Mere Missions

T he C hurch : E quip • 155

The second question is a time question. How long does this take? A day? A week? A month? Nine months? Forever? Scripture doesn’t give us a definitive answer. What I can say with confidence over the years of equipping converts who became disciples of the Lord is, “one time frame doesn’t fit all.” Let me share a biblical example to get us thinking. Paul and Barnabas are commissioned and released by the Church in Antioch for the task of missions, “The sending forth of authorized persons to unchurched communities to proclaim the Gospel in order to win converts to Jesus Christ, make disciples from the converts, and gather together the disciples to form functioning, multiplying local churches, that bear the fruit of the Kingdom of God in that community.” Here is what we know from their first journey: they made disciples at Antioch in Pisidia (Acts 13.52; 14.21-22), disciples in Iconium (Acts 14.1; 21-22), disciples in Lystra (Acts 14.20), and disciples in Derbe (Acts 14.20-21), with the intent of establishing a “functioning, multiplying local congregation/church” led by appointed elders (Acts 14.23). What we don’t know exactly is whether Paul and Barnabas adhered strictly to the seven basic commands. They definitely had a process though or else it wouldn’t have been recorded that, disciples were made in these cities, from their first journey. It’s not far out of reach to think that they baptized, and taught a radical minimum of what demonstrated to Paul and Barnabas the converts obedience to the commands of the Lord Jesus Christ. We also know a basic timeline for Paul and Barnabas’s first journey which was about a year, maybe two. Considering the time, it took to travel by ship and by walking, and then turning back around to retrace their steps to these cities, they were confident that disciples were made and that fully functioning, multiplying churches were established, bearing fruit of the Kingdom of God in those cities. Here’s the encouraging point: It didn’t take years for the Apostle Paul and Barnabas to make disciples and congregate them into