I had lunch yesterday with a good friend, Bob Sears. He presented me with a copy of his new book, "Gold, Silver and Precious Stones". Last night I sat down to read it and was arrested by the following paragraph:
"In 2008, Kenya shocked the world with its violent ethnic conflicts that produced a wave of house burnings and hundreds of thousands of refugees. Stories filled the news of machete-wielding men hacking their neighbors to death for belonging to a different tribe. How could such atrocities occur in a country where over 80% of the population claims to be Christian? Faustin Ntamushobora, who survived the Rwandan genocide and now works to reconcile tribal factions suggested this answer: “African’s are converting to Christianity, but they’re not being taught how to live it. These people are churchgoers, but they’re not disciples of Jesus Christ.” (from “The Biolan”, Spring ’08, p.20)."
Do we really need any more proof that making converts isn't good enough? We were commanded by our Lord to "Go into all the world and make disciples, teaching them to do everything I have commanded".
Can we start making disciples now?
-kg
3 comments:
I was just reading a post at Lionel's blog about the Narrow Path... talking about where Jesus says, "Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of Heaven, but only those who do the will of my father who is in heaven."
Yes, let's make disciples (people who do God's will) instead of Christians (people who use Jesus' name)....
Amen to that.
Discipleship... is to develop the relationship with people and teach them God's commands...
Wouldn't it be great if we could teach Christians to make disciples? My mother-in-law is worried my wife and I are condemning our kids to hell because we don't have them in a church every Sunday morning. To her nothing else matters as much as being in the building once a week.
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