Do you have the spiritual gift of service? Do you enjoy learning what is in God’s Word, but you are not confident in your ability to teach the Bible to others? Are you more comfortable helping to stack chairs after a fellowship than you are speaking up about how God has been teaching you about grace or forgiveness?
If you answer ‘yes,’ to any or all those questions, you are not alone. When we think about the prime mission of the church, “Go therefore, and make disciples…” you may feel like that cannot include you, because chair stacking does not seem like disciple-making. And in reality, it is not enough to produce a disciple by itself, but it may be a part that is played in the discipleship process. In fact, I would argue that it is a necessary step. If Jesus would wash feet, then surely His followers ought to be willing to stack chairs when needed.
Discipleship in our minds can become this difficult and convoluted idea. But we need to keep it simple. Discipleship is, “helping people know and follow Jesus,” according to Mark Dever. I like that simple definition. We have also used this wording at CHBC, discipleship is the ongoing process where a person is being transformed by the Spirit of God to think and act more like Jesus every day. With those two statements we see both the noun and verb of discipleship. Discipleship is an object and it is an activity. And serving in the church and through the church gets at both.
When the concept of disciple-making comes up we immediately think about one-on-one time spent together intensely pouring over the Bible, answering every question, teaching every concept, and producing a follower of Jesus who is fully equipped and fully prepared for all that life will ever throw at them. Let’s face it. None of us are up to that task.
We need to think of disciple-making as a joint process of the church. The entire church and all its ministries functioning to produce disciples…people who know and follow Jesus. Envision the church like a giant machine with conveyor belts, pulleys, clamps, gears, and sprockets. All these parts are cranking, twisting, turning, and churning. And instead of toys or cars coming out at the end of the conveyor belt, it is disciples that are being produced.
Every member of the church and all their gifts function together, impacting the lives of everyone else. We are helping each other know and follow Jesus. Part of that ministry is one-on-one discipleship meetings, Biblical counseling, teaching Sunday School classes, serving children in AWANA, singing in the choir, leading a mission trip, participating as a member of a committee, gathering in worship, playing corn hole at the church picnic, and yes, stacking chairs when the meetings or fellowships are over. A person who will plug themselves into this machine and allow themselves to move through these gears and pulleys is learning to know and follow Jesus. Because all this activity is developing relationships, creating conversations, and allowing for God’s Word to be discussed and observed through each twist and turn process.
So, in whatever way God has gifted you to serve, your service is helping to make disciples. So, stack chairs to the glory of God. And invite someone else to stack alongside you. You are making a disciple. And so are they.
For further thought, read 1 Corinthians 12.
By His Grace and For His Glory,
Pastor Mark
