Refocusing on discipleship: The heart of the Great Commission and the hub of all local church ministries

Abstract

Matthew 28:19, 20 captures the Great Commission: “ ‘Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, evento the end of the age.’ ”1 These verses significantly contain three participles and one main verb. “In the Greek, ‘go’—the same as ‘baptizing,’ and ‘teaching’—is a participle. Only the verb ‘make disciples’ is imperative. . . . The main emphasis, then, is on the command to ‘make disciples,’ which in the Greek is one word matheteusate.”2 Unfortunately, it is widely recognized that non-discipleship is the elephant in the Christian church today. Dallas Willard calls this dismal reality the “Great Omission from the ‘Great Commission