July 28, 2023
PART ONE: ARE WE MAKING DISCIPLES OR MEMBERS?
Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshiped him, but they doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:16—20)
Make Disciples
It is called “the primacy effect” and “the recency effect.”
We remember best the beginning and the ending of a story. Writers know this and often place the most important material at the beginning and the end of a narrative. So Jesus’ departing instructions to his disciples in Matthew’s Gospel should garner great attention from us. These are his last spoken words, indeed, the final words of the book. The author is saying: If you don’t remember anything else Jesus said, remember this: “Make disciples as you go through your life.”
Michael Foss, a Lutheran pastor, writes about shifting our churches from a culture of membership to a culture of discipleship (Power Surge: Six Marks of Discipleship for a Changing Church). This might seem a bit unsettling to people like me and many of you who have spent much of our lives seeking to build and then maintain the membership of our churches. Jesus is saying job one for his followers is to be disciples and then make others. Member-making can be seen as a part of that work, but disciple-making is a far more comprehensive project.
I believe membership in a congregation reaps rewards in our own lives and in the life of our community and the broader world. I am not badmouthing membership. In the letters of Paul we see that those followers in closest historical proximity to Jesus quickly organized themselves into local communities of believers. Paul wrote in Ephesians 4 about the life of local congregations and the responsibility membership brings. In the midst of this chapter he writes: “So then, putting away falsehood, let each of you speak the truth with your neighbor, for we are members of one another [4:25].” We will, in a future piece, look at the nuanced differences between “membership” and “being members of one another;” they are not necessarily the same thing.
I wonder if in our attention to membership concerns we have lost sight of the higher calling: making disciples. Member-making and disciple-making are not mutually exclusive. They are not, however, precisely the same thing.
Making Disciples—Our Original Task
Thinking about disciple-making—in distinction from member-making—can help us move forward and find renewed vitality and purpose in our congregations.
In the next few months, I will be writing more on this. Next time we will look at how Jesus models disciple-making in the first conversation he initiates in Matthew’s telling of the story.
I am also interested in what you think. What do you see as the distinctions between member-making and disciple-making? Write me at jkelsey@abc-nys.org. We will sort this out together.
Blessings,
Jim
ABCNYS Executive Minister
