The Church Has a Discipleship Problem  

What is holding the Church in the global south back from being effectively mobilized for the Great Commission? While many contributing factors could be considered, in this article we bring attention to the neglect of a fundamental Kingdom issue.

The message of embracing the crucified, cross-centered life within our churches. Along with the resulting victory, freedom and ultimate satisfaction experienced as we engage individually and corporately in Jesus’ Great Commission is a vital Kingdom issue.

In essence, the Church has a discipleship problem. It has grossly minimized true discipleship as Jesus defined it. Obedience in mass across the body of Christ to this central issue will result in mobilization within churches as intended in the heart of God.

Understanding Christ Is Messiah

In the book of Mark, we see Jesus’ process of helping the disciples and multitudes understand who He is. In the first eight chapters, Jesus is helping them grasp He is Messiah, the anointed of God, the Son of Man figure prophesied in Daniel 7. He reveals this through speaking with authority, confounding the religious leaders while working great miracles revealing His identity.

In Mark 8:27, at Caesarea Philippi, Jesus asked the disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” Peter responds, “You are the Christ, the Son of Man.” This victorious affirmation of Peter (representing the united viewpoint of the 12 disciples) was precisely what Jesus had been working toward until that point.

What Kind of Messiah?

Yet what type of Messiah would He be? Though the Old Testament prophecies definitively foreshadowed a suffering Messiah, the religious leaders of Jesus’ day downplayed and interpreted these passages away. The predominant idea of Messiah in Jesus’ day was His coming in glory, military power and establishing a physical Kingdom, not as a suffering Messiah.

Immediately following Peter’s enlightened affirmation, Jesus shifted His focus. Before this point, He had not spoken to them about His cross, suffering and resurrection.

“And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected…and be killed and after three days rise again (Mark 8:31).” He repeats these facts two more times in Mark 9:30-32 and Mark 10:32-34, revealing the centrality of this dimension they had to understand.  

Jesus was now preparing His disciples, who He is training to lead the first century Church when He departs, to not only grasp He is Messiah sent from God, but that Messiah must suffer and die to redeem humanity back to God. The rest of the book of Mark from Mark 8:31 on focuses on their journey toward Jerusalem and the emphasis on Jesus’ approaching death and resurrection.

This reality is the hinge of God’s redemptive plan for humanity set forth back in Genesis 3:15 and Genesis 12:1-3. Messiah, sent from God and God in the flesh, must be crowned through suffering and death, taking the place of sinful humanity who will believe in Him until the end of this age.

Peter and the other disciples, steeped in traditional Jewish interpretation, could not fathom that Messiah should suffer and die. How could Messiah, who would restore the kingdom to Israel, do so if the religious leaders killed Him?

Mindful of the Things of God or Men?

Jesus’ biting words to Peter were, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not mindful of the things of God but the things of men (Mark 8:33).” They were looking for an earthly, military deliverer and instead Jesus reveals that true deliverance will be achieved through death and resurrection, not armies and earthly weapons.

It is all too common today to find disciples still mindful of the things of men, following Satan’s philosophy (glory without suffering) instead of God’s way (suffering transformed into glory). By this statement to Peter, Jesus is revealing that “being mindful of the things of God” means disciples embracing the Kingdom reality that suffering, loss, and death leads to glory, victory, fulfillment, and emulating Him.

The Way of the Cross for His Disciples Too

Jesus then continues His shocking statements to the crowds and disciples. Not only must He go this way of the cross but so must anyone who would be His disciple (8:34-9:1). This meant that if there was a cross in Jesus’ future there would be one in their own future as well.

Despite their genuine love for Jesus, the disciples were unaware of the true relationship between the cross and the resurrection, between suffering and triumphant victory on the other side as a Kingdom law. We too, in today’s modern Church, are generally equally unaware of this fundamental truth of the Kingdom of God. We can only rightly serve Christ and others through the way of the cross.

Jesus teaches in verse 34, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let Him deny Himself, and take up His cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save His life will lose it, but whoever loses His life for My sake and the Gospel’s will save it.”

Bearing the cross means nothing less than giving one’s whole life over to following Him. No holding back. It is much more than merely carrying some burden through life. Additionally, denying self is not the same as self-denial. We might practice self-denial for many non-spiritual reasons while denying self explicitly refers to surrendering ourselves to Christ and deliberately determining to obey His will, joining His global, redemptive purpose, no matter the cost.

Lose Your Life to Find It

From the human perspective, we are losing, yet from the divine perspective we find our true selves. The pathway of the cross is the way of total freedom. If we live for ourselves, though we may be Bible-believing Christians, we lose ourselves. By holding tightly to life, protecting ourselves against others, and asserting our rights and needs, we lose life as intended by God.

Yet, recognizing life is not our own, laying down perceived rights and embracing the truth that life is to be lived as part of God’s redemptive plan and story among all humanity, then we possess life as planned in the heart of God. There is nothing to lose and everything to gain.

The Way of the Cross As God’s All-Wise Plan

Why has God chosen the way of the cross as the way of His Kingdom? Because it is only through a people surrendered to God and His purpose, laying down their agendas, rights and plans, experiencing true life as God intended, that He can accomplish His redemptive plans for the whole world. This is His all-wise plan as His global Church is Jesus’ only instrument, vehicle, channel in redeeming the nations.

“Losing our life” for Jesus’ sake and the Gospel’s, individually and corporately is a foundational necessity of seeing the Church effectively mobilized to fulfill the Great Commission in this generation.

“…For My Sake and The Gospel’s”

Notice Jesus stated the clear motivation in verse 35 of daily “denying self” and “losing yourself” – “for My sake and the gospel’s.” Personal devotion is always meant to lead to practical action, partnering with Jesus in His redemptive purpose among all the people groups of the world. And corporately the Church of Christ doing so will go far in being quickly mobilized and scattered among all the unreached peoples and subcultures of the world.

It is the global Church’s present hybrid form of discipleship (which is not discipleship at all), that is at the root of why mobilization is limited in effectiveness. This false discipleship is characterized by half-heartedness, glorying in comfort, affirming Christ yet living for self, satisfied by mixed motives, blinded by covetousness, divided in life focus and distant following.

Mobilization Includes This Central Message

Biblical mobilization includes consistently calling our churches back to Jesus’ kind of discipleship. He does not use hybrid, casual discipleship in His Great Commission purposes. He is looking for corporate communities of faith embracing the crucified, cross-centered life. This one area of focus, if truly obeyed, could revolutionize the mobilization emphasis within churches and denominations across the global south body of Christ.

What would happen in local churches if every pastor, bible teacher, small group and Bible study leader prioritized this message? We would see a revolution of believers with a greater receptivity and enthusiasm for the mobilization message – calling the corporate church to her core identity as God’s multiplying, reproducing, missionary-type people.

Let’s each take responsibility and do our part to put this central message of Jesus’ type of discipleship back where it belongs as part of Biblical, holistic mobilization.