Dear Discipleship-First Friends,
The North American Church faces a stark challenge… The 5% Problem.
In 2020, Discipleship.org released results from a National Study on church disciple making cultures. The findings were alarming–just under 5% of churches have cultures rooted in Jesus-style disciple making.
That means 95% of our churches lack this foundation. In practice:
- Life-on-life disciple making isn’t the core mission.
- Pastors and leaders aren’t personally practicing relational disciple making.
- Members aren’t equipped to become disciples who make disciples.
As one friend quipped, “Our churches have adopted the functional mission of going into all the world and making more church attenders, baptizing them in the name of programs, and teaching them to volunteer a few times a month.”
We knew some leaders and churches were bucking this trend, so in late 2024, we launched an in-depth investigation to identify North America’s top disciple making churches (including churches in Canada). Our goal—to uncover the practices of these churches to equip leaders everywhere.
We interviewed hundreds of leaders, analyzed data, consulted practitioners on multiplying churches, and heard stories of heartbreak and hope. The result? Game-changing insights for every leader:
- We identified 9 top churches and networks excelling in disciple making.
- We distilled their key practices.
- We compiled the results in the book, 7 Practices of Disciple Making Churches, with leadership questions to apply the research to your team.
We were so excited to share this with you that we created a ‘Sampler’ version of the book that you can download for FREE.
CLICK HERE to download and read the Free Sampler – 7 Practices of Disciple Making Churches to learn the top disciple making churches and explore the seven practices.
Here’s what key voices are saying:
“The roadmap we’ve been waiting for… highlighting the ‘muscle memory’ of churches cracking the code on multiplication.” —Dave Ferguson, CEO, Exponential; author, Multiplier
“The authors have put gasoline on the fire of the Great Commission. This book comes from practitioners, not consultants.” —Jim Putman, author, pastor, and leader at the Relational Discipleship Network.
“A valuable tool for anyone serious about developing a disciple making culture.” —Jeff Vanderstelt, author and executive director, Saturate.
“The disciple making resource pastors have been asking for—grounded in proven practice, not theory.” —Vick Green, CEO, Replicate Ministries
CLICK HERE to download and read the Free Sampler – 7 Practices of Disciple-Making Churches. If you prefer to have a copy of the full book, it is now avaliable on Amazon.com. CLICK HERE to order the full copy of 7 Practices of Disciple Making Churches.
For King Jesus,
Bobby Harrington