The Reason
The “Great Commission” is also the great failure of the church!
This is the main reason for a church to exist, yet can you name one church that actually makes disciples?
A formal training program in the Word of God? (They are few and far between)
It is the main call to the Church from our Lord and Savior and yet it is the one thing most churches do not do at all!
Most just evangelize, encourage people to accept Christ, make a profession of faith, then they are congratulated, put on the membership role, expected to pay tithes, quickly forgotten, and left to find their faith and figure out spiritual growth things on their own.
Failure to teach, train, mentor, and equip the people
Congregants remain spiritual babies – ignorant of the Word, confused, and immature.
Failure to help people understand what Christianity is really all about often results in many no longer following Christ (Jn 6:60 + 66), plus unable to recognize and fight the enemy, they can often be swept away by false doctrines and even cults.
So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. Eph 4:11-15
Going to church on Sunday and offering a couple adult Sunday school classes, that very few attend, is not discipleship – it is not equipping them to reach maturity.
NOTE:
Everyone is being discipled – either by the church (<5%) or by the world (friends, family, news, social media, universities, culture, and entertainment) (>95%)
The church has failed!
And the devil is discipling the world!
Jesus said:
To the angel of the church in Ephesus write…
Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. Rev 2:4-5
(Most theologians agree that the letters John wrote to the churches in Revelation accurately describe the churches of every age, including today.)
How has the church forsaken its first love?
Jesus said: (many times)
Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. Jn14:23
If you love me, you will obey what I command. Jn 14:15
This is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. II Jn 1:6
This is love for God: to obey his commands. I Jn 5:3
Hence, obedience to God and His Word is the evidence of love.
It has forsaken its first love by not being obedient!
How has the church NOT OBEYED?
It has disobeyed God by not fulfilling the Great Commission and going into the world and making disciples – Go and make disciples. Mat 28:19
It has failed to make disciples!
- It has failed to be about the Father’s business and destroy the works of the devil
- It has failed to be the light that drives out the darkness
- It has promoted false teachings
Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say? Lk 6:46
He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. Jn 14:24
Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. Rev 2:5
To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: I know your deeds; you are neither cold nor hot. How I wish you were one or the other! So because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold, I will vomit you out of My mouth. Rev 3: 15-16
The church and its people today are definitively lukewarm.
Being saved and born again is not the goal, but only the beginning.
Sermons alone don’t make disciples.
The church has kept the people babies.
Woe to those who nurse babies in end times. Mat 24:19
Table of Contents
| The Current (Traditional) Church | The End-Time (Transformed) Church |
|---|---|
| Characteristics | Characteristics |
| The Result | The Result |
| The Reason (this page) | The Reason |
| Read Next: The Effect | The Effect |
| The Future | The Future |
| Curriculum Content (Introduction and Sample) |