At any given time, I have three to five books on my night stand. I learned years ago that leaders are readers, and since I am a leader of a local church, I decided I needed to be reading. As a leader that is a reader, I have committed myself to continually reading in the area of disciple making. I want to keep learning all I can about how to make disciples the way Jesus did. I often re-read a classic like Robert Coleman’s Master Plan of Evangelism, or I read something new like Craig Etheredge’s Bold Moves.
One thing I have discovered about books on disciple making is that there are not many of them. I recently browsed through a large Christian bookstore on vacation and was not surprised that there were only a handful of books on disciple making and discipleship. There was not even a section called “Disciple Making.” It just does not seem right to me that there is so little to read about disciple making when that is the very thing Jesus came to do! Have we not missed something?
Honestly, this lack of reading material is one of the reasons I write a weekly blog on disciple making. We need more voices, not less, championing the value of Jesus-style disciple making. We need to be telling more stories and sharing more testimonies of making disciples. This lack of reading material on disciple making and discipleship is a sad commentary on the state of the Church today. We must change this!
Recently, I’ve been reading a great book called The Disciple Maker’s Handbook by Bobby Harrington and Josh Patrick. It is a great read on Jesus-style disciple making, and you can find a copy of it at discipleship.org. This site is a great location to find lots of great reading material on disciple making. I hope you will check it out.
This is also a great opportunity for me to let you know about a book I wrote several years ago called Conversations in Disciple Making. You can get a copy here and find a load of blogs and resources for disciple making on our website. I’m doing my part to keep championing the value of disciple making.
One more great way to help you grow as a reader is to offer you a free resource. If you contact us here about your personal disciple making needs and let us know you read this blog, we will send a disciple making resource that is relevant to your specific situation. Let us know you’re here!
