The Great Commission speaks of going and while going discipling all nations.  I have in my reading and personal growth focused a lot on what it means to disciple - that is to teach in a certain manner - for example at the time of Jesus a disciple was one who wanted to be just like the master he followed.  In the book of Acts the earliest believers are called 'disciples' more than 30 times but Christians only two - thus showing a group who was learning to walk in the freedom of the gospel by learning to be more like their master by what He taught and how He lived.

I have not paid much attention to the 'nations' part until in my reading this week I came upon an excerpt by Dr. Kwame Bediako a prominent theologian from Ghana who departed this life in 2008.  He previously wrote:

"The Great Commission, therefore, is about the discipling of nations, the conversion of the things that make people into nations - the shared and common processes of thinking; attitudes; world views; perspectives; languages; and the cultural, social and economic habits of thought, behavior, and practice.  These things and the lives of the people in whom such things find expression - all of this is meant to be within the call of discipleship" (Theological Reflections 1996 p.184, emphasis mine)

When conceived of in this manner, the mission of God takes on a whole different light - much more than a call to reach individuals with a message and call for a personal commitment - this gospel has the power to get into the very fabric of a society and change and redeem those very core shared assumptions and worldviews that make a people a nation.  Jesus of course demonstrates this Himself time and time again by doing things and being with folks in a manner that was not socially accepted - he was bringing to light the destructive ways of separation and class in his Jewish nation. 

This gospel has the power to redeem and reclaim the very core fabric of groups of people and remake them into what God intended both for His glory in eternity and even now in our dealings with each other as human beings.  That is why we do what we do - we believe it for the people here and we believe it for our own nation and some of our own cultural norms that are not the Biblical ideal.  Anything less than this and our gospel is too small.  Jesus specifically called us to disciple nations and I think that Dr. Bediako has struck on a key aspect of what that mission truly is.