What Is the Great Commission?

What Making Disciples Requires

What is the Great Commission and how does it relate to discipleship? Jesus gave us two descriptors in this passage about what making disciples means:

Baptism – A public confession of Jesus through a public declaration of faith is mentioned as an essential part of making disciples. It is a way to give evidence that a person has believed in Jesus for salvation.

Obedience – A disciple of Jesus will be obedient to their new Master—Jesus Christ. Yohannan writes, “The model the Lord gave us to become like Him is through observing and following an example. That means we must observe those who truly walk like Christ and learn from them. The Apostle Paul was such an example. He wrote to the believers: ‘Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ’ (1 Corinthians 11:1).”[3] Jesus gave us answers to what is the great commandment and the great commission, and as we follow His answer, we fulfill the obedience part of His instructions.

Teaching Them to Obey

The phrase “teaching them to obey” — drawn directly from Jesus’ words in Matthew 28 — captures the ongoing, relational nature of discipleship. It is not enough to introduce people to the Good News. Disciples are called to walk alongside new believers, helping them understand and live what Jesus commanded. This patient, consistent process of formation is what transforms individuals and, over time, whole communities.

Consider what that looks like in practice. A new believer in a remote village does not simply need information — she needs someone who will sit with her, answer her questions, and model a life shaped by Christ’s teachings. GFA’s national missionaries do exactly this: they remain present in their communities over years and decades, walking with families through hardship and hope alike. That sustained, faithful presence is what true discipleship looks like in the real world.

How GFA World Fulfills the Great Commission

GFA has been making disciples and fulfilling the Great Commission since 1979. Starting in South Asia and expanding to Africa, we train national missionaries and give them the resources to make disciples in their communities. These pastors and missionaries pray for the hurting, listen to the broken and share the Good News with people who have never heard the name of Jesus.

Decades of work across these regions have shown a consistent truth: transformation happens when people encounter both the message and the compassion of Christ together. A national missionary who prays with a grieving mother, who helps a family access clean water, or who sits with a sick child — that missionary is living out the full scope of the Great Commission, not just part of it. Love expressed in action opens hearts in ways that words alone cannot.

The baptize and teach pattern at the heart of Jesus’ words in Matthew 28 is exactly what GFA’s national missionaries carry out — welcoming new believers through a public declaration of faith and then walking with them as they grow. This two-part rhythm of declaration and ongoing formation is the foundation of lasting transformation in communities across Africa and Asia.

These men and women on the frontlines fulfill the Great Commission among their own people. They already know the language and the culture. They know the most effective ways to help people overcome poverty. This is a tremendous advantage over their coworkers coming from other countries. National missionaries are able to bring light into dark communities, developing more disciples for Jesus. “In the eyes of the local people, national missionaries do not represent a foreign country or a strange religion because these men and women look and talk the same as them.”[4]

Today, GFA World’s national missionaries serve among some of the most isolated communities on earth — carrying medicine to the sick, comfort to the grieving, and hope to families who have never known God’s love. Each act of compassion expresses the same call Jesus gave His first followers on that Galilean hillside.