Conversion and Discipleship: You Can't Have One without the Other

by Bill Hull, Scot McKnight (Foreword)

Discipleship occurs when someone answers the call to learn from Jesus how to live his or her life—as though Jesus were living it. The end result is that the disciple becomes the kind of person who naturally does what Jesus did. How the church understands salvation and the gospel is the key to recovering a biblical theology of discipleship. Our doctrines of grace and salvation, in some cases, actually prevent us from creating an expectation that we are to be disciples of Jesus. A person can profess to be a Christian and yet still live under the impression that they don’t need to actually follow Jesus. Being a follower is seen as an optional add-on, not a requirement. It is a choice, not a demand. Being a Christian today has no connection with the biblical idea that we are formed into the image of Christ. In this ground-breaking new book, pastor and author Bill Hull shows why our existing models of evangelism and discipleship fail to actually produce followers of Jesus. He looks at the importance of recovering a robust view of the gospel and taking seriously the connection between conversion—answering the call to follow Jesus—and discipleship—living like the one we claim to follow.

Genres: Discipleship, Christianity, Theology, Church, Evangelism, Christian, Faith

Kindle Edition

First published January 12, 2016

About the author

Bill’s passion is to help the church return to its disciple making roots and he considers himself a discipleship evangelist. This God-given desire has manifested itself in 20 of pastoring and the authorship of many books. Two of his more important books, Jesus Christ Disciple Maker, and The Disciple Making Pastor, have both celebrated 20 years in print. Add his third in the popular trilogy, The Disciple Making Church , and you have a new paradigm for disciple making.

Reviews

[J · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this book Hull attempts to lay out a theology of discipleship. He begins with the premise that the Gospel you preach determines the type of disciple you’ll make. Thus, conversion and discipleship are inextricably linked. He offers a view of six different gospels that are predominantly preached in today’s world and the type of Christ follower that results. Most of the book is unfolding his Kingdom Gospel and giving a defense of that. For me the gold of the book is in the last few chapters when he examines the implications to our lives and ministries. Perhaps a reflection of me more than the book, but getting to that gold took more time than I’d like, thus 4/5.

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for a class. Very good discussion of discipleship and its essential function in the modern church.

[Jon Beadle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good!

[Kyle Robertson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first book by Bill Hull that I have read, and I really enjoyed it. His words are enlightening, thought provoking, and convicting. I felt that Hull had a real passion for making disciples throughout the world. This book is not a call to convert people, but rather to teach them to be disciples of Christ; to teach people to be more like Jesus and to spread God's Word throughout the world. This is not a book about a new program, and it is certainly not an instruction manual. It is a call to action.

This book is saturated with scripture. Hull draws largely from the teachings of Dallas Willard, Bonhoeffer, and other well known and respected scholars and theologians to illuminate his main points. One thing that is mentioned early in the book that I have noticed is that discipleship is being taken more seriously in the church today, especially among young pastors and leaders. One of my favorite pastors to listen to and read is Jack Graham. He preaches the Bible and conversion and discipleship. My other favorite is Matt Chandler. We are experiencing a culture shift among pastors. As many aging pastors begin to retire, churches often look to replace them with a younger pastor. These younger pastors have had more opportunities for advanced education and more opportunities to experience the world before being called. The problem is that they can either fully embrace discipleship training and teaching, or they can outright ignore it. As the cultural shifts and struggles persist, people are turning to the church for help and guidance. We need strong leaders and disciples in the church to guide the lost and hurting. We need a return to Christ-centered Biblical teaching in order to convert sinners and make them disciples of Christ.

For the purposes of this book, conversion is defined as when a person decides to become a Christian; discipleship occurs when someone answers the call to learn from Jesus and others how to live his or her life as though Jesus we're living it. Hull argues that "we have been conducting evangelism as a matter of conversion using a plan of salvation that is disconnected from discipleship. But you cannot have one without the other. A plan of salvation does not produce healthy disciples and is no way to build a church." Through this book you will see the picture of discipleship beyond salvation that God has planned so that all who follow might live more like Him. This book is highly recommended to all Christians. I received this as a free ARC from Zondervan on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Brooke · Rating 5 out of 5]

We read this book in our Connect group at church. We each read through it and then would discuss it on Sunday. It brought up a lot of great discussion. By reading this book I was challenged with the fact that the way I was presented salvation was not what was pictures in this book. The time of salvation always seemed like the end. You get saved and your good to go. But that is just the beginning to a lifetime of learning and discipleship. Has really changed my entire way of how I present the gospel and live my life.

[Ben Clay · Rating 3 out of 5]

overall good view on the importance on discipleship but since every chapter was loaded with quotes from Dallas Willard it makes you think then why am I not reading his book instead. Also discipleship isn't a straight formula and in one chapter he lays out the Jesus Method of discipleship as "Come and See, Come and Follow Me, Come and Be With Me, and Remain in Me". Which sounds good but in his own book he muddies up the difference between the Come and See and Come and Follow phase proving that Discipleship needs to be an organic process where each person you disciple is going to be different how you teach them.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Must read for all church leaders

This is a must read for all church leaders. Bill Hull plainly shares how the “Americanized” church has missed Jesus call to Follow Him. It will challenge certain ways of thinking offering better ways to practice what Jesus taught. Disciples reproduce themselves and multiply the call to Follow Jesus with each disciple formed.

[Curtis Reid · Rating 4 out of 5]

Honestly could go back and read this again. Great book recommended by an even greater professor. This book is helpful to assist those who are trying to gain a better understanding of evangelism within the 21st century.

[Donald Johnson]

This my favorite book on "being a disciple." Honest, and straight forward-Bill Hull minces no words about the dismissive attitude towards discipleship in Christianity today. This book calls the church back to its purpose (Mt. 28:18-20).

[Bill Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

revolutionary book!

I highly recommend this book for anyone who follows Jesus. This message is truly revolutionary and can make a huge difference in the lives of many people throughout the world.

[Damon Hawkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Challenging book that will make you rethink the Gospel.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Helpful read on the topic(s) by a long-time disciple-making practitioner. Discipleship is not optional!

[Mark Perkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Spot on

Bill and Brandon are spot on with this book. Believers have been sold erroneously the thinking that we can be disciples without being disciple makers.

[S. J. Holton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read. Full of wonderful insight with very little repetition. Just what we need.

[DAVID WILSON · Rating 5 out of 5]

EXCELLENT , great points, methods and obsevations .

[Debbie · Rating 2 out of 5]

"The thesis of this book is that all who are called to salvation are also called to discipleship" (from page 219). The author argues that the current "just say the 'sinners prayer' and assent to certain beliefs and you're saved" method of making converts makes discipleship sound optional but it's not. He provides a detailed study of verses relating to topics like faith, salvation, justification, regeneration, repentance and forgiveness, sanctification, and self-discipline. He suggests 4 phases to how Jesus called and taught his disciples and looked at the early church in Jerusalem and in Ephesus as disciple-making churches. Finally, he appeals to pastors to focus on creating disciples who will then make disciples who then continue the cycle.

The text was very dense and took me a long time to work through. He seemed to say one thing in one place then say the opposite in another, and I'm not sure I always understood the nuances that he apparently intended. The book felt like an intellectual exercise, and he even refers to parts as "his research findings." He treated the gospels like a method to be examined and replicated rather than an encounter with Jesus, the very one we're supposed to follow.

Though I'm interested in increasing discipleship in churches, I'm not a leader or teacher and I didn't feel like I was the intended audience. The author directly appeals to pastors as the ones to change their churches into disciple-making churches. His proposed method seems to be that the pastor will create a small, intimate group that he disciples for a while (a year was mentioned), and once they're taught, they go and create small, intimate groups where they do the same things, and so on. He doesn't mention women in any part of this process.

I was a little concerned that his proposed method would produce disciples of the pastor rather than disciples of Christ. The focus was on the pastor sharing his amassed knowledge of Christ rather than helping people encounter and grow in their knowledge and relationship with Christ. I don't think this was what he intended, however, because at the very end he does mention "real discipleship is not to apostles or charismatic teachers, it is to Jesus alone" (from page 224). Basically, I felt like he made some good points, but there was very little of "how it would work in real life." I was left wondering if he had tried it himself as he doesn't talk about it.

Pet peeve: This is a very minor point, but he talked about the parable of the 4 types of soil and said it showed that only 25% of people who hear the word will be fruitful. The parable never gives a percent. A farmer that only bothers to clear and till 25% of his field is a starving-to-death farmer. This is not good "proof" for why we should put all of our efforts into only 25% of the people.

I received this review copy from the publisher through Amazon Vine.

[Sharon Siepel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book for pastors, church leaders and elders. Bill Hull makes a solid argument for discipleship covering eight subjects: the gospel, the call, salvation, the Holy Spirit and the ways and means of discipleship. He argues against the trend "to treat the experience of conversion as something entirely separate from the process of being a disciple." The book contains a significant amount of scripture references and is well researched. I didn't find much of the information new, but it still gave me food for thought. Also, this book is clearly talking about the church-at-large in the United States. I don't know how much the rest of the world is experiencing the same issues.