For what's it's worth..., I am sending you these thoughts as a part of what I hope will become a vigorous and ongoing conversation in our body about who a disciple is and how men and women are discipled....
 
A study of the little Jesus said about the church and of how John Winebrenner defined the vision of the Church of God in its first years has convinced me that we need to make radical macro shifts in our definition of the church and of who a disciple is if we are to be successful in discipling.
 
...The 2009 CGGC Mission Statement pays homage to Winebrenner's vision for the Church of God which he announced on the day the Eldership was formed in October 1830 and which he printed three times in the book, History of all The Religious Denominations in the United States. 
 
The reality is, however, that the CGGC Mission Statement turns Winebrenner's vision upside down.
 
Winebrenner was very clear. 
The primary goal of the Church of God was "the conversion of sinners."  (Winebrenner's actual words are, "The conversion of sinners is the paramount object contemplated by the preaching of the gospel.")
The secondary goal--which could only be pursued as the first goal was being accomplished--was the establishment of those converted sinners into churches organized according to "the New Testament plan." 
Winebrenner's third goal, dependent on the achievement of the first two goals was "The supplying of the destitute with the preaching of the gospel."
Therefore, for Winebrenner, the converted sinner, not the church, is the core of the Church of God.
 
The 2009 CGGC Mission Statement has an entirely different understanding of what our body does.  It states,
As witnesses of the Lord Jesus Christ we commit ourselves to make more and better disciples by establishing churches on the New Testament plan and proclaiming the gospel around the world.
There is, of course, no mention of converting sinners in the Mission Statement.  It's equivalent in the Mission Statement, drawn from the 35,000 by 2000 program, is the phrase 'more and better disciples,' or, More and Better Disciples: 35,000 in worship by 2000.
 
The difference in visions is actually stark and complete.  For Winebrenner, the first and foundational work of the church is to convert sinners.  According to the CGGC Mission Statement, making more and better disciples (officially defined as getting people into a "worship" "service") is the end product of what our body does.
 
For Winebrenner, saved sinners are organized into churches which take the gospel far and wide.  For the CGGC today, churches are established on the New Testament plan, the gospel is proclaimed around the world and, in the end, the CGGC makes more and better disciples.
 
These two visions could not possibly be more at odds with each other.  ....What Winebrenner put first, today's CGGC puts last.
 
I'm certain that you...understand that, in Winebrenner's day, we were a veritable disciple-making organism.  We converted sinners into disciples like bees make honey.  In that day, the Church of God's ministry radically transformed the lives of the people who joined it.  Our many converted sinners lived in the world radically, converting other sinners and transforming American society.
 
(The Church Advocate) article, on the other hand, is powerful testimony to the haplessness of what the CGGC does today.  ...We do have 'worship' 'services,' Sunday School classes, Bible studies and small groups.  You ask the rhetorical question..., "Is it working?  Are we making disciples?"
And, your answer is that it is not working and that we are not discipling.
 
(In the article Lance says,) "I'm not sure these are producing the fruit we think they're producing."  And, of course, (this is) correct.
 
 But, here's what I want to say: 
For Winebrenner, the 'worship' 'services,' Sunday School classes, Bible studies and small groups were to be the fruit of the conversion of sinners, not vice versa.   
With all the meager gentleness I can muster, I'm (saying) that Winebrenner and our first brothers and sisters would be confused, and even appalled, by the idea that a disciple could be made from the performance of a 'worship' 'service' or the meeting of a Sunday School class, Bible study or small group. 

In fact, the idea that a 'worship' 'service' or the meeting of a Sunday School class could make disciples was core to the thinking of the German Reformed Church, which Winebrenner left.

As I consider the differences between Winebrenner's church and the CGGC today, I ask myself the essential question:  Which side of this difference in thinking is the side of Jesus?
 
And, as I read Matthew, Acts and the Epistles, it's clear to me that Winebrenner, not today's CGGC, was operating from the New Testament perspective.
 
Jesus only spoke the word 'church' twice in the Gospels, both times in Matthew.  In the punch line of the second of those passage, Jesus gives a definition of the church.  And, Jesus' definition is the definition demanded by Winebrenner's vision for the Church of God.  Jesus said simply, " For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them."  (Mt. 18:20)
 
For Jesus, the disciple was the key unit of the Kingdom, not the church.  For Jesus, the church...exists any time even two or three come together in His name."
 
This is crucial.  For Jesus:
DISCIPLES MAKE UP CHURCHES.  CHURCHES DO NOT MAKE DISCIPLES.
And, this was exactly Winebrenner's idea.  For Winebrenner, our first task in to turn sinners into saints.  Only after we've done that can we 'establish churches on the New Testament plan.'
 
I believe that until we understand how Jesus defined the church and then, in the CGGC, realize that Winebrenner got Jesus right, we will never succeed in making disciples.  We can't start churches to make disciples.  We must convert sinners to establish churches.
 
In our 2009 Mission Statement's desire to pay homage to Winebrenner's vision, we have actually turned Winebrenner's (vision) upside down.  Until we understand what we have done, and repent of it, we will not make disciples.
 
Truly, from the New Testament to today, disciples make up churches; churches do not make disciples.
 
Blessings on you as you seek to live out the Great Commission.