I was thinking a lot during my trip to Mexico about the Great Commission. It is usually lumped into missions commissioning services. Something along the lines or, “And Jesus himself said that we are to go into all the world. So we commission you to go to Mexico.” At some point I asked myself why in the world they don’t mention the second part. The part where we are called to make disciples of all men. It really started to get to me. It was like they hadn’t quite figured out how youth mission trips to Mexico fit into the Great Commission, so they use it as much as makes them comfortable, but recognize that the long term effects of short term missions can be minimal. I know it may sound harsh, but those are thoughts I had that led me to thinking about what it means to make disciples of all men. I think it would be at least somewhat valuable to look at how Jesus made disciples. Sometimes we get the wrong picture and it ends up looking like this: (thanks to vintage21.com for this excellent video)
I thought a lot about what Jesus did, and I don’t want to reduce it too much, but I probably have. Essentially, he did the right thing, and he invited other people to live with him. Then, he just kept doing the right thing. When people needed correction he corrected, but it wasn’t really as important as doing the right thing. When they asked questions, he told stories. When he had to, he used words like “Get behind me Satan.” That was just that once though. I think it is often debated what it means to make disciples, and it is better to be debated than to try to make them the way that jesus did in the video. Perry Noble just posted a blog about this very thing, and I think he has at the very least a solid direction. I love that they are doing everything they can to make disciples. That’s way better than just whole heartedly embracing the first part of the Great Commission.