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On Disciplemaking

A Comprehensive Course in Biblical Discipleship

Introduction

Welcome to the growing number of God’s people around the world who desire to learn how to follow Jesus’ strategy and methods for evangelizing, nurturing, influencing, training, and developing people to know God and live under His sovereign rule and reign. What is causing them to reconsider Jesus and the way He trained and shaped the lives of the Twelve to follow Him without reservation and to take the gospel to every nation? Perhaps it is something they heard, read, or experienced about the church’s ineffectiveness and superficiality in the modern world.1 Another possibility is that some have tired of the many creative, attractive, and expensive programs designed to attract new people to church to hear paid professionals. They have not seen these efforts produce lasting fruit nor a leadership commitment to help new believers progressively grow in conformity to Jesus Christ. Whatever the reason, many are now longing to be passionately engaged in a relational ministry of spiritual multiplication rather than sitting on the sidelines watching from afar. They have been called to serve and are interested in personally spending time with a few people who need their love, encouragement, leadership, guidance, instruction, and accountability until they become spiritually mature in Christ and are able, in time, to begin investing in others who can also reach and disciple others.

About This Course

This course of study is designed to help you better understand and obey the Great Commission of Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit (Mt. 28:18-20; Acts 1:8) and to prepare you to become a mature, reproducing disciple by the grace of God and according to the Word of God. It is a great privilege, as well as our collective duty, to be involved in building Christ’s church by following His example and the principles, patterns, and methods He employed when He trained the Twelve. “Our responsibility,” says Dr. Howard Hendricks, “is to do the best we can to bring our own lives under Christ’s lordship and then influence the handful of people God brings our way to do the same.”2 This should be a life-long endeavor, as Hendricks reminds us: “You will never retire from the Christian life, which means that until the day you die, someone somewhere ought to have the benefit of gleaning from your life.”3

The Means of Penetrating the World

Jesus reminded His disciples, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain” (Jn. 15:16a). Becoming an effective and fruitful disciplemaker involves a process in which we recognize that we have been justified by grace alone through Christ alone, are being sanctified by the work of God’s free grace, and are unreservedly committed to kingdom service in His name. Like John the Baptist, we are called to “bear witness of the light, that all might believe through him” (Jn. 1:7). “The calling of the kingdom,” Dr. Edmund Clowney noted, “is the power of God that brings us from darkness into light and sets us as lights in the darkness.”4 “Freely you received, freely give,” Jesus instructed His disciples (Mt. 10:8). We must not “remain insulated and isolated from the world” when we are “commanded to penetrate it. How can we be the salt of the earth if we never get out of the salt-shaker?”5

From the beginning, the mission of Jesus involved sending His disciples to those who were living in spiritual darkness without hope (Eph. 2:12; Mt. 10). Jesus prayed to His Father, “As Thou didst send Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world” (Jn. 15:18). Jesus’ strategy for spreading the gospel to every nation was costly to Him (I Cor. 6:20) and requires all of His followers to make whatever sacrifices are necessary to accomplish His colossal mission. C.T. Studd renounced all of his inherited wealth and popularity as a Cambridge cricket player to serve Christ in China, India, and Africa. At the age of 52, he wrote these words: “If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him.”6 The German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote powerfully about the cost of discipleship: “The only man who has the right to say that he is justified by grace alone is the man who has left all to follow Christ.”7 Our obedience and unconditional surrender to His will demonstrates our love for Jesus (Jn. 14:21). We must align our purpose in life with God’s eternal purpose. In other words, as Dr. Clowney says, “The purpose of your life must be the purpose of Christ’s death.”8 We are called by Him to proclaim the good news of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ to a lost world, submit to His lordship in every area of our lives by His grace, and faithfully walk alongside others so that they, too, may know, love, and follow Him. This is biblical discipleship.

The Content of This Course

The vision of the Jackson Institute is to permeate the kingdom of God with reproducing leaders — people like you who long to see Christ exalted among the nations and are eager to be empowered by the Holy Spirit to share the gospel with others and to disciple them in the words and ways of Jesus. In these brief words, we are affirming that we must embrace the scope of Christ’s vision for the world – “make disciples of all the nations” – and seek to make reproducing disciplemakers in every place where Jesus instructs us to go. This course is designed to provide you with comprehensive training in disciplemaking, including biblical and theological foundations; historic and contemporary applications and methods; and a careful analysis of every stage in the discipling process so that you may wisely and effectively invest in other lives who would benefit from having a mentor walk beside them to help them mature in Christ.

    Requirements for Discipleship Leaders

    Leadership development, in any field of endeavor, takes commitment and time. Ted Engstrom, former Executive Director of World Vision, warned of our “being eager and willing to take the easy way out, of waiting for perfection and success to come our way while living a life of mediocrity.”9 Investing in another person requires, among other things, patience and commitment. Cal Thomas, the syndicated columnist, issued the following caution to anyone looking for shortcuts: “You cannot microwave a life.”

      A Cause that Fires the Imagination

      Engstrom and Thomas are saying what we all know, that it takes time and effort to learn how to make reproducing disciples. But it takes time and effort to do anything that is worth doing. “Every truly worthwhile achievement of excellence has a price tag.”10 Perhaps, at first glance, it may seem that the “price tag” for making disciples is too great. But most people love a challenge and would prefer to give up their small ambitions for a greater cause that fires the imagination. The Communists understood that “if you make mean (insignificant) little demands upon people, you will get a mean little response which is all you deserve, but, if you make big demands on them, you will get a heroic response.”11 By committing yourself to living a life of excellence and dedication, you will experience unusual joy as you see Christ formed in another person who is made in the image of God. The Apostle John affirmed this from his own experience: “I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children walking in the truth” (III Jn. 4).

        Discipleship: The Patient Shaping of a Life

        Discipleship is recognizing and acknowledging, with gratitude, what the Lord has built into our lives and being willing to share it with those who are coming behind us. A strong argument could be made that Jesus would never command us to engage in something that proved to be too difficult or impossible for us to do. Jesus’ first disciples had to gradually learn how to make disciples by abiding in Him (Jn. 15) and understanding that, apart from Him, they could do nothing (Jn. 15:5). Jesus did not supernaturally pass over important stages as He shaped their lives or intervene in the natural course of human development. He took three and a half years to shape their character (being), skills (doing), and knowledge (thinking). These men were “brought into contact and close fellowship with Him,” wrote A.B. Bruce, “in whose company they were to see greater things than when they first believed, one truth after another assuming its place in the firmament of their minds, like the stars appearing in the evening sky as daylight fades away.”12 One truth after another. Precept upon precept (Is. 28:10). The Gospel accounts reveal their gradual growth from the first time they met Jesus (Jn. 1:35ff.) until He ascended into heaven and left them (Jn. 14:18) to carry on His mission in the power of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8).

        While we acknowledge that God’s people can be trained to disciple others, we also recognize the challenges associated with shaping another person’s mind and heart. Dr. Norman Harper knew from his vast experience as a seminary professor that “a person’s using his mind to concentrate, to think, to evaluate, and to draw conclusions is a costly process. Study requires intellectual effort. There is no way to eliminate the necessity for this self-conscious mental activity, even for the most highly motivated student.”13

        This course of study, then, acknowledges that “God alone is man’s true good,”14 and that He is worthy of our best efforts to learn how to please Him (Eph. 5:10).15 John Henry Newman counseled, “You must be patient, you must wait for the eye of the soul to be formed in you. Religious truth is reached not by reasoning, but by an inward perception. Anyone can reason; only disciplined, educated formed minds can perceive.”16 As you prepare to disciple others, you will be reminded that Jesus truly loved His men and called them to be “with Him” (Mk. 3:13-14). He patiently opened their eyes and shaped them until He had finished the work which the Father had given Him to do (Jn. 17:4). The results were astounding. Eventually, they would become the men who would turn the known world upside down.

        Prayerfully consider joining countless others from around the world who are making a great impact for Jesus Christ through multiplying discipleship. By God’s grace, this is something you can do. By committing yourself to the Word of God, worship, prayer, study, reading, meditating, and engaging in discipleship – one step at a time – you can become an effective and fruitful disciplemaker. According to Robert Clinton, “Leaders are shaped by deliberate training and by experience.”17 Your own character, knowledge, and skills will be transformed by God’s Word as you study and meditate on it day and night (Josh. 1:8; Ps. 1:2). Reading the suggested materials will also encourage and provide you with insights and ideas to strengthen you in your role as a mentor. The late James Sire urged all believers “to think and read well. Christians, of all people, should reflect the mind of their Maker. Learning to read well is a step toward loving God with your mind. It is a leap toward thinking God’s thoughts after him.”18 We should note, as Sire did, that there is a “close relationship between knowing and doing, believing and obeying, theory and practice.”19 What we learn today will certainly influence how we live our lives tomorrow (Prov. 23:7).

          The Foundation First – Then the Building

          Life teaches us that there is a proper order to things. In the university, the acquisition of knowledge in a prerequisite course is required before taking an advanced course in the same field. In nature, autumn follows summer, and winter follows fall. In the construction of a home, building a solid foundation is essential for the safety, soundness, and ultimate beauty of the entire superstructure.

          In addition to recognizing and respecting the natural order of things, we must also learn to wait, to persevere, without taking shortcuts. The dog-days of summer will eventually be eclipsed by the cooler days of fall. The newly-poured steel and concrete foundation will be cured as its natural properties allow. Sequence and process can also be seen in the way our Lord trained the Twelve.

          Order and patience. Both are needed in the discipling process. If the people we invest in are to become “oaks of righteousness” (Is. 61:3), spiritually mature believers who have been planted by God and bear the fruit of righteousness,20 “mighty oaks displaying the Lord’s splendor,”21 we must learn patience and grow in our understanding of how people are transformed by God’s grace. Eugene Peterson, author, scholar, and former professor of spiritual theology at Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia, observed that “there is a great market for religious experience in our world; there is little enthusiasm for the patient acquisition of virtue, little inclination to sign up for a long apprenticeship in what earlier generations of Christians called holiness.”22 His assessment reveals the necessity of gradually building a strong foundation in disciplemaking by patiently, systematically, and methodically acquiring wisdom, knowledge, and experience. The Lord will use your diligence and commitment to prepare you to effectively invest in the lives of those whom He brings into your life.

            Assumptions About This Training

            “A presupposition,” as defined by theologian John M. Frame, “is a belief that takes precedence over another and therefore serves as a criterion for another.”23 If our assumptions or presuppositions are contrary to Scripture and, therefore, mistaken and erroneous, everything that follows in our thinking and doing will be wrong. Cambridge philosophy professor Simon Blackburn cautioned: “There is no limit to the size of catastrophe that acting on a false belief can bring about.”24

            One of America’s most accomplished portrait artists, Daniel E. Greene, made it clear to his students that if their initial drawing of a model’s face is faulty, every stroke of paint applied thereafter would be wrong. Making additional correcting strokes would never capture the true image of the model. The artist must begin all over again. That is why it is so important that we build our philosophy of ministry on the truths of God’s Word and learn how to think analogically – to think God’s thoughts after Him. New Testament scholar Vern Sheridan Poythress further explains that “our labels within human language imitate God’s language…Our thinking and our speaking are analogous to God’s thinking and speaking…Analogies include both the analogy between human language and divine language and the analogy between human thought and divine thought.”25 Therefore, what we think about discipleship must, ultimately, have its foundation in God and His revealed truth. Theologian Ray Anderson warned about building ministry upon the world’s agenda: “The Trinitarian basis for ministry rules out both utilitarianism (the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people), which tends to create ministry out of needs, and pragmatism (an approach which assesses the validity of a concept or hypothesis according to the rightness or usefulness of its practical consequences26), which transforms ministry into marketing strategy.”27

            Consider, then, the following twenty presuppositions which are offered for your consideration as you build your philosophy of discipleship on the inspired, inerrant, infallible, and authoritative Word of God:

            1. Jesus trained the Twelve and turned the known world upside down (Acts 17:6). His “careful, exact training” of the Twelve, as distinct from His teaching the masses of people, “though less noticeable, and much more limited in extent,” was by far more important than reaching the masses; “for it was destined to bring forth fruit that should remain” – not only in the present time, but for the entire history of the world. “There would have been a poor outlook for the kingdom of heaven if Christ had neglected this work and given Himself up entirely to vague evangelism among the masses.”28 Teaching and preaching God’s Word are essential for the growth of the church but not sufficient for building reproducing leaders to fulfill the Great Commission. Joel Rosenberg warned that we should not neglect disciplemaking: “In addition to preaching to the masses, he must also make disciples. Jesus did both, after all. If we truly love the Master, we must follow his example.”29
            2. Studying the life of Christ as presented in the Gospel accounts is foundational for understanding biblical discipleship. “A pupil is not above his teacher, but everyone, after he has been fully trained, will be like his teacher” (Lk. 6:40). The incarnate Lord is the supreme model for training reproducing disciples. As the sinless Son of God, everything He did with the Twelve was perfect. Consequently, He is the unique model for all contemporary discipleship.
            3. The Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, is the only One who can lead us into all truth, fill us with His presence and power, and enable us to faithfully follow Jesus (Jn. 16:13; Eph. 5:18; Acts 1:8; Jn. 15:26-27). As we abide in Christ, we are enabled by the Spirit to bear much fruit (Jn. 15:16).
            4. Every Christian is commanded to obey the Great Commission (Mt. 28:18-20). While only some members of the body of Christ have been given the gift of evangelism, every believer has a role in making disciples (new followers of Jesus). Scripture provides accounts of all believers spreading the gospel and making new converts wherever they went (Acts 8:1,4).
            5. The exponential growth of the Church can never be achieved through program-based ministries but only through a commitment to multiplying discipleship. After interviewing thousands of Christians, pollster George Barna concluded that “creating a discipling church takes more than having a Sunday school, small groups, or good expository preaching.” His analysis of the data led him to the realization that, “programs alone won’t get the job done.”30
            6. While cultures and languages vary, the message of the gospel is always relevant and supra-cultural (transcends the culture). The answer to the question, “Will discipleship work in my city, town, or country?” is “yes.” The gospel never changes, but how we present it to people in various cultures requires loving sensitivity and flexibility. Noted author and therapist Virginia Satir (1916-1988) made the correlation that “no matter where a surgeon studies medicine, he is prepared to operate on human beings anywhere in the world, because the internal organs and limbs will be the same.”31
            7. Every Christian can be trained and equipped to share the gospel with others. The late Dr. D. James Kennedy, author of Evangelism Explosion, trained thousands of people around the world to share their faith and concluded that “laymen can not only be trained to witness but they can be trained to train others to witness and thus multiply their labors.”32
            8. Every Christian can be trained to disciple others, irrespective of their spiritual gifts, talents, or personality profile (II Tim. 2:2). Gifted leaders are given the task of “equipping the saints (all believers) for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ” (Eph. 4:11-12). All parents are responsible for raising their children, but it is an accepted reality that some are better at it than others. Not everyone can be a Henrietta Mears (1890-1963) or Dawson Trotman (1906-1956), but almost anyone can be a Walt, the man who only had a sixth-grade education but led Dr. Howard Henricks to Christ. Hendricks, in turn, would go on to shape the lives of thousands (including mine) around the world during his lifetime (1924-2013).
            9. Leaders can begin investing in the lives of others almost immediately, when led by the Spirit, without waiting for years before engaging. After the woman at the well responded to Jesus’ words, “I who speak to you am He” (Jn. 4:26), she left her waterpot and went into the city to share what she had learned during her encounter with the Messiah. “And from that city many of the Samaritans believed in Him because of the word of the woman” (Jn. 4:39).
            10. Learning how to disciple others is a process which should continue for the rest of one’s life. No one will ever be able to plumb the depths of discipleship. It is much like observing an iceberg. We may be aware of the top tenth of what we can see, but there is much to discover under the water.33
            11. People learn best when they wholeheartedly believe in the things they are engaged in doing. Once a person is able to see the model Jesus gave to us to follow and fully embrace it, discipleship tends to become a permanent part of his or her life. On the other hand, if the vision for true discipleship begins to weaken and gradually morphs into a study group or program, it will not be long until some leaders give up the practice of biblical discipleship. Seeing, embracing, and believing in discipleship is critical for staying the course to ensure that the gospel will continue to be multiplied to future generations.
            12. Discipleship leaders will be more effective and fruitful as they love others in the ways Jesus taught and demonstrated (Jn. 13:1). When the relational component of discipleship is missing, the entire process becomes formal and academic.
            13. Time is a precious commodity and should be spent wisely in all that we do; we are to “make the most of our time, because the days are evil” (Eph. 5:16). Dr. Hendricks, speaking at the Billy Graham Training Center at the Cove in Asheville, North Carolina in 2001, told his audience, “I can tell you categorically, after over fifty-five years of ministry: discipleship is a ministry with no regrets. I have never wasted five minutes in discipling men and women. And I cannot say that about almost anything else in my ministry. It’s a ministry that will give you complete fulfillment when you die.”34
            14. There is an urgency to the task before us: everyone should work while it is still day; the night comes when no man can work (Jn. 9:4). The legacy we leave depends on the nature of our investments and the length of time we have before we enter our eternal rest. After many years of discipling others, Howard Hendricks realized the lasting impact of following Jesus’ model: “Every time you build into the life of another person, you launch a process that ideally will never end.”35 Discipleship is the only way to ensure that the gospel will continue to spread and multiply long after we are gone.
            15. As Os Guinness has expressed so well, we are called to live before an Audience of One36 — not for the temporary and empty praise of men. The common temptations related to size, numbers, measurement, comparison, and statistics will die — truly die — when we adopt God’s plan as revealed in Holy Scripture. Consider the number of times in which smallness is used by God to accomplish His purposes (e.g., only twelve untrained and uneducated apostles; the tiny village of Bethlehem, the widow’s mite, Gideon’s army, David’s sling and stones, etc.).
            16. Discipleship can be messy but necessary for the growth of the body of Christ. As we grow in wisdom, knowledge and experience, we begin to see the practical effects of the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. People are broken and wounded, whether physically, spiritually, mentally, socially, or spiritually. We strongly resist any concept of discipleship which does not take seriously the question, “What does it mean to be human?” We must resist the idea that a person has become mature in Christ just because he has successfully completed a particular discipleship curriculum.
            17. Trust issues and vulnerability vary from person to person and from country to country. Swiss physician, Dr. Paul Tournier observed that “everyone has his own private thermostat.”37 Trust grows in an atmosphere of confidentiality and safety where every person’s secrets are fiercely protected by every member of the discipleship group and carried, unrevealed, to the grave.
            18. There are personal costs associated with following Jesus and discipling others. “If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple” (see Lk. 14:25-33).
            19. All small groups are not created equal. Discipleship leaders should strive for excellence and create safe and healthy environments for the discipling process.
            20. Leaders ought to be passionate about training disciplemakers, not in promoting a particular curriculum.38 Until a person learns, first, how to disciple another person, the matter of curriculum choice should be postponed. Groups which primarily focus on curriculum, without consideration for the other elements commonly associated with biblical discipleship, should be more accurately described as Bible studies rather than discipleship groups.

              How to Get the Most Out Of This Training

              Start at the Beginning. This course is designed to help you understand and practice biblical disciplemaking. Therefore, every truth, principle, method, and application that is presented must build upon the previous ones. We encourage you to start at the beginning, follow the process, and continue at a pace that works for you and your schedule until you are well-prepared to disciple others in the words and ways of Jesus.

              Manage Your Time Well And Bring Order To Your World. Gordon MacDonald explains: “To bring order to one’s personal life is to invite His control over every segment of one’s life.”39 We encourage you to establish achievable and realistic goals for yourself, so you can learn how to become a more effective disciplemaker.

              Practice The Art Of Reading Well. According to two scholars, the “main purpose of reading books is to gain increased understanding.” In their classic work, How to Read a Book, Mortimer Adler and Charles Van Doren describe what reading is: “The art of reading is the skill of catching every sort of communication as well as possible…Successful communication occurs in any case where what the writer wanted to have received finds its way into the reader’s possession…There is the book; and here is your mind. As you go through the pages, either you understand perfectly everything the author has to say, or you do not…The art of reading is the process whereby a mind, with nothing to operate on but the symbols of the readable matter, and with no help from outside, elevates itself by the power of its own operations. The mind passes from understanding less to understanding more…Enlightenment is achieved only when, in addition to knowing what an author says, you know what he means and why he says it.”40 Reading Scripture and insightful books on a variety of subjects related to spiritual formation and discipleship is essential for learning how to effectively mentor others.

              Seek To Form Your Ideas About Discipleship from God’s Word. Then test the ideas of the various authors you are reading in the light of Scripture (Acts 17:10-11); reflect on your ministry context; ask yourself if you truly believe the ideas you are expressing; consider how your own commitment to Christ and to His command to make disciples of all nations may be strengthened; and apply the biblical principles which will undergird your practice of making reproducing disciples. Do all of this while asking the Lord to give you wisdom, insight, and spiritual power so that you may “bear much fruit and prove to be My disciples” (Jn. 15:8).

              Give Yourself To Much Prayer. Wesley Duewel asks the following questions: “Have you been hungering for more of the touch of the Holy Spirit upon you? Have you longed for God to put His hand more powerfully upon you, His seal upon your leadership and your whole life? Have you felt that God must have more of the anointing of the Spirit available for you than you have normally experienced?…God wants to do new things through you and your ministry…In the service of God we need more than ability and skill. We need the manifest presence of God, the consciousness and evidence of God’s special touch upon us…Pray and beseech God till He gives you His message, His word for the people. Then pray and earnestly seek God’s presence in the service. Also pray, hunger, and trust for God’s special anointing on you as you lead or minister in any way.”41

              Find A Personal Mentor. Your entire experience in taking this course will be greatly strengthened if you can find a mature and experienced disciplemaker to walk with you through the process. Ask the Lord to bring someone into your life who can mentor you as you embark on this journey.

                Your Next Step

                Now that you have read Orientation to Discipleship and On Disciplemaking, please proceed to About Self-Guided Courses where you will learn how to get the most out of your online experience.

                  1 See Os Guinness, Dining with the Devil: The Megachurch Movement Flirts with Modernity (Grand Rapid, MI: Baker Book House, 1993) and George Barna, Growing True Disciples (Ventura, CA: Issachar Resources, 2000).

                  2 Howard & William Hendricks, As Iron Sharpens Iron: Building Character in a Mentoring Relationship (Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1995), 133.

                  3 Ibid, 137-138.

                  4 Edmund P. Clowney, Called to the Ministry (Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian & Reformed Publishing Company, 1964), 20.

                  5 Rebecca Manley Pippert, Out of the Salt-Shaker & Into the World: Evangelism as a Way of Life (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1979), 124.

                  6 Norman Grubb, C.T. Studd: Cricketer & Pioneer (Ft. Washington, PA: Christian Literature Crusade, 1974), 141.

                  7 Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship (New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1963), 55.

                  8 Clowney, Called to the Ministry (Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co., 1964), 25.

                  9 Ted W. Engstrom, The Pursuit of Excellence (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1982), 9.

                  10 Ibid, 17.

                  11 Douglas Hyde, Dedication and Leadership: Learning from the Communists (Notre Dame, IN: Notre Dame Press, 1971), 18.

                  12 A.B. Bruce, The Training of the Twelve (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 1975), 10.

                  13 Harper, Making Disciples (Memphis, TN: Christian Study Center, 1981), 22.

                  14 Blaise Pascal, Pensées (New York: Penguin Books Ltd., 1986), 75.

                  15 “Grace is opposed to earning, not to effort.” Dallas Willard, The Great Omission: Reclaiming Jesus’s Essential Teachings on Discipleship (New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 2006), 34.

                  16 James W. Sire, Habits of the Mind: Intellectual Life as a Christian Calling (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2000), 42.

                  17 J. Robert Clinton, The Making of a Leader: Recognizing the Lessons and Stages of Leadership Development (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 1988), 15.

                  18 James W. Sire, How to Read Slowly: Reading for Comprehension (Colorado Springs, CO: WaterBrook Press, 1978), Nook Book, 14 of 149.

                  19 Sire, Habits of the Mind: Intellectual Life as a Christian Calling (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2000), 37.

                  20 Joseph Addison Alexander, Commentary on Isaiah (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Classics, 1992), Vol. 2, 400.

                  21 Barry Webb, The Message of Isaiah: On Eagle’s Wings (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1996), 235.

                  22 Eugene H. Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction: Discipleship in an Instant Society (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2000), Nook Book, 12 of 169.

                  23 John M. Frame, The Doctrine of the Knowledge of God (Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, 1987), 45.

                  24 Simon Blackburn, On Truth (New York: Oxford University Press, 2018), Nook Book, 56 of 117.

                  25 Vern Sheridan Poythress, Logic: A God-Centered Approach to the Foundation of Western Thought (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2013), 135,137.

                  26 Online Oxford English Dictionary, http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/149295?redirectedFrom=pragmatism#eid.

                  27 Ray S. Anderson, ed., Theological Foundations for Ministry (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1979), 8-9.

                  28 Bruce, The Training of the Twelve (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 1975), 107.

                  29 Joel C. Rosenberg & Dr. T.E. Koshy, The Invested Life (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2012), 40.

                  30 George Barna, Growing True Disciples: New Strategies for Producing Genuine Followers of Christ (Ventura, CA: Issachar Resources, 2000), 29.

                  31 Virginia Satir, Peoplemaking (Palo Alto, CA: Science and Behavior Books, 1972), 4.

                  32 D. James Kennedy, Evangelism Explosion (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 1977), xii.

                  33 The idea came from Virginia Satir, Peoplemaking (Palo Alto, CA: Science and Behavior Books, 1972), 1.

                  34 Howard Hendricks, Lecture on Disciplecasting (Session 1 of 5) given at the Cove in June 2001.

                  35 Hendricks, As Iron Sharpens Iron: Building Character in a Mentoring Relationship (Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1995), 131.

                  36 Os Guinness, The Call: Finding and Fulfilling the Central Purpose of Your Lifee (Nashville, TN: Word Publishing, 1998), 73.

                  37 Paul Tournier, Joe Embry, trans., Secrets (Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1976), 32.

                  38 Over the past 2,000 years, followers of Jesus have used many and various resources by which to lead others to Christ (e.g., The Four Spiritual Laws, C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity, D. James Kennedy’s Evangelism Explosion, etc.) and to help them grow in their relationship with Him. In the Church’s ministry of discipleship, the primary curriculum should always be the Bible, the infallible Word of God. Every curriculum written by man is only explanatory of God’s self-revelation in His inspired Word, but is imperfect, and usually becomes irrelevant (with some exceptions, e.g. The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan, Knowing God by J.I. Packer, Basic Christianity by John R.W. Stott, Augustine’s Confessions, etc.) within a relatively short period of time. The development, selection, and use of discipleship curriculum will be addressed in this training.

                  39 Gordon MacDonald, Ordering Your Private World (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1984), 9.

                  40 Mortimer Adler & Charles Van Doren, How to Read a Book (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1972), 6,7,8,11.

                  41 Wesley L. Duewel, Ablaze for God (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Francis Asbury Press, 1989), 15,16,17,80.