Mere Missions

94 • M ere M issions : M oving F orward to M ultiply

Are they able to defend our Sacred Roots, what the church has believed everywhere, always and by all? 3. The observation of a church planter’s ability to teach is not primarily done at an assessment center through writing and responding to doctrinal questions. This critical requirement for missions must be observed and refined over time. There is no time frame given in Scripture. All we know is that it is required, and it must be observed over a period of time. Barnabas identified Paul the Apostle as one to engage in missions, so he went to Tarsus to bring him to the Church in Antioch (Acts 11.25-26a). For one year (Acts 11.26b) Paul is teaching. This allowed the elders to observe and assess Paul’s teaching of sound doctrine and not just a onetime event. The Elders, in this case the assessors, through the timing and prompting of the Holy Spirit, gave the commission and release of the Apostle Paul to engage in missions (Acts 13.1-3). One last practical insight for the commissioning and releasing of identified and equipped individuals for missions is the knowledge that they have already made disciples. This allows those who are assessing that the church planter has a plan of making a disciple from a convert. Heart and desire are not enough. There must be knowledge that has led to results, disciples made, before sending individuals into missions to evangelize, make disciples, that culminate in the planting of a church in Satan’s domain. Make sure the church planter has made disciples – evangelism leading to conversion and then making a disciple of the convert. Remember, every church planter is a disciple maker but not every disciple maker is a church planter.