The Great CommissionShembull

Since the days of our Lord Jesus, His disciples, & the Apostle Paul, to the present day in which we live, if the New Testament’s relational disciple-making process is to again produce its dynamic multiplying results, the world’s vast number of Christian churches must first recognize the major difference between teaching and training.

Notice Paul’s highly understandable explanation of these two communication ministries to the Philippian church, “All that you heard me say, and all that you saw me do, put that into practice…” (v.4:9) He was specifically led to focus on combined seeing and hearing for effective ministry results.

These two educational methods are highly complementary, yet they function very differently. Teaching requires the use of our ears while training requires the use of our eyes. Said another way, teaching is telling someone what to know or do, while training is showing that person how.

Both of these methods are critical for Biblical, multiplying disciple-making, but sadly, personal training through life-to-life Christ-centered friendships has long been neglected in traditional church life. Even with good preaching and solid teaching in many of our churches, the lack of observation-based training is why evangelism has suffered and church membership has plateaued and declined in so many countries.