Most parents, grandparents, and other caregivers want to train the children in their care to be healthy and involved in the society around them. They want to see them grow up to be well-informed, well-balanced, and good citizens wherever they live. Doubly essential for Christians, this training has a bearing on their citizenship both now and in God’s eternal kingdom.
Imagine how God feels about His children. Much more than human parents do, He wants us each to grow spiritually, physically, and mentally; to be well-informed, well-balanced, and good citizens not only here but in His eternal kingdom—present and future.
He started this training process with His disciples while on earth, and He outlined how the training of His children was to work from then on. We call His outline the Great Commission. If we want to understand how we can give care to, minister to, and train God’s children as they become adopted into His family and continue to grow to full stature, a study of the Great Commission would be a good place to begin.
The commission
The verbs we associate with Christ’s commission to His disciples are go, make disciples, preach, baptize, and teach. Matthew 28:18–20 (NIV) speaks of making disciples and teaching, which indicates that we are to instruct and mentor. Mark 16:15–18 gives a version of the Great Commission that uses the word preach with the implication of being a public crier of the truth.
Although they might be hard-pressed to explain it, most parents and teachers know the difference between the activities of teaching and telling. Teaching implies that some type of plan or method repeatable by the learner exists, that the needs of the learner are taken into consideration—that some type of two-way communication continues, especially with the involvement of mentoring. Telling is more of a one-way street. So is preaching.
It seems as though we prefer Mark’s record of the commission over Matthew’s and actually put much more intentional effort into “publicly crying the truth” (telling) than we do in instructing and discipling (teaching).
We have done very well at codifying, training, implementing, and supporting the functions of going, preaching, and baptizing. We have also set up an inspired and continually growing teaching system by way of our international and unparalleled Christian system of formal education. But here our fulfilling of the commission breaks down.
The problem
Stated simply, we have divided the commission into two parts: go, preach, baptize (i.e., the church); and go, teach (i.e., church school). Although both are laudable attempts at fulfilling the commission, we now experience a widening disconnect between the two functions as our international church membership (God’s growing family) rapidly outgrows any hope of their having access, physically or financially, to our Adventist school system.
Teaching, in the Great Commission, refers to training, equipping, and empowering people to be well-informed, maturing disciples of Christ. The function of teaching must come after baptizing, as well as before, not left exclusively within the function of church schools (in our current understanding of what those are). Some of this teaching does come to the local church members through preaching. But to a church organization that has so much light on the subject of education, we cannot see preaching alone as the complete fulfillment of the commission to teach and disciple.
The missing link
We have a good program in place for going. Unparalleled, the Seventh-day Adventist mission outreach includes both young and old. This system of how we go continues to be fine-tuned and managed more and more efficiently.
We also have a good program in place for preaching and baptizing. We have seminaries around the world, and ministerial training at many different levels. We have departments that oversee the ministry of preaching and baptizing as well as a worldwide satellite program. We are beginning to enter the Internet for delivering the preaching component that we faithfully follow by baptism wherever possible.
But what system do we have for teaching the believers in the local church to “observe all things”—such as training children and youth in a personal engagement with God and their church, training all members in how to share their faith, training families about how to function as witnesses to a splintered world, teaching members the Christian principles of personal money and possession management, and even facilitating the intentional practices that foster the fully reconciled and transformed Christian life?
The integration of an explicitly educational component into the local church must begin with the pastor. “The powers of every minister of the gospel should be employed to educate the believing churches to receive Christ by faith as their personal Saviour, to take Him in to their lives and make Him their Pattern to learn of Jesus, believe in Jesus, and exalt Jesus.” 1
Five steps
One veteran minister outlined a program with educational emphasis for himself that would intentionally incorporate the children and youth, would involve the more seasoned disciples, and would reach out to former members and new interests as well. Five of the steps2 follow:
Step one: Recognize and build on the spiritual potential of youngsters. Children dream of “growing up,” so designate a special Sabbath when youth enter into spiritual accountability in the church body in a special ceremony. Make it a meaningful and unforgettable day.
Step two: With calendar in hand, plan for the next year’s curriculum of sermons in a progressively meaningful sequence, perhaps one that covers the beliefs of the church. Create eye-catching sermon titles. Send the list of sermons to all current and former members, to people who have requested Bible studies via radio or television, and to appropriate media, if a relationship has already been formed, as a public service announcement.
Step three: Pray for the Spirit’s help in creating a parable for each of the weekly sermon subjects. Stories appeal to all ages and are not easily forgotten. Children will begin to understand the plan of salvation, to connect the dots. Jesus taught in parables.
Step four: Attract and hold the attention of the children during the sermon. Reserve the front rows for families so that children will feel that they are being addressed by the pastor, that the pastor is their teacher. Perhaps start each sermon with a three-minute or less “Creation Moment” that captures the attention and imagination of young and old alike.
Step five: Make worship a joyful and beautiful experience with everything building toward the theme of the sermon. Teach all those involved to keep it running smoothly, in a reverent manner, as if it were being broadcast. Elect official readers, both old and young, to lead in Scripture and responsive readings throughout the year. Instruct them to read with understanding, enunciating clearly and with the appropriate volume. And make sure the sermon ends by leaving the worshipers at the throne of the almighty God in the presence of Jesus.
It may be a new idea for some pastors to consider creating an intentional teaching (training) and discipling component for their church. But the process can begin by setting goals for the members— knowing in what ways they need to grow spiritually and being intentional about providing the kinds of opportunities and resources through the church that will make it possible for them to reach those goals. A pastor can do much toward creating an environment for maturing disciples by nurturing a small group of leaders and equipping those leaders to, in turn, run small groups and train other leaders. Jesus, with His disciples, set the precedent. In these small groups, more interaction and education can take place than is possible on Sabbath alone. These groups can, besides gathering for prayer and Bible study, also equip and empower the members to deal more productively with daily life, family relations, money management, and witnessing by using some of the rich resources created by the various ministry departments of the church. But few of these well-developed programs work if the pastor is not behind them.
Conclusion
No matter what methods are developed, only with a plan for intentional religious education in the church will we be able to provide the needed training that will keep us a viable, growing, and united entity until Christ comes to take home His transformed children into the kingdom of God.
1 Ellen G. White, Selected Messages, book 3, (Washington DC: Review and Herald® Publishing Association, 1980), 187.
2 Steps provided by Oliver Jacques.
