S. Lance Quinn
God has called pastors to the indispensable task of making disciples. Both the Old and New Testaments mark out discipleship as a requisite part of ministry, not an option. Jesus, the greatest disciple-maker, utilized four reproducible principles in His ministry, which remain equally relevant today. They are prayerful meditation, careful selection, purposeful association, and powerful proclamation. The Scripture never refers to a nondiscipling shepherd; it commends only reproducing pastors.
Biblical instruction about disciple-making dates as far back as Jethro’s counsel to Moses to choose godly men to help him adjudicate the affairs of Israel. Jethro’s own words are,
Now listen to me: I shall give you counsel. . . . You shall select out of all the people able men who fear God, men of truth, those who hate dishonest gain; and you shall place these over them, as leaders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties and of tens. And let them judge the people at all times; and let it be that every major dispute they will bring to you, but every minor dispute they themselves will judge. So it will be easier for you, and they will bear the burden with you. If you do this thing and God so commands you, then you will be able to endure, and all these people also will go to their place in peace (Ex. 18:19, 21–23).
THE MANDATE FOR DISCIPLING
Discipling in the Old Testament
Moses learned well from his father-in-law and told the men of Israel in the wilderness, “How can I alone bear the load and burden of you and your strife? Choose wise and discerning and experienced men from your tribes, and I will appoint them as your heads” (Deut. 1:12–13). Also, what Moses commanded for the effective leadership in the daily affairs of Israel, he saw as the need also for future generations:
And these words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart; and you shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. And you shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates” (Deut. 6:6–9; see 11:18–21; 16:18–20).
Moses instituted a discipling process between fathers and sons (and even grandsons) that would ensure godly leadership in the home and society for God’s people, both then and in the future. Wherever a need exists to discern God’s will in the affairs of men—in the world or home—the clearly prescribed principle is to develop leadership through making disciples.
As an example, Moses did not leave Israel without leadership. He discipled Joshua with the result that “the LORD exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel; so that they revered him, just as they had revered Moses all the days of his life” (Josh. 4:14; see Ex. 24:13; 33:11; Num. 11:28). Moses handed down an administrative principle: reproduce yourself in others so that the leadership of God’s people will continue throughout your generations.
Through the rest of the Old Testament, the same principle was very obvious in the training relationship between Elisha and Elijah (1 Kin. 19:19–21; 2 Kin. 2:3; 3:11) and in that between Baruch and Jeremiah (Jer. 36:26; 43:3). Samuel seemed to have a group of prophets under his oversight too (1 Sam. 10:5–10; 19:20–24).
One suggestion has been that these “individual master-disciple relationships within the leadership of the nation enabled the leadership function to be passed from one leader to the next until God had accomplished his purposes through them to meet the need of his people.”1 The same author has summarized the Old Testament concept of discipleship as follows:
Master-disciple relationships behind the perpetuation and dissemination of the wisdom tradition would be found in informal father-son relationships, in training of elders for making judicial decisions in the city gate, in the wisdom orientation of advisers in the court, and within certain groups who specialized in wisdom and were involved with the recording of wisdom sayings.2
Discipling, whether called that or not, is the heartbeat of wise counsel in the Old Testament: “Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another” (Prov. 27:17).
Discipling in the New Testament
Following these examples from the Old Testament, pastors should keep endeavoring to build themselves into others. This is not just a worthwhile option; it is a mandate from the Word of God!
The mandate from Jesus. Jesus Christ Himself commanded that His disciples (and in turn all who follow in their lineage) make disciples3 of others. Matthew 28:18–20 records that nonnegotiable imperative:4
And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Because of the context, it is possible to say that Christians and disciple-makers are synonymous terms. If all Christians are disciple-makers, how much more should pastors/elders lead the way in doing the same in nurturing disciples toward Christlikeness.5 This is where the relationship of the pastor to other men is crucial. Pastors are to set the example of what it means to disciple men for spiritual leadership. To borrow John’s terminology, “fathers” have the responsibility to disciple “young men,” as young men would “little children” (1 John 2:12–14).
Jesus spoke of the “yoke” of his discipleship: “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my load is light” (Matt. 11:29–30, emphasis added). Elsewhere He said, “I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you” (John 13:15). In exhorting believers in Ephesus to live in righteousness and not as they had lived before, Paul wrote, “You did not learn Christ in this way” (Eph. 4:20, emphasis added). Regarding humility, Paul reminded the Philippians, “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 2:5).
The mandate from John and Peter. Likewise, Peter reminded his readers that they had “been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps” (1 Pet. 2:21, emphasis added). The apostle John instructed that “the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked” (1 John 2:6; see 3:24; 4:13–15; 2 John 9; 3 John 11).
The writer to the Hebrews told his readers to be “imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises” (Heb. 6:12; see 13:7, 9).
The mandate from Paul. Paul also exemplifies the pastor’s mandate to disciple-making. He wrote the Corinthians, “I exhort you therefore, be imitators of me” (1 Cor. 4:16). It was not simply Paul they were to imitate, however, because he later wrote, “Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ” (11:1, emphasis added). Further, he exhorted the Ephesians to “be imitators of God, as beloved children” (Eph. 5:1). He encouraged the brethren in Philippi to “join in following my example, and observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us” (Phil. 3:17). He also told them, “The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things” (4:9). That is why the Thessalonians were such an encouragement to Paul: “You also became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much tribulation with the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia” (1 Thess. 1:6–7; see 2:14; 3:7).
Of course, one of the best-known passages conveying the principle of making disciples, especially for pastors, is 2 Timothy 2:2: “And the things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, these entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.”
Commenting on this verse, Adams has written,
Men who qualify for the work of ministry are men who can keep the gospel torch burning brightly, so that they are able to pass it on (undimmed) to those who follow. . . . The people that Paul has in mind are men who “have what it takes” from God to do the work of the ministry. They are men with the gifts who have learned to use them skillfully in the work of shepherding.6
And they receive much of their skill by being discipled by other godly men. “Paul sees the whole Christian life as a recapitulation of the existence of Jesus and hence as an exercise of what other authors call discipleship.”7 Discipling as a mandate in the church is nowhere better summed up than in Revelation 14:4, where the 144,000 “follow the Lamb wherever He goes.”
The evidence from the Old Testament and the New is clear: All believers, especially pastors/elders and other church leaders, are to make disciples of Jesus Christ. The question is, “What is the best way to implement this mandate?” The answer, of course, is to follow the method employed by Christ Himself!
CHRIST’S METHOD FOR DISCIPLING
The best method for discipling others is that of the Master discipler. Faithful pastors should look to Him to discover a methodology. When they do so, they will discover four key principles followed by Jesus; principles that when applied, will revolutionize their making of disciples. The most succinct expression of those principles is in Mark 3:13–15, “And he went up to the mountain and summoned those whom He Himself wanted, and they came to Him. And He appointed twelve, that they might be with Him, and that He might send them out to preach, and to have authority to cast out the demons.”
Prayerful Meditation
The first principle Jesus used was that of prayerful meditation. Though Mark only says that Jesus “went up to the mountain” (v. 13), Luke 6:12–13 says plainly that “He went off to the mountain to pray, and He spent the whole night in prayer to God. And when day came, He called His disciples to Him.” Somewhere on the west side of the Sea of Galilee, Jesus Christ was praying for the Father’s guidance in choosing His disciples. This was no insignificant task in the life of our Lord. This decision would affect not only the coming age of the church, but also the entire course of history! The suggestion that Jesus, being God in human flesh, did not need to pray (as some have suggested) since He already knew the perfect will of God, questions the very integrity of Jesus Himself. Mark records explicitly that Jesus did pray! He is the God-Man, but He desired to commune with His heavenly Father in order to make a God-honoring choice. The choice was a monumental commitment, and the Lord faithfully bathed His decision in prayer. In his classic, The Example of Jesus Christ, Stalker has written,
We find Him [Jesus] engaged in special prayer just before taking very important steps in life. One of the most important steps He ever took was the selection from among His disciples of the Twelve who were to be His apostles. It was an act on which the whole future of Christianity depended; and what was He doing before it took place? “It came to pass in those days that He went into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God, and, when it was day He called unto Him His disciples, and of them He chose twelve, whom He also named apostles.” It was after this night-long vigil, that He proceeded to the choice which was to be so momentous for Him, and for them, and for all the world. There was another day for which, we are told, He made similar preparation. It was that on which He first informed His disciples that He was to suffer and die. Thus it is evident, that, when Jesus had a day of crisis or difficult duty before Him, He gave Himself specially to prayer. Would it not simplify our difficulties if we attacked them in the same way? It would infinitely increase the intellectual insight with which we try to penetrate a problem and the power of the hand we lay upon duty. The wheels of existence would move far more smoothly and our purposes travel more surely to their aims, if every morning we reviewed beforehand the duties of the day with God.”8
The principle of Christ’s prayerful meditation for the selection of His disciples is obvious. If a pastor is going to fulfill the mandate of the Great Commission, he must prayerfully meditate on choosing those whom he would devote his available time to nurture.9 Whether it is someone whom he personally has led to the Master or a believer who needs further nurturing in the faith, his duty is to pray for that disciple. And if Jesus Christ Himself spent all night in prayer for His disciples, how much more should church leaders? Paul commanded us to pray without ceasing (1 Thess. 5:17), and selecting those for discipleship certainly deserves this unceasing attitude of prayer.
Paul’s encouragement to pray about everything (Phil. 4:6) no doubt must include the discipling of others (see Eph. 6:18). His prayers for his younger associates are numerous in the Pastoral Epistles (see for example, 1 Tim. 1:2; 2:8; 6:21; 2 Tim. 1:2–3; 4:1, 22; Titus 1:4; 3:15).
When Jesus Christ prayed for His own, He set a tremendous example, especially for pastors. He gave His disciples an example by choosing them prayerfully.
Careful Selection
The second principle from Jesus’ example is careful selection, as Mark 3:13 indicates: “[He] summoned those whom He Himself wanted, and they came to Him.”
Historically, Jesus Christ commanded men to follow Him. The pastor committed to discipling others can have three distinct assurances in implementing this process. First, he has the assurance that Christ has commanded those whom He wants for discipleship. In general, Matthew 28:18–20 guarantees the making of disciples, because Christ commanded it, and what He commands, His grace will accomplish. The book of Acts shows clearly that Christ promised the empowering of the Holy Spirit to those who were to make disciples (see for example, Acts 1:8; 4:7–8, 31–33; 6:8). It also shows the result (see for example, 2:41, 47; Acts 6:7; 8:12). This is also a great promise to rest on in the process of making disciples.
Second, those whom Christ summons will be “those whom He Himself” wants (Mark 3:13). This attests to His real sovereignty in salvation and sanctification. Morgan has rightly observed,
This word suggests self-determining sovereignty, choice based upon reason within personality. . . . He was entirely uninfluenced by temporary appeals. No appeal that any man might have made to Him would have influenced Him in the least. No protests of inability that any man might have suggested would have changed His purpose. His choosing was choosing from within, the choosing of His own sovereignty; a choosing therefore in which He assumed all responsibility for what He did.10
It is only by the will of God that anyone becomes a disciple of Christ and that anyone receives discipleship training in Christ (John 1:12–13; 3:6; 6:44, 63, 65, 70; 8:36; 10:3–4, 16; 15:5, 16; 1 John 4:19). Subject to that same sovereignty, spiritual leaders should carefully select and disciple those to whom God chooses to impart eternal life. Just as the apostles led the congregation in selecting servants in Acts 6:1–6, so leaders today must carefully select others to nurture and teach for service in the body of Christ (Eph. 4:11–16). In addition, as Paul instructed Timothy to entrust spiritual truth to faithful men, church leaders should select such men in whom to reproduce spiritual leadership.11
The third assurance a pastor can have in careful selection of prospective disciples is in Mark’s phrase, “and they came to Him” (Mark 3:13). This shows that though discipling is a matter of Christ’s command and sovereignty, obedience will be the result. Likewise, those who respond in obedience to the gospel summons will obviously be the most likely candidates. These will be willing to take up their cross daily (Luke 9:23)12 and will evidence their readiness for discipleship. However, a word of caution is in order. Eims has warned, “Whoever is thinking about or is now involved in a ministry of making disciples . . . should think soberly about this matter of selection. It is much easier to ask a man to come with you than to ask him to leave if you learn, much to your chagrin and sorrow, that you have chosen the wrong man.”13 The chooser must, therefore, be sober and vigilant in his choice. The principle of careful selection was Jesus’ method of identifying men to propagate God’s kingdom. Church leaders must not forget that men, not programs, are the method of Jesus. Eims has cautioned,
I have watched men catch the vision of reaching the world for Christ. I have caught this vision, and have dedicated my life to this grand and glorious aim. But I have seen some men become so goal-oriented that to achieve their goals they roughly shoulder their way past people who need help and encouragement.
But what is our objective? What are our goals? When we all get to heaven it will all be vividly and pointedly clear. We will find only people in heaven. There will be no committee notes, no scholarly papers on intriguing themes, no lengthy studies, memos, or surveys. People are the raw material of heaven. If we become enamored with projects, goals, and achievements, and never lend a hand to people along the way; and if we say, “Doing this will not help me accomplish my objective,” what are we really thinking about? Self! Exactly opposite to the lifestyle of Jesus Christ.14
Similarly, Hull said,
Most Christians believe that men are indeed the method of Jesus, but precious few are willing to invest their lives by putting all their eggs in that one basket. Believing this people-oriented philosophy and practicing it are entirely different matters. A large problem in Christendom is that we don’t want to take the risk or the time to invest in the lives of people, even though this was a fundamental part of Jesus’ ministry. We fear, that the basket is really a trap to ensnare us.15
In his classic work, The Training of The Twelve, Bruce summarized this matter of careful selection:
Why did Jesus choose such men? . . . If He chose rude, unlearned, humble men it was not because He was animated by any petty jealousy of knowledge, culture, or good birth. If any rabbi, rich man, or ruler had been willing to yield himself unreservedly to the service of the kingdom, no objection would have been taken to him on account of his acquirements, possessions, or titles. . . . The truth is, that Jesus was obliged to be content with fishermen, and publicans, and quondam zealots, for apostles. They were the best that could be had. Those who deemed themselves better were too proud to become disciples, and thereby they excluded themselves from what all the world now sees to be the high honor of being the chosen princes of the kingdom. . . . He preferred devoted men who had none of these advantages to undevoted men who had them all. And with good reason; for it mattered little, except in the eyes of contemporary prejudice, what the social position or even the previous history of the twelve had been, provided they were spiritually qualified for the work to which they were called. What tells ultimately is, not what is without a man, but what is within.16
Purposeful Association
Mark told of a third crucial principle for disciplers: spending purposeful time with disciples. Mark 3:14 notes that Jesus “appointed twelve, that they might be with Him.” He said very plainly that Jesus Christ appointed His disciples for the very purpose of being with Him. The Greek text clause, hina ōsin meta autou, could mean, “For the purpose” (or “so,” or even “with the result”) “that they be with Him.” Acts 4:13 later records the fruit of the apostles’ time spent with Christ: “As they [the rulers, elders and scribes] observed the confidence of Peter and John, and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were marveling, and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus” (emphasis added). The time with Jesus was not only for the purpose of growing and learning under His teaching, but for fellowship and refreshment through His modeling and example. On one occasion, after preaching and teaching, Jesus said, “ ‘Come away by yourselves to a lonely place and rest awhile.’ (For there were many people coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat.) And they went away in the boat to a lonely place by themselves” (Mark 6:31–32).
Any effective pastoral ministry will emphasize spending valuable, Christ-honoring time with those who will eventually follow their pastor by entering the ministry. Paul’s heart for Timothy was filled with a desire to have fellowship together in the things of the Lord. He said in 1 Timothy 3:14 that he was “hoping to come to [Timothy] before long.” Then in 2 Timothy 1:4, he said that he was to see Timothy and “be filled with joy.” Paul pleaded with Timothy to “make every effort to come to me soon” (2 Tim. 4:9) and to “make every effort to come before winter” (v. 21). This was not simply a fellowship to meet Paul’s needs, but also a time of mutual refreshment and instruction. Paul had such a bond with his disciples! The following describes the occasion after he had discipled the elders of Ephesus for some years and knew they might not see him again: “When he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all. And they began to weep aloud and embraced Paul, and repeatedly kissed him, grieving especially over the word which he had spoken, that they should see his face no more” (Acts 20:36–38). What pathos between Paul and his men!
The structure of such times spent together is flexible, of course, but the point is this: one cannot truly influence those he does not spend time with. If a pastor is going to reproduce himself in the lives of others, it will result from a purposeful association of spiritual fellowship and biblical nurturing. In another context, Whitney wrote,
If you suddenly realized you had no more time, would you regret how you have spent your time in the past and how you spend it now? The way you have used your time can be a great comfort to you in your last hour. You may not be happy with some of the ways you used your time, but won’t you be pleased then for all the times of Spirit-filled living, for all occasions when you have obeyed Christ? Won’t you be glad then for those parts of your life that you spent in the Scriptures, prayer, worship, evangelism, serving, fasting, etc., for the purpose of becoming more like the One before whom you are about to stand in judgment (John 5:22–29)? What great wisdom there is in living as Jonathan Edwards resolved to live: “Resolved, that I will live so, as I shall wish I had done when I come to die.”17
Hadidian said, “How are you going to use your time, knowledge and ability? Will you use it on that which is temporal or on that which is eternal? How satisfying it will be when we are close to death to know that we are leaving behind other people who, committed to God, His Word and His people, are carrying out the work that we have entrusted to them.”18
Similarly, Bounds has written,
We are constantly on a stretch, if not on a strain, to devise new methods, new plans, new organizations to advance the Church and secure enlargement and efficiency for the gospel. This trend of the day has a tendency to lose sight of the man or sink the man in the plan or organization. God’s plan is to make much of the man, far more of him than of anything else. Men are God’s method. The Church is looking for better methods; God is looking for better men.19
The pastor who is himself spending time with Christ will have a profound discipling influence on the ones he spends time with. As he encourages them to spend time with him in the Word of God, spiritual fruit will abound. This will also result in the accrual of fruit in the people his disciples will ultimately influence. It is impossible to overemphasize the principle of purposeful association. To the degree that a leader and his prospective disciples spend time together and with Christ, he will reap a plentiful harvest of Christlikeness to the glory of God (see Rom. 8:29).
Powerful Proclamation
The final aspect in making disciples is powerful proclamation: “And that He might send them out to preach, and to have authority to cast out the demons” (Mark 3:14–15). As Jesus purposed to spend time with His disciples, so He also purposed for them to go out and preach with authority. The Greek construction in verse 14 (the use of a hina purpose clause) is similar to the previous phrase and shows distinctly that Jesus’ plan was to disciple these men in order to send them out to preach the gospel with power.
The principle for contemporary application is crucial.20 Pastors do not simply spend time with others without that association turning outward. This ultimately is the point of discipleship: their disciples make other disciples, and so on. Discipleship reaches into the domain of darkness and brings people into the kingdom of light; this is the whole purpose of discipleship. As preachers proclaim the powerful gospel, God makes disciples who will in turn proclaim that same powerful gospel to others. The discipling chain continues unbroken until the day of Jesus Christ.
An implicit principle also emerges from the text. Jesus discipled His men to preach with authority. He purposed to teach them about how to preach (kērussein, to “herald” with a commission to proclaim accurately the prescribed message) and to exercise authority (exousian, “power”) in their world. Our calling, too, is to preach and live a righteous life with power in a godless world. Our discipling, then, must include a teaching and an exemplification of how to live the truth in Jesus’ name. No other means is available to manifest such a transformed, Christlike life in an un-Christlike culture. The legacy we leave in and through the lives of others we disciple will be powerful and lasting.
THE DISCIPLE-MAKING IMPERATIVE
This chapter has endeavored to show that discipleship and disciple-making are not an option; they are a clear command from Scripture. One summary of the mandate’s pervasiveness is, “The consensus in the history of the church—ancient and modern—is that the concept of discipleship is apparent everywhere in the New Testament, from Matthew through Revelation.”21
Our role as pastors also demands that we be disciplers. We cannot be pulpiteers who preach at our people but have no involvement in their lives. The process only begins with the proclamation of Scripture. It finds its real fruition across the entire spectrum of the shepherd’s work: feeding, leading, cleaning, bandaging, protecting, nurturing, and every other aspect of a tender shepherd’s loving care. This is the process of discipling.
Jesus said that every disciple, when fully trained, will be just like his teacher (Luke 6:40). That places a very heavy weight of responsibility on the discipler to be like his Master, Jesus Christ. We cannot demand that men and women follow us unless, like Paul, we can confidently say that we are imitators of Christ (1 Cor. 11:1). Certainly any man who falters at this point has no business in the pastorate.
Moreover, any pastor who is not discipling others is abdicating a primary responsibility of his calling. The pastor’s calling is to preach, but he cannot be merely an orator, talking at people but never really ministering to them on a personal level. The pastor is called to exhort and instruct, but he cannot be just a professional counselor, dispensing spiritual wisdom from across a desk and apart from holding people accountable. The pastor must lead, but he cannot become a full-time administrator, bogged down with paperwork and business, forgetting that the church is people.
God has not called us to be professional clergymen; He has called us to be disciple-makers. Paul’s mandate in 2 Timothy 2:2 extends to every leader of the ekklēsia of God: “The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, these entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.” That may be the best one-verse summary of the pastoral role with regard to discipling in all of Scripture.
The real test of every pastor’s mettle is how he does in the arena of personal discipleship. It is there that people get to know him best and see him for who he really is. It is there that he will test his biblical knowledge most thoroughly. It is there that he is most accountable. And it is there, helping others grow more and more Christlike, that he will become more like the Master.