This past week, we were privileged to receive a worship ministry called Llévame de Vuelta at Instituto Epicentro.

They are a worship band dedicated to helping this new generation pursue the presence of God.

Having them here was an incredible experience for all of our students.

Despite only being with us a few days, they helped us in our mission to train disciple makers. In this post, I’d like to show you how they did that.

To do that, we need to consider how…

Worship is connected to the Great Commission.

The Great Commission as recorded in Matthew 28 is normally summed up in verse 19.

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…

Matthew 28:19 (ESV)

In this summary, it’s all about the going, the teaching, and the discipling.

I love all of that!

But this isn’t the entirety of the Great Commission. There is so much more!

Here’s the passage which contains the Great Commission.

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. ¹⁷ And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. ¹⁸ And Jesus came and said to them…

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ 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, ²⁰ teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Matthew 28:16–20 (ESV)

In verse 17, we see how the disciples were on a mountain worshipping Jesus.

(There’s so much to say about the fact that they were on a mountain, but I’ll have to save that for a later post!)

The Great Commission was given to the disciples while they were in a worship service.

I can’t tell you how important this is.

Too often, we get excited about the going, the teaching, and the discipling.

This is all good, but it’s missing something.

Everything we do in disciple making is worship.

Furthermore, all we do in disciple making, should begin in worship.

If we want to be empowered and sent out like the disciples, we must be doing what the disciples were doing.

To train disciple makers, we have to teach them how to worship.

Disciple makers are worshippers.

They worship Jesus, and they are going to go out to disciple others to worship Jesus, with their lives and their songs.

Almost every student who comes into our disciple making training centers (in India or in Mexico), has a distorted view of who God is.

Some think He’s nothing more than a force.

Others think He’s an angry deity intent upon annihilating sin and all those who have sinned.

Still others think He’s a Santa Claus to whom we pray for things we need like a Dear Santa letter.

No one talks to Santa for anything other than that. Likewise, many students treat God in the same way.

They only pray when they need something. All their interactions are ultimately focused on themselves and their wants and desires.

This is not the kind of attitude or perspective of God that a disciple maker should have. Why?

In our ministry session with Llévame de Vuelta, front man Javier Varela taught our students this.

What is worship?

It’s putting our attention on Christ.

When we put our eyes on Jesus, our perspective of Him changes.

By meditating in worship on His attributes, His might acts, and His commands, we are dialing in our perspective of Him to be more and more accurate.

When we see Jesus as He really is, then we will be changed to be like Him. We will be changed and begin to treat Him as He should be treated, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords!

The more that we see who Christ is in worship, the better we’ll be able to disciple others.

This is why worship is critical to our mission of training a new generation of disciple makers.

To help us continue the work of training disciple makers, including bringing in the right kinds of influencers into our young people’s lives, please consider becoming a monthly partner of Genesis Commission.