“Do not have your concert first, and then tune your instrument afterwards. Begin the day with the Word of God and prayer, and get first of all into harmony with Him.” I recently listened to a sermon about constantly refreshing ourselves in God’s presence, and this tied directly with that message. We need to be planted in the right place and be in tune with Him in order to be refreshed and ready to work for God. This chapter wrapped up the book well with a great structure of how to move forward with all the knowledge that was poured out, especially with the disciple-making plan.

The first paragraph of this chapter is very powerful in changing perspectives. I realized that there are many things that come up in my life and I pass them by because I think my talents are insufficient to be a part of those tasks or opportunities. In reality, these things could be easily accomplished because God has given me gifts to make it possible, but I lie to myself about God’s truth and refuse to even try. “The most effective disciple-makers aren’t the ones who are the best trained. They are the ones who share with the most people! Are you ready to chuck the fear and start sharing with everybody?” This is one of my favorite parts of this chapter, because it takes away so many lies that Satan tells us and plainly shows God’s grace in the sharing of His gospel.

This chapter started off with some amazing stories about the author’s missions and his thoughts on the density of disciples in specific areas of the world. I was interested to learn more about how to export people into the mission field because the skewed densities of disciples is something I have thought about before. The statistics about the number of distinct people groups in the world was shocking. What is even more shocking is the estimated amount of those groups who have never heard the gospel before! A great quote he has in this chapter is “the more you lose, the more you gain!” This applies to sending out your best disciple-makers along with much more in the Christian life. This quote found at the end of the chapter puts the whole chapter into perspective: “We are not doing God a favor when we serve him. He allows us to do it for our own good and for the blessing that comes from joining him.” We need to be grateful that God is working in us through this process of disciple-making.

He makes a good point that most disciple training is found only in the classroom instead of being hands-on teaching/learning. We have learned through studies that many people learn best by hands-on activities, so it only makes sense that this carries into disciple-making as well. When he asked who impacted you the most in your life and if it was that person’s ministry skills or character, I also answered with character. This question shows the importance of modeling your life for the purpose of strengthening your disciples’ maturity. I am so glad that knowing God more and understanding his character deeper is what causes us to take action, like the passage in Daniel states. The example he had in Step 4 of character immaturity was helpful, because it shows how we need to be more specific in our applications, otherwise it is likely we will forget about them or not know how to follow through. At the end of the chapter, his comparison chart between the “coffee shop model” and “Jesus’ model” wrapped together many of the points he was making in the chapter. Jesus had a specific way of gathering his disciples he poured into, so it makes sense that we should follow his lead with how he produced disciple-makers.

I liked his analogy that young Christians are like a growing plant or a newborn baby. They are naive in their faith, so they need a firm foundation of believers around them to help them grow. We cannot push them out on their own immediately, but we do need to recognize when they are ready to grow within that team and become disciple-makers more on their own. I find it interesting that they found 2.5 to 3.5 years of discipling to be the most effective. The relationship between a spiritual parent and a discipled child is helpful in tying the discipling relationship together. You get to know your “child” and what causes them to grow the most, praying for them and supporting them continually. His section discussing “modeling” reminds me of something shared at a retreat at Inspiration Hills. We need to invite people into our lives so that they can see how we live, not hiding any part of who we are or separating discipleship from the rest of our daily activities. Another great analogy in this chapter is that we need to take in many “meals” of God’s word within a week to grow effectively. He added an excellent quote in the summary saying we should not do anything for our children that they can do for themselves. So as disciple-makers, we should “raise our children” in a way that allows them to go on and do work by themselves while keeping them apart of the family.

I like how he started out the chapter talking about James and Carl. It makes sense that you can live in the same community as someone and have opposite results spiritually. What matters is which activities you participate in and which practices you do that changes you spiritually. We definitely see this situation on a college campus and in other ministry settings. Later in the chapter he makes a good point with the passage in 2 Corinthians about persuading others of the gospel. Trying to gain their interest before sharing the gospel has not been told to me so bluntly before. It is definitely needed in some cases to get people interested in the gospel, especially when you try to introduce it and they have no care whatsoever in what you have to share.

The first essential item listed for spiritual growth and reproduction is a leader who constantly reminds people about spiritual multiplication. Lately, I have been reminded quite often about how bad forgetfulness can be for us spiritually. This is just one more reminder that we need to be reminded constantly, so that we do not forget, who God is and what he has set out for us to do! The point about coaching, instead of just training, was also interesting. Jesus coached his disciples and gave feedback, showing us this style is a better way of leading people to multiplication than training alone. His last point about our weaknesses displaying God’s strength is huge. We need each other so we can work as a team and God as our leader to be truly successful.

The example of the tree was a very helpful illustration. It is not the tree itself that has changed, but where it is planted. I think this tells us we need to be careful where we plant ourselves after college (and even during college) so we have good soil that allows us to grow as disciples and disciple makers. It was also a good reminder that the Spirit provided each of us with different gifts, so we need to work as a team so that we can use these gifts more fully by using them all together. The equation of Conviction + Competence + Community = Consistency was a good visual to see how they are wrapping up their research to provide more insight on how disciple-making should be shifted as to continue in all parts of life. The rest of the chapter was very eye-opening. Before I read this, I did not notice how many churches rarely talk about disciple-making. It is definitely something Jesus taught his disciples and what he wants for our churches, so I wonder why so many churches miss the mark on producing disciple makers.

I like that the author shares an example in his life where discipling was not as fruitful as he expected, showing that it will not always be a smooth journey. His early findings or theories in his research were things that I would suspect to be the reason for unfruitful spiritual multiplication and I am glad he shared his findings that were faulty. I also liked his explanation of how we live out in every day life the relationship between special and general revelation. It is important to know we should interpret our research findings in the light of Scripture and not the other way around. I am very interested to know what the “laws of the harvest” are in later chapters. It is interesting that their sample size was 410; I wonder how they took that into consideration when doing statistics.

This chapter starts off with a very good reminder of how the major people in the Bible are just like us: sinful. This is a good reminder that we find our confidence in Christ. It is also important to recognize how big our God is; I am thankful for the passage in Isaiah that shouts out how amazing and unexplainable He is. Why do I question myself when this God is doing the work behind and through all that I do? These stories in this chapter were and still are life-changing for so many people who are continuing to be impacted by a small seed. We will not know what chain reaction will occur, but we need to take the first step in faith.

I never related spiritual multiplication to the stars and sand like Abraham’s descendants. He made very good points about how spiritual multiplication changes for some people after college and I’m interested in seeing the research of why that is in later chapters. I also found it interesting how he points out that multiplication, both spiritual and physical, was one process before the fall. Now that it has been separated by sin, we have more, and extremely necessary, work ahead of us. It is important to remember that although we are not descendants of Abraham by blood, we are his descendants by having the same faith.