My world talks a lot about church-planting. We need more churches in the UK, especially in a number of harder and poorer areas. We don’t talk so much about strengthening churches and growing people to maturity. We need both. This is, of course, one of the reasons why we need to work in teams. Leadership being plural helps us safeguard this both/and.

Much popular preaching in the section of Matthew 28 that we’re taken to calling ‘the Great Commission’ gets my goat. It can amount to an exhortation to get the punters in by any means necessary as though the most important thing we’re doing is introducing new people to Jesus.

Here’s the thing, Jesus tells us to go in all the earth making disciples which he clarifies includes baptising them and teaching them to obey all he commanded.

Our mission is not just starting someone on a journey through the Christian life, it includes the whole of their Christian life too. It is actually our job to help them grow into mature Christians, help them navigate the various things life throws at them, and help them die well if the Lord has not returned.

The Great Commission is as much about teaching and pastoring as it is about evangelism and church-planting.

The Church Angle

To put it another way, we shouldn’t just plant hundreds and hundreds of churches, we should build strong and healthy churches. The assumption I’m making, which is challengeable, is that strong churches grow strong disciples. I suspect that there are things that go under the heading of ‘building strong and healthy churches’ which don’t contribute to growing strong disciples, but I’m defining a strong and healthy church as one that does grow disciples to maturity.

Maturity is the Goal

What we mustn’t do is oppose these two things. It would be tempting for someone like me, whose disposition and gifting tends me towards teaching rather than evangelism, to just try to flip the script. Discipling believers and evangelism shouldn’t be opposed.

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