The Disciple-Making Pastor

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding
Review: Another outstand book by Hull. It is the author's thesis that the anemic state of the church is due to a lack of discipleship or as he would put it, "It is a crisis of product". The marching orders of the church are plain and simple: make disciples. The modern church is adept at making converts, but it makes precious few disciples, thus failing to fulfill the Great Commission. Hull gives us a six step program to facilitate that process: Them what, they them why (most churches stop right here), show the how, do it with them, let them do it, deploy them in the world.

In chapter four, "The Role of a Disciple Making Pastor" Hull provides a strong theological framework upon which his thesis is built. In it, he makes the biblical care for the role of the modern pastor. Coming from a Christian Church/church of Christ background that relegates the role of the pastor to a glorified chaplain, I appreciate his care for strong pastoral leadership. He also takes issue with Rutz (The Open Church) who denigrates the modern pastoral rule. Hull rightly observes that without strong pastoral leadership as the "trigger mechanism" for discipleship, renewal will not happen in the church. Hull's analogy of the pastor as coach is excellent. His criticism of ministry to felt need sis a perhaps a little to hard. Though the idea of meet felt needs is overused, the idea is still a good one- you reach people where they are. The last few chapters were redundant and could have been considerably shortened

Rating:
Summary: Imperative for Serious leaders
Review: Having been personally discipled in a small group setting, I believe this is what the modern church has always missed. The shepherd must come to realize the tremendous gap between Sunday worship and daily practical Christian living is filled by a determined, systematic, measurable, plan of Biblical discipleship. Too many churches are little more than "pools of ignorance", lacking the ability to think critically and practice discernment, things so dearly needed today. In today's "instant gratification" mentality, this 2-3 year plan is not popular, but bears fruit lasting into eternity.

Rating:
Summary: Not enough how-to-do-it examples
Review: I was extremely excited about this book when I first started reading it. Being a new pastor of a small church, I was hoping that it would give me the nuts and bolts of how to put together a discipleship ministry. Unfortunately, as I got closer to the end of the book it was obvious that I wasn't going to get that here.

The book overall seems to be written with the intent to give pastors who are not creating disciples the conviction that they should be. Much descussion is given to "WHY" you should, not "HOW" you can. There is an overview of a structure that can be used but it sure would have been nice to have more detail on how to put it all together.