There is too little life in many churches; few Christians give, serve in the church, have accountable relationships and are growing in their faith, and most live for the same things that nonbelievers do, according to Jim Putnam in his book Real-Life Discipleship: Building Churches That Make Disciples. The solution is not to abandon “organized” church in favour of “organic” church, but to create a clear and uncomplicated way to train disciples and make disciples.
The book goes on to describe the steps in the discipleship system used by the author and his colleagues at Real Life Ministries:
- Share, which involves moving the spiritually dead toward life and nurturing spiritual infants
- Connect, which involves guiding spiritual children and helping them to learn to feed themselves and be part of a spiritual family
- Minister, which involves training spiritual young adults and helping them to find and succeed in appropriate ministry opportunities
- Disciple, which involves releasing spiritual parents to help others grow in relationship to and understanding of Jesus
Discipleship has recently become a key subject for many churches as they have come to realise that the typical mix of weekly services and small group meetings have been producing too many “Christians-lite” and not enough fully devoted followers of Christ. This book provides a timely, simple and helpful model for churches.