DiscipleShift: Five Steps That Help Your Church to Make Disciples Who Make Disciples (Exponential Series) - Softcover

Putman, Jim; Harrington, Bobby

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0310492629 ISBN 13: 9780310492627

Verlag: Study Resources, 2013

Inhaltsangabe

Question: What is the God-given purpose of the local church?

Answer: Relational discipleship.

DiscipleShift walks you through five key "shifts" that churches must make to refocus on the fundamental biblical mission of discipleship. These intentional changes will attract the world and empower your church members to be salt and light in their communities.

Over the last thirty years, many influential church leaders and church planters in America have adopted various models for reaching unchurched people. While many of these approaches have merit, something is still missing, something even more fundamental to the mission of the church: discipleship.

Making disciples—helping people to trust and follow Jesus—is the church's God-given mandate. Devoted disciples attract people outside the church because of the change others see in their Christ-like lives. And discipleship empowers Christians to be more like Christ as they intentionally develop relationships with non-believers.

Through biblical and professional insights, Jim Putman and Bobby Harrington discuss the transformational effectiveness of making disciples and just how to do so, in practical terms. You’ll learn:

• The specific roles of a disciple-making pastor.
• The components of person-to-person discipleship.
• How each ministry in your church leads to discipleship.
• How to implement discipleship in your church.

Disciple-making leaders will not produce perfect churches, but they will create effective churches.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorinnen und Autoren

Jim Putman is the founder and senior pastor of Real Life Ministries in Post Falls, Idaho. Real Life was launched with a commitment to discipleship and the model of discipleship Jesus practiced, which is called, “Relational Discipleship.” Outreach Magazine continually lists Real Life Ministries among the top one hundred most influential churches in America. Jim is also the founding leader of the Relational Discipleship Network. Jim holds degrees from Boise State University and Boise Bible College. He is the author of three books: Church is a Team Sport, Real Life Discipleship, and Real Life Discipleship Workbook (with Avery Willis and others). Jim’s passion is discipleship through small groups. He lives with his wife and three sons in scenic northern Idaho.

Bobby Harrington is the co-founder of discipleship.org and the founding and lead pastor of Harpeth Christian Church (19 years). He is the chairman of the board for the Relational Discipleship Network and the co-author of DiscipleShift, Dedicated: Training Your Children to Trust and Follow Jesus, and Discipleship that Fits. He has been married to Cindy for over 35 years and they have two adult children who are disciples of Jesus.

Dr. Robert Coleman is the Distinguished Senior Professor of Discipleship and Evangelism at Gordon-Conwell seminary and a prolific author, having written hundreds of articles and twenty-one books, including The Master Plan of Evangelism, which has sold multiple million copies and is the book for which he is best known. He directed the School of World Mission and Evangelism at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School for eighteen years and currently serves on the Mission America Facilitation Committee and several international mission boards and is the president of Christian Outreach. From 1989-2001, he led the Institute of Evangelism in the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College and served as Dean of the Billy Graham International Schools of Evangelism. He is also a founding member of the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelism and a past president of the Academy for Evangelism in Theological Education. His personal interests include spending time with his family, including his children and grandchildren, and keeping in touch with those he has discipled.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

DiscipleShift

five steps that help your church to make disciples who make disciples

By Jim Putman, Bobby Harrington, Robert Coleman

ZONDERVAN

Copyright © 2013 Jim Putman and Bob Harrington
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-310-49262-7

Contents

Foreword by Robert E. Coleman..............................................
11
Introduction...............................................................
13
1. The Engine That Drives It All...........................................
19
SHIFT 1 FROM REACHING TO MAKING............................................
2. Defining a Disciple.....................................................
41
3. How to Start Growing People.............................................
55
4. The Four Spheres........................................................
77
SHIFT 2 FROM INFORMING TO EQUIPPING........................................
5. The Role of the Leader..................................................
97
6. A New Job Title: Equipper...............................................
113
SHIFT 3 FROM PROGRAM TO PURPOSE............................................
7. Components of Person-to-Person Discipleship.............................
133
8. Rolling Up Our Sleeves and Engaging.....................................
151
SHIFT 4 FROM ACTIVITY TO RELATIONSHIP......................................
9. Rethinking Our Practices................................................
169
10. The Relational Small Group.............................................
183
SHIFT 5 FROM ACCUMULATING TO DEPLOYING.....................................
11. A New Scorecard for Success............................................
201
12. Making the "DiscipleShift" in Your Church..............................
215
Acknowledgments............................................................
231
Notes......................................................................
232
About the Authors..........................................................
237

Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

THE ENGINE THAT DRIVES IT ALL

What is the God-given purpose of the local church?

Bobby Harrington gave a lot of his extra time for about a decade totrain church planters and create church planting networks. He did itjoyfully. But one day, flying out of Nashville for a network meetingin another city, a vague thought became a clear realization: he wasuneasy with the churches being planted. Would the result of all thesechurch planting efforts really last? Would the churches planted trulyplease God, long term?

The church planters were godly, wonderful people. The theologywas good. Their level of commitment was inspiring. But hewondered if the approach to church planting that he and his peers(including various church planting organizations) were advocatingwas often leading to a shallow, cultural Christianity. Before givinghimself to church planting, he had already concluded the same thingabout many established churches. Too often they had problems withlegalism or traditionalism or they lacked authenticity or somethingelse that missed Jesus' heart for a lost and hurting world. But thatday, he finally admitted to himself that he was witnessing much ofthe same cultural Christianity in the church planting world. Somethingat a fundamental level needed reevaluation.

It was around this time that we (Jim and Bobby) became goodfriends. We had the same fundamental belief. Maybe you agree withus? When it comes to the local church in North America today,something is not working.

The big question driving this book is the question of effectiveness.For a moment, resist the urge to defend yourself or your church.Don't defend your experience in ministry, your seminary degrees, oryour genuine heart for seeing people come to know Christ. Don'tdefend any of the activities taking place at your church. And don'tdefend the size of your congregation, the amount of giving, your serviceto the poor, or the number of new converts. Simply ask yourself,Is the church producing results? Is it doing its job in the best waypossible? And please resist the urge to quickly answer yes.

It's true that throughout North America today, though numbersare declining, there are still many people coming to church, andsome are busy with ministry-related activities. There are ministriesto the poor. Buildings are being built. Programs are running at fulltilt. Money is being given.

But attendance, busyness, construction, finances, and programsare not real indications of success. The core question of effectiveness— the question that ultimately matters—is whether thepeople who are getting saved are being conformed to the likeness ofChrist. Are we making mature disciples of Jesus who are not onlyable to withstand the culture but are also making disciples of Jesusthemselves?

Let's look at some research.

Consider how recent statistics show that when it comes to moralityand lifestyle issues, there is little difference between the behavior(and one can assume condition of the heart) of Christians andnon-Christians.

Divorce rates are about the same.

The percentages of men who regularly view pornography areroughly the same—and it's a lot of men.

Christians are considered to be more than two times as likely tohave racist attitudes as non-Christians.

Domestic violence, drug and alcohol abuse, and most other problemsare just as prevalent among Christians as among non-Christians.

Consider too statistics about evangelicals. About one in fourpeople living together outside marriage call themselves evangelicals.

Only about 6 percent of evangelicals regularly tithe.

Only about half the people who say they regularly attend churchactually do. And a significant number of younger adults (millennials)believe that evangelical churches are not even Christlike orChristian. Sixty to 80 percent of young people will leave the churchin their twenties.

Fewer than one out of five who claim to be born-again Christianshave a worldview of even a few fundamental biblical beliefs.Plenty of people call themselves Christians, but very few people canactually tell you what it means—from the Bible's perspective—tobe a Christian. They might call themselves Christians, but theyalso believe that the Bible is full of errors or that God is not oneGod manifest in three persons or that Jesus Christ did not lead asinless life (or that he isn't God) or that simply being good will getyou into heaven.

When you ask most evangelicals what their job as a believer is,they may tell you that they are to share Christ, but how many actuallydo? At worst, they follow the rule that you don't talk about politicsand religion, and they will die without ever seeing anyone cometo faith. At best, they may invite people to church, but they thinkmaking disciples is not their job; it's the pastor's job.

We could go on and on. One can't help but conclude that somethingis wrong. Where's the lasting life change? Where are the transformedlives? Why are people in our churches just like the world?Why are we not...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Study Resources
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2013
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0310492629
• ISBN 13: 9780310492627
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 240
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: gpsr@libri.de; gpsr@libri.de; ; Friedensallee 273; Hamburg; 22763; Deutschland