Friday, December 6, 2013
'Multiply' - Francis Chan
“Go and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”
These were the last words Christ
left us with before He ascended to heaven. We were commanded to finish what He
started. But what does this really look like? How do we go about it?
Multiply, by Francis Chan, is a resource
every believers needs to have in his or her hands.
He really communicated the simplicity of our
disciple-making call. We often complicate it by forcing it into the mold of
church programs and events, or by confining it to the call of ministers and
evangelists, and we often forget that this universal call is for all believers
everywhere. We’re called to imitate God, carry on His ministry, and become like
Him in the process. This is the
mission of our lives.
The first half of the book deals with just
these issues: what it means and looks like to be a disciple, how we can
disciple in the context of the church community, and how we can use the Word
effectively to teach others.
The second half, however, deals with the
content that we are to teach. Chan stresses the importance of having a proper
understanding of Scripture if you’re going to be teaching or influencing
people. He goes through the Old and New Testament, dissecting it, pulling out
the main points,
It’s not merely a survey of Scripture- it
all leads up to Christ’s final command of disciple-making.
It leaves us with a challenge: the end of
the story has already been written, but we are called to fill in the gap and do
our part until Christ returns. This moment has been entrusted to us by God, so
let us go out and fulfill the mission of our lives.
I greatly appreciated the unique structure
of the book. Instead of just talking about disciple-making, he stressed the
importance of knowing what we’re
going to be teaching. That’s why he includes resources to know how to study the
Bible as well as a survey of what we should know.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone
interested in learning more about what disciple-making actually looks like!
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