Learning the Faith

"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, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age." – Matthew 28:19-20   

With these words Jesus sends us out on a mission to go into the world making disciples, baptizing and teaching them through the power of God’s abiding presence. We teach because we have been commanded to do so as disciples of Jesus Christ. We have been given a tremendous gift in the gospel and we want and need to share this gift with a world that desperately wants and needs to really live. We share this good news in a number of ways, of which teaching is an integral part. That is to say, there is content that we have to teach that both the world and we need to hear.

That is not to say that it is always clear how we should teach, or to say that the world and we are always receptive to being taught—sometimes we choose ways of sin and death rather than following the Way of life—but we are not alone in this mission of educational ministry. The God who calls us in baptism to a life of making disciples, baptizing and teaching also, in baptism, comes to us in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit calls, gathers, and enlightens us, equipping us for the work of God’s mission in the world:

“The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ.”  – Ephesians 4:11-13
   

We who have received the gift of the gospel and the gifts of the Spirit have been called to live into the mission of teaching and equipping each other and the world, in order that all may know Jesus Christ and the life that he has freed us to live.
 

This is why we teach. 

As we journey together, we explore the unfathomable depths of the grace of our Lord, Jesus Christ, and learn what it means to be his disciples.