Bobby Harrington - Discipleship That Fits: The Five Kinds of Relationships God Uses to Help Us Grow

Although Jesus gave us a mandate to make disciples, he didnt give us a manual. Keep this book handy. It will be a resource you refer to often as you invest in others.

ROBBY GALLATY, senior pastor, Long Hollow Baptist Church; author, Growing Up and Rediscovering Discipleship

Reading this book was like having a conversation with friends and authors I respect. You are going to find it very useful with your colleagues and members of your congregation.

BILL HULL, senior leader, The Bonhoeffer Project; author, Jesus Christ Disciplemaker and Conversion and Discipleship

Presents a simple yet powerful framework for considering the contexts within which discipleship happens. It will help individuals to live more balanced lives and church leaders to be more strategic.

TODD WILSON, founder and director, Exponential Conference; author, More

Bobby and Alex have done a great job explaining that discipleship happens best and only in relationship. Not only do these guys write about it; they live it out as well.

JIM PUTMAN, pastor; founder, Relational Discipleship Network; author, DiscipleShift

This book is a winner. Biblically substantial and rich in practical suggestions, its a very welcome addition to the growing writings on the essential area of discipleship.

ALAN HIRSCH, founder, Future Travelers and 100Movements; author, The Forgotten Ways and The Faith of Leap

I plan to add this book to my equipping toolbelt because Im confident it will aid the church in fulfilling the Everyday Commission Jesus has given us.

JEFF VANDERSTELT, visionary leader of the Soma Family of Churches; author, Saturate

The words of Jesus in Matthew 28, Go make disciples, mean, As you are going about living life, make disciple-makers. Read this book, find your fit, and get on with doing it.

DAVE BUEHRING, president, Lionshare; author, A Discipleship Journey

A fresh and needed perspective. Bobby and Alex make discipleship more understandable and tangible for every Christian, in every kind of church. Useful and encouraging.

DR. KENNON VAUGHAN, lead pastor, Harvest Church; founder, Downline Ministries

Looking at five contexts for relationships, Bobby and Alex show us how to leverage each for fruitful discipling. This book is one that you will come back to over and over again.

DR. DANN SPADER, founder, Sonlife and Global Youth Initiative; author, Four Chair Discipling and Walking as Jesus Walked

Developing a praxis of discipleship that brings the best thought of how people actually communicate, belong, and grow is genius. This book will bring your discipleship program to life.

JOSEPH R. MYERS, author, The Search to Belong and Organic Community

Bobby and Alex challenge us to reimagine discipleship in all of life. If youre tired of feeling out of place when it comes to discipleship and evangelism, read this book.

CAESAR KALINOWSKI, author, Transformed and Small Is Big, Slow Is Fast

I am thankful for what Alex and Bobby have here given the church, and I commend their very fine contribution with all my heart.

MICHAEL CASSIDY, founder, African Enterprise; author, The Church Jesus Prayed For

As a biblical, practical, and missional treatment of discipleship, this book is guaranteed to give any church leader fresh insight and breakthrough ideas for ministry.

WILL MANCINI, founder, Auxano Consulting; author, God Dreams and Church Unique

Refreshing. Balanced. Biblical. Practical. Thought-provoking. This simple book carries a big punch, from practitioners, not theorists, and has a message we have needed for a long time.

NEIL COLE, author, Ordinary Hero, Organic Church, and Primal Fire

ZONDERVAN

Discipleship That Fits

Copyright 2016 by Bobby Harrington and Alex Absalom

ePub Edition December 2015: ISBN 978-0-310-52264-5

Requests for information should be addressed to:

Zondervan, 3900 Sparks Dr. SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Harrington, Bobby, 1958

Discipleship that fits : the five kinds of relationships God uses to help us grow / Bobby Harrington and Alex Absalom.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-0-310-52261-4 (softcover)

1. Discipling (Christianity) I. Title.

BV4520.H374 2016

253dc23

2015030233

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.

Scripture quotations marked ESV are from the ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version). Copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the King James Version of the Bible.

Any Internet addresses (websites, blogs, etc.) and telephone numbers in this book are offered as a resource. They are not intended in any way to be or imply an endorsement by Zondervan, nor does Zondervan vouch for the content of these sites and numbers for the life of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any otherexcept for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Published in association with the literary agency of Mark Sweeney and Associates, Bonita Springs, Florida 34135.

Cover design: LUCAS Art and Design

Interior design: Kait Lamphere

15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 /DHV/ 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

From Bobby:
For Ashley and Andrew,
my delightful daughter and her new husband
From Alex:
For my three naughty sons
and my one foxy wife:
in our Jesus adventure, you enrich every context!

CONTENTS

by Thom Rainer

JESUS KEPT IT SIMPLE. Make disciples. That was the primary command of the Great Commission. It remains the primary responsibility of the local church. Our Saviors call to missions and evangelism is much more than a call to share the gospel with those who do not have it. It is a call to make disciples of the nations. It is a call to lead those who do not know Jesus Christ to become fully orbed followers of our King, men and women who know what it means to live for Christs glory and to advance his kingdom. Disciple making begins by proclaiming the gospel. It continues as new Christians are adopted into a New Testament community of faith, the local church, and taught the implications of living out the gospel. That is how the church teaches disciples to obey all that Jesus has commanded (Matt. 28:1820). Evangelism and discipleship are gospel centric and inseparable.

Surprisingly, the church as a whole has not always understood the correlation between evangelism and discipleship. This misunderstanding has given rise to churches that produce large numbers of converts with little depth, converts who could hardly be called disciples of Jesus Christ. These churches are often said to be great at evangelism but poor at discipleship. Conversely, there are also many churches that emphasize great teaching and theological depth but fail to see God use them to bring very many, if any, new believers to faith in Christ. These churches are often said to be great at discipleship but poor at evangelism. Neither pattern, however, reveals churches that practice biblically faithful evangelism and discipleship.