Barna's "Growing True Disciples" Gives Biblical Strategies, Not "New" Ones.

George Barna’s Growing True Disciples: New Strategies for Producing Genuine Followers of Christ was a pleasant surprise. I have not enjoyed many of Mr. Barna’s latest offerings but found Growing True Disciples to be a refreshing and challenging call to first be a disciple and then a disciple maker. The “new strategies” promised in the books’ subtitle is a bit of a misnomer, however. I quickly discovered Barna was in fact arguing for a very old strategy for making disciples: that model that Christ Himself gave us.

My favorite aspect of this book is the author’s continued emphasis on being radically sold out for Christ, so much so that He is that to which we are most “absolutely, fanatically devoted” (p. 99). This is a theme presented in the first chapter that runs as a coursing river through the manuscript. He then assesses the current state of discipleship, finding our myriad of programs and church “ministries” lacking when it comes to producing truly lasting and life-long Christ followers. He compares the modern church to the example of Christ and the original disciples in chapter 4. There are disturbing numbers presented here: “Less than one quarter of all born-again adults,” writes Barna, “consciously strive to make worship part of their lifestyle.” I doubt many pastors could disagree with the assertion or the numbers backing it up. What is also concerning in the presentation here is that many Christians don’t believe much differently from secular progressives on some key issues (i.e. definition of family, pornography, etc), and an alarming number of Christians do not hold to such essential doctrines at biblical accuracy or actuality of the miracles performed therein (p. 65).

Perhaps most pointed is chapter 5. In it he diagnoses the cause of our discipleship dearth as failure to our overemphasis on programmed, lecture-style education and an abundance of ill-trained small group leaders (p. 94). He does offer a slight glimmer of hope near chapter’s end, though I found his few encouraging words at this point seemingly ineffective when measured against his greater multitude of words to the contrary

The rest of the book focuses on two dozen churches Barna has studied. The author commends these models to the reader with a welcome balance of pros and cons (pp. 105-132). Barna’s candid and insightful analysis is one of the strengths of the book and a good reason for recommending it to pastors and ministry leaders. This fits with Barna’s assertion: “one of the practices I witness in every highly effective church I study is that they borrow great ideas from every place they find them.” This is a good recommendation tempered with the important recommendation to “hybrid” (p. 157) the models copied, fitting them to the specific needs of your church and people.

Augustine As Mentor

While Smither's Augustine as Mentor reads much like a doctoral thesis (which I'm told was its origin), it is an important look at how one of the great spiritual leaders in history placed discipleship at the center of his life.

The history of discipleship provided by the book's first chapter is worth the price of admission alone. Succinct, rich, and well-researched, the opening chapter lays an important historical understanding of just what it means to be a NT disciple and disciple-maker. I can see the information from this chapter being used to lead church members to a better understanding of biblical discipleship. This first chapter fits within the context of this mostly biographical work, but it can also stand alone as one of the better treatments on biblical discipling that I have read.

The book spends a great deal of space in defining those men who mentored and inspired Augustine; Cyprian, Basil, and Ambrose featuring most prominently. Though the information is extensive, there is a repetition to the discipleship styles and information here. The up side is that one can see this strand of disciple-making mentoring run through the ancient church and influence its people. The down side to this treatment is that it can tend to bog down the reader in repetition.

The second half of the book is a biography of Augustine made a disciple and disciple-maker, with a special emphasis on his continual community of friends and its importance to his ministry.

The book closes with a final chapter of helpful summary points made throughout the work.

With exception of the first chapter on the history of discipleship, this is not the most crucial discipleship book on the market. But it is an incredibly well-researched look at the mentoring methods of a great Christian leader. Great ancillary reading on disciple-making.

----------------

Some rough outlines I made from information gleaned in the book:

Augustine on Christian Friendship

"caritas" is a love for God and neighbor as modeled by the Trinity.

Distinctives of Christian friendship:

- a friend is loved unconditionally because of Christ in him

- it is a bond that is a gift of the Holy Spirit.

- it is completely focused on God and the friends' fight for sanctification

- it is characterized by a common faith

Outcomes of Christian friendship:

- unity, "one heart in God"

- wonderful experience and a blessed outcome (Ps. 182)

- spiritual growth of community

On the Mentor As Disciple

- commitment to ascetic living in the context of community

- humility regarding what one does not know or understand, inviting others' input. Pride is continually killed.

- continuous theological development. the mentor as disciple is forever a student.

- writing (journaling, written works to aid disciples)

- lifelong commitment to growing as a disciple through demonstrating humility and transparency.

Mentor/Disciple Principles

- group context is always considered

- the mentor must be a committed, mature disciple

- selection of a disciple is based on existing relationship/friendship

- sound teaching is the center of discipling direction

- the discipler is a model fit for imitation by his disciple

- the discipler looks for opportunities to involve his disciple in practical ministry

- the discipler is aware that he will release the disciple to lead ministry

- the discipler is a continual resource to the released disciple

'Spectacular Sins'

I must admit I took a roughly three-year break from reading John Piper. I had read so much of his printed work that I found myself beginning emulate his style, so I laid off soon after When I Don't Desire God: How to Fight For Joy helped jolt me into deeper spiritual truth and discipline that has carried on to this day. (That book has a reserved spot in my Top 10 books concerning faith).

And I may be adding another: I received a free copy of his most recent, Spectacular Sins (And Their Global Purpose in the Glory of Christ), at the Desiring God conference this Fall and found time to read it one day over the Thanksgiving holiday.

The book is classic Piper. And that is hardly to say the book, its prose or purpose, is stale. Anything but. Dr. Piper still moves the pen (so to speak) in such a way as to stir one's heart toward the deeper truths of the faith. In this case, his opening salvo is prophetic in telling his reader that the time's are changing and everything we as Christians have come to expect, be it creature comforts to cultural acceptance, is about to be ripped away as Satan grows more powerful.

He writes in the book's introduction:

The sources of this difficulty will be pervasive sin...Tragedies and calamities and horrific suffering and sinful atrocities should not take Christians off guard. 'Beloved, do not be surprised by the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you' (1 Peter 4:12). They are foreseen by God, and he foretold them for us to know. God sees them coming and does not intend to stop them. Therefore, it appears that they somehow fit into his purposes."

This is not comfort reading. You won't feel good reading this. But you will feel buttressed by essential understanding of how that which is intended for evil by Satan and fallen men is actually part of God's plan and purpose.

Shocking? Yep.
Hard to wrap your head around? Oh yeah.
Spiritually nourishing? ...like gallons of green tea to your soul. 

Piper describes in chapter 3 the reality of God governing every move of Satan:

"...God permitted Satan's fall, not because he was unable to stop it, but because he had a purpose for it. Since God is never taken off guard, his permissions are always purposeful. If he chooses to permit something, he does so for a reason - an infinitely wise reason because he is infinitely wise. How the sin arises in Satan's heart, we do not know. God has not told us. What we do know is that God is sovereign over Satan."

This theological truth has INCREDIBLE implications with how we view the sins of Satan, others, and ourselves. My own personal sin is permitted by God. For the same infinitely wise reason he permits Satan to roam the earth for a time, "he who is able to keep me from stumbling" (Jude 24) will however permit my stumbling sometimes because it will glorify His Son. God permits NOTHING that does not eventually lead to the glorification of Christ. And though I fall, I will rise (Micah 7:8-9) and no one will snatch me from the Father's hand (John 10:27-30).

Yeah. And that's just the surface of this barely-100-page read.

Piper then walks through several small chapters focused on spectacular sins from Scripture, including: Adam's disobedience, Joseph's being sold into slavery by his brothers, and Judas' betrayal of Christ Himself.

Chapter 5 is of particular interest to this writer, focusing on the pride of the people of Babel. As I wrote in a previous post, half the world's population now lives in cities; making urban missions the most important field for the harvest in the coming century. And Piper's theological treatment of the first metropolis is eye-opening:

"Then Genesis 11:1-9 drops the bomb on us. It wasn't obedience after all [to build the city]. The people weren't spreading to fill the earth. They were clustering. God came down and shattered their disobedience and made their clustering impossible. He confused their language and brok humanity into many peoples and languages."

Further:

"His will is not that we find our security in cities but in God whom we gladly obey."

He argues that God uses the sin of Babel to glorify His cause in the world: "We humans are far too evil to be allowed to unite in one language or one government. The gospel of the glory of Christ spreads better and flourishes because of 6,500 languages, not in spite of them."

I pray this short synopsis/review has whet your appetite to delve into the deep truth presented in this small volume. I highly commend it to you. With the times changing as rapidly they are and persecution of all types on the very near horizon, John Piper rallies the Kingdom army through presenting all-important Scriptural truth that will make you uncomfortable even as it comforts your soul. His admonition to readers of Spectacular Sins serves also to rattle you out of your complacency and challenges you to begin exploring the truth of how God works through even the most vile of sins: "Wimpy worldviews make wimpy Christians. And wimpy Christians won't survive the days ahead."

'Spiritual Depression' Happens to Us All

If you've been a believer for any amount of time, you're familiar with the feeling.

It's like your...off, somehow. You're not connecting with God for some reason, even after you've asked Him to search your heart and reveal to you any unconfessed or secret sin. You are praying your guts out. You read your Scriptures hoping to feel real again.  Your relationships with people may be going well, but you don't feel connected to anyone. There's no reason to be in a desert but you are anyway.

And you are not alone. Not by a long shot.

It is spiritual depression, the subject of D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones' classic, "Spiritual Depression: It's Causes and Cure." And it will affect us all at one point or another. Actually, probably several points. 

A few months ago I realized something in me was...off. I couldn't explain it or understand it. It felt familiar but not. I kept thinking I had done something to get myself into this desert. There seemed to be no reason for feeling in a funk. My first sign of hope came from Scripture, specifically from the transcript of Christ's temptation in the desert in Luke 4. I noticed Jesus was "led by the Spirit in the desert." He didn't do anything to get himself there. The Holy Spirit led the Lord Himself into the desert for a specific purpose. Much of my spiritual journey in this season is shared in my recent sermon over Luke 4:1-15 at NBC this past July. 

I began to learn I was not alone in facing spiritual depression. "The fact remains," writes Lloyd-Jones, "that there are large numbers of Christian people who give the impression of being unhappy. They are cast down, their souls are 'disquieted within them', and it is because of that" the late London minister calls attention to the subject in this collection of hard-hitting, refreshing sermons.

This book has been an oasis for me.  I especially appreciate that Lloyd-Jones distinguishes that there are certain personalities who are hard on themselves, given to unhealthy instrospection. This kind of insight pervades the book. He writes,

"Some of us by nature, and by the very type to which we belong, are more given to this spiritual disease called spiritual depression than others. We belong to the same company as Jeremiah, and John the Baptist and Paul and Luther and many others. A great company! Yes, but you cannot belong to it without being unusually subject to this particular type of trial." 

Further:

"You cannot isolate the spiritual from the physical for we are body, mind and spirit. The greatest and the best Christians when they are physically weak are more prone to an attack of spiritual depression than at any other time and there are great illustrations of this in the Scriptures." 

Lloyd-Jones defines in his book an important and vital issue most Christians face but never really define or defeat because they are blinded to it. I'm thankful for this volume and give it the highest recommendation I can.