GO MAKE DISCIPLES NOT “SPIRITUAL SONS”
You were never sent to build a fanbase.
You were sent to raise disciples.
Right now, a lot of churches are heavy on this whole “spiritual sons and daughters” doctrine at the expense of true discipleship. It sounds deep. It feels spiritual. But if we’re being honest, a lot of it is not really discipleship, it’s just people being shaped into extensions of someone else’s influence.
That’s the issue.
Because real discipleship isn’t about cloning a man or looking like your Papa.
It’s about conforming people to Christ.
But it seems to me somewhere along the line, loyalty got redirected. Devotion got rebranded.
And now growth is measured by how close you are to a Spiritual leader instead of how grounded you are in the Word.
That’s not maturity. That’s attachment.
And yet when you open up Matthew 28:18–20, Jesus is crystal clear:
“GO… MAKE DISCIPLES… teaching them to obey everything I commanded you…”
Notice what He didn’t say:
He didn’t say, “Go make spiritual sons.”
He didn’t say, “Gather people to promote your name.”
He didn’t say, “Create a system where people revolve around you.”
Why?
Because Jesus didn’t come to empower us to create our own personal empires which we will brand as his ministry. No, He was building His Church.
And He builds it through disciples, people rooted in His Word, shaped by His truth, and submitted to His authority.
A disciple isn’t someone who just hangs around a famous spiritual leader.
A disciple is someone who follows Christ.
Big difference.
Of course, someone might say, “But Paul called Timothy his son.”
True. But Paul wasn’t building a father-centered system. He was describing relationship, not creating a hierarchy of dependence.
Timothy wasn’t raised to depend on Paul, he was raised to stand on Scripture.
“The sacred writings… are able to make you wise for salvation…” (2 Timothy 3:15)
And Paul didn’t say, “Follow me blindly.”
He said:
“Follow me as I follow Christ.” (1 Corinthians 11:1)
That’s accountability, not control.
Paul pointed people upward to Christ, not to himself. That’s real discipleship.
Let’s be balanced though, there is a place for spiritual fathering. Mentorship is biblical. But the moment it replaces the Great Commission, it becomes a problem.
Because we were never told to make people dependent on us. We were told to make them grounded in Christ.
God is the ultimate Father:
“You have received the Spirit of adoption… by whom we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’” (Romans 8:15)
And Jesus made it plain:
“Call no man your father on earth… for you have one Father in heaven.” (Matthew 23:9)
That’s not canceling natural fathers or spiritual mentorship. It’s setting a boundary. No man should ever sit in God’s seat in someone’s life. But today, some systems have crossed that line.
They build environments where:
Identity is tied to a leader
Growth is measured by closeness to “Papa” or “Mama”
Loyalty to man & strange structures is expected, protected, and sometimes enforced more than loyalty to the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s not kingdom, that’s control dressed in church language.
Real godly leadership points you to Christ, not to itself.
At the end of the day:
You’re not called to gather people to you.
You’re called to lead people to Him.
Not to raise your own spiritual sons to serve your own interests, but to raise disciples who can stand in Christ, not cling to you for life.
Because when it’s all said and done,
Christ isn’t coming back for your network…
He’s coming back for HIS CHURCH.