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How to Make Disciples: A simple, proven model for making self-sustaining followers of God
"We make followers of churches, musicians, pastors, and authors all the time. It is easy. What seems difficult and time-consuming is making followers of a God who cannot be seen."Discipleship seems elusive. We all know that God told us to make disciples. We want to build fully devoted followers of Christ, but most often, we do little more than educate and entertain.How to Make Disciples follows Doug’s journey from struggling to make a few disciples to having five generations of self-sustaining, self-replicating disciples of God. Packed with real stories, insights, and illustrations, How to Make Disciples provides a simple, proven, step-by-step process for making disciples. You will secret sauce that resulted in Doug’s five-generations-deep disciple-making culture,a simple and succinct definition of discipleship that clears up “what” we should really be doing,how to give disciples what they need, when they need it, as they travel along the very predictable discipleship pathway,the four foundational elements found in every successful discipleship model, andDoug’s seven core practices as he helps people become prepared, confident, and skilled followers of God.Do you want those you lead to have the passion, life, and success you have? Whether you are a pastor, small-group leader, or layperson, How to Make Disciples is the answer you have been looking for.
340 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 20, 2019
9 people are currently reading
7 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 9, 2022
I first met Doug at a pastor’s retreat last year. He is an energizer bunny of a man— an off the charts extrovert, encourager, with a passion for getting below the surface quickly with someone, and then to keep digging. Spend a weekend with Doug and you have a lifelong friend.
So I was very glad that he is the narrator of this book, because it makes me feel like I am having a conversation with a friend.
Tho model for disciple making Doug lays out is daunting on the surface— a fourteen point pathway! A four year period! And Doug is straightforward in his conviction that this is THE way to make disciples. But he has not arrived at this conclusion In a cubicle at the headquarters of a Christian publishing house. Instead, it’s been through reading everything he could get his hands on, years of trial and error, an academic background as a decision scientist, and as a practitioner who, at the time of the writing of the book, was seeing the fifth generation of disciples who were completing a four year process.
(As a side note— when you pick up a book titled “How to Make Disciples,” don’t you pretty much expect a very directed, do this-do that-follow these steps” system? If not, read a book called “Tentative Attempts at Disciple Making… But What Do I Know?”)
What is revolutionary to me about Doug’s process (what he calls the predictable pathway) is that the fourteen steps are really seven pairs of “Be-Do” steps. And that being leads into doing, which moves us into the next level of being. This is a such a grace-filled approach to becoming a disciple, especially for people who think being a disciple is a performance oriented, merit-based elite level of Christianity. It’s a powerful tool to give to any would-be disciple— show them the path, and ask them to identify where they are on the path.
I don’t love everything about the book. I would have appreciated the Scripture references to all be from the ESV, for example, but that is a personal preference. And while I appreciate the definition that discipleship is leading a person to live his best life on earth (John 10:10), it feels like that “best life ever” talk has been so corrupted and hijacked by prosperity gospel purveyors that it’s unusable by anyone else.
But those are minor stylistic quibbles. Overall, this is such a challenging, practical book, and it is changing the way I think about how to lead my church. Thank you, Doug, for casting such a clear vision, and then being a good steward of it by not just keeping it to yourself.
So I was very glad that he is the narrator of this book, because it makes me feel like I am having a conversation with a friend.
Tho model for disciple making Doug lays out is daunting on the surface— a fourteen point pathway! A four year period! And Doug is straightforward in his conviction that this is THE way to make disciples. But he has not arrived at this conclusion In a cubicle at the headquarters of a Christian publishing house. Instead, it’s been through reading everything he could get his hands on, years of trial and error, an academic background as a decision scientist, and as a practitioner who, at the time of the writing of the book, was seeing the fifth generation of disciples who were completing a four year process.
(As a side note— when you pick up a book titled “How to Make Disciples,” don’t you pretty much expect a very directed, do this-do that-follow these steps” system? If not, read a book called “Tentative Attempts at Disciple Making… But What Do I Know?”)
What is revolutionary to me about Doug’s process (what he calls the predictable pathway) is that the fourteen steps are really seven pairs of “Be-Do” steps. And that being leads into doing, which moves us into the next level of being. This is a such a grace-filled approach to becoming a disciple, especially for people who think being a disciple is a performance oriented, merit-based elite level of Christianity. It’s a powerful tool to give to any would-be disciple— show them the path, and ask them to identify where they are on the path.
I don’t love everything about the book. I would have appreciated the Scripture references to all be from the ESV, for example, but that is a personal preference. And while I appreciate the definition that discipleship is leading a person to live his best life on earth (John 10:10), it feels like that “best life ever” talk has been so corrupted and hijacked by prosperity gospel purveyors that it’s unusable by anyone else.
But those are minor stylistic quibbles. Overall, this is such a challenging, practical book, and it is changing the way I think about how to lead my church. Thank you, Doug, for casting such a clear vision, and then being a good steward of it by not just keeping it to yourself.
July 15, 2024
I was torn between a 3 and a 4 for this rating. There are lots of good nuggets in this book about making disciples. I love how Scripture is central and essential to their disciple-making process. I love the high level of commitment, the “secret sauce” of focusing on transformation and the insistence that you can’t be a disciple with surrendering to follow Jesus. I appreciated the seven core practices, the focus on serving as part of discipleship and the helpful notes the author shared from the experience and research of their church and organization.
From a writing standpoint, the book was redundant and often referred to things the author said were in other places in the book but I didn’t see those things in other places in the book. It was 320 pages, but I feel like it could have easily been 250 if it was better organized. I did not appreciate that the author referred to “money, pride and family” as the”unholy trinity”. I understand what he was trying to say by including family as part of an unholy trinity, but family is good and it is only a problem when we elevate it above God.
I also thought that the author’s (organization’s) definition of a disciple was man-centered. The end goal of discipleship was defined as helping people follow God so they can live their best life ever. While I do believe that the fruit of following Jesus will be our best life ever, this definition easily turns into a vending machine view of Jesus. In other words, I follow Jesus and He gives me what I want. I think the end goal of discipleship should be to follow Jesus so that we can live for what we were created for, love and full communion with God that flows to loving others the way God loves us. We follow Jesus because He is worthy to be followed.
Lastly, though I appreciate that the “predictable pathway” focuses on being before doing, it seemed to me that it was just about how they phrased it. For example, one of the “Bes” was “be taught”. That is not really a “be”. You could just as easily define that step on the pathway as “listen to teaching”.
If you don’t want to wade through the book for the nuggets, I would suggest you look for the headings on the seven core practices and the predictable pathway and then read sections about how they help disciples interact with Scripture in different ways as they develop as disciples. In general, the headings are helpful, so looking at those as you scan the book and reading the ones that look helpful to you, would provide so helpful learning.
From a writing standpoint, the book was redundant and often referred to things the author said were in other places in the book but I didn’t see those things in other places in the book. It was 320 pages, but I feel like it could have easily been 250 if it was better organized. I did not appreciate that the author referred to “money, pride and family” as the”unholy trinity”. I understand what he was trying to say by including family as part of an unholy trinity, but family is good and it is only a problem when we elevate it above God.
I also thought that the author’s (organization’s) definition of a disciple was man-centered. The end goal of discipleship was defined as helping people follow God so they can live their best life ever. While I do believe that the fruit of following Jesus will be our best life ever, this definition easily turns into a vending machine view of Jesus. In other words, I follow Jesus and He gives me what I want. I think the end goal of discipleship should be to follow Jesus so that we can live for what we were created for, love and full communion with God that flows to loving others the way God loves us. We follow Jesus because He is worthy to be followed.
Lastly, though I appreciate that the “predictable pathway” focuses on being before doing, it seemed to me that it was just about how they phrased it. For example, one of the “Bes” was “be taught”. That is not really a “be”. You could just as easily define that step on the pathway as “listen to teaching”.
If you don’t want to wade through the book for the nuggets, I would suggest you look for the headings on the seven core practices and the predictable pathway and then read sections about how they help disciples interact with Scripture in different ways as they develop as disciples. In general, the headings are helpful, so looking at those as you scan the book and reading the ones that look helpful to you, would provide so helpful learning.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews