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Making Disciples

We make disciples as a church by imitating Christ’s disciple-making activities.

All evangelical churches say they want to “make disciples,” but few churches go so far as to identify the activities needed to successfully accomplish this mission. What were Jesus’ methods for making disciples? What did the first Christians do in an effort to accomplish the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19)?

Although not necessarily an exhaustive list, the elders of GEBC have identified four activities modeled by Jesus and embraced by the early church that are essential to the disciple-making effort. When looking at the GEBC’s disciple-making Target you will note that each of these four activities is paired with two of the eight attributes of a disciple.

• Proclaiming the Gospel (Romans 10:14)
  We proclaim that salvation is by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ and call all people to live lives of worship.
• Restoring the Broken (Galatians 6:1-2)
  People are restored primarily through their dependence upon the Holy Spirit and a connection in fellowship with other believers.
• Equipping the Believer (Ephesians 4:11-13)
  Believers are equipped through God’s Word for obedience and called to lives of service using their spiritual gifts.
• Sending out Disciples (Matthew 28:18-20)
  Disciples are a people sent out. We are to pursue the lost intentionally and love others selflessly.

The primary purpose of the church is not to make us feel better about ourselves. The church is not a self-help community, aiming simply at empowering us to live lives that are more balanced and more successful. The church’s purpose is not to make us happy, or to entertain us with programming, or to provide a safe community insulated from the harsh realities of the world. The primary purpose of the church is to glorify God by making disciples. This is the single greatest contribution the church can make in this world, and toward that end all of our programming will be driven by at least one of these four activities.