More Than Evangelists

July 30

(Acts 15:36 NIV) “Some time later Paul said to Barnabas, "Let us go back and visit the brothers in all the towns where we preached the word of the Lord and see how they are doing.”

(Matthew 28:18-20 NIV) ““Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. {19} Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, {20} and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.””

(Luke 14:33 NIV) “In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.”

Paul and Barnabas were heroes in the church. They had evangelized many people, and started churches all around the Mediterranean. But God called them to be more than evangelists. The Lord had called them to make disciples and grow churches. They could have stayed in Antioch, kicked back, and written “how-to” books, but instead, they went back out to check on the churches they had planted and disciple them. They took Christ’s admonition to “make disciples” seriously. They saw these new believers as more than just a notch in their belts. They gave up everything to go back and disciple those they had led to the Lord. We must never stop evangelizing, but we must also make disciples. Saving souls and teaching believers to obey the Lord are like two sides of the same coin. We won’t get our “money’s worth” out of Christianity unless we see that both get done. -- Friar Tuck’s Word of the Day