Multiplying Disciples: The New Testament Method for Church Growth
Waylon B. Moore, NavPress, 1981,129 pages, $3.95, paper. Reviewed by Rudolph E. Klimes, associate director of the General Conference Health and Temperance Department.
Moore believes his main ministry is that of disciple-making, and that the reader can become a "multiplier" or "builder of multipliers." In his cycle of leadership, Moore presents a model in which converters are evangelized by witnessing, disciples are established by follow-up, and multipliers equipped by man-to-man apprentice ship.
Where does disciple-making begin? "Within twenty-four hours the convert should be prayed for, personally contacted, and shown how to begin feeding on the Word of God." For bridging the "baptism gap," Moore suggests four follow-up methods: letters, intercessory prayers, sending a representative, and personal contact.
How does one then go about teaching and making others to multiply? Moore recommends five steps: tell him why, show him how, get him started, keep him going, and teach him how to pass on what he learns. The author believes anyone can disciple others. While he himself seems to prefer individual discipling, he also makes room for group discipling.
Moore has produced an outstanding introduction to the art of discipling. He has made no attempt to include a witnessing, manual, or an in-depth follow-up handbook; he did this in a previous publication. He has tried to inspire the reader in disciple-making and provide for him the necessary basic information. In this he has succeeded.
To Dream Again
Robert D. Dale, Broadman Press, Nashville, Tennessee, 1981, 154 pages, $4.95, paper. Reviewed by Douglas Bennett, chairman of the religion department, Southern Missionary College.
It is the purpose of the author to demonstrate how church leaders can develop and maintain organizational health in congregations. Recognizing the three models most often employed for the revitalization of a church (changing pol icy, changing personnel, or changing programs), the author advocates a basic plan for infusing a congregation with new life—discovering and clarifying its primary purpose. Attention is given to the healthy development of goals, without which Dale believes the church is doomed to decline.
Dale compares the dynamic stages through which a congregation passes to that of a person's life cycle: birth, growth, maturity, decline, and death. Although dreams are basic to the survival and health of a local group, these dreams must be turned into realities. Six strategies are given for accomplishing this. The author explains the complexity of this development, clarifying the sources within a congregation from which goals emerge, and explaining why some voted church goals are destined to fail.
Although many books have been writ ten in the area of church leadership, I have found none to equal To Dream Again in conciseness, completeness, readability, and practicalness.
Lifestyle Evangelism: Crossing Traditional Boundaries to Reach the Unbelieving World
Joseph C. Aldrich, Multnomah Press, 1981, 246 pages, $9.95. Reviewed by Steven P. Vitrano, chairman, Department of Church and Ministry, Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary, Berrien Springs, Michigan.
Lifestyle Evangelism is a book about Christian evangelism—not evangelism as generally perceived, but as a way of living. Aldrich does not think that the church's traditional approaches are getting the job done. He writes from the conviction that "the greatest barriers to successful evangelism are not theological. . . [but] cultural." By this he means that the Christian life style tends to put Christians in a subculture from which it is difficult to relate to a non-Christian or secular society in meaningful and effective ways.
He believes that the true Christian life style is like a melody or a symphony that people want to hear. What is needed, therefore, is not further emphasis upon how to say the words of the gospel, but how to play the music. "Personal evangelism," he says, "falls into one of three basic categories: (1) proclamational, (2) confrontational/intrusional, and (3) incarnational/ relational. All three are legitimate and used of God. But is it possible that one type of evangelism more effectively utilizes and maximizes the individual talents of each believer and at the same time gathers the music into a more harmonious presentation?"
For Aldrich, incarnational/relational evangelism takes place when "a Christian becomes good news as Christ ministers through his serving heart. As his friends hear the music of the gospel (presence) they become predisposed to respond to its words (proclamation) and then hopefully are persuaded to act (persuasion)." This form of evangelism is most useful for the church because it requires no sophisticated level of theological or skills training— every member can get involved. It is always relevant because the Christian knows his neighbor as a friend and can relate the gospel to his real needs.
The second half of the book is devoted to an amplification of how life-style evangelism can be implemented by the individual church member, the church as a body, the leadership of the church, and the church pastor in particular.
Notes:
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