I believe that every true Christian is called upon to engage in the making of disciples. But I also believe that this does not mean that every true Christian is called upon to become an evangelist or to be a leader, or a teacher of the faith. I think when we personalize these texts to us as individuals we make a huge mistake. The Great Commission was not given to Joe, Jim, Sally or Sue. It was given to the apostles who passed along the story of Jesus, and his teaching, to the next generation so that the gospel would be announced to the whole world. All who now believe the good news, nearly two thousand years after the apostles, are mystically united with this same apostolic community in the one holy catholic church. As a member of Christ’s one church we all (collectively and personally) bear responsibility for the mission of that church. But our gifts differ and our service will never be the same. To promote the idea that very Christian must “make disciples” personally is a great mistake. The reasons are complex but the point I wish to make here is simple: we should cultivate genuine diversity in real unity.

In the late fall of 2009 I began this series on discipleship by suggesting we desperately need to recover a new understanding of discipleship and disciple-making. No term, or what we think of when we hear or use the term, seems to have become more clearly associated with programmatic, cookie-cutter techniques and outcomes.

If the essence of visionary discipleship is seeking new possibilities and developments how are we to respond to actual closed doors? How can we truly hope for something better when things seem so plainly closed up to us? I think we best understand the way imagination actually works to open new doors by examining vision, strategy and structure. When we take this approach we can see a way forward that has real promise and hope.

I have previously demonstrated that God uses our imagination to lead us toward repentance and living faith. The prophets showed us the way this happened in ancient Israel. The principles are still the same, though the times and context is quite different. We follow the spirit of the prophets, as Jesus followers, when we walk in their footsteps and we walk in their footsteps by imitating their bold faithfulness. 

I embarked some weeks ago on a series of articles about discipleship. I am convinced that we have reduced the meaning of this extremely important word to: (1) Learning information from the Bible, or content about faith, and; (2) To relating our lives to the local church and its programs. In the process we have emptied the word disciple of deep meaning and allowed people to profess a faith that does not require them to imagine what can or should be done as radical followers of Jesus Christ.