Making Disciples of Jesus
Jesus gave the church very clear instruction regarding its mission in Matthew 28:18- 19. This passage, often referred to as the Great Commission, says, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that
I have commanded you.” Making disciples includes going and finding new followers of Jesus as well as teaching current followers to actually do what Jesus has commanded us to do. A disciple is committed to becoming like his or her master (Luke 6:40). Our desire and goal is to be like Jesus Christ, or put another way, to be spiritually mature (Eph. 4:11-13). Building Community
The task of making Jesus known and becoming like Him is best done together, not alone. The church is simply a called out community bound together by Jesus Christ and committed to His great mission. Jesus’ desire is that His church would experience the kind of oneness, the kind of unity, the kind of community that He experiences with His Heavenly Father. In John 17, we have the longest recorded prayer of Jesus. In verses 20-26, He prays for us — everyone who would believe as a result of the apostles’ teaching. He only has one request for us; that we would be one, just as He and the Father are one. Jesus lets us know that such unity is so important because it forms a powerful witness to the watching world that Jesus really is who He said He was—the Son of God! If Jesus’ singular request for us was unity, we ought to take that very seriously. At Faith Community Church we truly desire to be family to one another just like God has welcomed us into His family. These two things, making disciples and building community, form the pillars of what this church is all about.
