Robby Gallaty
(Growing Up, Firmly Planted) rightfully
thinks discipleship is important to the life of a Christian. In his latest book Rediscovering Discipleship: Making Jesus' Final Words Our First Work
(Zondervan, 2015) he shares some of what he has learned about how to more
effectively be a disciple, and just as importantly, and probably more so, how
to make disciples.
This fairly
short book (less than 250 pages
including front and back matter) has two main sections. The first part
"Know the Man Before You Go on the Mission" offers some historical
context from the life and times of Jesus, and also something a little more
recent, a missing comma (read chapter 7 to find out how a missing comma totally
changes the way we read things). Included in this part is the four-step process
that Gallaty identifies from his study of the Gospels as the one Jesus used: 1)
Jesus ministered while the disciples watched; 2) Jesus allowed the disciples to
assist him in ministry; 3) the disciples ministered with the assistance of Jesus;
and 4) Jesus observed as the disciples ministered to others. And then they were
released to replicate the process.
The second
part is aptly titled "The Method of Making Disciples". The chapters
in this section cover a variety of topics such as making disciples in the post-Christian
culture, why discipling non-believers doesn't work (disciple making is more
than getting someone to say a prayer) along with some of the attributes of a
discipleship group.
This is
not a book just for pastors or just for the elder responsible for discipleship and
evangelism; it's a book for Christians who take seriously the call to be a
disciple maker (you remember that pesky command found in Matthew 28). And if
you don't take that command seriously you should definitely read this book.
I was
given a advance copy of this book for agreeing to be part of the launch team, to read the book and to post a review.
5/5
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