Rationale
Jesus commissioned His disciples to preach the Gospel(good news) that The Kingdom had come and to validate that message by healing the sick, deliver from demons and those that were bound. They were told to make disciples of every nation teaching every thing they had been taught.
The declaration of the Kingdom message with its validation through signs and wonders and miracles, were not only to be performed, but to those who were touched by this ministry encountering the reality of a living God, were to be taught and mentored into this kingdom lifestyle. Further more those new disciples were to in turn do the same as was done to them. They were to disciple others by the same process and into that disciple-making model. In short, Jesus wants us to make self-propagating disciples.
The Church, for 2000 years has not yet completed the job. The rate of disciple-making has no kept pace with the increasing population, even with natural attrition due to death. Compare that with the apostolic church that turned the world upside down, managing to evangelize all of the then known world. In the post-apostolic time, The loss of momentum occurred when Constantine began to institutionalize the Church and a heirachy began to develop in which the believers assumed the role of a laity whose job it was to leave the job of evangelism to highly trained professionals. The Chistian's role changed from one of an active evangelistic, self-propagating disciple, to a passive parishioner whose only job was to be a supporter of the Organizational Church, having professional priests and offices and professional evangelists who gained more members for The Church. Most churches today with minor modifications, have adopted this basic structure. Christians lock themselves in Christian enclaves learning studying, praying and having worship services once or twice a week. Occasionally the Church sponsores a special love outreach of good works to the community and use that to enlist new members who are vital as supporters. You can see how the self-propagating disciple has been enlisted into a pious, passive community.
Where did we deviate from that dynamic disciple that Jesus called into the harvest? The answer is in the model of The Church, it's form a function. A better concept for the Body of Christ is modeled in the way Jesus and his disciples did church as in The Gospels and in the book of the Acts. There is much to be learned from studying its structure and operation, especially when we have a failed model to act as a comparison. We are able to observe and compare the strength and weaknesses of today's Church in light of the apostolic church. One obvious weakness is the need for vast sums of money to pay for a meeting place, whether mortgaged or rented. This need for money drives much of the activity of the church. Very gradually and subtely the focus shifts away from soul-winning discipleship. Much more could be said about this subject, but this is not the prime purpose of this writing, which is to begin to enlist more believers to become self-propagating disciples actively engaged in declaring and demonstrating The Kingdom of God.
In order to have such such active disciples, believers must understand other truths, one of which is The Identity of The believer. This understand will empower the believer's evangelistic walk. Identity will be discussed in another writing.
Pertinent Scriptures
Mark 16:15-18
Luke 9:1-2
Matthew 10:1
Matthew 10:7
1 Cor. 2:1-5
Acts ch 2-4
