Real-Life Discipleship: Building Churches That Make Disciples

by Jim Putman, The Navigators

Real-Life Discipleship explains what should happen in the life of every Christian and in every small group so that the church becomes an army of believers dedicated to seeing the world saved. With the overriding goal to train disciples who know how to make more disciples, this book offers proven tools and strategies from Real Life Ministries, one of America’s fastest-growing churches. Discover what the Bible says about true and effective discipleship with these strategies and practices.

Genres: Discipleship, Christian, Church, Theology, Christian Living, Nonfiction, Leadership

208 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2010

Reviews

[Sharon Barrow Wilfong · Rating 5 out of 5]

Real-Life Discipleship was written for church leaders who want to help fulfill the Biblical mandate for the church, which is to magnify God and mature His people.

I appreciate how Putman points out that for too long too many churches have used the church as a venue to evangelize but not disciple. The result is a massive body of Christians that never grow beyond the infant stage of Christianity. Many are Biblically illiterate and adhere to false teaching because they never learned differently.

Putman explains the need for mature leadership and for mature Christians to come alongside the new believers and mentor them. He discusses how this is achieved through small groups where church members get to know each other personally and develop relationships that have an impact.

He also devotes chapters to turning followers into leaders.

This is a timely book and would be an excellent resource for churches looking to convert their local family into a body of strong, wise and mature believers.

[Zac Teston · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would 100% recommend this book, especially if you have already gone through the Real-Life Discipleship handbook or if it has been a few years. There are even thoughts and ideas that are communicated in this book that I do not remember being communicated in the workbook: “Goal: not church attendance…disciple,” “coach vs. player” mentality. This book has caused me to re-evaluate how I am doing ministry!

[Kat Lucille · Rating 4 out of 5]

The job is big and complex, but a coupling job. Growth is required by the means of discipleship which requires leadership. Leaders in the church should be helping disciple "train" to lead. Showing organizational skills and the will to love those who has no knowledge of how to live the life of Christ must be a priority for the church to grow in the way God calls us. Share the gameplan God has blessed us with.

[Gabriella Quitevis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely recommend to anyone who is discipling or looking to disciple!

[Rebekah Graff · Rating 1 out of 5]

Read this book for a class I’m taking next month - it all went out the window when I noticed the male-dominated language, and read on Real Life’s website that complementarianism is a doctrine that is “essential for unity” at the church. Sigh.

[Brenna Simpson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Putman’s book is relatively well written and laid out. However, the tone is pretentious and comes across as though the pinnacle of Christian church leadership is Real Life Ministries. Overall, the book feels more like a “here’s how Real Life functions” tutorial rather than a dissection of what biblical discipleship truly looks like. In the portion that discusses the spiritual states of a person (dead, infant, child, young adult, parent), Putman’s tone and attitude toward those in the dead, infant, and child stages seems to be one of condescension and judgement. Later in the book he gives a disclaimer saying that no one is more valuable than anyone else, yet explains in chapter 8 how spiritual infants are ignorant, dependent, and can be briefly “babysat” by young adults but needing full attention from spiritual parents. On that note, the tone regarding spiritual parents is a boastful one. The overall feel of spiritual “parenthood” is that once one has reached a point in which they are responsible for the “upbringing” of spiritual infants, they have peaked. There is an air of pride in the way in which this section was written, and the conclusion of chapter 11 finishes with the declaration that a spiritual parent does not need to be discipled any longer. I would argue that even the “most spiritually-mature” Christian can still be discipled from Christ Himself. Although I do agree that there are different stages of the Christian faith, I do not necessarily appreciate the way in which unbelievers and new Christians were discussed in this book. The condescending tone and praise for the Putman’s own self-proclaimed spiritual maturity didn’t make this book an overly enjoyable read. I did like a couple points made, but overall would not recommend it for someone who is seeking guidance on an appropriate way to view those who are growing in their faith.

[Abbie Riddle · Rating 5 out of 5]

SCMD - Share, Connect, Minister, Disciple. Such a simple strategy and yet so many fail to do it. I really enjoyed this book and the simple plan for discipleship laid out in its pages. I admire the work that Pastor Jim Putman put into this. After reviewing this book I am interested in purchasing the training manual and taking our youth group through it. We all need to be discipled and it is a sad fact brought out in this book and evident in our churches that many people are left undescipled. We are comfortable sharing the gospel but when it comes to training a young christian or helping them as they grow we are often sadly equiped and unsure of ourselves. This book serves to encourage those who are saved to grow to a point of being able to disciple others so that those they disciple can in turn disciple. We are in troublesome times, our battle is for eternity. It would be absurd to recruit a man to the military, hand him a gun and set him out on the battle field. Yet this is what is happening when a new christian is not discipled - we have set them up for death or capture by the enemy. Let us take more seriously this thing we call christianity - making it our lifestyle not simply a religion or denomination. This book will encourage you and equip you for the task of discipling.
Thank you NavPress for this review copy.

[Derek · Rating 5 out of 5]

Moving book about the power of true Discipleship. Uses the elements of head (cognitive), heart (affective), & hands (behavioral) as being critical to the disciple making process. In this book you will find practical descriptions to help ascertain where a person is in the discipleship process. Uses simple analogies such as Spiritual infant, Spiritual Child, Spiritual Adolescent, & Spiritual Parent to refer to the different steps along the path. A good read for anyone looking to enhance, alter, and assistance themselves or their church in developing reproducible disciples.

[Jeff Bobin · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are great leadership and disciple making principles here if you can get past the size of the church that Putman is a pastor of.

What he writes can be used in any size church because almost all of it is based on small group dynamics and their use for developing disciples.

One of the real strengths of this book is that it is clear that there are many ways to accomplish the process and you should probably not try and duplicate what they have done but learn from it.

[Michael Schmid · Rating 3 out of 5]

In his book Real-Life Discipleship, pastor Jim Putman writes about the importance of discipleship in the life of a church. According to his observations, this is a vital aspect that is often neglected in churches today. The book is divided into three main parts: “Setting the Stage for Discipleship,” “Mastering the Discipleship Process” and “Letting Disciples Emerge as Leaders.” Personally, I found the first part with the more general overview of the topic to be the most helpful and engaging.

Close to the beginning of the book, Putman shares a definition of discipleship that I had never seen in this way before, but found very insightful. In the second chapter of the book that is entitled “The invitation is the definition,” Putman argues that Christ’s invitation when calling his disciples that is found in Matthew 4:19 actually constitutes the definition of what discipleship is. In this verse, Jesus says, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Putman writes, “We believe that this invitation describes the definition of a disciple and that to follow Jesus will mean a life change at the head, heart, and hands level of our beings.” According to this definition of a disciple, a disciple is (1) one who is changed a the head level to know, accept, obey and follow Christ as one’s head, (2) one who is changed at the heart level to be made into a new person by Christ, and (3) one who is changed at the hands level to be committed to Christ’s mission of bringing others to salvation.

Another helpful insight for me from Putman’s book was his chart and description on the different stages of a disciple’s growth to help one understand the different mindset and areas for growth in different disciples. Putman describes five different stages of a disciple’s growth: (1) spiritually dead, (2) spiritual infant, (3) spiritual child, (4) spiritual young adult, and (5) spiritual parent. This classification in itself is not ground-breaking, but as Putman goes on to the different mindsets and attitudes that characterize each stage, I could recognize these in my own life and in the lives of others. Putman shows how infants are characterized by ignorance and need to be taught the truths of God’s Word, whereas children are characterized by self-centeredness and need to become more connected to God and to others. Young adults are characterized by service, God-centeredness and other-centeredness, but lack and need to acquire the mindset of making disciples that is present in spiritual parents.

One final helpful insight from the book was about the importance of being intentional and relational in discipleship. Discipleship is about guided practice. Putman describes such a process as follows:
"Great disciple-makers will always take their followers through a process. It starts with “You watch; I do” and moves to “Let’s do it together” and then to “You do; I watch.” Finally, the disciple starts the same process with someone else – someone who watches while the disciple does."

While such a process is quite logical and probably even generally known from experience, the explicit mentions of the progressing steps are helpful in underlining the importance of being intentional and relational in one’s discipleship, showing the growth and changing roles both of the disciple and of the disciple-maker.

One point of disagreement I had with the author was his enthusiasm for and emphasis on what is known as “Bible-storying,” where rather than teaching or preaching the Bible, a group of people interested in the Bible meet together to retell different stories of the Bible from memory. Putman rightly ascribes the origins of this practice to situations on the mission field among illiterate people who are not able to read the Bible for themselves. While this may be an interesting and even fun and in some ways helpful method of engaging with God’s Word, this is not a method that is prescribed – or even found – in Scripture. And certainly there is no need for it among people who are literate and can read and study the written Word of God for themselves. Despite the author’s conviction and arguments there is no danger of straying from the Word of God in “Bible-storying,” I remain unconvinced. In addition, what do we do with those parts of the Bible that are not stories? Just leave them out and ignore them? This method is faulty in several ways, most of all in that it strays from God’s clear instruction to preach and teach the Word (2 Tim 4:2; Col 3:16), which is also the method that we see being used by Christ and the early church.

In my discipleship, therefore, I want to focus on preaching and teaching God’s Word to others. Putman’s book helped me recognize the importance of being intentional and relational in my discipleship efforts, seeking to lead others to the point where they can also teach God’s Word to others, first with help and without my involvement. For this to become a reality, a disciple must grow through the different stages of discipleship to become a spiritual parent, someone who is able to teach others and who has a God-given desire to do so.

In conclusion, Real-Life Discipleship is a very helpful book for learning about the different stages of discipleship and knowing what is needed to bring a disciple from being a spiritual infant to becoming a spiritual parent for the building of the church and for the glory of God.

[Rick Dobrowolski · Rating 4 out of 5]

I appreciate all the practical tips this book gives for how discipleship works in the church. The main content I received from the book was a grid to determine where people are in the growth process and tools to utilize in helping them grow more.

The author also touches on an oral storytelling of the Bible to utilize in small group settings. It peaked my interest to look into this further.

[Msj8484 · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good book expressing the need for solid discipleship in churches and laying out the system that is being used effectively by Real Life Ministries, east of Spokane, WA.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

There was a lot of really great things in this book. A few moments of disagreement but overall it presented a compelling and biblical approach to our greatest mission: discipleship.

[Michael Culbertson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Putnam offers a helpful framework for thinking about the stages of development in Christian maturity, providing a central characteristic and sample statements ("phrase from the stage") that illustrate the dispositions evident in each stage.

The spiritual infant, having freshly started following Jesus, is characterized by ignorance and needs instruction in the basics of Christian faith. The spiritual child knows the basics of the faith, but is characterized by self-centeredness and needs to grow in love of God and neighbor. The spiritual young adult has developed an other focus and is characterized by service, but does not yet have the skills to guide others along the path of discipleship. Finally, the spiritual parent has achieved full maturity and is ready to make new disciples. Some spiritual parents are also gifted in leadership, and may take on leadership roles in the organization of the church.

Putnam's zeal for evangelism is admirable, but it has led him to a narrow conception of the Church and the Christian life as focused entirely on the multiplication of disciples. Certainly, making disciples is an important part of the Church's mission, but loving God is more than loving those whom he loves (and wants to become disciples), and loving your neighbor is more than making sure that they get onto the path of discipleship. Granted, this is a book about discipleship, but the narrow focus seems to have mistaken the means of spiritual growth for its end; whereas, the end should be something more like communion with God. Without a broader view, one might inadvertently make discipleship design decisions that do not equip disciples for anything other than evangelism, falling short of the fullness of Christian life.

Narrow focus aside, the piece that I really felt the lack of was a description of discipling relationships. I very much appreciated Putnam's focus on relationship as the primary means through which disciples are made, as well as his emphasis on both teaching and modeling Christian maturity for younger disciples. But, while he outlines some topics that might be covered with disciples in different stages, Putnam says little about what goes on in these discipling relationships—the nature of the interactions between disciple and disciple-maker. Are they formal or informal? Explicit or implicit? Planned or opportunistic? Proactive or responsive? Individual or group? How frequent are they? What do they sound and feel like? How can you tell when they are going well, and what do you do when they seem to be languishing? And how do they shift over the course of the disciple's maturity? There probably isn't a single set of answers to any of these questions, but a richer description of the range of what these discipling relationships look like in practice, as well as some principles for guiding how to approach the interactions in these relationships, would have been greatly appreciated.

Even though I don't find Putnam's paradigm an entirely comfortable fit, the book was helpful for catalyzing my own thinking about discipleship.

[C.M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an incredibly valuable book for those in church leadership. That being said, I rated it three out of five stars simply because it didn't hold as much relevance to me as it claimed it would in the first chapter, as I am not involved in church leadership. I do believe there are principles throughout the book that every Christian can use to evaluate their own personal walks with Christ and relationships within the church; however, it is primarily a resource for church leaders. If you are in one of those positions, absolutely pick this up. If not, I would say the first couple of chapters contain sufficient information for you but this is a good read if you're craving something a little more practical and academic in nature.

[Cory · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent book, all who are in church leadership or strive to be in church leadership some day should read.

Jesus' command was to "Go ... make disciples, baptize them, and continue to teach them". I don't believe enough Christians nor the church take this command -to make disciples- seriously enough.

And all should be trying to understand Jesus' words here in a deeper way.

Putman lines out how his church has taken the command seriously. It takes very strong and mature leadership to make this work in a local church, which is not something easy to find these days. But we should be striving for something better. This books gives some great ideas on how to do that.

[Rich Thornton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not a lot of books are both inspiring and practical but this one is definitely both. The need to let people know that all of us are invited to be disciple-makers not just disciples is firmly shared here but not left there to just dangle in your mind. Jim Putman has not just lived out this disciple-making in the past but continues to not only do it himself, not just "assign" it to others, but shares a "system" that is meant to be adapted in various contexts but able to be used to move ahead to train others.

Yes, he shares a system but more importantly he lets the listener and reader know that not only did Jesus invite us to be disciples and disciple-makers but that we can do this. Not alone. Not with a system. But by trusting in the Holy Spirit to not keep Jesus to ourselves.

[Chris Whitehead · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very good book that takes the focus off of what many churches are currently doing and puts it back on what they should be doing. Jesus did not say "go into the world and build churches" but he said "go and make disciples and then teach them to make disciples."

I highly suggest that both this book AND "Culture Of Honor" by Danny Silk be read back to back so that one can catch more of a glimpse of how a 5-fold ministry and discipleship can and should work together.

[Kyle Plunkett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy to understand, incredibly practical in nature, but very difficult to live. Real-life discipleship outlines the effective church strategy to produce and release true spiritual leaders who change the world one life at a time. Only reason I’m giving this book a 4 star review is because some writing is sloppy, and the author uses too many church colloquialisms common only in evangelical circles. However, I highly recommend this short read for any serious disciple makers.

[Cory St. Esprit · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the view of the discipleship circle. I feel it's an accurate and articulate way to describe discipleship. With theology coupled with real life stories, it was an intriguing book. My only reason for 4 stars and not 5 was just due to writing style. He was a little long winded and I felt some points could have been explained in 1 page instead of 3.

[Mike Sechler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very practical.

Having read and lead a group through Discipleshift, I would say this book is even better. I love the simple biblical categories that Jim uses, which in turn make for very practical application in real world settings. The leadership principles really challenged me to consider how I as a pastor was really leading people towards full maturity in Christ.

[Jay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great simplicity and genuine real-life coverage

Enjoyed this book among many other discipleship books for its straight to the point analysis and prescription for making disciples. Very easy to read, gives you things to think about, and based on good principles that we can use immediately. Going to be praying and seeing how we can implement in our church!

[Mark Roossinck · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jim Putman offers his model for making disciples within his church called "Real-Life." The system is strong and solid, drawn from the Scriptures. Our church is looking to grasp this model for our own vision of disciple making within the church.

[Tim Genry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great resource for learning and teaching the methods and strategies of leading the unreached into a walk with Jesus. Real Life is sharing their methodology which is not the only way but it has proven to be effective and reproducible.

[Bill Bridgman · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for any size church leader.

Jim takes you through step by step the discipleship process. Steps that his ministry has proven to be effective in disciples making disciples who make disciples. As a pastor of a smaller congregation, I see how these principles will work within our community of faith. I'm encourage for the new relationships I will be making as I model this kind of discipleship.

[Tony Wolfe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Practical. Biblical. Simple. This is a short read on organizing/strategizing for biblical discipleship in the church.

[Caleb Isaacs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book! It really shows how to disciple well and how to mature yourself into becoming a mature believer in Christ. Easy and fun to read as well.

[Anne Snyder · Rating 5 out of 5]

Intriguing thoughts about how to incorporate community and make disciples like Jesus told us to do, in a real-life way.

[Kandace Greene · Rating 4 out of 5]

There were some extremely practical pointers in this book. This is a great resource! I wish I could have found it sooner.

[Michael Nieves · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic framework to move people on a discipleship journey. Identifies common presuppositions about the spiritual status of those who have been in the church but not disciples.