According to statistics from George Barna, only 9% of Christians within the USA make their decisions based upon a biblical worldview – meaning 91% of those who have “given their lives to Jesus” don’t actually think like Jesus, have attitudes like Jesus, live out of the values of Jesus, and consistently demonstrate the love, obedience and priorities of Jesus in their daily lives! That’s quite a contrast to what the church in Acts looked like:

• A praying, empowered and “one heart one mind” church
• A church that obeyed Scripture and the lead of the Holy Spirit
• A maturing, obedient, missional and culture impacting church
• An enduring church that feared and glorified God

The church in Acts reaped and reflected the deliberate disciple-making of Jesus. What pastor and church wouldn’t want to experience that kind of fruit and impact today? At the end of His ministry, Jesus commissioned His followers to do exactly what He had done for them, “make disciples…teaching them to obey what I’ve commanded you’”(Matthew 28:18-20). We must embrace the biblical reality that God’s primary way of growing and expanding His church, locally and globally, is through the process of deliberate disciple-making: reproducing the character, ways and mission of Jesus in those around us expecting them to multiply the same within others.

The primary thrust of the local church is to function as a “disciple-making hub” where followers of Jesus are deliberately matured in the things of God while at the same time multiplying in others what God has given them. It is the embassy where disciples are equipped and teamed to live and lead in the ways of God within the “Dozen Domains” of culture.

To reap Acts-like fruit and impact, we must begin by humbling ourselves before God in repentance for disobeying His command to us. Then we must realign to obeying and engaging His commission to make disciples!

“We must be global Christians with a global vision because our God is a global God.” – John Stott

In both the design and strategy of our Lord Jesus, true discipleship is simply incomplete without a Great Commission context and passion. At the end of the day, no follower of Jesus is the “end-user” of his or her discipleship. But without a global life orientation, discipleship practices can subconsciously become religious avenues primarily pursued for greater self-understanding and quality of life. With Jesus, the disciple-making of the original twelve, from calling to commission, was all about others. When he first called them to follow, he promised they would be “fishers of men.” And when he was ready to leave them, he charged them to “go into all the world.” True discipleship, therefore, cannot be divorced from the Great Commission. It is not just “learn from Me,” but it’s also “follow Me…” into all the world.

Yet the Great Commission could be characterized as the Great Omission in many discipleship models today. Our challenge is to raise up a generation of global Christians -- everyday disciples passionate to leverage time, talent and treasure to see Jesus glorified among all peoples around the globe. This requires the recovery of two missing jewels of discipleship: worldview and world vision. Worldview is all about seeing life through the lens of Holy Scripture and aligning beliefs and behaviors accordingly. World vision is seeing our lost world as Jesus does, being moved to compassion and action as He was.

To raise up a new generation of global Christians, we must root them not only in the Word and ways of God, but also in His worldview and world vision. As one student said through her tears during her summer missions debrief: “This cross-cultural mission has helped me overcome my greatest obstacle…myself.” True disciple-making is all about “others.”