Many church leaders, yearning for church growth, look to the latest evangelistic strategies or seeker-targeted worship services. But lack of growth might not be due to lack of concern for new people—it may be because we are not effectively discipling the people we already have.
Greg Ogden address the need for discipleship in the local church and recovers Jesus' method of accomplishing life change by investing in just a few people at a time. Ogden sets forth his vision for transforming both the individual disciple and discipleship itself, showing how discipleship can become a self-replicating process with ongoing impact from generation to generation.
This revised and updated edition includes a new chapter on discipleship and preaching.
Table of Contents:
Introduction: A Story of Transformation
Part I: The Discipleship Deficit: What Went Wrong and Why
1. The Discipleship Gap: Where Have All the Disciples Gone?
2. The Discipleship Malaise: Getting to the Root Causes
Part II: Doing the Lord?s Work in the Lord's Way: The Bible as a Method Book
3. Why Jesus Invested in a Few
4. Jesus' Preparatory Empowerment Model
5. Paul?s Empowerment Model: Spiritual Parenting
Part III: Multiplying Reproducing Discipleship Groups: Church-Based Strategy for Disciple Making
6. Life Investment: It's All About Relationships
7. Multiplication: Through the Generations
8. Transformation: The Four Necessary Ingredients
9. Practicalities of Disciple Making
10. The Role of Preaching in Making Disciples
Acknowledgments
Appendix 1: Frequently Asked Questions
Appendix 2: Critical Considerations for Growing a Reproducing Disciple-Making Ministry
Appendix 3: The Importance of Curriculum
Notes
About the Author :
Greg Ogden (DMin, Fuller Theological Seminary) lives out his passion of speaking, teaching, and writing about the disciple-making mission of the church after spending twenty-four years in pastoral ministry. Most recently Greg served as executive pastor of discipleship at Christ Church of Oak Brook in the Chicago western suburbs. From 1998 to 2002, Greg held the position of director of the Doctor of Ministry program at Fuller Theological Seminary and associate professor of lay equipping and discipleship. Greg is also the author of Essential Guide to Becoming a Disciple, Transforming Discipleship, Leadership Essentials (with coauthor Daniel Meyer), and The Essential Commandment. He is a partner in the Global Discipleship Initiative (GDI), which trains, coaches, and inspires pastors and Christian leaders to establish indigenous, multiplying, disciplemaking networks, both nationally and internationally.
Review :
"Why are Christians not more like Christ? With all the evangelism, church growth and discipleship programs both critics and lovers of the church around the world ask, where are the transformed lives? Greg Ogden does not claim all the answers. He does point out one important truth: transformation happens not through programs but through highly accountable, mutually encouraging, Spirit-formed relationships. All those concerned about a 'disciple deficit' will find this not only a must-read but a 'must-practice' book!"
Leighton Ford, President, Leighton Ford Ministries
"Greg Ogden's first book, The New Reformation, has had a profound influence on my work. And in Transforming Discipleship, Ogden describes the next stage in American Christianity, the change of emphasis from proclamation to demonstration, with great force and clarity. This is a truly important book."
Bob Buford, Founder and Chairman, Leadership Network, and author of Halftime: Changing Your Game Plan from Success to Significance
"After reading Greg Ogden's new book, Transforming Discipleship, the reader is likely to exclaim, 'I can do that!' Greg has cut through the cultural and ministerial fog surrounding this subject and written a persuasive handbook on the priority and process of this essential element. The author's convictions are compelling because he writes out of his own authentic experiencing of the truth whereof he writes. Readers will also recognize this book as eminently practical with helpful explanations of 'whys' and facilitating steps for 'hows.' Finally, through biblical and cultural documentation, Greg has convincingly urged the absolute priority of this focus on transformation in the making of a people who will carry the mission and the message to the next generation. And you can join him in doing that!"
Dr. Julie Gorman, Professor of Christian Formation and Discipleship, Fuller Seminary, Pasadena, California
"Greg Ogden supplied us a comprehensive, biblical curriculum in Discipleship Essentials. In his most recent book, Transforming Discipleship, he reveals the foundation and vision. Based on a creative and stimulating triad model, Greg provides a vehicle that will guide the training of leaders who in turn will equip the church and individuals for a life of transformational discipleship. In a refreshingly biblical and realistic manner, Greg sculpts an essential model that goes beyond programs to the intentional development of relationships that are empowered by the Spirit to grow together to become like Jesus."
Michael J. Wilkins, Dean of the Faculty and Professor of New Testament Language and Literature, Talbot School of Theology, Biola University; author of Following the Master: A Biblical Theology of Discipleship
"Greg Ogden presents a model for discipleship that really works. We have also discovered the life-changing dynamic found in groups of three. I enthusiastically recommend that you prayerfully apply the principles shared from the crucible of experience. Transformation awaits!"
Dr. Bob Logan, CoachNet International Ministries
"Greg Ogden has a heart for making disciples. He lives it. He speaks it. He writes it. This book is the mind of Greg's heart and, I believe, is a reflection of Jesus' heart and mind. Jesus wants his church to make disciples in a post-Christian world. This book puts the ministry leader and visionary in touch with today's stark reality—it's time for the whole church to get serious about making disciples Jesus' way. This book will help change our church to be in alignment with Jesus' vision andministry practice."
Gareth Icenogle, Senior Pastor, First Presbyterian Church, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania; author of The Biblical Foundations of Small Group Ministry
"I always love Greg's work! He consistently calls us back to the core practice of the church—making disciples. And here he gives us a proven process that is intensely relational, thoroughly biblical and readily accessible to serious disciplemakers."
Dr. Bill Donahue, Executive Director, Small Group Ministries, Willow Creek Association
"I loved this book. Greg has done it again! Based on a solid, unarguable biblical platform, Greg has lifted up the model of multiplication and reproduction for disciples and leaders, which Jesus and Paul embodied in the Scriptures. "Greg's credentials as a local church pastor give both the credibility and the courage to speak a bold hard truth with a soft clarity: that leaders (by their behavior) have lost sight of the call of the church to go and make disciples. More important, hecreates a road map for the process. Transforming Discipleship is a transferable training model, based on Jesus' and Paul's unique and similar adaptive styles of leadership and empowerment, that is so simple it is brilliant."The New Reformation was the biblical mandate to return the ministry to the people of God. Transforming Discipleship is the biblical mandate to grow and empower the people of God coupled with the model to accomplish the task."Greg has a unique ability to translate the Scriptures so that the reader can see their relevance in today's world and apply them to grow God's people. Transforming Discipleship is a call to action for all church leaders seeking to honor and embody the Great Commission."
Sue Mallory, author of The Equipping Church: Serving Together to Transform Lives
"Greg Ogden draws on his extensive pastoral experience as well as his interaction with many pastors in the Fuller D.Min. classes to provide an extensive range of biblical principles and practical ministry insights. He establishes the foundations for a reproducible model of discipleship. The issue is urgent and widespread in the churches of North America. This is the kind of book to help make a significant difference."
Dr. Eddie Gibbs, Donald A. McGavran Professor of Church Growth, Fuller Theological Seminary
"While Transforming Discipleship is packed full with good, useful, biblical insights, the two unique features that especially connect with discipleship in a postmodern world are the concepts of triad discipleship and the shift from the hierarchical and authoritative models that dominated discipleship in modernity to 'discipling as a mutual process of peer mentoring.' This work is more biblical and more compelling than anything I have seen to date."
Robert Webber, Myers Professor of Ministry, Northern Baptist Theological Seminary
