The Role of a Disciple of Christ

Moments after Saint Andrew, the First-called Apostle, encountered Jesus Christ, he ran home and told his brother the Good News. “We have found the Messiah!” (John 1.41) The news traveled throughout the city as Simon Peter told Philip, who told Nathanael. Good News is hard to keep quiet.

When Jesus Christ sent His Disciples out share the Good News (Gospel – Ευαγγέλιον), He gave a simple commandment. “Go therefore and make disciple of all the nations.” (Matthew 28.19) Saint Andrew traveled to a small port-town called Byzantium, which would later become the center of the longest lived empire in world history. While there, Saint Andrew obeyed the commandment of Jesus Christ and shared the Good News about the Savior with the city, and made disciples of Christ. And what did they do? They traveled throughout the known region and shared the Good News they had received with others, because as we know Good News is hard to keep quiet.

Just over two hundred years ago, Russian Orthodox Missionaries arrived on what would become “American soil” and shared the same Good News with the Native Peoples of Alaska. Around the same time, Greek Orthodox faithful arrived on the East coast in Florida and later in New Orleans to continue the history of making disciples of all the nations. Today there are more than 500,000 Orthodox Christians living as disciples of Jesus Christ. Now it’s our turn to share the Good News, and bring Orthodoxy to every corner of this great American Nation. It’s the role of every disciple.