The Disciple Making Church: From Dry Bones to Spiritual Vitality

by Glenn McDonald

Book Overview

Newly expanded and revised edition of bestseller about changing from a program-based church to a church making disciples This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0972419683
• ISBN13: 9780972419680
• Release Date: January 2004
• Publisher: Faithwalk Publishing
• Length: 258 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

An excellent guide for authentic discipleship

The Disciple Making Church is an excellent, biblically based approach to discipleship as Jesus demonstrated in the gospels. McDonald uses strong biblical examples to show healthy images of discipleship (including having a discipler for ourselves as well as mentoring others). He continues with six areas in our lives to focus on for developing a disciple mentality that will allow us to grow deeply into Christlikeness. I strongly recommend this book to every Christian who longs to be a true follower of Christ and who desires to implement Jesus' instruction in Matthew 28:19-20 to "Go therefore and make disciples...." Well developed and easy to read, this book encouraged me and strengthened me to move even more deeply in implementing discipleship into my own life.

The best book I've read on discipleship, period.

Author Glenn McDonald's easy going writing style is perfect for telling the story of how, as pastor of a large suburban congregation, his church was transformed from stressing the ABCs of attendance, building and cash to one that made disciples of Jesus Christ. The book is divided into two parts: six discipling relationships and six marks of a disciple. It correctly points out that being a disciple is based on relationships and on who a disciple is. McDonald weaves Scriptural insights and the wisdom of scholars with the experiences of his own congregation and others, distilling it into a helpful, valuable and enjoyable book. It is a book that will impact pastors, church leaders, seminaries, congregational study groups and individual church members. I recommend it highly.

Dem Bones - Hear the Word of the Lord!

A voice crying in the wilderness of the mainline church today - GET BACK TO WHAT GOD PUT YOU HERE FOR! Go and make disciples! This is an excellent book with meat on the bones, and the Breath of Life for the church, if we will only Be Not Afraid of being considered intolerant, live what we believe, and enjoy the blessings of the D,E,Fs (discipleship, evangelism and failthfulness) rather than the anxieties of A,B,Cs of attendance, buildings and cash. If God has called you to leadership in His church in any capacity, don't just read and reread this book and use it as a group study within your congregation - act upon it. As the saying goes, "Someone's life may depend upon it." Thank you, Glenn McDonald.

Inspiring

This is one of several books that I have read in the past couple years that have been transformational for me. McDonald is the senior pastor of Zionsville Presbyterian Church in suburban Indianapolis, which was organized in 1983 and has been named as one of the 300 excellent Protestant congregations in America by Westminster/John Knox Press. McDonald bids "farewell" to the "ABC" church -- churches that make attendance, building, and cash their primary concerns. "It's safe to say," McDonald says in his first chapter, "that a large majority of Protestant congregations have made attendance, building, and cash -- as opposed to Christ's Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20 to be and to make disciples -- their organizational bottom line." "The dirty secret of the ABC church," McDonald says, "is that its goals are far below the bar that is set in Scripture. It is disturbingly easy to make progress on the scales of attendance, building, and cash even while failing to sustain significant conversation with God or enjoying redemptive relationships with people." The first half of the book is devoted to questions pertaining to spiritual transformation, framed around six key questions (which would make an excellent sermon series, by the way). The second half of the book identifies six marks of discipleship. I won't spoil the book by telling you what the six questions or the six marks are. Go read this for yourself! As a mainline Protestant on the "left" end of the theological spectrum, I expected to have some theological issues with this book. I was surprised to discover that I really did not. McDonald is onto something huge here, and we better start listening.

Insights directly relevant to Christian congregations

Glenn McDonald is the senior pastor of Zionsville Presbyterian Church in suburban Indianapolis. The Disciple Making Church: From Dry Bones To Spiritual Vitality is the true and inherently interesting story of Pastor McDonald's reaction to a profound question: "How long would it take for someone who visits our church to learn about his or her need for Jesus and to find out what to do about it?" Taking this serious issue to heart, Pastor McDonald overhauled and reexamined everything about his church in light of Christ's call to "go forth and make disciples". Blending insights from scripture, the knowledge of biblical scholars, and highlighting the six discipling relationships and six marks of the disciple, The Disciple Making Church is an inspirational and spiritual testimony that is practical while replete with insights directly relevant to Christian congregations across America and around the world.