A Disciple and Their Church

April 3, 2025

A DISCIPLE IS COMMITTED TO SUPPORTING THE MISSION OF THEIR CHURCH BY HONORING AND PRAYING FOR THEIR PASTOR AND BY ACTIVELY GIVING OF THEIR TIME AND RESOURCES TO THE CHURCH.

I was raised in church all of my life. From an age as far back as I can remember, my grandmother was always in regular attendance at the Presbyterian Church in our hometown in Charlotte, NC. Dad was a deacon in the Presbyterian Church, Mom was an usher and we were involved in Sunday school, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, and Summer Bible school camps every year for so many weeks that it just became a part of our lives. In The Master Plan of Evangelism, Robert Coleman, Director of Trinity Evangelical Divinity’s School of World Missions, and Evangelism, provides a purpose statement for evangelism. He affirms that Jesus’ ministry had a clear objective. He intended to save out of the world a people for Himself and to build a church of the Spirit which would never perish.[1] Jesus aimed to evangelize, make disciples, and integrate them into a dynamic church community.

All true believers are disciples, and the Christian life is about daily living out this aspect of Jesus' teaching. Salvation was not only to bring people into the Kingdom but, ideally, to introduce individuals into the group discipleship process.[2] The elements of discipleship, I call “The Big Four,” of Prayer to the Father, study of the Word, Fellowship with believers and Evangelistic witness, the Body of Christ, can divinely establish an important role in the preparation for God’s eternal kingdom. Without the Church doing this we have no life. All four of these elements must happen in the Ecclesia (Church). The apostle Paul presents what my pastor, Dr. Larry Lea (Chuch on the Rock, TX) called the 20/20 vision in Acts 20:20.

“And when they came to him, he said to them: “You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews;  how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ,” (Acts 20:18-21)

These verses emphasize teaching, which would indicate a public setting, like the church, and also from house to house. The church must have community support for its meetings other than those in which people participate on Sunday mornings. Largely, this is a house meeting where, they pray, share the word of God, have active fellowship around food and prayer for one another, and more attractively invite their neighbors to these meetings.

It has often been understood that people would attend a meeting in someone’s house before they actually even decide to participate in a church meeting. The essentials of supporting the mission of the church obviously requires people to do "The Big Four", i.e., pray for one another, share the word with one another, fellowship around food with each other, and invite people to their homes, and eventually to their churches. This is what makes a significant and very participatory church for all believers.

One day, Pastor, Dr. Lea announced, all the church members were to see themselves as an extension of the pulpit. Contrary to him calling us ministers, I did not see myself as a minister, or called myself a minister, or saw myself as an extension of the pulpit in any  context. Earnestly, Dr. Lea was calling all of us "congregant ministers," an extensions of the  pulpit i.e., the “Church.” His premises were based on the infusions of men and women from the Ephesians church being equipped to do the work of the ministry. So much of the work in churches today will require the members to do their part.

“And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,” (Eph. 4:11–12)

This was a very profound and fundamental biblical text of how the church should work. I had not heard this context of the scripture from any pastor that I grew up with, in Sunday school, Vacation Bible school, or any Sunday sermon. I suddenly took these words to heart and very seriously did so. This was another 180-degree tipping point for me. Up to this point, I did not see myself as an extension of the pulpit as Dr. Lea intimated, but I was now intrigued by the possibility. 

This was fulfilling an aspect of what my Grandmother and my mother saw in me, not only a member sitting with my mind open to be fed the Word of God, but as an extension of what was happening in the ministry and the local church. Dr. Snow’s definition of discipleship as the "loyal, learning followers of Jesus Christ” formed the theology that I have adopted and is the purpose that all churches need discipleship in their congregation (Mat. 28: 18-20). It also means that all members in the Church really are an extension of the pastoral pulpit. No pastor should have to do the work of the ministry alone, but that was how I grew up; it was the pastor’s job to pray for everyone, visit every sick person, speak and preach every Sunday and Wednesday, and attend special events. They were also required in addition to bury the dead and christen the babies.

Since then, I have learned that these are the types of occurrences that every congregation should have and should do as an extension of the Ministry pulpit. The Word tells us to know those that labor among you. What kind of labor? It would have to be to work in the Ministry related to the Ephesian church, (Eph. 4:9–16). The Apostle Paul speaks of God’s grace given in a variety of expressions to each one of us, (“all believers” as “we” and “us” everywhere), not restricting the scope of what he says to just ministers he includes the equipping of the Saints for the work of the ministry.

“And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,”

(Ephesians 4:11–1 ESV)

This leads him to a description of Christ as the giver of all such graces[3]. The leaders are said to have been given for three coordinate purposes, to equip or complete the saints; to serve the church’s needs; and to build up the body of Christ. The calling and equipping has not ceased since Jesus' words in Matthew 28. It has always been time for the church to be what it was created to be for all people everywhere. It has never stopped being the premise for all believers “disciples" to go and do likewise.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION:

1. According to Coleman, all true believers are disciples, and the Christian life is about daily living out this aspect of Jesus' teaching to introduce individuals into the church ministry equipping process. Do you agree? Explain your answer?

2. Dr. Snow’s definition of discipleship as a loyal, learning followers of Jesus Christ” forms the theology that equips the church for the work of the ministry (Eph. 4:12). How has this definition empowered you and your church to adapt to the work, pulpit extension, of the ministry in your setting?

3. Has your church adopted “The Big Four” philosophy, especially Fellowship that begins to equip believers in your church for the work of the ministry? Explain how?

[1]Robert E. Coleman, The Master Plan of Evangelism (Old Tappan: Revell, 1964), 17.

[2]Coleman, 52.

[3]D. A Carson et al., Ephesians, ed., New Bible Commentary: 21st Century Edition. Accordance electronic ed. (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1994), 1236.