A gallop poll confirmed that people who have friends at work are more engaged employees.  They are usually more involved and more productive as much as their capabilities allow.  The alternative is an employee who would rather be some place else, any place else even.  This same thing is important in church.  Think about it.  People who have friends at church are more engaged members.  They are usually more involved and more productive as much as their capabilities allow.  The alternative is a church member who comes sparingly or just stops coming altogether.  Wow.  Think on that for a moment and consider a recent sermon by Prophetess Smith where she showed us one of the problems:  We are failing in our mission.  We aren’t making disciples.  We are sharing the Gospel message, and we are getting people to accept the Lord Jesus as their Savior.  However, we aren’t very successful in getting them from conversion to discipleship.  One of the reasons is we aren’t spending enough time building a relationship with these new Christians.

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… (Matthew 28:19)

Most of us probably know how to make converts.  We share the Gospel, and if someone responds to the Good News, there is a rebirth and a new Christian is made.  But until that person is reading God’s Word daily, praying with his or her spouse, obeying God, and sharing his or her faith at every opportunity, you haven’t yet made a disciple.  A disciple should be showing the Fruit of the Spirit and growing more like Jesus Christ every day.  

So what do we do to make disciples out of new Christians?  The most essential elements in disciple-making are relationship and time.  You’ve got to share one-on-one time with a person to make a disciple.  Classes and teachings are good, but caring for the person and talking to them directly have proven to have more impact.  That’s exactly what Jesus did!  The next most important thing is modeling discipleship.  You can’t make a disciple if you aren’t living as one.  Preach what you practice.  Encourage, love, pray with, study with, and be there for people and you will make disciples.  Jesus did all of this, and he made disciples!

The Great Commandment is our mission.  Go, and do your job!