Robert Emerson Coleman

What does that mean? It means that, listen, going, baptizing, and teaching are only good insofar as they contribute to the making of disciples.

A guy named Robert Coleman wrote a book in 1962 called The Master Plan of Evangelism.

He says this, and we'll quote from a lot from it today.

The Great Commission, listen, is not merely to go to the ends of the earth preaching the gospel.

It wasn't having the church start a bunch of new creative programs that would attract families.

Jesus' plan was each individual believer making disciples of those around them.

Robert Coleman again, when will the church learn this lesson? Preaching to the masses, although necessary, will never suffice in the work of of preparing leaders for evangelism, nor can occasional prayer meetings and training classes for Christian workers do the job.

Men, read that they're individuals.

there's a lot more ongoing work.

And I've been really shaped by Robert Coleman's book, Master Plan of Evangelism, the way he talks about discipleship, that there's a replication component to discipleship.

We want to see disciples not just taught at, we want to see them engaged in the very work.

And so when I think about discipleship in my own life, It's about bringing people into the life of following Jesus with me, like stepping into the ordinary rhythms and disciplines and practices of living the Christian life.