Preaching Makes Disciples
What’s the Role of Preaching in Discipleship?
Does preaching really make disciples? Doesn’t disciple-making require something more intimate, more personal – a one-on-one relationship or a small group dynamic? Certainly, we don’t make disciples by preaching alone, but preaching does have an important role to play.
Consider Jesus’ example. One of his top ministry priorities was to equip a small group of followers so that they would be prepared to take the gospel to the entire world after he was no longer physically present. We see him engaging them one-on-one in transformative conversations. We also see him spending significant moments with a small group of three in whom he invests deeply. Then there are the many hours of teaching and discussion that take place within the larger group of twelve as they travel, eat, play, and rest together. But in the background of all these “micro” encounters is an ongoing “macro” ministry of public proclamation. Jesus’ preaching ministry not only provides an example of how his disciples are to proclaim the message of the kingdom. It also provides the context of their learning – provoking questions, challenging assumptions, rearranging their worldview.
Preaching provides the vocabulary, the grammar, and the impetus of our disciple-making. It defines the terms, plots the course, and casts the vision of discipleship. A consistent, thoughtful, and intentional ministry of proclamation will, over time, season the content and shape the logic of every disciple-making conversation within a particular faith community.
Though preaching to make disciples will include a doctrinal component, its purpose is much more than mere theological correctness. Jesus didn’t define making disciples as “teaching them to know …” or “teaching them to believe …”, but “teaching them to observe all things I have commanded you.” (Mt. 28:20) Following Jesus goes beyond knowing and believing to doing. So, making disciples through preaching must do more than just teach facts and theology. We want to train our hearers in their thought patterns and in their living.
In the end, discipleship is more caught than taught. So, the important question for a disciple-making preacher is not just “what are my hearers learning from the content of my preaching?” but, “what are they learning from the example of my preaching?” How we preach is as important as what we preach. Here are three important ways our practice of preaching will shape the discipleship of our church.
They learn how to read the Scriptures.
When the Apostle Paul encouraged Timothy, his son in the ministry, to present himself as a worker (disciple-maker?) who would never be ashamed, he gave one criterion as evidence of reaching that goal: “rightly handling the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15 ESV) Notice the focus is not on what he taught from the Scriptures, but how he handled the Scriptures. It’s possible to teach correct theology while handling the Scriptures badly. It happens every Sunday.
Why is this a problem? Because your hearers will learn to read the Bible by imitating you. If you support your message with a superficial treatment of a series of prooftexts, they will treat the Bible as a vast collection of data points from which to draw whatever conclusion they find helpful. If you base your sermons on isolated phrases with no regard for how they fit into a historical situation or the logic of a passage, they will use their Bibles as a source of magic words or helpful slogans. If you force a biblical text to say what you want it to say – even if you are saying something true and theologically correct – your hearers will do the same to “sanctify” their own opinions. We train disciples less by what we say than by what we do, and nowhere is this truer than in our handling of God’s word.
This is a sobering thought, but we need not be intimidated by the responsibility of setting a good example as Bible interpreters. Modelling two simple and closely related principles will give disciples a solid foundation for fruitful Bible-reading habits. First is the principle of context. When you show how each text addresses real people in a real time and place, facing real-life human challenges, you not only highlight the true historical nature of the faith, but you also lay a foundation for your hearers to find the right path from what the text meant in that historical situation to what it means in their current situation. Likewise, demonstrating how each passage fits within the narrative logical flow of a section or book of the Bible will train your hearers to let their reading of the Bible be guided by the literary context, rather than the subjective rule of “this is what it means to me.”
Second is the principle of intent. Whatever the linguistic and analytic tools you and/or your hearers may or may not have at your disposal, the application of any biblical text begins with the question, “what was this text supposed to do in its original setting?” What did the human author have in mind? When we anchor our reading in this baseline of meaning, we pave the way for solid and appropriate application. And when we consistently demonstrate the principles of context and intent in our preaching, we lay a foundation for a robust and fruitful discipleship.
They learn how to read the world around them.
Being a disciple of Jesus is much more than understanding the truth of the Scriptures. It is living and bearing witness of the gospel in the world. This begins with a correct posture towards our surroundings – a true diagnosis of the problems we see there. Again, an intentional preaching ministry can help train disciples to “read the room” in light of the gospel, resisting the temptation to engage fallen individuals and structures on their own terms.
If we follow our natural impulses, we will see the world around us as enemy territory to confront and to conquer, or see our neighbors as misguided wanderers to inform and to convince, or see the hungry or lonely merely as people who need to be fed and befriended. Each of these visions holds a kernel of truth, but they all focus on symptoms and miss the disease.
The truth is, if we are in a battle, it is not, as the Apostle Paul wrote, “against flesh and blood,” but rather, “against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (Eph 6:12) And we human beings are not merely misguided, mistaken, or down on our luck. We are broken, we are guilty, and we can’t fix ourselves. The “human condition” is not just a struggle to survive and thrive in a messy world. It is a state of hopeless lostness – a need for a savior.
One of the roles of preaching for a ministry of disciple-making is consistently to tell the truth – to correct prevailing narratives – about our humanity. When we do this well, we will nurture disciples who, with eyes open to the spiritual realities of the cosmos, will turn to prayer before activism. With hearts moved by the spiritual plight of their neighbor, they will practice compassion before condemnation. And with a true sense of our shared lostness, they will identify incarnationally with a broken world rather than seek to live in isolation from it.
They learn how to apply the solution.
Preaching informs disciples’ reading of both the Scriptures and the world, but it also can shape their conversation. One of the key measures of the believer’s maturity is the capacity to live and speak the gospel. Jeff Vanderstelt calls this “Gospel Fluency.” I like this term because it gives us a great picture of the path towards a gospel-rich discipleship.
Anyone who has learned a language knows that the path towards fluency begins with rote repetition of words and phrases. Gradually a language learner begins to put new combinations of words and phrases together, to expand vocabulary and learn some grammar. In this middle stage, the default is to translate thoughts from one’s first language into the new language. We know we have reached fluency when this translation is no longer necessary. We intuitively understand and respond in a new language, which inevitably also results in seeing the world in a new way, though a new syntax or logic.
Effortlessly thinking and speaking gospel in every sphere of life is an important goal for discipleship. As with learning a language, this will require lots of practice – conversations with individuals and small groups where believers can speak gospel into one anothers’ lives. However, as with the other areas mentioned above, I believe that preaching can provide patterns of thinking and speaking that can serve as a great backdrop to growth.
In my own preaching, I try to practice “gospel fluency” as an example for my hearers by asking three simple questions in relation to any area of life (home, material things, work, relationships, etc.). First, “What is God’s intention?” This question highlights the first act of the gospel story: creation. It establishes what could be if everything were as God made it to be. Second, “How has sin mucked it up?” This question gets to the heart of our brokenness – an honest look at how we fall short in this area of our lives, and how hopelessly far away we are from the reality that we long for. Finally, “How has Jesus redeemed it?” Here, we ponder the restoration that Jesus brings, breathing fresh life into God’s purpose and restoring that which was lost. This is life in light of the good news that Jesus is making all things new.
Practicing this “gospel grammar” in the pulpit provides multiple opportunities for gospel “language learners” to hear and understand the logic of the gospel, so that they can practice it in conversation and move ever closer to fluency. The practice is indispensable, but preaching can be an intentional component in shaping the minds and hearts of growing disciples towards an intuitive application of the gospel to their own lives and to the lives of others as they bear witness to Jesus.
Disciples are not made by preaching alone. In fact, in some places in the world where regular public proclamation is impossible, disciples are made with no preaching at all. But where there is regular preaching, healthy discipleship is either helped or hindered from the pulpit. Preaching matters because it always makes a contribution, either negative or positive. All the more reason to preach intentionally to make disciples.
