No one planted salad!

According to the Word of God, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. By American standards, that sounds pretty dull; we like change. But the Church is the body of Christ; therefore in principle there should be no change from one generation to another. Unfortunately, the Church, like the world in which it exists, is inclined sometimes to be trendy. We can emphasize one thing for a while and then something else for a while. It is not unusual for congregations of believers to follow the trends that other congregations set––even, in some cases, where it is a sect with which they have little in common as far as doctrine and tradition are concerned. We tend to ask, does that approach work for them? If it does, let’s try it. And by “work for them” we mean an increase in numbers of those attending and giving.

There is presently much mention made of discipling, which is a good thing. However, many of us who have been around a while can remember the last time that word invaded the vocabulary of the church a few years ago. It was identified as the “shepherding movement.” Everyone, it seemed, was someone’s disciple, and everyone was discipling someone. Everyone either had a shepherd or was one. Disciples were expected to make decisions, even of the most trivial and personal nature, only after receiving the approval of their “shepherd,” and pastors often became micro-managers of their “disciples’” lives. In fact it was simply an exaggeration–or perhaps a distortion–of some biblical truths. It sprang out of certain elements of the Charismatic movement, but soon found fertile ground in some fundamental and Evangelical churches that would have distanced themselves otherwise from charismatic Christians. Trends do cross the fire-lines that exist between Christian sects.

I mention this because we see the importance of disciple making and the significance of what Jesus said about it in relation to obeying the commission He gave to His disciples. In a recent communication with a dear and respected brother in the Lord, our talk of “discipling” triggered some small concern––he remembered. Although that period of modern church history has pretty much passed, many that remember are saying, “We don’t want to go there again.”

But is that the picture that the phrase “making disciples” should conjure up? I don’t think so. Making disciples is basic. It is what evangelism is all about, it is the object of the local church, and it should be the result of our Christian life-style.

Today, our contemporarily over-used word, especially as regards missions, is “church planting.” The Bible doesn’t say anything about that; it doesn’t have to. That should be the natural outcome of disciple making. But before we get in to a contest of words and phrases, let’s look at some facts.
The great commission that Jesus gave to His disciples was, in essence, go and do over again what I have done to you—make disciples; teach them, in turn, to do it over again. He didn’t say, “Plant churches.” He said, “Make disciples.” The apostle Paul perpetuated the idea by saying, “[teach] faithful men who shall be able to teach others also.” That’s a simple paraphrase of Matthew 28:19,20, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations.” Then they were to baptize them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost and teach them to observe “all things whatsoever I have commanded you.”

A church is like a salad. It contains many ingredients that grow in the garden. Someone planted each of those ingredients, but no one planted salad. The components may be lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes and whatever else the chef may include. Those ingredients which, when joined together make a salad, represent disciples which, when built together, make a church.

The farmer doesn’t plant salad, he plants the vegetables that make up the ingredients list. In like manner we don’t plant churches, we make disciples and Jesus builds His church. He is the chef. We are the planters of the seed that produces the ingredients. The church in any place is the assembling of disciples, and the work of the church is making more disciples.

But disciples of whom? that’s the question. Unlike the example I cited earlier, in which discipling meant bringing people under the control of the would be shepherd, the goal is disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, sheep who will hear His voice and follow Him. This is not a formalized technique whereby we seek to recruit members to our organization or adherents to our cause. The apostles were witnesses of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And those who, in the sound of the apostles’ witness, heard their Lord’s voice became His disciples. Where there were two or three of them who gathered together in the name of the Lord, they were the Church.

The believers in Antioch were simply disciples before they were known as Christians. The church at Philippi was, initially, a lady textile merchant who believed named Lydia, a formerly demon-possessed girl who was delivered and whose name was never divulged, and a jailer, with his family, who heard the Gospel from his incarcerated prisoners.

The very first church in Jerusalem was simply a crowd of people who had suddenly become disciples of the one about whom Peter preached. Although organization became necessary almost immediately because of the logistics of the situation, the point is that the church was simply a number of disciples before it was anything else. As new disciples were born into the kingdom, they were added to the church.

The distinction we are drawing here between “discipling” and “church planting” may be seen as merely philosophical and, at first glance, trivial; but it is important because of the consequences. Time has proven that it is possible to plant “churches” without true disciples, whose vision will often become better buildings, bigger congregations, advantageous affiliations, even, in some cases, denominational competition when as yet the number of believers is so small as to be unnoticed in the national population.

Or we can simply preach the Gospel with the view of making disciples of the Lord Jesus, then teaching those who believe to observe all things that the Lord commanded and trust Him to build His church. Their vision will be to teach faithful men to teach others also, and they are likely to be less hindered by the smallness of their congregation or the lack of buildings or beneficial affiliations.

It is sad sometimes to see believers who are occupied in issues such as denominational disputes, organizational squabbles and carnal trivialities that would virtually disappear if there were any degree of understanding of what it means to be led by the Spirit. While they are deeply involved in these “church” matters they are not conversant with some of the most fundamental truths of the Word. “Church planting” sometimes translates into division, especially if the church is viewed as an organization to which we seek to entice adherents.

Even in our country there are Christians who are appallingly ignorant of what the Word of God teaches about the doctrines they espouse simply because they are the doctrines of the organization to which they are adamantly committed. Sometimes these organizations are cults, or sometimes they may be theologically sound. But in any case, sometimes the emphasis has been on planting the church, not discipling the people.

Of course, none of this is new. Paul had some choice words to say about it when he wrote to the church in Corinth. There were those who would have planted the Apollos church, others the Paul church and the Cephas church. Did Paul say, “That’s great, we need more Paul churches?”

On the contrary: he said, “Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ. Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul? … Let no man glory in men. For all things are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; and ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s.

Of course, it is easier to criticize the church than to fix it. But the apostle Paul was not merely a critic. The people he was admonishing were, for the most part, his own converts. The churches he was faulting were those he had initiated. He was not an adversary, he was a concerned patriarch. As in Paul’s day there is still room for concern about the churches and the view some Christians have of “church.” To them it may be a hospital for spiritually sick people; or a religious organization that is somehow empowered, by virtue of its clergy and its ordinances, to forgive sins and be a doorway to heaven. Perhaps belonging to it provides some kind of virtue or status that sets one apart from the rest of the society. It is something they can stand aside from and point to and expect it to do things that they are not a part of.
But we, as believers, are the responsible ones: responsible to multiply, to be the example, to set the pace, to demonstrate what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. We are the gifted ones from among whom God calls His apostle, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. We are the church. We are to bring forth fruit after our own kind, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever He has commanded us. This is not a formality it is a family. People are to be born into it by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost. When they are saved, they are added to the church––not an organization, but an organism.

This is the fix, saints. It is in our attitude, in our view of the church, in how we see our role and in our view of the great commission. What will I do if I go abroad to the mission field, or if I stay home and labor here? Will I make disciples? Or will I plant churches? If I make strong disciples, strong churches will evolve––He will build them. If my view is to plant churches, it does not necessarily follow that there will be strong disciples.

Strong disciples are not those who have merely impeccably orthodox theology. They are those who also cherish godly character, the fruit of the Spirit, grace, forbearance and longsuffering. They are those who present their bodies a living sacrifice holy, acceptable unto God. They are those whose goal is to be not conformed to this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of their mind that they might manifest the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

When we speak of disciple making, it is not a fad the church is currently entertaining, it is the very heart of the commission Jesus gave us, and that the apostles espoused. Let us be faithful disciples of the Lord Jesus and we will bring forth fruit after our own kind. If they are well taught and have a good example, churches will form and grow and multiply. Jesus will build His church.

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