When I'm thinking about picking up a book, the first thing I do is look at the cover. It either needs to look old and classic, so that I can feel like an oxford professor reading it and sipping Earl Grey, or it needs to look interesting and fresh. Follow: A Handbook for Making Disciples of Jesus Christ has a classic font and an arrow. Arrows are cool. I hope it makes you want to buy the book.
The second thing I look at when I'm thinking about picking up a book is the table of contents. Because second to looking cool while reading is filling your mind with great content (I'm mostly joking about the cool cover being most important...mostly.)
So, I'm sharing the table of contents to help you figure out if you this book will be beneficial to you or not. Considering the broad scope of content that is in the Bible and the experiences you have had with Jesus. Does it seem overwhelming to consider how to go about communicating the vastness of the Christian life to another person? Does it seem even more daunting when you consider that disciple-making shouldn't just be an information dump; it should be a relational investment of one life into another? Having a frame of reference helps you know where to start. I've posted some content from the book online, so I've hyperlinked those sections. Look over the table of contents and think about how the book might be helpful to you as you invest in another follower of Jesus.
Table of Contents
- Preface
- Introduction for New and Non-Christians
- Introduction for Disciple-Makers
- Chapter 1: Loving Jesus Matters More Than Anything
- Chapter 2: You Have Been Made Alive
- Chapter 3:Tell Everybody Now
- Chapter 4: Be Different; Don’t Just Act Different. The Fruit of the Spirit
- Chapter 5: Doing the Miraculous. Spiritual Gifts and Being Filled
- Chapter 6: Sin, Sanctification, Crisis, and Progress
- Chapter 7: Christ-Centered Human Relationships
- Chapter 9: Rational Belief, Not Blind Faith
- Chapter 10: Staying Connected-Spiritual Disciplines
- Chapter 11: Lifelong Discipleship
- Appendix A: Supernatural Relationships-The Trinity
- Appendix B: Recommended Reading
- Appendix C: Discipleship Steps
- Appendix D: Discussion Questions
It very well could be that you don't need this book. You may have a really solid understanding of how to make disciples. If so, that's great! However, I like having lots of tools in my toolbox, and I like having lots of resources for making disciples. I hope Follow: A Handbook for Making Disciples of Jesus Christ will at least serve as another tool in your disciple-making toolbox. If nothing else, I hope it inspires you to make disciples.