The Real Focus of the Great Commission

The following article was first published in the Brigade Leader E-Magazine for Christian Service Brigade in February, 2021.

One of the most famous passages in all of Scripture is the Great Commission found in Matthew 28.

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” -Matthew 28:19-20 ESV

All too often we use this as a rallying cry for evangelism and evangelism alone. But if you read the words of these two powerful verses, you will notice that evangelism is not really the central focus of the Great Commission. In fact, I would argue that evangelism is the prerequisite to the Great Commission. Evangelism should be a given for anyone who truly loves Christ.

If you look in the Scriptures, when Jesus came to someone and healed them or saved them in some way, what was their reaction? Their reaction was to immediately go and tell everyone they knew. The evangelism was understood as an immediate fruit of what Jesus had done in their lives.

So if evangelism is understood to already be a reality in the life of the believer, and do not misunderstand, it is about evangelism as well, what is the Great Commission really all about? The Great Commission is about Discipleship. Go and make disciples.

So often, I feel that we focus on the “Go” part and we forget about the making disciples part. So we evangelize, people come to Christ, we baptize them, and then we teach them! Teaching is our main charge from Jesus Christ. Teaching them to observe and adhere to everything that He taught His disciples. That is the Great Commission.

As a Brigade Leader, your focus is on the Great Commission. That is what we are all about. We are discipling young boys and young men. We even disciple adult men who may be Rangers or Lieutenants as well. It is all about discipleship. It is all about fulfilling the Great Commission.

Every time we work on achievement with a young man we are fulfilling the Great Commission. We carry it out every time we give a Story Circle or a Council Ring. We fulfill it during Leadership Team Meetings and Action Time. Everything about the program and ministry of Christian Service Brigade is geared toward the goal of discipling young boys and young men for the service of Jesus Christ.

As leaders, we should go into every meeting and interaction with our Brigade Ministries with this mindset. What am I doing to prepare this young man for Christ’s Service? How am I encouraging this young man to dive into Scripture? How am I encouraging him to honor his father and mother? How am I encouraging and training this young man to love his neighbor as himself? And most of all, how am I training him to love the Lord with all of his heart, soul and mind?

If we go into every action with this attitude, I believe that we will begin to see great changes in our local units that will spill out into the rest of the local church and community. Let’s focus all of our efforts on making sure that we are paying attention and fulfilling the core of the Great Commission.