If you have been reading this Word For The Week for long, you have likely noticed my style is to develop a theme, and then from time to time go back to review it before going on. I may say things a little differently, but it is purposeful repetition. Repetition is required for retention, and the more something is repeated, the more it will be retained. What we do not retain we have little possibility of actually doing, and it is by doing that we bear fruit. Our goal is not just to know the will...

        The Great Commission can only be accomplished if we:

1) make disciples, not just converts, and

2) teach them to observe everything that He commanded.

        Where today is this being accomplished? What have we better to do than give ourselves to seeing His commission fulfilled?

        There is no one person, church, or movement that can fulfill the Great Commission alone. We must come together in unity for this to be accomplished. One of the basic things that He has commanded is the unity of His people....

         We have been discussing how The Great Commission is to make disciples, not just converts. Disciples live to learn from their Master, Jesus, and to become like Him. To do this, they daily sit at His feet and then seek to abide in Him all day. These find their place in His body, because we cannot be rightly joined to the Head without also being rightly joined to His body, the church. It is here that we are to be taught, trained, and equipped for our specific purpose, our calling and ministry, which all Christians have....

        As we have covered before, a basic statement of what we’re called to as the body of Christ is found in I Corinthians 1:4-7: “I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, that in everything you were enriched in Him, in all speech and all knowledge, even as the testimony concerning Christ was confirmed in you, so that you are not lacking in any gift….”

         First, “in everything” we are being enriched in Him in “all speech and all knowledge.” The normal Christian life...

         A map will not help us unless we know where we are on the map and where we want to go. Before we can get to where we’re going in fulfilling our purpose, we must first know where we are and where we are going. Then we can easily see the next step.

         Let us briefly consider how future leaders of the church are now being prepared compared to those in the early church. Most seminaries do a good job of laying a foundation of sound doctrine. However, ministry today is built mostly on knowledge...