Right around the seven minute mark of this video, Kevin DeYoung says something that I would like to take note of. There are many good things said in the course of this clip, especially about the necessity of basic gospel proclamation, and basic disciple-making. That really is foundational. It is fundamental.

But I think Kevin leaves something important out of his statement of the Great Commission. The commission is not to "make disciples" in our modern individualistic sense. That is included, and amen to it. But the commission as the Lord worded it says that we are to disciple the nations. To say that cultural transformation is not part of this is to completely overlook the direct object of that verb. We are to disciple the ethnoi, their hearts, souls, and minds, but also their court systems, and their film industries, and their politics, and their art studios, and their publishing industries. This certainly means discipling their citizens, and we start with that. But it is just the beginning.

If the point of this video is to start with personal evangelism, then absolutely. If the point is to head off those who want to have a bunch of missional stuff that by-passes gospel declaration, then great. But when we make individual disciples, and we move on to the institutional structures of their cultures and societies, we are not changing the subject. We are not moving on to another area. We are not abandoning the Great Commission. We are just getting started.

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