In Discipleship Letter 1, I don’t know why I didn’t comment on the other two aspects of the Great Commission: baptizing and teaching. I guess I wanted to focus on going at the time.
From Discipleship Letter 1 to 118, I think there had been a gradual change in my writings as well as my faith articulation. I don’t think I am able to write what I wrote, for I think about things differently now. Everything happens in time and space. The date, the congregation, each discipleship letter, and the signature point back to the history in which we lived and worshipped together in time and space.
February 17, 2008
Discipleship Letter 1
To the congregation,
The Great Commission (Matt. 28:19-20) has one imperative only—“make disciples.” The three different aspects of making disciples are going, baptizing, and teaching.
“The first of these, going, also relates to the expansive and embracing nature of God’s mission…We may go across the seas; we may go across the street. But there will always be a going—a setting forth from our own place, from our own sphere of comfort—to extend kingdom love to another. The chief model in this is Jesus himself, who left the glory of heaven to bring the good news of the kingdom to us” [Elizabeth Conde-Frazier, S. Steven Kang, and Gary A. Parrett, A Many Colored Kingdom: Multicultural Dynamics for Spiritual Formation (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2004), p. 65.].
Your pastor
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Every church should be a Great Commission church (Matt. 28:19-20). This is a well-known passage. We usually don’t pay much attention to what is familiar. We may even think that it’s part of us because we know it so well. We are easily deceived by familiarity. One day when we see Him, He will ask each one of us, “What did you do with my Great Commission?”
March 2, 2008
Discipleship Letter 2
To the congregation,
Are disciples born or made? If this question is understood correctly, it will affect our view of discipleship.
Are disciples born?
At the moment we confess our sins, receive Christ as our personal Savior and Lord, and believe in his death and resurrection, we are born-again Christians. We inherit all spiritual gifts and Christ-like characters from the Spirit as if they were present in embryo. These characteristics would take time to develop without human effort, for we believe that disciples are born. Generally speaking, when you look around, you see that the quality of a Christian life is not as high as we expect.
"A generous estimate would find no more than 25 percent of evangelicals meeting Christ’s standard for a disciple…At least 75 percent of evangelicals are not Christians, because they just don’t measure up to Christ’s standards of what it means to be a disciple” [Bill Hull, The Disciple-Making Pastor (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2007), 72-73]. Disciples aren’t born.
Disciples are made!
Christian growth and maturity need to be taught and nurtured. A disciple is a follower—Christ’s follower. A disciple is always associated with following. Many believe in Christ, only a few follow him. That’s why Jesus commanded us to make disciples (Matt. 28:19-20) in order to make sure that believers are followers.
As Christ’s disciples, how do we respond to His order?
Your pastor
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