Making Disciples

Most evangelical folks will be very familiar with the Great Commission passage in Matthew 28:19-20a.

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.

How does that square with the Reformed/Lutheran take (like this old-school LCMS guy) that has no human hand in salvation? Believers are the elect and it's only the work of the Holy Spirit that does any good; evangelicalism only finds the elect rather than creating them.

However, if the Great Commission applies to modern believers as well as the original 12-pack of disciples, then we're supposed to make disciples. Not find them, make them. Given that disciple is a fancy word for follower, we're supposed to make followers of God.

Create a follower? Isn't that the Holy Spirit's job, if we're a good Calvinist?

I'm still digesting the essay that I linked to above that is as hyper-Calvinist as I have yet to read. Yet, it carries election and what it means for the life of the church to some very logical but disturbing conclusions.

I'd like the Lutheran/Reform wing of the Peanut Gallery's take on this. I lean in a small-r Reformed direction but that essay is spooky.