Organic Discipleship: Mentoring Others Into Spiritual Maturity and Leadership

by Dennis McCallum, Jessica Lowery

Two leading disciplemakers explain how mentor disciples in one of the most successful discipling based church in North America. Biblical and practical, this book gets down to the real questions in the disciple making process:
What is the biblical case for making disciples?

How can I disciple others if I was never discipled?

How do I select someone to disciple?

How do I get started?

How do I become the kind of close friend that can influence another?

What sort of goals should we set?

What kind of study content is most helpful?

How can I foster a love of prayer in another?

Why are some models followed more than others?

How can I create a life-long thirst for doing ministry?

How can I effectively coach my friend in his or her ministry?

When can I release a disciple to independence?

These authors speak from a ministry that has raised up hundreds of house church leaders during their combined 60 years of experience.

Genres: Discipleship, Nonfiction, Leadership, Christian

362 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 13, 2012

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

[Morgan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book on disciple making - theory, scripture, practice, and strategy. I go back to it every few years to get refreshed and it never disappoints!

[Emily Cottle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I used this book as the curriculum for my discipleship group. Our goal was to become better disciple makers, and I think the book did a descent job of preparing us for this journey. Towards the end, it got a little tedious, like maybe the authors only had 150 pages worth of info but felt they needed to stretch it to 300. Also, though it didn't detract from the content, there were a lot of typos in the book, which always annoys me. But the authors were passionate about discipleship, and they have a lot of experience with it. They expect a lot from disciple makers, just as Jesus does, so overall I was pleased with the book and the discussions it spurred in our group.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dennis is a master disciplemaking and and has a great deal to share in this book. He rightly points out that often "discipleship" stops at the point that someone is established in their faith (what I think should be called follow-up and is masterfully covered by Gary Kuhne's Dynamics of Personal Followup). Discipleship should continue until the person is able to pass on to others what they have learned and know. I am convinced that much of the church's weakness can be tracked back to a failure to take discipline making seriously. While I greatly appreciate this book, I think it needs some balance which brings into more focus that it is God's work to change people. I would recommend combining this book with something that comes from the spiritual formation tradition such as https://renovare.org/books

[Wesley Roth · Rating 3 out of 5]

In Organic Discipleship, McCallum & Lowery outline their discipleship model, which focuses on mentoring others into spiritual maturity and therefore, become a discipler themselves. Discipleship, refers to a training and facilitating process aimed at helping Christians reach maturity and fruitfulness” (pg 33). The disciplemaker, “offer[s] themselves up to God to build into another believer’s life.” Their goals for discipleship include radical change in: character, understanding and ministry capability (pg. 23). Growing to a maturity in Christ will constitute a person who is, “complete in Him” (Col 1:28).

[Michael Culbertson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Too focused on attempting to effect transformation through personal effort. Insufficient understanding of how the power of God transforms. Too focused on outward behaviors. Insufficient vision for the heart of the flourishing life. Too focused on confronting others with what one judges to be their problems. Insufficiently deep conception of self-sacrificial love. Too quick to release immature Christians to do sensitive work in others' lives. Insufficiently nuanced conception of maturity. Too focused on telling others what's what. Insufficient call to invite others into a rich life with God.

[Trey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very helpful

Very helpful i enjoyed a lot. Good for all disciples and people being discipled. I encourage people to read it.

[Emily Yu Saalman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Practical, biblical guidelines on discipleship. Real life examples are so helpful

[Eimy Porrello · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good as a tool

[Ken · Rating 4 out of 5]

Organic Discipleship is a book dense with facts, instruction, and challenge. These men have thought of it all, it seems. They have strong results to show for their 30 years of labor in teaching and training.

I can think of no detail left out of this roadmap for local church discipleship. The bar is set very high, and I surmise most churches won't go this far. But the effectiveness is hard to deny.

[Tonda]

Great knowledge. A must read for leaders

I've only had a chance to get through a small chapter and it is much needed will definitely pass on to my Bishop