Disciples of Jesus...or disciples of hell?

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven." Matthew 7:21

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to make one convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a child of hell as you are!" Matthew 23:15

As a pastor and one who is passionate ABOUT discipleship, I have often bemoaned the failure of the 20th and now 21st Century Church in the area of disciple-making. I have to honestly admit my own struggles as a disciple-maker also. It's really not that complicated. In Matthew 9:35-38, Jesus spent his time among both the religious and the "crowds" (everyday people), and he had compassion on them, saw them in need of leadership, AND communicated this need of people to his then followers. In Matthew 10, Jesus "sends out" his newly assimilated, still wet behind the ears followers to multiply themselves, even when it's unpopular and even met with resistance and blatant hostile resistance. Finally, Jesus's last words to his followers in Matthew 28:19-20 was to "GO and make disciples...teaching 'them' (the disciples yet to be made) to  obey everything I have commanded 'you' (the disciples Jesus had made). A disciple, according to what Jesus taught and the first Christ followers modeled, is one who knows and models their life after Jesus AND who multiplies themselves, thereby advancing the Gospel! 

Too often, we have been guilty of either NOT being involved in discipleship on any level, OR we have turned discipleship into a group crying "Lord, Lord" as in Matthew 7!! According to the model Christ gave us and even taught, true disciples care as much about multiplication OF the number of genuine disciples as being a disciple themselves. The accumulation of biblical knowledge, desiring and making sure others know we have a heightened level of what is popularly referred to as discernment. A contemporary understanding of discernment could be explained as "pointing out EVERYthing wrong in people's lives, in churches, and the world in general," and is pretty common among those of us claiming to be disciples today. Can a  "discipleship" group, small group, men's/women's groups, or whatever trendy name we call a gathering of presumed Christ followers, primarily engaging in philosophical discussions or debates over Scripture, theology, etc. be defined as disciple-making? In these groups, and I've been part of them myself, critical evaluation of the Church, ministers, the sin in one another's life, politics, etc. often are subjects of lively conversations. Sadly, many times, we've never gotten around to praying for the expansion of the kingdom of God, or involved ourselves IN advancing the kingdom through compassion, service, evangelism focused personal and corporate ministry. Without seeking to internalize and imitate the redeeming, rescuing heart of Jesus, can we even be involved in biblical discipleship? I'm very pro-discipleship, would love to be referred to AS a disciple-maker, but based on what Jesus says in Matthew 7 and 23, are we actually making disciples of Jesus, OR...