Understanding the Great Commission (Church Basics)

God means to fulfill the Great Commission through local churches.  How did the apostles and the churches of the New Testament obey the Great Commission? By gathering Christians together in churches. The church is God’s plan for evangelism, discipleship, and the Great Commission. This connection between the Great Commission and the church dramatically impacts how both leaders and members should think about their work of making disciples. We do it together.

Jonathan Leeman (Ph.D., University of Wales), an elder at the Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, DC, is the editorial director at 9Marks and is the author, most recently, of Don’t Fire Your Church Members: The Case for Congregationalism (B&H, 2015).

Mark Dever (Ph.D., Cambridge) is the senior pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, DC, and is the president of 9Marks. He has written multiple books on the church, including The Church: The Gospel Made Visible (B&H).