DiscipleShift: Five Steps That Help Your Church to Make Disciples Who Make Disciples (Exponential Series)

Putnam's book is informative and practical, but it is nothing new if you're well-read in discipleship books from recent years. The focus is on using relationships, specifically small groups, to be the vessel for spiritual growth. Aligning all things to the discipleship process is also key (ideas expanded in Simple Church, which Putman quotes).If you're looking for a primer on relational discipleship, then pick up DiscipleShift. If you've been reading on the topic for a while and you're looking for new ideas, then go into this book knowing it will be many of the same ideas.

I was assigned excerpts from this book for reading for a discipleship class. I really like the approach the author takes for discipleship within the church so I bought a copy for myself to read and re-read. Great practical information

Love this book! If you want to know what it means to be a disciple-making church, read this!!I read this book on a sabbatical and it helped me find the Relational Discipleship Network, which I joined and has helped tremendously!

This book is the single best book on making disciples that I have ever read. It digs into the nuts and bolts of doing it and shows you the strategic reasons for why disciple making is what your church should be doing full time. The other great attribute of the book is that it draws so many of the best tools for evaluating disciples into one place and makes it easy to reference them. As a missionary working over seas I had put into practice much of what this book covers however Jim Putman goes deeper, articulates more clearly and shows more plainly many of the things I was trying to do. Reading the book made me a better missionary. Applying these principles to your church will make your church more Biblically sound as well as in more in line with what Holy Spirit and Christ what us to be doing.If you read this book after reading another book by Jim Putman, Church is a Team Sport your experience and understanding of the book will be enhanced. All my quibbles with the book when I first read it were answered, or at least covered, in Church is a Team Sport. No matter what denomination you are in or where you are in your Christian life you will benefit from reading DiscipleShift.

Putnam does a great job pointing out the mission of making disciples in the church as a fulfillment of the Great Commission rather than just making converts. There is a lot in here to digest.One thing Putnam does that I really liked is that he pushes readers not to think we can photocopy what Putnam has done and blindly implement in our churches. There is a lot of work to think through each church's context and implement accordingly. So this is not a set of instructions so much as guidance on the things that we need to focus on. Additionally, be forewarned: I am already encountering resistance from the professional church crowd; handle with care. Putnam warns about the time it takes to make changes in a church, and I am quickly finding that he wasn't kidding.Why 4 instead of 5? A couple of the chapters were longer than they needed to be, and he definitely plugs Real Life Ministries. If 4.5 were an option, I would have chosen that.

Over the past year, I've made it an intentional goal to read through every book on discipleship that I can get my hands on. DiscipleShift is the best - for several reasons. First, there is a clear simplicity that is not only easy to grasp, but easy to teach. Second, the bigger picture perspective is absolutely key -- the 'shifts' in thinking are both foundational and monumentally critical if a local church is going to actually make discipleship the focus of their ministry. Finally, this book is practical -- these are not lofty concepts that will remain pie-in-the-sky ideas. The map in this book is tangible. I feel like I've been waiting for this book to arrive -- and it finally has - so thank you to those who have not only written this book, but are living it out.

The over all shifts that need to be made in the church in order to make more and better disciples intentionally are all here. And these shifts that are listed are insightful. The only negative critique that I would give is that within the book it tries to go head to head with other church philosophies (I.e. evangelistic or social gospel) and creates what is in my opinion some false choices. Being a disciple making church does not preclude and of those other models. It embraces them and empowers people to live out the fullness of our calling.With that said, this book should be required reading for anyone who is serious about wanting to become a disciple maker.

What does it mean to be a gathering of people following Jesus? What is the primary goal of the gathering? The Church (gathering) can easily lose focus of their mission and soon forget they ever had one. This book is written by some men who searched for that mission, found it, lived it and are now teaching it. The mission and the process are taught inside these pages. Read it. Prepare. Lead. Your gathering will thank you for guiding them to make disciples who make disciples!

A great description of where the church is, and how to get to where we want to be

Five stars says it all!

It was a very great book

This book was helpful but I felt like much of what was communicated could have been condensed. If you are a church leader looking for tangible ways to build a culture of discipleship at your church this could for sure be a huge help!

This book gives me great encouragement as a new pastor who is heading out into a church field that thinks Christs Church is dying