Disciple Makers

In the early church, believers took seriously the Great Commission, and ordinary Christians were disciple-makers. This is evidenced by exponential growth of church during the first 350 years, despite the fact that the church was under immense pressure and persecution was a part of everyday life. In just three and a half centuries, the church grew from a small group to almost 50 million believers. They got two things right: The message and the method. However, as the church entered a new persecution-free paradigm, Christianity became accepted, preferred, and eventually privileged, and Kingdom building was replaced with Empire building. The work of winning people and making disciples was transferred from the members to the clergy, then to the State, and then to the Pope. Along with these shifts, momentum was lost. The church grew through pressure, wars, and conquests, and the persecuted became the persecutors. Even today, Kingdom growth is seen largely as the responsibility of denominations, church leaders, gifted communicators, and mission agencies. The time has come for the church to readopt the message and method introduced by the Lord Jesus, with the message being the true Gospel and the method being disciples making disciples who make disciples. It is time for the responsibility of fulfilling the Great Commission to once again revert to ordinary believers. The Disciple Maker course helps members understand the basics of the Gospel, the church, evangelism, multiplication, discipleship, and disciple-making. It enables them to put these basic teachings into practice to help grow the local church and then to start multiplying churches.