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The Great
Commission
ommis
mis
ssio
s
ssion
sion
o

What’s happened to
discipleship in America
... and how we can
get back on track
 DISCIPLESHIP IN AMERICA

The Great
Commission

By Steve Murrell
36 MinistryToday September // October 2009

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 What’s happened to real discipleship in America
... and how we can get back on track

I
t was a small gathering with a big name. The “World Apostolic Summit.” February 1999.

Singapore. Thirty “apostles” from around the world spent three days answering the

question: What do you feel God is saying to His church?

As usual, I was the youngest in the room and the only one wearing jeans. I was

simultaneously inspired and intimidated as I listened to these spiritual giants talk

about what God was doing in their nations. I felt like a lion in a den of Daniels.

When it was finally my turn to suggest what I felt

the Lord was saying to His church in 1999, I said that “
He was probably saying the same thing He said in
1899, in 1599, in 999 and in 99: “Go and make dis-
ciples.” I wasn't trying to be smart. But sadly, I was the
only one in the room who mentioned anything about
making disciples.
Why do church leaders spend time doing everything
but making disciples? Why do we try every church-
growth gimmick known to mankind, yet ignore the
one strategy Jesus endorsed? Shouldn’t His last mes-
sage be our first option?
Discipleship isn’t supposed to be complicated. Dif-
ficult sometimes, complicated never. Two thousand
years ago, discipleship was so simple that a carpenter
explained it to uneducated fishermen in one sentence:
“Follow me and I will send you out to fish for people”
(Matt. 4:19, TNIV). Those simple fishermen followed,
fished and changed their world. Shhh ... Don’t Say the D-Word
If modern discipleship is confusing or complicated, it Ever wonder why it’s so rare in the modern church to
is because we have strayed from biblical principles and hear leaders talk about discipleship? Or why it’s even
the simple biblical process that Jesus lived and taught more rare to see a leader prioritize discipleship? We’ve
His disciples. Sadly, the fruit of this departure is glar- gathered huge crowds, built massive buildings, pub-
ingly evident today in the United States (see “What’s lished books, recorded CDs, preached on TV and radio,
Going Wrong”). and exerted political power. We’ve had healing revivals,
For Jesus, discipleship was and still is top priority. laughing revivals, crying revivals, repenting revivals,
Yes, He fed the hungry and healed the sick. But He manifestation revivals and offering revivals. We’ve built
always gave the 12 disciples His prime time. His final faith churches, charismatic churches, nondenomina-
word to them before He ascended into heaven was a tional churches, megachurches, cell churches, house
Istockphoto.com/Cimmerian

commission not just to be disciples, but also to make
disciples. Like the original followers of Jesus, we are
supposed to be disciples and we are supposed to make
disciples. In others words, we are supposed to follow
Jesus and we are supposed to help others follow Him.
churches, organic churches and emerging churches.
Yea, we’ve done it all during my 29 years in ministry,
but have we made disciples?
Unfortunately, not very often.
The problem is that although most Christians agree

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 that discipleship is important, even
essential for Christian maturity, few
understand biblical principles and
even fewer apply a biblical process
when it comes to discipleship. We
seem to prefer random acts of minis-
try and call it being led by the Spirit.
Copying methods and models can
often seem easier than understanding
and applying biblical principles and
biblical process. In the never-ending
search for a perfect model, countless
desperate-for-growth leaders copied
David Yonggi Cho’s Korean cell model
in the ’80s, Ralph Neighbor and Law-
rence Kong’s Singaporean model in

Studies prove we’re failing in our discipleship efforts

? the ’90s, only to turn to Rick Warren’s
Purpose-Driven model or Bill John-
son’s miracle model ... or whatever the
latest greatest get-big-quick method
that’s come down the pike.
Despite pockets of progress, many wonderful local stories and sev-
It’s time to stop copying methods
eral dependable models, the American church as a whole is still failing and models, and instead start under-
in the very thing Jesus emphasized most in His final words on earth: standing biblical principles and bibli-
making disciples. Don’t believe it? Here’s a snapshot of the fruits of cal process.
our discipleship efforts: Methods and models are unique to
● Seven out of 10 born-again Christians don’t believe in moral abso-
a particular time and location. Prin-
lutes, while only 10 percent base their moral decision-making on the ciples and process can be applied in
principles taught in the Bible. every ministry context, at any time
● 59 percent of Christians believe that Satan isn't an actual being but and in every nation. They are univer-
simply a symbol of evil, while 58 percent say the Holy Spirit is merely sal. The trick is to understand the
a symbol of God's power or presence. Another 39 percent think Jesus principles and the process. Rather
sinned while on earth. than copying something that worked
● 61 percent of 20-somethings who had been active in a church
at Saddleback or in Korea, why not
discover the same principles that War-
youth group are now spiritually disengaged, while only one-fifth ren and Cho discovered and do the
remained as spiritually active as during their high school years. hard work figuring out how to apply
● Among those raised as Protestants who become unaffiliated with
them in your community?
any denomination or religion, more than half say it's because they
"stopped believing its teachings," while 71 percent "just gradually Simple Steps for Anytime, Anywhere
drifted away from the religion." In addition, almost 40 percent of those No matter what you call it, here’s a
who no longer attend church remain unaffiliated because of their spiri- basic step-by-step discipleship process
tual needs not being met. that was created by applying biblical
● Six out of 10 Christians have shared their faith with a nonbe- discipleship principles. This process
liever in the last year. However, a full two-fifths say they don’t have a is universal and timeless.
responsibility to share their faith with others. Let me reiterate one thing, however:
● 81 percent of the overall Christian population believes spiritual
Discipleship isn’t complicated, but it
can at times be difficult. And the dif-
maturity correlates to "trying hard to follow the rules described in the ficulty lies in applying the following
Bible." And among born-again Christians, only 30 percent mention steps to your specific context—which
having a relationship with Jesus as one of the characteristics of spiri- is ultimately the key to the process’
tual maturity. success.
● Nearly 90 percent of pastors say a lack of spiritual maturity is one
Simply put, here’s how anyone—
of the nation's biggest problems, yet a minority of them believes this young or old, male or female, pastor
isn't the case in their own church. or entrepreneur—can make authentic
(Sources: The Barna Group, Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life) disciples.

38 MinistryToday September // October 2009

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 1. Engage your community and culture.
When Jesus told His original 12
to go and make disciples, they did
not interpret His command to mean,
“Find people who are already follow-
ing Me and help them become bet-
ter followers.” They interpreted His
“great commission” to mean that they
should go and find people who were
not yet followers and help them know
a nd follow Jesus. Eva ngelism a nd
discipleship were not t wo separate
departments in their church. Rather,
evangelism was the beginning of the
discipleship process.
Today too many people see disciple-
ship as a program to help church mem-
bers become better church members.
As long as the evangelism department
does the outreach and the discipleship
department does the discipleship,
both will be ineffective.
The starting line of the disciple-
making process must be evangelism
that engages both our community and
culture. Far too many sermons and
f-Murrell MT S-O 09.indd 39
ministr y methods seem to target a
community and culture that no lon-
ger exists, except in our memories.
The more we do away with outdated
methods in order to engage those liv-
ing around us in a shared culture, the
more effective we will be in evange-
lism and discipleship.
2. Establish spiritual foundations.
While changing planes in Singapore
a few years ago, I noticed a billboard
that underscored the importance of
foundations. On this sign was a huge
picture of the Leaning Tower of Pisa
with the tagline: “Good façade, bad
foundations.”
Only three stories into its construc-
tion in 1173, the Italian bell tower
began to tilt and continued tilting
until it had to be closed in 1990 for
fear that it would topple. After almost
12 years of work and a whopping $25
million in renovations, the tower was
permanently anchored with a 13.5-
foot lean.
Like that infamous tower in Pisa,
many Christians have a good façade
but are dangerously unstable because
of poor foundations. Even the slight-
est temptation sends them crashing to
the ground. On the other hand, Jesus
promised His disciples that storms,
winds and floods would beat against
their lives, but they could survive if
they built their “foundation on the
rock” (Matt 7:24-25).
If we want our disciples to survive
the storms of life, we must help them
establish spiritual foundations. This
essential groundwork includes repen-
tance, faith, water baptism and the
baptism in the Holy Spirit (see Acts
2:38-41). Once these basics are estab-
lished, we need to begin to develop
theological foundations such as eter-
nal judgment and resurrection from
the dead (see Heb. 6).
3. Equip all believers to minister.
Several years ago the church I lead
was in the painful process of equipping
September // October 2009 MinistryToday 39
8/7/09 10:27:42 AM
 a new worship leader named Carlos.
He was a talented singer and musician,
but his first few times in the spotlight
were rough.
After a staff meeting (that didn’t
include Carlos), the head of the wor-
ship department suggested that he
switch Sundays with Carlos the fol-
lowing week since we had a big-shot
foreign guest preacher coming. When
I asked why, he reminded me that the
last time Carlos led worship it was for-
gettable. I said that I was well aware
we were hosting the big-shot Ameri-
can and that Carlos wasn’t our best,
but I did not see any reason to bump
Carlos from the schedule. The discus-
sion ended with me reminding our
entire staff that we weren’t trying to
“ Some had finished Mark, Luke and
impress our guest speaker—in fact, he
had better impress us or he wouldn’t
be invited back.
For me, it’s more important to equip
a worship leader than to have a per-
fect worship service. I knew that if we
rescheduled Carlos, it would shatter
his confidence and set the equipping
process back a few months.
When Sunday came around, Carlos
led and our guest preached. Sure, the
worship was less than average, but
Carlos went on to become a great wor-
ship leader and church planter.
We hear the phrase all the time:
Every member a minister. Yet often,
because of our performance-driven
culture, we have little tolerance for the
40 MinistryToday September // October 2009
f-Murrell MT S-O 09.indd 40
messiness of the equipping process.
We do church as if only professional
ministers should do ministry. The bib-
lical job description for professional
ministers—apostles, prophets, evange-
lists, pastors and teachers—is to equip
the “non-pros” for ministry, then get
out of their way (see Eph. 4:11-12).
Let me ask you a probing question:
Do you spend more time ministering
to people or preparing people to min-
ister? Do you spend more time prepar-
ing sermons to preach or preparing
people to minister? Pastors are called
not just to minister, but also to equip
“God’s people” to minister. When we
forget that, we forget one of the pri-
mary reasons God called us to serve in
the first place.
4. Empower all disciples to make disciples.
Jesus expected a ll of His orig i-
nal disciples to make disciples. He
empowered t hem , k now i ng t he y
would ma ke mista kes. The ca ll to
ma ke disciples (see Matt. 28) was
given to people who were far from per-
fect. They had questioned, disobeyed,
doubted and even denied Jesus.
Too often we act like only full-time
pastors or people who have been
believers forever can make disciples.
But we must not forget it is progress,
not perfection, that qualifies one to
disciple others. Because Jesus expects
all His disciples to make disciples, we
must not only equip them, we must
also empower them.
Equipping w ithout empowering
produces disciples with head knowl-
edge. Empowering without first equip-
ping produces disciples who never
mature.
The church I lead was established
25 years ago in Manila’s inner cit y
after a 30-day summer mission trip
with 65 American university students.
As the time approached for the sum-
mer mission team to return to the
United States, it was my job to equip
the new Filipino “altar counselors”
who would replace the Americans.
The only problem was that they were
all new believers. To build their confi-
dence, I explained that they had been
saved three whole weeks and those
who would respond to the gospel
tonight were newbies, so they were
really spiritual giants comparatively.
We had told all the new believers
to start reading their Bibles in Mark.
John. Others were already in Romans.
A fter su r vey ing the Bible-reading
progress of my 3-week-old disciples,
I simply told them to “stay one chap-
ter ahead” and they would be able to
disciple those who would get saved
tonight—but if the new believers got to
Acts before they did, then they would
become their disciples.
Yea rs later when people ask me
why our church has so many anointed
ministers and mature leaders, I tr y
to explain that it is the fruit of an
empowering church culture.
So what is God saying to His people
in America in 2009? I believe He’s say-
ing the same thing He said to me in
the Philippines in 1999 and 1989, and
the same thing He said to His follow-
ers in Jerusalem 2,000 years ago:
“Go a nd ma ke d isc iples of a l l
nations, baptizing them in the name
of the Father and of the Son and of
the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to
obey everything I have commanded
you” (Matt. 28:19-20, NIV).
S T E V E M U R R E L L is the senior pastor of
Victory in Manila, Philippines, a director of
the Real Life Foundation, and the co-founder
of Every Nation, a worldwide family of
churches and ministries.
8/7/09 10:27:54 AM