Organic Discipleship: Mentoring Others into Spiritual Maturity and Leadership

by Dennis McCallum, Jessica Lowery

From the one of the leading disciplemaking churches in North America comes a new book on how they did it. For nearly 40 years, Xenos Christian Fellowship in Columbus, Ohio has used personal disciplemaking as the basis for planting hundreds of house churches. Lead Pastor, Dennis McCallum and his daughter Jessica cover both theory and practice in this highly readable manual. Learn every phase of successful disciplemaking from friendship building, to coaching, to releasing disciples who continue to multiply.

Includes fascinating discussions on subjects like:

"If friendship is the basis for disciplemaking, how can I build and enhance quality friendships?"
"How do I motivate my friend?"
"What character changes should I look for, and how can I promote them without being legalistic?"
"How can I impart a sense of vision for my friend's life?"
"What makes people eager to serve God and others?"
"How does making disciples promote evangelism?"
"What do I do if things aren't going well?"
"How can I invest in a way that creates ongoing desire to follow God, even when I'm not around?"

This book is considered by many to be the most comprehensive and practical book on making disciples in print today. The authors are not theoreticians, but practitioners, who have used personal disciplemaking to reach over 8000 active participants in their church, most of whom became Christians at Xenos.

Genres: Discipleship, Leadership, Christian, Spirituality, Christian Living, Religion, Nonfiction

330 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2006

About the author

Dennis is Lead pastor of Xenos Fellowship, which is a grassroots house church planting ministry. Since beginning the group as a student Ohio State University, during the Jesus movement, he has remained interested in reproducing church features found in the New Testament. Xenos focuses on Bible exposition at its meetings, and most of Dennis' books focus on Bible teaching.

Reviews

[Chase · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very practical book. I don't agree with everything, but this book encouraged me to be more intentional about mentoring and gives some practical advice.

[Thomas Price McCuddy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Organic means natural

This method of discipleship is less program and more relational. Schools educate, but churches should disciple. It should look more like a family than an institution and this book explains how it should be done and why these principles are important. It's not a script or a manual for how to build a disciple but principles and concepts grounded in scripture with a clear understanding of the nature of people.

[Karen · Rating 2 out of 5]

interesting. would work well with primarily extroverted people. i really just skim-read this one to glean information that could apply to a one-on-one mentoring relationship. don't agree with it all, of course. don't like some parts of it that seem to judge others who don't actively "disciple" a lot of people.

[David Hardin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alot of really good stuff in this book, particularly the beginning. I did think at times it seemed too micro managing, and i have some theological disagreement with the chapter on who should be discipled.

[Chris Risley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book every time I read it

[Dennis Mccallum · Rating 5 out of 5]

How did the early church raise up leaders and servants when they had no seminaries or training schools? Why were they so vital that they grew in a way never seen since the first century? Maybe we should take a look at the ancient method of mentoring that built quality into people's lives, instead of warehousing numbers who passively absorb what the professionals dish up?

With a combined 50 years field experience, these authors are well situated to teach the practical aspects of the task of raising up mature leaders and role s.

This is not a curriculum for making disciples.

Forget about easy formulas for making disciples.

Avoid high-control, "shepherding" theories of discipleship.

This is an approach that grows the organic way: out of love relationships and real community.

Includes discussions on subjects like:

"If friendship is the basis for disciplemaking, how can I build and enhance quality friendships?"


"How do I motivate my friend?"


"What character changes should I look for, and how can I promote them without being legalistic?"


"How can I impart a sense of vision for my friend's life?"


"What makes people eager to serve God and others?"

"How can I impart a life-long love of God's word?"


"How does making disciples promote evangelism?"


"What do I do if my disciple isn't growing?"


"How can I invest in a way that creates ongoing desire to follow God, even when I'm not around?"

Jesus didn't tell us to go and make converts. He told us to go and make disciples! It's not too late to recapture the dynamism of the early church!

Dr. Dave Earley, Director for the Center for Ministry Training
"These are master disciple-makers. Dennis has personally mentored more people into spiritual maturity and leadership than anyone I know."

Don't forget to download your FREE Group Study Guide

[Joel Muinde]

Read it while it was being written chapter by chapter and it is a perfect example of how churches interested in real disciples ought to do in order to be successful. What a book written from the real life example of a church living what it preaches.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

holyspirited view

[Brandi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is amazing and life changing!

[Bob Ayres · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well written and practical information...

[Amy Jacobsen · Rating 5 out of 5]

inspirational, practical, Biblical