At the very end of His earthly ministry, as Jesus was about to leave this earth and ascend to heaven, He gave His disciples one last command. It has become known as The Great Commission.
It is found in Matthew chapter 28, verses 18 through 20. Here it is from the English Standard Version:
18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Matthew 28:18-20
We can see from these verses that The Great Commission has three parts or three steps to it. First, the disciples are to go into all the nations and make disciples. Second, they are to baptize the new believers. Third, they are to teach them “to observe all that I have commanded you.”
For the first step, Jesus tells His disciples to go to all the world and make other disciples. The initial stage of making a disciple is the act of leading someone to accept Christ as Lord and Savior. This is salvation. From the time of Christ until now, Christians have been physically traveling to distant lands to make disciples. Although with the advent of the radio it became possible to reach people at a distance, leading people to salvation is still most effectively done face to face. That said, technology can play an important role in helping share information about Christ.
For the second step, Jesus tells His disciples to baptize those new disciples. Even with constant advancements in new technologies, I don’t know a way to do this at a distance. It simply must be done face-to-face.
For the third step, Jesus tells His disciples to teach the new disciples all He taught. Many consider this the process of discipling someone. However, since Jesus listed “teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you” separately, we will cover it as the third step in our process. Naturally, this step can be accomplished very effectively in a face-to-face setting. That is the way it has been done for two thousand years. Nevertheless, this step is where using “technology-enhanced, distance learning” can shine.
On our Home Page, we mention a bit about using technology to enable the spread of the gospel. Although we strongly advocate using technology, we know it can not do everything. Meeting face-to-face is almost always a critical part of spreading the gospel, especially to help build trust with others while leading them to accept Christ. That being said, once someone has made a commitment to Christ, being able to disciple them from a distance can be a very effective way to nurture them to grow.
Using technology can be the best way to teach people who are already committed followers of Christ deeper Biblical truths. We will discuss this more in future posts.
