We all know the Great Commission,

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in^[a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”

Jesus said this to his disciples just before he left as he was preparing them to become the future leaders of the Church. This is still the basic instruction for the Church today. There seems to be a pretty easy distinction between churches that are doing it and churches that aren’t. From a distance, we can look and identify churches that are fulfilling the instruction that God has given us, but it’s probably not some of the barometers that we normally use.

These things don’t necessarily mean that we are fulfilling the great commission:

• Large Sunday attendance
• Large impressive facilities
• Large successful Staffs
• Notoriety from other ministers and speakers

For the next few days I want to take a look at The Great Commission and ask ourselves if we are fulfilling what God has called us to do.

Going

“Therefore GO and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them”

God instructs us to go. How often do we encourage our people to go? There seems to be a lot of encouragement for our people to STAY. In generations past the barometer for how spiritual someone was had to do with how long they served in a church position for example, teaching a class for twenty-five years or singing in the choir for thirty years. Is it possible that we have had people who have spent their whole lives serving a church and have never led a person to Jesus? Is our church model set up to attract people and give them a job to keep them there?

“Do the people in our church know that we want them to go? Do we want them to go?”

What do I mean by GO ? I don’t mean that we want people to leave our churches to go to other churches. I mean that to attend and serve a church is not the end result that God had in mind for his people. If our people do not understand that it’s more important to do something “out there” than it is to “be here” then we are not fulfilling The Great Commission.

I believe [that it is a] pastor’s insecurities [that cause them to] want their people to be developed, but not for their people to be developed enough that they are able [to] survive without the pastor or the church.

At our service yesterday we told our people that on the upcoming weekends, where we are going out to serve our community, “we would rather have them on Saturdays to give than on Sundays to attend. If you’re not going to give up two days a weekend, and you’re only going to come one day…MISS SUNDAY!” We want our people to know that GOING is more important than coming!

Do you spend as much time trying to send people, as you do trying to attract them?

Link to Forward Leadership Blog