by Francis Chan and Mark Beuving teamed up to create a complete program for disciple makers to create disciple makers. The book is designed to be a 24-week program that takes a new disciple and ends with them prepared to be a disciple maker and be the leader for others to go through the transformation. Platt states, “Francis and Mark have provided a simple, practical, biblical, helpful, and personal tool for disciples of Jesus who want to make disciples of Jesus.”[1]
Abstract
The chapters are grouped into five parts. Throughout each chapter, there are questions for the small group to answer and share the answers with each other. The first part defines what a disciple is and explains why disciple is commanded to be a disciple maker. The book describes the Great Commission and provides an explanation on why it is not always a priority. Chan and Beuving explain, “we have created a church culture where the paid ministers do the ‘ministry,’ and the rest of us show up, put some money in the plate, and leave feeling inspired or ‘fed.’…many Christians don’t have a frame of reference for what disciple making looks like.”[2]
Part two explains that each disciple is part of a larger body of Christ. The church is necessary as it is God’s strategy for reaching our world through a group of redeemed people that are together in such a way that their lives and communities are transformed.[3] Church is an important part of being a disciple and is critical to salvation. Chan and Beuving explain, “if we are not working together to help the unbelieving world around us become followers of Jesus, then we are missing the point of our salvation.”[4] The last chapter of part two emphasizes the requirement of the Great Commission to be worldwide and hints at the purpose of missionaries.
Part three justifies the importance of the Word of God and provides different suggestions on methods of study. God’s Word should be read daily with an understanding that it is the most important thing that should be studied and followed. It is more than something that we study and learn from. Chan and Beuving states, “It has a life of its own. It acts. It reads us; it pierces to the deepest parts of our being and discerns our motivations. Since our God is a living God, His Word is alive, and He works through His Word to actively transform every part of our being.”[5]
Part four and five provide an understanding of the critical events within the Old Testament and the New Testament. From creation to Jesus the Messiah and the Revelation of what is to come, all these topics are explained in detail and ask answers for the small group to discuss together. An example, “Based on what you studied in the session on the kingdom of God in the Old Testament, why is Jesus’s proclamation of the kingdom of God important?”[6] At the end of both parts, the disciple should have matured enough to be a disciple maker and create another small group to go through the process. Chan and Beuving states, “We can follow the storyline from beginning to end, yet there is one gap that remains in the story, and that is the part that we are called to play. The end of the story has been written, but we still have a responsibility to faithfully play our part.[7]
Summary
The book is thorough and addresses most areas of growth for a new disciple to become a disciple maker. There are supporting materials to assist with leading a twenty-four-week Bible Study series. There are various parts of discipleship that start with defining what a disciple is and ends with next steps on how to turn the disciples into disciple makers. The book will be foundational to my future Bible Study creations along with my DU classes in the discipline of Discipleship.
Bibliography
Chan, Francis, and Mark Beuving. Multiply: Disciples Making Disciples. First Edition. Colorado Springs, CO: David C Cook, 2012.
Gate City Christian Church. “Multiply Curriculum Resources.” https://www.gatecitychristian.com/multiply-leader-resources.
[1] David Platt, “Foreword,” in Multiply: Disciples Making Disciples (Colorado Springs, CO: David C Cook, 2012), 8.
[2] Chan and Beuving, Multiply, 30.
[3] Ibid., 52–53.
[4] Chan and Beuving, Multiply, 74.
[5] Ibid., 119.
[6] Ibid., 261.
[7] Ibid., 328.