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• GO – The great commission – 2024.06.10
• MAKE DISCIPLES (not mentoring or coaching) – The great commission – 2024.06.11
• BAPTISING – The great commission – 2024.06.12
• TEACHING – The great commission – 2024.06.13
• MORE ON TEACHING – The great commission – 2024.06.14
• WHAT TO TEACH – The great commission- 2024.06.15
• HE IS WITH US ALWAYS – The great commission – 2024.06.16

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TRANSCRIPT:

Pip: Mission Communities Network has been working through the Great Commission one word at a time — and it turns out “go” contains multitudes.

Mara: This episode covers the full arc of that project: what the commission actually asks of every believer, and then how teaching and baptizing fit into the picture as practical next steps.

Pip: So less a mission statement, more a job description with training included.

Mara: Let’s start with who the commission is for and what it requires.

Called and Equipped: Every Believer’s Part

Pip: The central question here is whether the Great Commission belongs to a professional class of Christians or to everyone — and the answer these posts give is unambiguous.

Mara: The anchor post on this theme opens with a striking historical example: “Therefore they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word.” That’s Acts 8:4 — ordinary believers, displaced by persecution, carrying the gospel as they went.

Pip: So the first missionary expansion wasn’t a program. It was refugees doing what came naturally to them. That reframes who “the sent ones” actually are.

Mara: Exactly the point being made. The apostles stayed in Jerusalem; it was everyone else who fulfilled the movement outward. The commission didn’t wait for credentials.

Pip: Which raises the follow-up: if everyone is called, how does anyone get equipped?

Mara: That’s where Ephesians 4 comes in. The post quotes it at length — apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers given “for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.” The ministries exist to train the rest of us, not to do the work on our behalf.

Pip: The gifts are coaching staff, not the starting lineup.

Mara: The “HE IS WITH US ALWAYS” post develops the relational side of this — that the commission is carried out under Christ’s authority, not our own, and that he promised never to forsake those he sends. It also emphasizes that Jesus sent his disciples out in pairs, not alone, grounding community in the mission itself.

Mara: The post on making disciples draws a careful distinction: discipleship is not mentoring. Mentoring helps someone reach their own goals; discipleship means adopting the goals of the one you follow. The aim is always to point toward Jesus, not to produce copies of the discipler.

Pip: And the “GO” post makes the point that going doesn’t require a plane ticket — it starts at your doorstep, wherever you happen to meet people willing to listen.

Mara: That post also stresses the Holy Spirit’s role in empowering the going: “ye shall receive power, when the Holy Spirit is come upon you: and ye shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea and Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”

Pip: So the commission is personal, communal, local, and global — simultaneously. No pressure.

Mara: The through-line across all of it is humility: being teachable enough to be discipled, and humble enough to disciple others without making it about yourself.

Pip: Teaching is where that humility gets its most practical workout — which is exactly what the next set of posts unpacks.

Teaching, Baptizing, and What Gets Passed On

Pip: Once people are going and making disciples, the commission specifies two concrete acts — teaching and baptizing — and these posts get granular about what each one actually involves.

Mara: The “WHAT TO TEACH” post puts it plainly: “be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deluding your own selves.” Teaching isn’t content delivery; it’s formation toward obedience. The goal is knowing, understanding, and then observing — actually doing what’s been taught.

Pip: So the measure of good teaching is changed behavior, not retained information.

Mara: The “MORE ON TEACHING” post focuses on method — asking questions, allowing questions, and staying humble enough to say you don’t know. The “BAPTISING” post handles the third element: water baptism as full immersion, distinct from salvation itself, and something any believer who understands its meaning can administer.

Pip: And the broader series on teaching — including the standalone “TEACHING” post — keeps returning to the Holy Spirit as the one actually doing the work through ordinary people.

Mara: Which loops right back to where the commission starts: not our authority, not our ability — his.

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Pip: The whole arc here is one idea: the commission was never meant to be outsourced.

Mara: Go, make disciples, teach, baptize — and do it knowing you’re not doing it alone. That’s the promise attached to the command.

Pip: More on how that plays out in community next time.