A Church That Reproduces
A healthy church does more than keep its own doors open. It makes disciples, raises up leaders, and sends people out, so that the Gospel outlives the pastor, the building, and the generation that first believed.
“And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.”2 TIMOTHY 2:2 · KJV
That one verse holds four generations: Paul, Timothy, faithful men, and others also. Paul wrote it from prison near the end of his life, and his mind was on who would carry the truth after him. The word commit means to entrust, to place something of great value in another's care.
This is how Jesus built. The mission He gave His church can be said in four words: go, win, baptize, teach (Matthew 28:19–20). Salvation is the miracle of a moment, and discipleship is the journey of a lifetime. A church that wins people and never trains them, or trains them and never sends them, has stopped halfway.
Pastors are not meant to do this alone. Christ gave pastors and teachers For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry (Ephesians 4:11–12). The saints do the work of the ministry, and the pastor equips them for it. A pastor who does everything himself may look faithful, but he is keeping his church small.
Whom are you training right now? If a pastor or a teacher cannot name anyone, the chain stops with him.
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For Deeper Study
- The Master Plan of EvangelismAmazon Robert E. ColemanA short classic on how Jesus trained the twelve. Coleman wrote from a Wesleyan background, and we differ there.
- The Training of the TwelveAmazon A. B. BruceA longer nineteenth-century study of Jesus and His disciples, by a Scottish Presbyterian. We differ on baptism and church government.
- The Spiritual LeaderAmazon Paul W. ChappellAn Independent Baptist pastor's study of spiritual leadership.
- Lectures to My StudentsAmazon C. H. SpurgeonTalks to the men of the Pastors' College, still rich in wisdom. Spurgeon was Calvinistic, where we differ.
- To the Golden Shore: The Life of Adoniram JudsonAmazon Courtney AndersonA full biography of the Baptist missionary to Burma.
- Foxe's Book of MartyrsAmazon John FoxeThe classic Protestant record of those who died for the faith, from the early church to the English Reformation.
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The Call to Ministry
God calls a man to pastor through a settled desire for the work, the character and gifts His Word requires, and the confirmation of a local church that examines him and sets him apart.
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