October 19, 2026
"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matt 28:19-20).
I am the middle child in my family. I have two sisters on either end. The great thing about being the only boy was I usually had my own room growing up. The only drawback was that I also had the extra bed in my room. That meant when family came to stay with us, they bunked with me.
Honestly, I didn’t mind most of the time. My Granny was my favorite guest. She and I went on adventures together. We saved the world so many times together; usually from my cockpit bed with her as my copilot. With my father as an army pilot, it was natural to beat the bad guys as a pilot, I think.
I certainly remember the adventures that Granny and I had together. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that until she went to be with Jesus, she frequently told people about our tours of duty together. She would chuckle as she remembered sharing not just a bedroom, but an adventure with her young grandson.
In many ways, we all want to be the hero and save the day. We want to be world changers. We serve a God who is a defender and a savior. As we are made in His image, I think it is a natural thing that we want to be those things as well. Not just as believers, but as humans. The rub comes when we disagree on what that means. It is here we begin to disagree with who needs defending and saving. Who has value and how we go about shaping a world that fits those values.
One can make the argument that Western Civilization was shaped by Judeo/Christian values as the church spread from the Middle East through Europe and to the Americas. As the church made disciples and lived out the Great Commission, a biblical worldview helped lay the foundation of our culture in the West. The influence of that biblical worldview supplied many of the West's deepest moral assumptions— such as, the inherent dignity of persons, the moral accountability of rulers, and the duty to protect the vulnerable just to name a few.
The growing divides we are currently seeing in our culture are largely due to the biblical moorings that held us in place for so long having shifted. Scripture has been twisted and ignored to satisfy our fallen nature. We may bemoan this, but it began in the church before it impacted society.
What happened? Much of the Western Church questioned—and eventually abandoned—the authority of Scripture. As a result, our marching orders to make disciples became confused. Disciples were no longer being formed on the firm foundation of a Biblical Jesus, but on the shifting sands of man’s opinion of what they felt Jesus should look like.
Even for the churches that held firmly to Scripture and preached a true gospel message, many of us settled for professions of faith and church attendance and failed to live up to verse 20 of Matthew 28. We have not taught them to observe all that Jesus commanded. We have not made disciples.
We are currently in a political season in the US. Midterms are here, and if you have not heard it already, you will… “This is the most important election in history.” It is important, but it is not and never will be as important as the Great Commission. The gospel and our responsibility to share in and grow in it should always take precedence in a believer’s life.
We have forgotten what the church is called to do. Instead of making biblical disciples, too many in the church are more interested in converting people to vote like they do.
I believe evangelicals have been pretty good at sharing the gospel over the last 50 years. We see conversions, but what we are not seeing is mature believers. When someone makes a profession of faith, few of them are met with an intentional plan to disciple them. We tell them to go to church and hope they do. We hope they read the bible and learn, but fewer and fewer do. Their professions were genuine, but they still have a worldview that is far from biblical. As my friend Dr. Scott Sullivan says, “Hope is not a strategy.”
What I am NOT saying is that we should not be involved in the political process. We are a nation with a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. I look at Romans 13 and believe that with our system in the United States, submitting to our government does mean we have to be involved as voters at the very least. I am grateful for politicians at every level who are believers in Jesus. I believe integrity in governance depends upon having the truths of Scripture built into the foundation. That only happens with believers being involved.
At the same time, the Lord is not wringing his hands, worried about the outcomes of any election. He is the God who raises up every leader. Romans 13 again: “There is no authority except from God and those that exist have been instituted by God.” God is always in control. We must be obedient to what he has asked us to do and leave the results up to Him. The political process does not supersede the Great Commission. Our greatest obedience must lie in making disciples.
Church history attests to this. The early church had no political power. They were being crucified for following Jesus. Beheaded for clinging to the faith. Killed for entertainment in arenas for sharing the gospel. In the middle of all that and in a time when the fastest transport was a horse or a sailing ship, when there were no printing presses or modern communications, the church changed the known world in less than 300 years. How? By making disciples.
Most of them didn’t have a printed copy of the bible, yet they knew how to observe all that Jesus commanded and how to teach others to do the same. That is how they changed the Roman Empire. By 313 AD, there were so many Christians in the Empire that the two emperors, Constantine and Licinius, issued the Edict of Milan. The edict gave Christianity legal status in the Empire and allowed people to worship whoever they chose. Tradition says it was because of the conversion of Constantine, but I believe it was just politically expedient because of how the church had multiplied.
The early church was obedient and made disciples of themselves and of others as the gospel spread.
The same playbook is still in our hands. We need to be obedient to the Great Commission. We have no excuse. We live in a time with instant communication, more resources available than at any point before, and in the West, the freedom to use all of it in furtherance of the Great Commission.
Let’s not wring our hands at the state of our nation.
Let’s not put our hope in anything but Jesus.
Let’s stop trying to change the world outside of the power of the gospel.
Every church needs an intentional plan to make disciples. We need a pathway for new believers to walk down and learn all that Christ has taught. We need to make sure our members are trained and challenged to make disciples. We have to stop spreading seed and hoping they produce fruit. We need to put our hands to the plow and prepare for fruit. The Lord has commanded us to do it. We don’t need to wonder if he will bless our obedience. He will!
Want to change the world? Make disciples!
If you need help putting a plan for intentional discipleship in place or if your church needs resources to train in making disciples, contact the Discipleship Office at the Georgia Baptist Mission Board, lmelton@gabaptist.org.
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