THE DUTY TO EVANGELIZE AND TO GROW THE CHURCH A subset of the preceding duty of the church to bear witness to divine truth is its duty to evangelize and to grow the church. This is implicit in Christ’s Great Commission to his church to “make disciples of all nations” (Matt. 28:18–20), to “preach repentance and forgiveness of sins in his name to all nations” (Luke 24:47), and to be his witness “to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). Paul declared that Christ has given evangelists to the church (Eph.