For a long time I have heard church leaders express concern over a problem that I'm sure has existed as long as the church has. The problem is that of what seems to be a revolving door in many churches. It seems like every time you gain a couple of members you loose a couple. Many join and stay for a couple of weeks or months and disappear just as suddenly as they showed up. If you are a pastor reading this you surely know what I am talking about. If you are a regularly attending member you've undoubtedly noticed this trend in the church. This is what we call the "Back Door" in the church. We see them come in through the front door but somehow they slip out of the back door.

There is a solution to this problem. Most who come into the church are either unchurched or underchurched meaning that they have either not been in church or have been in church but have not been properly equipped. In Ephesians 4 Paul explains the primary function of the ministry leaders in the church Verse 12 says that they are given to the church, "For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry,for the edifying of the body of Christ". Perfecting in this passage comes from the Greek word, "Katartismos" which means complete furnishing, equipping. Our job is to completely furnish and equip the saints with all that they need to become mature Christians.

In Matthew 28:19 Jesus is giving his disciples what is called the Great Commission, In the King James it is rendered, "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. In the New King James and many other modern translations the thrust of that command is rendered, "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations. Jesus is telling us that we have a duty of not just bringing them in and preaching to them. We must make them into disciples. This involves a process of teaching, training,demonstrating, discipline, challenges, rewards, etc. All designed to produce a final product, a disciple.

In order to do this we must look to Jesus who was the first DiscipleBuilder. Jesus used a strategic 3 year training process to shape his band of rag tag followers into a force that would change the world.

The way to close the back door is to use the examples of Jesus' DiscipleBuilding plan as chronicled in the gospels to equip the saints to do the work of ministry and through their work build up the body of Christ.