Want to do discipleship and not sure how? Maybe, this book can launch your journey to discipleship. This review was first published on September 25th, 2013 at Panorama of a Book Saint.
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TITLE:
Growing UP: How to Be a Disciple Who Makes Disciples
AUTHOR: Robby Gallaty
PUBLISHER: Bloomington, IN: Crossbooks, 2013, (248 pages).
This whole book tries to answer the following questions. How do we as disciples make disciples practically, daily, passionately, and plainly? Written with practice in mind, the methods described in this book have been time tested and group tested. For the past decade, the author has been a part of Discipleship Groups (D-Groups), ever since he was dramatically transformed from his past life as a drug and alcohol addict. He openly shares about his failures encountered. Rejected from the school basketball team, the author had to nurse a failed relationship with his girlfriend, suffered a failed business venture, endured an accident that broke parts of his back, and spiraling downward in drugs and depression. It took a dear friend to patiently walk him back to faith and hope. He experiences what it means to benefit from people who sought to make a difference in the lives of others. "Growing up" is about Gallaty wanting to be a part of the solution instead of being a part of the problem. What better way than to consolidate all his energies and ideas into the work of discipleship. For him, making a difference simply means helping to make disciples who can make more disciples.
Just like his Church's mission statement to "Deliver, Disciple, and Deploy," the author spends the first three chapters of the book to make a case for the importance and necessity of making disciples. The rest of the book is contained in six steps using the CLOSER acronym for ease of remembering.
- Communicate with God through prayer
- Learn to understand and apply God's Word
- Obey God's commands
- Store God's Word in our hearts
- Evangelize
- Renew our Spiritual life daily.
