![\"together\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nickduffel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/together-1.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nMatthew 28:18-20 contains what has become known as \u201cThe Great Commission:\u201d<\/p>\n
Jesus came and told his disciples,\u00a0\u201cI have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. \u00a0Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations,\u00a0baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Unfortunately, too many Christians and churches think of these verses as \u201cThe Great Suggestion;\u201d\u00a0relegated to missionary presentations and long-forgotten \u201cmission statements.\u201d \u00a0But that is a post for another day.<\/p>\n
Today I\u2019m struck by one particular word of this passage: the word \u201cgo.\u201d \u00a0It literally means, \u201cas you go\u201d in the original Greek.<\/p>\n
So as we live our lives we are to make disciples. \u00a0Our lives are supposed to be lived together, and that togetherness is to amount to discipleship done on purpose. \u00a0Intentional discipleship. \u00a0Lived out together.<\/p>\n
Discipleship is not a program. \u00a0It certainly isn\u2019t a class or a Bible study. \u00a0Those things can feed into discipleship, but not to the same degree of \u201cas you go,\u201d doing-life-together discipleship.<\/p>\n
Leaders, one thing I think this means for us is we need to stop being such loners. \u00a0We know that success without succession is failure, but we still often believe that no one else can do what we do. \u00a0As a result, we lead and people watch.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s not leading.<\/p>\n
Real leadership involves bringing someone else along \u201cas you go.\u201d \u00a0Teach them, share life with them, point them to Jesus. \u00a0This is the essence of discipleship, or mentoring, or whatever you want to call it.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m really bad at this. \u00a0That is why I\u2019m committing to do better in this area. \u00a0Am I preparing to deliver a sermon? \u00a0I can bring others in on the preparation and allow them to leave their fingerprint. \u00a0Am I dreaming about the next project to tackle? \u00a0I don\u2019t have to dream alone. \u00a0Am I visiting a student who is struggling with thoughts of suicide? \u00a0I can model being the hands and feet of Jesus in real-time.<\/p>\n
All by bringing someone along\u2026\u201das I go.\u201d<\/p>\n
Today, \u201cas you go\u201d (and go, and go, and go), make disciples.<\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 Matthew 28:18-20 contains what has become known as \u201cThe Great Commission:\u201d Jesus came and told his disciples,\u00a0\u201cI have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. \u00a0Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations,\u00a0baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples… Read More »As you go… [from the archive]<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7,8],"tags":[42,56,113,114,165,193],"class_list":["post-761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-leadership-2","category-leadership-wednesday","tag-community","tag-discipleship","tag-leaders","tag-leadership","tag-scripture","tag-thoughts-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7EHHr-ch","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nickduffel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nickduffel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nickduffel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nickduffel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nickduffel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nickduffel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nickduffel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nickduffel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nickduffel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}