people in the world today, approximately 75% of them do not worship Jesus Christ. Simply adding new converts to the faith will not get the job done! We must have a movement of multiplying disciples just to keep up with the growth of the world’s population.
My question to you is do you have a personal vision for making disciples in YOUR LIFE??? Let me ask it this way: Whom are you intentionally investing in so that they will be ready to reach & invest in others? I am a bit embarrassed to say that I have not done as good a job communicating this vision to everyone I have discipled as I should have. A disciple is to be living out the Greatest Commandment (loving God, self & others) as well as the Great Commission (making other disciples). This is the simplest and clearest definition of what a disciple is.
It is my intention with this article to challenge all of you (and myself) to focus on this task of making disciples above all other ministries. I am convinced that the Great Commission is for everyone. We are responsible for making more disciples who will make disciples of all nations. Seems like I’ve read that somewhere …