Make Disciples - Twos & Threes

Many people are familiar with Ecclesiastes 4:12b which says, "a threefold cord is not quickly broken." (NKJV). 

Have you read the whole passage from verse 9-12? Here is the NLT version: 

“9 Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed.

10 If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble.

11 Likewise, two people lying close together can keep each other warm. But how can one be warm alone?

12 A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken.”

It is interesting how much emphasis is placed on groupings of twos and threes in the Bible. Many times we misinterpret this by assuming that since Jesus is in our midst when two or three are gathered in His Name, then He must surely be even "more" in our midst when there are more than two or three. That is not what Scripture says. It is never two or three or more, it is specifically just two or three.

1. How does this apply to effective disciple making?
2. Would the church better fulfill the Great Commission if emphasis is shifted from weekly services to making disciples in twos and threes?
3. Are there practices in the Bible about church life that can be done in gatherings of twos and threes but not in a bigger setting such as a service?
4. What are these?

Make Disciples

After a mind-skin changing Greenhouse Story 1 with Neil Cole followed by a tremendous time with Jim Yost over breakfast, I am full of faith and hope! Jesus is surely building (or dare I say rebuilding) His Church. Programs, buildings, events are all good but the crux of the matter is to make disciples. We need a radical shift in focus from doing church to making disciples. Jesus simply commanded us to:
1. Go
2. Make disciples
3. Teach them to obey all He had commanded us - the first command being to be baptized. This is why baptism is so important, it is a disciple's first decision and act of obedience to follow Jesus.

Perhaps one of the greatest hindrances to true disciple making and it's inevitable result of church multiplication is the Sunday service! I kid you not. Some studies estimate that 96% of church resources is spent on itself. Think buildings, equipment, staffing, events, etc. Mostly to produce a 2 hour program with a concert and oratory for a "paying" audience with the objective that the viewership will grow the better the show. And what does it create? Hearers and not doers of the Word! The very thing Jesus calls a foolish person. We are so focused on growing attendance we fail to see that our programs are designed to produce couch potatoes instead of branches that bear fruit.

Jesus' ways are not of this world. They are the complete opposite, yet church leadership often looks to emulate the world and it's ways. Imagine if we removed the church "service". Sounds sacrilegious? Truth is the "service" is really a pagan ceremony which crept into the church from AD300, It's effect was to disarm the army of multiplying disciples and turn them into a multitude of lukewarm passive pew warmers. It turned the kingdom of priests back to the priesthood of the ordained and put God back behind a veil in the guise of a stage in a building called "church".

I am not saying services are intrinsically bad, but when they are the main focal point of church, as they often are, the effect is in direct contradiction of the church described in Scripture. The solution is simple - simplify. Let's be obedient and brave enough to lay aside the weight of church tradition that so easily ensnares us and come back to the heart of the Gospel. Jesus said, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 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, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Do we believe Him enough to do it? Or have we been deceived into just being faithful churchgoers which is nothing more than building on sand. Going to "church" is not going to cut it. We must go into all the world and make disciples!

Stay tuned to explore what the Bible shows us about how to make disciples.