We believe disciple making is the core mission of the church and that C. S. Lewis got it right when he said, “The Church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little Christs. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time. God became Man for no other purpose.”[1] Making “little Christs” is another way of saying “disciple making.”
Being clear with definitions is important, so here’s our definition of disciple making:
Disciple making is entering into relationships to intentionally help people follow Jesus, be changed by Jesus, and join the mission of Jesus.[2]
Although Jesus officially comes onto the scene in the New Testament, disciple making is a common theme throughout the whole Bible. Disciple making was God’s preferred method long before it became the church’s core mission. Let’s start with an important Old Testament passage, where God taught disciple making to parents when he formed the nation of Israel.
The Master Plan for Disciple Making in the Old Testament
While the Old Testament contains many examples of disciple making, one key section in Deuteronomy captures it best. We must not overlook this passage because it is the central passage of Judaism even to this day. When God (through Moses and his disciple, Joshua) led the people of Israel out of Egypt and into the Promised Land, he established a core method for disciple making for families. By this method, the Israelites would learn to love God, know his ways through Scripture, and obey him.
The key verses are from Deuteronomy 6:4–9, and the Israelites deemed them so important that they incorporated the verses into a prayer called the Shema,[3] which they later required to be recited daily and in the synagogue as formative to living a life that both pursues and pleases God. You can think of this passage as the Great Commission before the Great Commission of Jesus in Matthew 28:18–20 (a passage we will explain in greater detail in Chapter 1). This earlier Great Commission offers the core method by which the Old Testament people of Israel made disciples and also offered the relational framework of disciple making that Jesus himself would utilize centuries later when he chose his first disciples. This method is intentional, relational transformation (more on this description below). Notice how the Shema begins:
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” (Deuteronomy 6:4–5, NIV)
“You can think of this passage as the Great Commission before the Great Commission of Jesus in Matthew 28:18–20.”
Moses first announced God as the unifying force behind all of creation and all of human existence—he is one. Allegiance to this one God requires all a person has to offer: we are to love him with our heart, soul, and strength. It is a full-bodied and relentless pursuit to know and love God. It is the core mission of God’s people, Israel, so much so that the nation of Israel derives its name “Israel” from being the people “who strive and wrestle with God” (see Genesis 32:28). God wanted to create for himself a people who would struggle mightily to love him, and through loving him they would disciple their children to know and love him as well.
Passing on the faith to the next generation was so critical to Israel’s budding future that Moses called parents to intentionally and sacrificially spend time relationally discipling and helping their children to know, love, and follow God. Moses then gave specific instructions to parents as the disciple makers of their children:
“These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.” (Deuteronomy 6:6–9, NIV)
“Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road.”
As we see, the one passing on faith must have a relentless and transformative pursuit of God (what we call a “God-life”) as the focus of their living. That person is then to “impress” the God-life upon their children through purposively living out the faith and faith-filled instruction. These instructions show us the pursuit of God was to be the topic of conversation around the house for God’s people as they sat together and along the road as they traveled together. Devotion to God was to be the last thing inputted into a child’s “hard drive” at night and the first thing coming out of their parent’s mouth when the family rebooted again the next morning. A pursuit of God was to be evident at the entrance to the home, through the home’s decor, as well as how they adorned their bodies. Parents were to be intentional, courageous, and conspicuous in their pursuit to know God.
The disciple making commission from Deuteronomy 6 begins with God first calling parents to be disciples themselves—by fully loving him with all of their heart, soul, and strength—and then it calls parents to disciple their children so they too will love God with their heart, soul, and strength.
Notice three key elements God prescribes that apply to parents both then and now:
Intentional.
Parents are to be purposeful and goal-oriented. Their mission is to impress the teachings of God on their children so they too will love God. In God’s estimation, “impressive parents” are not the ones who raise the most accomplished kids, but the ones who impress their own God-life into the moldable clay of their children’s lives. It is a thorough and all-encompassing mission, from the time they “get up,” until the time they “lie down” each day. This intentionality expresses itself by the use of Scripture everywhere—on arms, foreheads, and even the doorframes of their houses. Yes, that is a lot of intentional focus! And, yes, that kind of diligence is necessary to disciple children both then and now.[4]
“That kind of diligence is necessary to disciple children both then and now.”
Relational.
Parents should disciple their children in a relational way and in the normal stuff of life. The text envisions many natural conversations, for example, at home, during walks, in the mornings, and at bedtime. With their minds focused upon the discipling of children, parents constantly use the relational conversations and discussions that come up in life to integrate the teachings of God into their children’s lives.
Transformation.
The end goal of disciple making is to make true disciples. When children grow up with the Deuteronomy 6 disciple making model, they are very likely to grow up as those who love God with all their heart, soul, and strength. They become disciples who leave their homes to establish families of their own, where—following the example of their parents and the teaching of the Shema—they too are equipped to disciple their children, repeating the model generation after generation.
“The end goal of disciple making is to make true disciples.”
A careful examination of Jesus’ life shows how Jesus used this same model when he made disciples as a spiritual parent. He formed his disciples through this intentional, relational process in the normal, everyday course of Jewish life in the first century. Then he commissioned his disciples to go and repeat the process by making disciples of others, doing for others what he had done for them.
“Therefore, go 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 I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19–20, NIV)
[1] C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (San Francisco: Harper Collins, 2001), 199.
[2] RENEW.org Network and Discipleship.org are both national and international disciple making ministries. Bobby serves as the co-founder and point leader of both ministries. RENEW.org’s mission is to “renew the teachings of Jesus to fuel disciple making” and Discipleship.org’s mission is to “champion Jesus-style disciple making.” RENEW.org upholds specific teachings whereas discipleship.org is a broader evangelical network. Both organizations feature some of the same leaders. Both share the same conviction that disciple making is the core mission of the church. Where possible, like this instance, RENEW.org uses definitions that all the many ministry leaders, scholars, and practitioners involved with Discipleship.org vetted out. See https://discipleship.org/about-discipleship-org/.
[3] The word Shema is the Hebrew word for “hear,” which is also the first word of Deuteronomy 6:4. Hearing and passing along these truths were crucial to the future faithfulness of succeeding generations in Israel. These verses from Deuteronomy are the most recited and formative verses in Judaism even to this day.
[4] For more on the Deuteronomy 6 model of disciple making, see Jason Houser, Bobby Harrington, and Chad Harrington, Dedicated: Training Your Children to Trust and Follow Jesus (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2015).
Excerpted from Bobby Harrington and Scott Sager, Disciple Making: The Core Mission of the Church (Renew.org, 2021).
