Teaching – The Everyday Prayer

Re:Verse passage – Matthew 28:18-20 (day seven)

teaching them to observe all that I commanded you. vs 20a

As I sat in a subway car on my way out of Manhattan late Friday night, I began to think about this verse in light of what had transpired this week. I led a team of 11 high school student leaders and adults through New York as we aided a church planter in Brooklyn. We didn’t lead anyone to Christ this week. I didn’t preach at a service. Surely we didn’t come all this way just to have fun in the Big Apple? That is when it hit me; the great commission is less about going and more about teaching. This trip wasn’t about making converts, it was about making disciples. Our group was able to have some rich meaningful discussions about things we were seeing and hearing as we were traveling. We discipled each other. We taught each other. We also had several divine encounters where God led us to speak with people about why we were there. We pointed hundreds of people to the Borough Church as we served behind the scenes for an NYPD basketball tournament. We were able to help the Borough Church host their first ever youth outreach event at a bowling alley in Sunset Park. Though we may never see the fruit of our work, we were helping make disciples by planting seeds. Whether we were discipling our own group or planting seeds throughout New York, we were fulfilling the great commission!