I was continuing my parallel reading in John’s gospel while also following our Prophets Reading Plan. I started to read the last half of John 3 about Jesus and his disciples baptizing people in the Judean countryside along with John the Baptist. But I wanted to find the verse that said that Jesus didn’t baptize. It’s in John 4:

Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples)… (John 4.1, 2, ESV)

But it’s verse 1 that grabbed me: “Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John.”

Years ago, Randy Pope, a Presbyterian pastor in Atlanta, told us at a Navigator staff conference that he disagreed with our use of the word “disciple.” We were living by a progression. I was taught:

• Decision (as at a Billy Graham Crusade or responding to someone sharing the gospel one on one)
• Convert (Someone that sticks. When I was on staff of a large church, we would send out teams to the apartments behind the church to share the gospel. From time to time, someone would burst into my office: “Bob, we were sharing the gospel and someone made a decision for Christ! Now what do we do?” I had a plan for following them up, but… we never saw any of those people again. The “decisions” didn’t turn into a “converts.”)
• Disciple: the convert is followed up and begins to grow.
• Disciple-maker: the disciple matures and begins to reproduce the process.

This is widely accepted terminology. I just saw this in an email from The Forum of Christian Leaders:

Why is it that so many women are believers but not disciples? How can we faithfully call women to true discipleship? In this talk, we discuss the current landscape of women’s discipleship, are reminded of why discipleship is so important, and gain practical resources in paving the way forward for women to make disciples who make disciples.

“Believers” -> “Disciples” -> “Disciple-makers”

This is not a bad rubric, but Randy said it wasn’t consistent with scripture. And here’s the verse: “…making and baptizing disciples.” Randy said, “We make a disciple, then we train a disciple.” Combine John 4.1 with Matthew 28.18 – 20, and we have:

• Make disciples
• Baptize disciples
• Train disciples

Disciple just means follower. It doesn’t connote any level of proficiency. The baptism marks the beginning of the journey. After baptism, they have to be trained.

As an analogy, an Army recruit becomes a soldier immediately upon signing the paper. He’s given a uniform (baptism?). Then he’s trained. Before long he’s training others. But he’s a soldier from the beginning.

The Marines do it a bit differently. They earn the title “Marine” by completing boot camp.

Does it matter what we call the stages of the process? Probably not, as long as we remember there is a process, a process that sometimes isn’t completed:

After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. (John 6.66, ESV)