10 Key Resources to Help You Be Effective in Disciple Making

Dear Discipleship-first Friends,

You need solid, practical resources to help you be as God-honoring and effective at disciple making as possible.

From when we started in 2016, Discipleship.org has sought to provide resources to you through various means, including print books. We have partnered with publishers to release eleven different books and we’ve released twenty eBooks (as of this fall).

These resources carry the label “A Discipleship.org Resource,” which means that myself and my team at Discipleship.org have worked to ensure they are solid and practical tools for you to use.

As we enter into the fall of 2020, I want to recommend for your consideration our current top five print books and our current top five eBooks.

Current Top Disicpleship.org Print Books

Click on the titles below for more information or to order.

King Jesus and the Beauty of Obedience Based Discipleship by David Young

This book came out in July and it is getting top reviews. Zondervan is the largest publisher of Christian books in the world, and they were pleased to publish this book because it is a riveting yet in-depth exposition, filled with many great stories, of the Great Commission in Matthew 28:19–20.

Disciple Making Culture by Brandon Guindon

When I am asked about the most helpful and practical book on creating a disciple making culture, this is my new go-to-book. Brandon served for years as Jim Putman’s Executive Pastor at Real Life Ministries in Post Falls, Idaho. Then, he took the top disciple making insights he learned at that church and ended up planting a church called Real Life Texas in Houston. Brandon’s ministry demonstrates the reality of this practical book—his church is booming in Houston with disciples who make disciples and they are planting five new churches in 2020. Get his book to learn the nuts and bolts of a disciple making culture.

The Discipleship Gospel by Bill Hull and Ben Sobels

A recent Barna survey of pastors in America found that their biggest concern is the erosion of the gospel in churches. The Discipleship Gospel is a clarion call to understand the gospel and its call upon us to be true disciples of Jesus. This book reflects Dallas Willard’s dictum, channeled through Bill Hull, that “the Gospel you preach will determine the disciple you get.”

Discipleship that Fits by Bobby Harrington and Alex Absalom

While I am a little uncomfortable recommending this book because I am a co-author of it with Alex Absalom, here is the truth—people have found that it is the best leadership book on disciple making for church leaders that few church leaders have read. It is an essential resource for pastors and elders who are trying to figure out the best disciple making strategy for their individual church in their individual context. Email me if I mislead you but take to heart my challenge to read this book. You can figure out the best group sizes for disciple making for your church with this book as your guide. And in my opinion, all the good stuff in this book is really from Alex Absalom.

Stay the Course by Brandon Guindon or The Disciple Maker’s Handbook by Bobby Harrington and Josh Patrick.

Okay, I feel about the same for recommendation #5 as I did #4. But, honestly, I’m trying to be objective. It’s a tie.

Stay the Course is a field manual for staff and elders who want to stick with relational discipleship in the midst of all the things that will pull you away from it. Recently, the executive minister at our church quoted this book to me. He and our staff read it a couple of years ago. You have to read it if you have started the shift to disciple making and you need help staying on track.

The Disciple Maker’s Handbook is my best practical and in-depth insight from 2017 for everyday disciple makers. A lot of people have been reading it and have found it helpful.

Discipleship.org eBooks

We track the downloads of our eBooks each week. Here are the books that are currently both most popular and impactful—all available for free here.

Disciple Making Metrics by Dann Spader

Dann is a veteran disciple making leader, from his early days as the founder of SonLife, to his global ministry through Global Youth Initiative, to his current ministry focus with the LikeJesus project. I pestered him for several years to write this book and he finally got it done this spring. It is our hottest current download because it judiciously answers the question, How do you measure disciple making? It is a big question and Dann provides substantive answers. Watch for his webinar with Discipleship.org on this topic on November 12th.

Disciple Making Culture Visual Introduction by Brandon Guindon and Chad Harrington

This visual introduction is a new genre of eBooks for Discipleship.org. Instead of providing answers, this visual introduction artfully helps the reader and leadership teams to ponder the right questions. The questions naturally lead to an open-mindedness to the solutions provided by Brandon Guindon’s Disciple Making Culture. Even if you are never able to read the print book, the visual guide is a very helpful read for leadership teams.

Becoming a Disciple Maker by Bobby Harrington and Greg Weins

Okay, yes, I feel the same here as I did for recommendations #4 and #5 in print books.

But I have to be objective because this is the most downloaded book at Discipleship.org and one of the most downloaded at Exponential (church planting). I describe the paradigm we use of the five levels of disciple making and how to become a level five disciple maker. It helps each reader grasp how Jesus didn’t just make disciples, he made disciple makers. It will give you the language and the vision to make disciple makers.

Multiplying Disciples by Winfield Bevins

Asbury Seminary’s Winfield Bevins wrote this wonderful eBook in 2019 to describe disciple making movements in North American history. Bevins is not just a scholar, he is a church planting and disciple making practitioner. He provides a portrait of the past in hopes that it can inspire and move us into the future.

Invest in a Few by Craig Etheredge

Next to Becoming a Disciple Maker, this practical book by Craig Etheredge has been the second most downloaded eBook at Disicpleship.org. Craig is a pastor of a disciple making church and his insights are practical and honed from years of experience. It is a good read and a helpful guide.

I hope you find my recommendations helpful.

We will provide more print books and eBooks as we move into 2021. All of our authors are practitioners, and these resources are a big part of our mission.

We thank God for Zondervan and HIM Publications for their partnerships in our print book series and we thank all the wonderful authors of our growing catalog of free eBooks.