Book Review: Discipling: How to Help Others Follow Jesus

The 9Marks: Building Healthy Churches Series is a set of short books designed to help churches think through what it means to be a healthy church. Discipling: How to Help Others Follow Jesus by Mark Dever is the eighth book to be released in this series. There are two fundamental questions that a book on discipling should seek to address. They are: 1) What is discipling? and 2) Who are disciples? Dever addresses each of these in his Introduction.

He begins by providing a simple definition of discipling. Dever states, “discipling is deliberately doing spiritual good to someone so that he or she will be more like Christ.” In defining a disciple Dever says that “[Jesus] says that being a Christian involves denying yourself, taking up your cross, and following him. The fundamental response to God’s radical love for us is for us to radically love him. To be a Christian means to be a disciple. There are no Christians who are not disciples.” So, all Christians are disciples and to disciple someone means to do spiritual good for someone with the goal of Christlikeness. These are helpful and simple definitions. With these two thoughts in mind Dever begins his book on discipling.

Discipling is divided into three parts: 1) What is Discipling? 2) Where Should We Disciple? and 3) How Should We Disciple?

Dever begins part one by stating that we should all recognize that we have influence on people and are influenced by others. So, a key question is: How will we use our influence? We should be aware of this fact and in turn be others oriented. Focusing on others and their spiritual good is a frequent command given to believers.  In the New Testament we find over 50 one another commands. As Dever writes, part of “being a disciple of Jesus means orienting our lives toward others, just as Jesus did. It means laboring for the sake of others. This love for others is at the heart of discipling…. the discipling life is an others-oriented life. It labors in the power of God to proclaim Christ and present others mature in Christ. That is the pattern we see in the Bible.”

From here Dever focuses on the work of discipling which is “initiating a relationship in which you teach, correct, model, and love. It takes great humility.” Each of these points (teach, correct, model, and love) is expanded upon over the course of a chapter. Dever brings this first section to and end by giving helpful short answers to seven objections to discipling (i.e. “This is just for extroverts” or “I can’t disciple. I’m imperfect, erring, and too young.”).  The short answers that he provides are helpful reminders that sometimes our objections are just convenient excuses that we have built into our thinking about discipling others.

Part Two: Where Should We Disciple? begins with a chapter that provides the answer to this question. The answer is in the local church. Sure, it is possible for one believer to disciple another believer outside of the context of a local church. However, God has given us the local church as a place for community and accountability to one another and this makes it the best possible place for discipleship to take place. This does not mean that discipleship only takes place in the building where the body meets. As members who have covenanted together, we live life together (outside of gathered worship) and meet in homes, over coffee, at dinner, and a variety of other places to discuss the Word together. The goal of these discipleship meetings is to build one another up into Christlikeness.

Part Three contains four chapters: 1) Choose Someone 2) Have Clear Aims 3) Pay the Cost and 4) Raising Up Leaders. The chapter titled, Choose Someone, gives the reader nine factors to consider when selecting someone to disciple. These factors should prove helpful to anyone who is trying to decide who they should disciple. The discipling relationship should also have clear aims. If the goal is growth in Christ, then the relationship should help the person you are discipling to know God more and to live for him through the work of the Spirit.

Discipling others will also cost you something. As Dever points out, it will certainly cost time for meeting, for study and for prayer. He also notes that it requires love. Love to initiate, to persevere, to humbly receive criticism, and to give. These are all excellent reminders that there is a cost to discipling. But it is worth the cost.

The final chapter is written for elders to encourage them to raise up new leaders. Here Dever expands on nine steps to raising up leaders. These steps are: shepherd toward biblical qualifications, adopt a posture of looking, spend personal time, advance trust, delegate responsibility, give feedback, encourage godly authority, expect clarity, and foster a culture of humility. This is an excellent chapter and a wonderful reminder (as is the entire book) of one of the key reasons that God providentially brought my family to Grace Covenant Church three years ago. We longed for a culture of discipleship. That culture should start with the elders of a church and should then permeate through the life of the entire body.

An Appendix is also included listing 36 different books to use, in addition to the Bible, in discipling relationships. A broad range of topics are covered by these books and it could be a helpful list for many.

Overall, I found this book to be a helpful look at discipling. The size of the book (under 125 pages) makes it highly accessible. Discipleship is something that we should always be mindful of as we strive for unity to maturity in Christ.