Foundations for Disciple Making: A Discussion Guide

Have you heard the adage, “We work on our definitions—and then our definitions work on us”?

Some of the most confusing words in Christianity today are “discipleship” and “disciple making.” What do they mean? What level of important are they? How do we do them in the local church? In everyday life? What counts as effective discipleship/disciple making?

Disciple makers Andrew Jit and Bobby Harrington have put together an immensely helpful free resource for understanding the world of Jesus-style disciple making. Foundations for Disciple Making walks through vitally important definitions and the biblical concepts involved in these key definitions.

Our hope at RENEW.org is that this resource will help you and your ministry better understand what biblical disciple making is and, more importantly, to be a better disciple who makes better disciples. Jesus has called, created, commanded, and commissioned us to be disciples and for each of us to help make disciples.

“Jesus has called, created, commanded, and commissioned his disciples to be disciple makers, and this is to be the core mission of the church and the primary mission of every disciple.”

Each chapter follows a similar format:

• Affirmation – Each chapter begins with a paragraph thoughtfully and prayerfully agreed upon by leaders from numerous national disciple making networks and organizations who came together through the collaborative efforts of Discipleship.org, with Bobby Harrington’s leadership. Bobby worked with this coalition of organizations and then drafted and reached agreement on these “ten disciple making affirmations.”
• Study – The study section guides you to explore what God’s Word says about being a disciple and making disciples.
• Self-Reflection/Discussion – This section includes questions designed to explore the chapter’s key concepts. The questions are suitable for personal reflection and/or group discussion.
• Strategies – The final section suggests ideas for putting the chapter’s truth into action.

This Discussion Guide is written in such a way that you can go through it by yourself, or you can work through it with others as a group. In fact, the way to get the most out of this eBook is to combine both personal and group study, as you each walk through the book as individuals—and then meet together each week to collectively go over what you’ve discovered.

It is a short read, but it’s a great resource for leaders of ministries and especially churches, to establish foundations. We hope you find it helpful!