March 9, 2020 - I Want Our Team To Be Great!

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations… Matthew 28:19

When you see a “therefore” find out what it is there for… Jesus has just reminded us that He has “all authority in heaven and on earth”; He then gives us this game plan (mission.)

Side note: Mark records the first step in the plan… to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. Mark 16:15

I know I often talk about this game plan, and we all know it… last week I even reminded us that it is wasteful that there are some around us that don’t know about God (See 1 Corinthians 15:34.)

I am sitting in a hotel room in Denver (while on our THEREFORE Tour) and spending time at a retreat designed to mobilize Gospel advancement. One of the speakers shared a story about discipleship, which I will wind things up with in just a moment…

First, let me make some basic observations… just about all churches have some program or plan they label as discipleship… it usually involves organized classes/meetings that are designed to teach doctrine, etc. PLEASE NOTE THAT I AM ALL FOR THIS; BUT IT IS NOT ALL THAT IS NEEDED!

In basketball I always had scheduled times to train my teams; these are called practices… Obviously, practices are needed to develop players in skills and understanding of our plays, etc. And faithfulness to practices is what makes players competent, good players. BUT if you talk to any trainer they will tell you that to be great players and true difference-makers, one must devote more time than just scheduled practices to his game. Greatness is a result of an investment of time…

I often share that true discipleship was modeled by Jesus Himself… basically He said, “Go with me, watch what I do, and then you do it.” Jesus was fully invested in us, to the point of the cross; and He demonstrated that building our team, discipling, requires investment.

Now to the story that was shared… the speaker shared that his pastor crunched some numbers and determined that for us to get the amount of impactful investment time that Jesus had with the apostles (in 3 years) by using our typical church models, it would take at least 30 years… not sure we are invested enough…

Questions our speaker posed: Is there someone invested in you? Are you invested in others?

I want our team to be great!