Puppy Lesson 2: Evangelism or Discipleship

As I was walking the puppy (12 week old German Shepherd) and the dog (4 year old terrier-mix) yesterday morning, I had time to think and reflect.  I realized (again) that “Stormie” would mentally be a puppy for three years.  The weight and responsibility of training her for three years hit me again.  At less than 30 pounds, she is easy to physically control….now.  But it won’t always be that way.  When she is full-grown, I may not be able to beat her in a physical struggle.  I MUST TRAIN HER!  In order to have a well-behaved and likeable and SAFE pet, I must be diligent to train her.  And if I do (which I gladly will), I will have a great adult dog—one that people will like, one that will protect our family, one that will bring us years of enjoyment, etc., etc.  If I were training her for service, she could be a seeing-eye dog or a police dog or a great sheep herder, but only after years of training.

In Matthew 28, Jesus did not say, “Go and evangelize.”  He said, “Go and make disciples.”  And then He explained Himself, “baptizing them and teaching them to obey.”  When did we as Christians think that our responsibility to the lost was to quickly offend them with the message of salvation or eternal damnation and then move on to the next lost person?  Jesus commanded us to “disciple” which comes from the Latin word meaning “learner”.  We are to create students.  Evangelism means to “preach, share, proclaim.”  We need to evangelize, but we need to do more than that.  We are to share with people and then be willing to show them by our example.  Jesus spent three and half years with His disciples, teaching them how to live.  Like Jesus, we need to invite others to share in our lives and thereby learn by what we say and by how we act.  There are no shortcuts.

It is going to take me three years of effort to develop my puppy into a well-behaved, dependable German Shepherd Dog.  It may also take me years of spending time developing a genuine friendship with my non-Christian neighbor before they will become the kind of Christian God wants them to be.

If you want to see non-believers become believers, are you willing to spend years (if necessary) in the process?  Are you willing to invest in the lives of those that don’t share your beliefs?  Or are you too busy with your Christian friends and your other ministries and your whatever?

Let’s “seek first His kingdom” (Matthew 6:33).

-PK