Making disciples called imperative

Baptist churches have been slow to embrace discipleship as a core value,” said Max Croft, State Board of Missions (SBOM) director of discipleship and family ministries.
   
Croft, who is a retired NASA engineer now serving as a state missionary with the SBOM, presented one of the ‘Bible Moments’ at this year’s state convention held in Huntsville. He focused on the importance of a Christian’s individual discipleship journey, sharing personal chapters from his own life’s experiences to magnify his point.
   
“It is imperative that we make discipleship a priority,” he said, listing several reasons for his premise. “First, it’s a God thing. Making disciples is God’s plan. He commanded it, and He expects us to carry out His plan.
   
“God takes the nature of who we are and changes us into the nature of who He is. When He touches us with His hand, our lives are changed. It’s a process that becomes a lifelong journey — a pilgrimage with God,” he explained.
   
“You have to hear the heart of God. Jesus wants us to have the heart of His Father,” Croft said.
   
Making disciples is also a “church thing,” he noted. “The whole church is about making disciples. We should all work toward the accomplishment of that mission.”
   
Echoing the theme of this year’s convention, he stated that, as Baptists, we should bring them in, build them up and send them out through the ministry of discipleship.
   
Disclosing his personal journey of discipleship, Croft briefly reminisced about his early years as a young Christian when he was saved at the age of 11 at Mount Calvary Baptist Church in Albertville. “It was there that I learned about being a Christian and about what it meant to be an Alabama Baptist. I began to learn about the Cooperative Program,” he said. And as an adult, his discipleship lessons continued.
   
“As an adult attending Twelfth Street Baptist in Gadsden, I learned the value of visiting prospective members from my Sunday School teacher.”
   
And further down the road of his Christian pilgrimage, when his career as an aerospace engineer took him to Huntsville, Croft said he was asked to work with the youth of his church.
   
He was asked to teach a Bible study at a youth camp, which he did for a period of 10 years. He said initially the request brought him to his knees because he didn’t think he was qualified or worthy.
   
“It is the church that has helped me with the most vital relationship in my life — Jesus Christ. The church is the Lord’s agent for facilitating discipleship,” he said.
   
Every believer in Jesus Christ has a lifelong potential for growth and service,” he said as he challenged the messengers to “bring them in, build them up and send them out.”