Make Disciples

 

Hello everybody, my name is Dean Davis and this is “A Word of Encouragement for Village Church Planters.”  

As a Village Church Planter, you are quite familiar with Jesus last command to go and make disciples of all nations. In fact, one of the reasons you became a church planter was because you wanted to obey Jesus by making disciples and by starting churches full of disciples.

The New VCP Program emphasizes that a disciple is an obedient follower of Jesus.  Your training is organized around obeying the seven Basic Commands of Christ and teaching others to obey them as well.  So you have prayed for the village where you are planting a church.  You have made new friends and shared the Good News. You have invited people to repent and put their trust in Christ. I can’t tell you how proud I am of all that you have done.  You are on a good path.  Keep up the good work! 

Now you are teaching new believers to be baptized, you are helping them demonstrate love for God and for their neighbors.  In the same way you teach a small child to feed himself with physical food, you are helping these new believers feed spiritually on God’s word and to pray every day. You are making it possible for them to participate in the Lord’s Supper just like Jesus commanded. And you are teaching them to give generously.  Well done!

When I got to this point in my early church planting experience, I was happy.  I really felt like I was making progress.  But I had a hard time trusting new believers to actually make disciples.  They seemed so young.  They seemed to need to grow so much in faith and in understanding of God’s word.  But Jesus said, “Teach them to obey everything that I have commanded you.”  And one thing he commanded was to make disciples.  So as a church planter it was my job to teach new believers to make disciples. I struggled with that task.  And maybe you have too.

For now, let me just encourage you this way. Remember, you are not the only disciple maker in your new, little church. There are church members who will touch lives that you could never reach.  God wants your church to be full of disciple makers. Don’t be afraid.  Don’t worry.  Just pray.  Tell the Lord that you will obey his command.  Tell him that you will teach others to make disciples. Then watch as He opens doors for you to do just that! Trust Him to fill your church with disciple makers.

This has been a word of encouragement for Village Church Planters.  

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