{"id":71229,"date":"2024-02-05T23:04:57","date_gmt":"2024-02-06T05:04:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/?p=71229"},"modified":"2024-02-05T23:08:12","modified_gmt":"2024-02-06T05:08:12","slug":"the-whole-commission-why-making-disciples-includes-more-than-evangelism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/?p=71229","title":{"rendered":"The Whole Commission: Why Making Disciples Includes More Than Evangelism"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">In the marathon at the 1968 Summer Olympics, John Akhwari of Tanzania fell, dislocating his knee and badly hurting his shoulder. Eighteen other runners dropped out of the race for various reasons. And yet, John later said he \u201cnever thought about giving up.\u201d<span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;335559738&quot;:120,&quot;335559739&quot;:120}\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">John finished last, well over an hour after the winner crossed the line. The medalists received their prize while he still ran under the cover of darkness. A reporter asked him after the race why he didn\u2019t quit. John famously replied, \u201cMy country didn\u2019t send me 5000 miles to start the race. They sent me 5000 miles to finish the race.\u201d<span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;335559738&quot;:120,&quot;335559739&quot;:120}\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">How you understand the goal of any task determines how you carry it out. Few questions are more significant for churches to answer than \u201cWhy are we running? What is our mission?\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn1\" name=\"_ftnref1\">[1]<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">Most evangelicals, I\u2019m sure, would answer with something like \u201cmaking disciples.\u201d But what is a disciple? Is it something more than a convert, a decision?<a href=\"#_ftn2\" name=\"_ftnref2\">[2]<\/a><span data-contrast=\"none\">\u00a0The development and large-scale embrace of seeker-sensitive churches, para-church ministries, and multiplying church movements reveals our heart for the lost\u2014which is good!\u2014but it exposes at the same time our shallow understanding of the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Christian work that stops at evangelism misunderstands not only what they\u2019re called to, but what God is up to in the lives of his people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":723,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[793],"tags":[321],"class_list":["post-71229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9marks","tag-evangelism-gospel","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/723"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=71229"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71229\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71231,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71229\/revisions\/71231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=71229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=71229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblicalcounselor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=71229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}