For centuries the church has been focused on making disciples — individual people who follow Jesus. And while that is good, it misses the full scope of what Jesus actually commanded.
The Great Commission in Matthew 28 uses the Greek word matheteusate — disciple as a verb. The noun being discipled is not a person. It is a nation. "Go and disciple all nations."
We have been content to make disciples IN nations when Jesus said to make disciples OF nations.
That one distinction changes the entire mission.
Teaching Obedience, Not Information
The Matthew Commission says to disciple nations by teaching them to obey everything Jesus commanded — not to teach them about His commands. There is a massive difference.
Teaching someone about the command to heal the sick is one thing. Teaching them how to obey it — going with them, praying together, debriefing what happened, sending them out to pray for 100 more people — that is discipleship.
True knowledge comes from experience. You don't know a jiu-jitsu move because you watched it on video. You know it when you've done it a thousand times. The same is true for every command of Jesus.
The Two Commissions
There are two Great Commissions — and understanding the difference between them changes how you approach the mission entirely.
The Mark Commission is generational — every believer in every generation sharing the good news with as many people as possible. This commission never ends until Jesus returns. Four more people are born every second. The harvest is always growing.
The Matthew Commission is multi-generational — building systems and processes that outlive any individual, like McDonald's. Ray Kroc built a system so replicable that a 15-year-old can run a franchise. Jesus built a discipleship system that should work the same way — you could hand it to any generation, anywhere in the world, and it still works.
The 4 Fields Framework
To reach the all and the every — every person, all the nations — we need to multiply Workers who know four things:
Go
Get out of the building. Every movement starts with someone going to where the people are.
Gospel
Know how to preach the good news of the Kingdom clearly and confidently to anyone.
Grow
Disciple new believers in obedience to everything Jesus commanded.
Gather
Bring those disciples together in multiplying Ekklesias that reproduce themselves.
The Worker Maker Framework
Jesus's first instruction in Luke 10 is to pray for Workers — not souls. He had all His workers with Him and still told them to pray for more. Why? Because Workers come from the harvest, for the harvest.
The fruit-bearing seed in the parable of the four soils — the one that produces 30, 60, 100 fold — that is the Worker. That is who we are looking for.
You know you have found a Worker when they say yes to three things: the messenger, the message, and the mission. Give them something to do immediately. The Gadarene demoniac was sent out the same moment he was set free. He had one story — "I was crazy, Jesus set me free" — and it was enough to reach 10 cities.
Discovery Bible Study
One of the most powerful discipleship tools for reaching people who don't yet follow Jesus is the Discovery Bible Study — a simple three-part structure that works anywhere in the world.
Look Back: What are you thankful for? What challenges are you facing? How did you obey or share since we last met?
Look Up: Read one of the 7 Stories of Hope from the Gospel of John. Ask: What does this say about God? What does it say about people? How would your life change if you put this into practice?
Look Out: Who needs to hear this story? How can we help someone facing a challenge we heard about?
Close every DBS the same way: "Are you ready to be part of God's family to help people the way Jesus did?"
Discipling Nations Through the 7 Mind Molders
In 1975, Loren Cunningham, Bill Bright, and Francis Schaeffer all received the same revelation from God: if you want to disciple a nation, you have to change the way the nation thinks. Culture dictates thought — and seven spheres of influence shape culture in every nation on earth.
- Religion
- Government
- Arts & Entertainment
- Education
- Business
- Media
- Family
The church has largely focused on only one — Religion. The other six have been left to run without Kingdom influence. Discipling nations means finding your sphere, becoming a problem solver in it, and teaching that sphere to live by the commands of Jesus — even if you never use Christian language to do it.