The Purpose of Ministry

The first subject to discuss is the purpose of ministry. Turn to Matthew 28:18 and you will see the simple statement of the purpose of ministry. Notice the fourfold actions:

• Go to everyone.
• Make them disciples.
• Baptize them into the church.
• Teach them to observe the commands of Christ.

Let's look at this in some depth.

First, GO. This is a simple word. It is the essence of action. A minister must go to people. He must contact them and talk with them. A minister cannot live in an office. You must go to your son's baseball games and talk to people. You must go to the PTA meetings. You must go to town festivals. You must surround yourself with people, most of whom you do not know. Go!

Second, you are to make disciples. "Disciples" translates as "students". You are to find people and help them become students of Jesus. You must present His agenda as interesting, exciting, full of meaning for the student, and full of promise for the hurting. You must care for these people, else they will not see the advantage in becoming a disciple. You must be an attractive person yourself, with a sunny disposition, or people will not listen to you. You need to understand how to sell people on the idea of learning about Jesus. Make Disciples!

Third, you must baptize them. Now this isn't an argument about the purposes and methods of baptism. I'm sure that you've already heard many arguments about these issues. No, the point is that in some way, a new Christian must become baptized as part of the process of joining the great worldwide church. It may not be clear how or why or when, but we do know this much: New believers are commanded to be baptized. And we are to do that. We must get water onto people! They are to join the Church. Baptize people into the Church!

Fourth, you are to teach them to observe the commands of Christ. So you must teach. If you cannot teach, you will not be effective. And you must model that behavior, for if you do not model the behavior, then people will see you as a hypocrite. And what commands? In Matthew 22:37-40, Jesus tells us the two greatest commandments. So simple and so complicated. Teach!