Multiply: Disciples Making Disciples
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the "crowd" will always be larger than the "core."
Francis Chan is a best-selling author and the founding pastor of Cornerstone Church, and the founder of Eternity Bible College. He also sits on the board of directors of the ChildrenâÂÂs Hunger Fund and World Impact. Currently, Francis is working to start a church planting movement in the inner city of San Francisco and also working to launch a countrywide discipleship movement.
Hence this book. Multiply: Making Disciples is one of those books that you can judge by it's cover. Yes, it's about growing as a church, yes, it's about discipleship - and since it's co-authored by Francis Chan, you can expect that there is a lot of good stuff in there.
In the book, Chan argues for the true purpose of the church: "making disciples."
"Jesusâ command to make disciples in the Great Commission (Matt 28:18-20) was not intended solely for the early disciples, nor is disciple-making the responsibility of a special class of Christians. Rather, all followers of Christ are called to make disciples, to fish for men (Matthew 4:19). Many donâÂÂt actively make disciples because they donâÂÂt know what it means to be a disciple."
My wife and I listened to Chan on his Simi Valley podcast and towards the end of his time there, we both agreed that Chan was growing frustrated at the seemingly inactive lifestyle of the global church. I would guess it gets hard week after week to call people to action, to call people to obedience, only to see them return Sunday after Sunday no different than the week before.
"We don't understand how serious it is when Jesus Christ gives us a command. We just don't get it."
In reading Multiply, you can still hear that frustration in Chan's voice.
But it's a maturity issue, it really is. And I would say that I think Chan is a little too hard on the global church. Discipleship is happening, and Christian growth is happening in the world - it really is, but we all move at our own pace.
Is there a large potion of the church who are content to just "attend" church and squeeze Jesus into their already packed life? Absolutely. But the "crowd" will always be larger than the "core."
There were other critics of this book who wanted more from it, and I admit as a stand alone book - it'd would have been nice to have some deeper application. (Chan does have a great chapter on studying the bible) But that's the great thing about this book, each of the 24 chapters in Multiply corresponds with an online video, where author David Platt helps expound the book even further.
This is still a very good book and I liked it better than his last two. The message is indeed needed in the church and I hope its a message that creates a following like Crazy Love did.
For me personally, Crazy Love is still his best book and probably the reason is because he wrote it. Forgotten God is co-written by Danae Yankoski. Erasing Hell is co-written by Preston Sprinkle. And as a reader and a Francis Chan fan, I would rather he got back into writing. I have no way to be sure, but I'd guess that the reasons why his last few books don't have the same fire as Crazy Love is because they are not 100% one voice.
Thank you to David C. Cook publishers for a review copy in exchange for a fair and honest review.
April 12, 2013
I was impressed the insertion of study questions.
This is an excellent study. Once again Francis Chan has
put forth a teaching instrument which provides knowledge
of Scripture.
March 1, 2013
Good book if used for a group study in discipleship; otherwise, not as captivating as Chan's previous books. Would be well used in discipleship training venue.
February 19, 2013
Good Book for Discipling New Believers
In Multiply author Francis Chan attempts to provide the reader with a practical book to help in their efforts to make disciples. The intent of the author is to mobilize Christians to go and make disciples as is our command from Matthew 28. Much of Christianity today involves getting people to church so they can hear the pastor preach but failing to personal disciple them. This book invites every believer into the disciple making process, not strictly relying on pastors and church leaders alone.
The book begins with three chapters explaining a disciple maker. These chapters are meant to help the reader understand why they should desire to make disciples and what exactly a disciple is. The next four parts provide the meat of the book. These sections are as follows: Living as the Church, How to Study the Bible, Understanding the Old Testament, Understanding the New Testament. These sections provide the reader with an opportunity to disciple a new or young believer in a structured format. While not very deep (individuals books could be and have been written on the topics discussed in each chapter) they provide valuable information for a new believer. Each chapter has study questions in the book that are meant to spark thought and conversation. Each chapter also has a video that goes along with it and can be viewed at multiplymovement.com. These chapters are roughly 10-15 pages long and would be perfect for a weekly discipleship meeting. The amount of material and questions provided are good lengths to have a 45 minute to an hour and a half meeting (depending on how in depth you may get) with someone or a small group. The sections are very easy to read and should not be difficult even for new believers.
I think that this book is a valuable resource to help disciple new believers. It should be noted, however, that while a lot is covered in this book (all of Scripture and how to study it) it is covered in a shallow way. Anyone who has been a believer for any length of time and seriously studies their Bible will find nothing new here. I do not mean this as a knock on the book, I think it does exactly what it intends to do. It provides a âÂÂfly-byâ intended to give the reader an understanding of the Bible and the Church and it does this quite well. I can see this book being used in my life as I encounter new or younger believers who need to grow in their knowledge. The layout, readability and external resource (provided by the website) all make this a very profitable book for discipling new believers.
I received a free copy of this book from David C. Cook in exchange for an honest review.
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December 19, 2012
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