What Keeps You From Your Great Commission?

And Jesus came and said to them, “all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.  And remember I am with you always, to the end of the age.             

Matthew 28:18-20

What Keeps You from Your Great Commission?

Toward the end of Matthew’s Gospel, there exists a famous teaching of Jesus about a central purpose of the church. In it, he also spells out three related tasks included in that purpose.  These were: to go and make disciples, to baptize, & to teach. That sounds simple enough, doesn’t it?

As Anglicans, we’re not bad at the second task, baptizing. After all, crafting beautiful liturgies and administering sacraments are two of our strengths. We’re also not too bad at the third task of teaching, although we sometimes assume that people already know the basics of Christianity, which is increasingly not the case. But it’s really the first task mentioned in the Great Commission that we Anglicans have the most trouble with: go and make disciples.

This first task reminds me a little of an e-mail I once received.  The email directed me to “log into your Portico account and proceed with the steps for registration”. There were several problems with this directive. I didn’t have a Portico account, I didn’t know what a Portico account was, and I had no idea how to get a Portico account. And if I did manage to get one, I was pretty sure that logging in was trickier than it sounded. In other words, there was information missing!

I think that many Christians feel like this about The Great Commission’s directive to “Go and make disciples”.  Is that all the information we get, Jesus? Yes, it sounds simple enough. But how exactly does one do this?

How do we make disciples of people that wouldn’t dream of coming into a church? How do we make disciples of people who are suspicious of institutions in general, and of the Church in particular?

How do we make disciples of people caught on a treadmill of such hectic lives that they barely have time to talk to their spouse and kids about who is going where and doing what, let alone talk about the existence of God, who Jesus is, or whether they can know the love of God for themselves?

How do we make disciples of people who don’t have any interest whatsoever in being disciples? History is full of examples of the wreckage that has come from coercive and manipulative conversions.

“Lord!  There seems to be some information missing here!”

Now, add to this situation the fact that for the past several hundred years ‘making disciples’ was something we Anglicans thought happened in far-off places. We could rely on immigration and our privileged position in Canadian society to keep our churches comfortably full.  We didn’t need to ‘go and make disciples’. Did we? People came to us.

Well, of course, all of that has changed.

But there is something that hasn’t changed; the good news of God’s love for this tired, broken old world, and for our tired, broken old selves. As churches empty and competing spiritualities arise, we find ourselves again hearing Jesus’ command to ‘go and make disciples, baptizing and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you’. How can we respond to this in our present context?

Here are a few suggestions to help you join in the Commission that Jesus has given all of us.

• Begin by praying. Ask God to show you the people in your life who need a word of hope and ask him to give you the right words to say at the right time.
• Next, listen and learn. Who are the people in your neighbourhood? What stories shape their view of the world and themselves? How might the good news of God speak to their challenges, questions, and longings? And if you don’t yet know many non-Christians, join a book club, a Tai Chi class, a running group, a climbing gym, or a photography club. Invite a colleague or a neighbour to meet for a coffee. Build authentic relationships with people outside the church.
• Then, let them know, by your words and deeds, your allegiance as a follower of Jesus. What is the evidence in your life that you follow a different Lord, and a way of life that is life-giving? Let people in your life know why Jesus is worth Look for practical ways to love people. Let them know that you’ll be praying for them. Share honestly about why you pray, read Scripture, and worship. Let them know what you find most compelling about Jesus. Reflect on times when your faith made a difference in your life and the moments when you were especially aware of God’s comfort, correction, or peace. Be ready to share those stories. People are much more ready to hear them than we assume.

Making disciples today happens the same way it has always happened: by God calling people to himself and by Christians sharing the faith with those people.  And although not everyone who hears about Jesus may become disciples, some will, and they will be baptized in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and begin to learn how to live the life of a Christian

The Great Commission is for all of us. And while we may feel that Jesus was a little short on instructions, let’s remember that we can ask him for his guidance. Let’s also remember the most important part of this scripture, the promise that, in all his vast authority, power, and grace, Jesus himself will be right alongside us in this mission, even to the end of the age.