The Christian without a missionary heart is an anomaly. - Colin Marshall

Sometimes our translations may give the impression that ‘go’ is the emphasis of the command, but the main verb of the sentence is ‘make disciples’, with three subordinate participles hanging off it: going (or ‘as you go’), baptizing and teaching. ‘Baptizing’ and ‘teaching’ are the means by which the disciples are to be made. Whatever else baptism might symbolize or involve, here it refers to the initiation of disciples into repentance and submission to the authoritative Jesus, the reigning Lord of the world.

But the emphasis is not on the growth of the congregation as a structure — in numbers, finances and success — but on the growth of the gospel, as it is spoken and re-spoken under the power of the Spirit.

Are you committed to church growth or to gospel growth? Do you want more numbers in the pew now, or more labourers for the harvest over the next 50 years?