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By: Michael Tao
Disciple making has become a popular Christian movement in the past fifty years. It is an art originated from the Bible, used by Christ, Paul and other apostles, for the purpose of winning souls, stabilizing converts and building up churches. As a matter of fact, all Christians should be disciple makers. However today many "disciple makers" are not following the biblical principles and they bypass the local New Testament church authority. This kind of error can be very devastating.
These modern disciple makers have come out from the Bible seminaries, or from the training of their spiritual leaders, and have claimed to fulfill The Great Commission in Matthew 28:19ff, which is, "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost : Teach them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you : and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world".
What the modern disciple-makers would do is: first of all, recruit a small number of trainees by converting the unbelievers, or by challenging other Christians to follow the Great Commission. This small group of trainees will be ""made disciples"" by their leader, through Bible study, personal devotion, praying, learning the evangelizing skill, and how to be a disciple maker etc. They also believe to have the trainees live with their leader is a biblical pattern, because Christ lived with his twelve disciples, and Paul had Timothy in his missionary trip etc. The home of the leader usually becomes the center of their meeting. When these trainees become more experienced, they then go out to recruit their own trainees. Their theory is if one does not care too much for being a public figure as a pastor; or does not particularly enjoy public speaking; then "disciple making" will be a good alternative to serve God. Basically the trainees that they have recruited are the most faithful, well motivated, and sincere Christians. The teaching from these disciple makers is basically biblical, everyone in that circle think they are doing their best to serve God.
However, are they teaching "all things" as commanded in The Great Commission?
The answer is NO. They are not teaching "all things" as Christ has commanded. First of all, they have undermined the Doctrine of Church.
God ordained three authorities on this earth: Family, Government and Church. God commanded men to submit to these authorities. It is not a choice for us to decide whether we should form a family by marriage or by just living together; when we are citizens of a country, it is not a decision for us to make whether we should abide the law or not; or after we are saved, whether we should join a church or not. It is mandatory that we are to subject to the above authorities.
Authorities can give us protection, keep things in order and also God blesses those who willingly stay under them (Romans 13:2). However the modern disciple makers subtly undermine the authority of church. Recently I read a book about disciple making. In the whole book of twelve chapters, the only place touching anything about church is at the end of a chapter which says : "But the answer to many of these milling masses, who are clamouring for spiritual reality, could be found in a quiet, solid, ongoing program of discipleship training in their local churches. This is the challenge to today's generation". See the subtlety! They do jot deny the existence of the New Testament local churches, they even agree that the disciple making program should be done in the local New Testament church. However they exhort their program above the preaching and the teaching in the churches, implying their program should be the focus of believers. For the experienced warriors in Christianity, we can smell a strong odor of new-evangelicalism: it is not what they say is wrong, it is wrong for them not to say everything.
In the same book, the writer has listed 30 training objectives: Assurance of salvation, The Quiet Time, Victory over Sin, Separation From Sin, Christian fellowship, The Bible, Hearing the Word, Reading the Word, Bible Study, Scripture Memory, Meditation on the Word, Application of the Word, Prayer, Personal Testimony, Lordship of Christ, Faith, Love, The Tongue, Time Management, The Will of God, Obedience, The Holy Spirit, Satan, Dealing with sin, Forgiveness, Second coming of Christ, Witnessing, Fellow up, Giving, World vision. This is a good collection of many useful topics. But where is the CHURCH? Again, it is nothing wrong with these topics, but the motivation to avoid teaching "all things" in the Bible is unacceptable. This is not a coincidence for this writer to skip the doctrine of church, it is because the disciple makers take local church as their potential competitors.
Books on today's disciple making are all very much alike. They cover similar areas, using similar illustrations, the doctrine of church is definitely not one of their priorities.
A number of years ago, I knew a very fine Christian, he has a degree in disciple making from a major Christian university in United States, and I learned many useful things in the Bible from him. One day I asked him which church he was attending. He said wherever he could help, and he was teaching an adult Sunday school class in a church. I was not fully satisfied with his answer, but as a new Christian, I did not know any better. Later I talked to one of his trainees who was also a very sincere and hard-working Christian. However, he was not supportive to the local New Testament called out assembly at all, he said that we ourselves are the temple of God, because we have the Holy Spirit in us. Now that I am more mature in the Lord, and can see what he had told me was a half truth, which was as bad as a lie. We do have the Holy Spirit in us, but this does not mean that we can bypass the local church, which is the God ordained authorities for the believers on earth. The reason that he gave me sounded so convincing, however there is a total absence of any Bible truth. This is more than just his own personal, or his teacher's own personal opinion; it is the general attitude that you can see among the modern disciple makers, they undermine God's churches.
God puts each of his children under a church to serve that church, as a member of our body to serve the body(1 Corinthians 12;11-27). When one of our organs or limbs gives up, we become sick or handicapped. It is not the will of God to have people bypass his ordained authority. The pastor does not want to see some of his sheep swinging back and forth among many churches in the name of serving the Lord, and he really does not know if he can trust and use them or not. This unfaithful attitude jeopardizes the development of a church, just like some parts of a body do not want to remain in the body, and function with the body as a whole. Ephesians 5:27 says : "That he(Christ) might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish", and we have to obey our pastor, in Hebrews 13:17 says, "Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief; for that is unprofitable for you". I am not saying the pastor is infallible, but he is the authority installed by God to lead his congregation and God expects a very high esteem towards him.
Any parachurch organizations, programs, or persons that would affect the congregation's attentiveness, faithfulness and service to their church, taking away the financial support to their own churches, diverting people's loyalty towards their own pastor, is definitely against the Bible. All religious activities outside the domain of the church, no matter how sincere they are, require a close examination to see whether it is God's will and consistent with His Word. Although more things can be accomplished by putting more people and resources together, unless it is within the domain of a local church; it is not God's will. God has his own way and he does not have to use the mighty or the noble (1 Corinthians 1:26).
Churches are undermined by the modern disciple makers due to the conflict of interest. Unless these disciple makers are willing to submit themselves to the local church authority, they would usually take the church as their potential competitor. Churches and pastors should also be aware of these most sincere disciple makers coming from outside. They should be examined as to what they believe, informing them about their errors, according to the Bible. They need to become members of the church, and show maturity and faithfulness to the church, before they can be put into any office(2 Timothy 2:2).
Modern disciple making programs do not fulfill the whole counsel of God (Acts 20:27), unless they are organized and supervised under the leadership of the local New Testament assembly. However it is nothing more than a myth that we have to be discipled by so called spiritual leaders individually so that we can be mature. In Acts 2, when the church grew by thousands daily, how did they give individual attentions? Acts 2:42 says, "And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers". We can see that they were meeting as a church, not disciple making prayer, or Bible study group.
God will provide to meet the needs in the local church when men are doing their part and remaining faithful. The spiritual leader for all Christians is Jesus Christ. We should desire to learn from Him. In the family, the spiritual leader is the head of the family. It is a man's responsibility to guide the spiritual growth of his wife and children. In the church, the pastor or other mature Christians will be our examples, or some Christian ladies if you are a female. I believe group Bible study, prayer groups etc. may have their use, but they can be most harmful to the church unity if they are not carefully operated, and under the supervision of the shepherd. No matter what, the only way to grow in the Lord: is to be attentive to all the church services, study and mediate on the Bible, pray, witness to the unsaved, be faithful in giving and in other services, purify our life style and be sensitive to the Holy Spirit's small voice. A godly mentor certainly would be a good help, particularly at the earlier stage for the new converts, but do not take it out of proportion. A mature Christian is revealed by not how much he knows, but how much he is willing to apply, James 1:22 says, "But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves".
