How to Be a Disciple Who Makes Disciples

This was another book I finished during a recent ministry trip out West, and for good reason. I needed a spark, something that could rejuvenate my thinking quickly towards intentional discipleship, and this book did the trick.

A little backstory

My family has been wandering a bit since we left our home and ministry at the beginning of COVID four years ago. In the meantime, we’ve not been sitting on our hands, of course. I completed a doctorate and have taken on several new ministry roles here in the States, yet our hearts remain over there, half a world away.

Ministry here is different, and during those initial bunch of months (especially when personal contact wasn’t much allowed), I stepped away from any intentional, one-on-one discipleship ministry. Months turned into years, and although I continue in ministry leadership roles, it’s just not the same! I feel like I’ve lost my discipleship edge, and that’s frightening. So when I got the opportunity to conduct some ministry training out West, I knew that I needed to stir the fire a bit, like Paul encouraged Timothy:

For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.

2Tim 1:6-7

As I prepared for my visit, I searched my Kindle for anything that might help me refocus my thinking on the ministry I’d done for 2 decades, and this title popped up.

I’d never heard of Robby Gallaty before getting this book, but his SBC connections and publication through Corssbooks made it clear that he’d been vetted enough to be trusted. Gallaty is currently a senior pastor in TN and helps run the Replicate Ministries focused on disciple-making movements, though his background is a bit more sordid: saved out of addiction in New Orleans and discipled by none other than David Platt. His story is slightly reminiscent of Chris Davies, author of another great book, Debt Paid…Keep the Change.

Book Description

Gallaty opens the book by sharing his own sad backstory of addiction but also his coming to faith in Christ. He then discussed his call into discipleship ministry by describing the Lord’s own model for how He discipled his disciples, which I’ve read before but loved to review:

• Jesus ministered while the disciples watched.
• Jesus progressed to allowing the disciples to assist him in ministry.
• The disciples ministered, and Jesus assisted them.
• Jesus [observeed] as the disciples ministered to others. (Chapter 1)

Following four chapters of Introductory and foundational material, Gallaty then lays out for the next six chapters a plan of discipleship built into an acronym, C.L.O.S.E.R.:

• Communicate – An emphasis on prayer (Mt. 7:7)
• Learn – An emphasis on study (2Tim 2:15)
• Obey – An emphasis on Christlikeness (John 14:15)
• Store – An emphasis on Bible memorization (Psalm 119:11)
• Evangelize – An emphasis on Gospel proclamation (Mark 16:15)
• Renew – An emphasis on habit-building, particularly in Bible study (2Tim 3:16-17)

In this final section, he also shares another acronym that’s a helpful tool for keeping one’s focus during quiet time. Alongside prayer, a person must also H.E.A.R. God speak:

• Highlight – Copy each verse out that speaks to you
• Explain – Focus on the context and why it’s there and meaningful
• Apply – Describe how God’s Word should make a difference in your life
• Respond – Challenge yourself with specifics about how this will change you today (Chapter 10)

Some Nuggies

I highlighted a lot from the book, but I’ll share only a few of the nuggets I found here. I’ve got to leave enough for you to read too! Honestly, a lot of the things I highlighted were mere reminders of things I already know but have forgotten amidst the clutter of everything else.

Confucius captured this idea [of intentional discipleship]: “Tell me and I will forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I will understand.” (Introduction)

The term Christian is used only 3 times in the NT… On the other hand, the term “disciple” appears 269 times in the New Testament, with 238 of those occurring in the four Gospels (the root word is used 281 times in the New Testament and 250 times in the Gospels alone). Why is this so important? The answer is because Christ did not come to make Christians; He came to make disciples. (Chapter 2)

Apart from these direct quotations that were more reminders than anything, Gallaty also shared several spot-on ideas that I know I’ll be using in the future. These include:

• A fantastic ploy by professor and author, Bill Hull, whose course on discipleship ends with an exam that is taken not by the student but another individual whom the student has taught the material (a.k.a. the disciple)! (Chapter 3)
• He also encourages journaling as part of the discipleship process, something I encourage all day every day. (Chapters 5 and 10)
• Finally, he gives some advice about prayer, saying “Prayer is learned experientially”: books and conferences aren’t the key to improving your prayer life, praying is. Just do it. (Chapter 5)

Using the Book in Training

This book certainly did fan the flame in my heart, and it was a great restart for me as I prepared for the training out West. I suppose any book that’s focused on the Word and disciples would have done the same. I contemplated reading Francis Chan‘s book, Multiply: Disciples Making Disciples, but I just didn’t want to have Chan’s odd way of speaking work its way into from the Kindle into my brain as I read. He’s so intense! You can literally hear him speaking even in how the guy writes, like “If you don’t act now, the whole world is going to die! Please!!” I needed to go into this training calmly, not edge-of-my-sanity intense like Francis Chan.

As I reviewed my multi-day training, I recognized these four ideas from Gallaty’s book that made an appearance in the info I shared:

• Multiplication is My Purpose in Life: Discipleship and reproduction is why I’m still here on planet Earth. It’s the whole point. It was God s command to Adam and Eve in the Garden (“Reproduce and multiply”) and Jesus’ command to his disciples (“Go and make disciples”).
• Studying Together is Discipleship: I encouraged the attendees who would eventually work through sermon prep to form study groups with each other and to include their wives whenever possible. These groups don’t exist just for study, but also as a method of discipleship and accountability.
• Get the Right Perspective: When planning a new church plant, you have to ask yourself: Do we start a church and hope to get disciples, or do we instead make disciples and then see a church grow from it?
• Jesus’ Example of Intentionality: Jesus didn’t focus on ministry a mile wide and an inch deep, but rather the opposite. He chose a few (12) over the course of several years and invested Himself fully in them, almost exclusively. And it’s shocking that even Jesus lost one in the end! One disciple is too few, and 100 is too many. Find the happy medium and then multiply!

Overall, this book served as a good reminder for me of many things I’d already learned but forgotten, things I’d been doing but hadn’t done in a while. I enjoyed the book and would recommend it to newbies in the ministry or to those needing to add a little fan to their flames.

©2024 E.T.