Can a Christian Be Successful at Being a Christian?

Can a Christian Be Successful at Being a Christian?

People often tell me how to make the church more successful. They tell me that it should be exciting and give examples of "stunts" they have seen at other churches. One of these suggestions included a church that rented a circus tent for their Easter services. The message was given by a tight rope walker who sat on a chair high above the crowd and gave his Christian testimony. I asked the person who suggested we try something like that about the man's testimony. "Honestly, " he said, "i don't remember the testimony. I was so scared he was going to fall!"

We have to examine what we are called to do to know if we are successful at doing it. Jesus told us to make disciples of Christ. They should know the Lord, be baptized and obey what He told us to do. It involves evangelism, teaching and modeling how a Christian should act. Each disciple is to make disciples.

Too often people think that the Christian life is one helps the church become like the rest of the world. Their vision of the church is to be an entity that attracts the largest crowds without regard to how they get them there. These are the people who want people in church whether or not they are ever changed. The goal is to get them there and nothing else. 

Wouldn't Jesus have worked on larger and larger crowds if that was all He cared about? People today would have Jesus telling His disciples to get a huge crowd together so that He could perform miracles. Jesus could conjure up a storm on the sea, calm the storm with His voice and walk out onto the water  to deliver His message. He might even invite a few of the crowd to take a chance at walking out on the water to Him. Now, wouldn't that have drawn a crowd?

The transforming power of making disciples is simply not spectacular. It can be done successfully by churches of any size. It can be done by believers in large and small settings. A single disciple maker may have only one disciple. A teacher may have a small or large class of disciples. 

I wonder if making disciples is like the parable of the talents. Maybe we are given our task of making disciples according to our abilities. The one who makes more disciples will have more disciples given to him.

The key is not found in the size of the discipleship group but in the obedience of the one making disciples. Obedience rather than worldly pride is the key to success. 

So, will you be making disciples in 2019? What do you think the Lord is telling you?

Matthew 28:18-20 (ESV) 

18  And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19  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, 20  teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”