MARCS of a Disciple: A Biblical Guide for Gauging Spiritual Growth by Robby Gallaty proved to be just the resource I was looking for. I have really been feeling the Spirit prompt me to invest in a group of young ladies with the intention of having them invest in other groups of young ladies. I’ve started the ball rolling on getting a group going this fall and am super excited about how the Lord is clearly already using this process! Gallaty does a great job laying out what he has experienced through the intentional process of discipleship in his own walk and ministry.
I highlighted several things while reading and have posted those notes below…
- In his book Growing Up, Dr. Robby Gallaty defined disciple-making as “intentionally equipping believers with the Word of God through accountable relationships, empowered by the Holy Spirit, in order to replicate faithful followers of Christ.” Location: 28
- If we begin to focus on the depth of our disciples, God will take care of the breadth of our ministry. Location: 72
- A D-group is a gender exclusive group of three to six people meeting together for a season of 12 to 18 months. Location: 78
- Before beginning any disciple-making relationship, expectations between the mentee and the mentor must clearly be discussed and understood. Location: 81
- A Personal Faith Inventory will serve as a platform for discussion during the group’s first meeting. (Visit www.growingupchallenge.com to download the Covenant and Personal Faith Inventory.) Location: 83
- The MARCS of a healthy discipleship group are guideposts for determining the health of your discipleship ministry and disciplining relationships. Each element is meant to be incarnational not just duplicate-able, meaning the principles identified from the ministry of Jesus will work in any church size, age, culture, context, or maturity level. The MARCS are: Missional, Accountable, Reproducible, Communal, and Scriptural. Location: 98
- Spiritual growth will not happen accidentally. Location: 108
- We are missional by living intentional where God has planted us. Page: 3
- A healthy dependence upon God is necessary for investing in others. Do not underestimate the power of the Holy Spirit and the impact of the Word of God. You are not in this by yourself; you are not standing alone. Jesus is with you every step of the way. Page: 8
- Do not be so quick to cross the ocean to share the gospel with the nations that you neglect crossing the street to share the gospel with your neighbors. Page: 11
- The two keys to missional living are intentionality and availability. Until we are those two things, evangelism is just an event or sales pitch. Missional living motivates us to wake up every single day and realize we are on mission with God. Page: 19
- What doesn’t get measured doesn’t get done. We can rephrase it in a positive manner: What gets measured gets accomplished. Page: 22
- Chuck Swindoll described accountability as “opening one’s life to a few carefully selected, trusted, loyal confidants who speak the truth—who have the right to examine, to question, to approve, and to give counsel.” Page: 23
- Each of us is accountable in three areas: God (Heb. 9:27), spiritual leaders (Heb. 13:17), and to other believers (Prov. 27:17). Page: 23
- Accountability gives someone the right to speak into your life with truth in love, call out sin that needs to be addressed, and hold people to the promises they make. Every single one of us needs accountability in our lives if we wish to grow. Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 explains why. Two are better than one because they have a good reward for their efforts. For if either falls, his companion can lift him up; but pity the one who falls without another to lift him up. Also, if two lie down together, they can keep warm; but how can one person alone keep warm? And if someone overpowers one person, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not easily broken. Page: 24
- The author of Hebrews wrote about two further benefits of meeting with others: promoting good works and encouraging one another. Hebrews 10:24-25 says, “And let us be concerned about one another in order to promote love and good works, not staying away from our worship meetings, as some habitually do, but encouraging each another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near” (emphasis mine). Page: 33
- Scripture memory is a scalable measure of growth that is easy to observe and track. But such black-and-white, observable criteria comes with the unfortunate risk of becoming legalistic. When anything we do flows from a self-absorbed desire to check boxes and not from an abundant love for God and His word, we can lose sight of the reason we practice spiritual disciplines in the first place. Page: 35
- Remember, the goal of accountability within the confines of a D-group is always devotion never duty. Page: 36
- Jesus’ half-brother James wrote, “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The urgent request of a righteous person is very powerful in its effect” (James 5:16). Page: 36
- The enemy desires for us to keep our sin hidden. Sin thrives in darkness, where it can fester, grow, and grip our lives. The larger a sin grows, the harder it is for us to let it go. What confession of sin does is thrust that sin out into the light where it can be dried up and suffocated. Sin will always take you further than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to pay. Page: 36
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer emphasizes the dangers of isolation: “Sin demands to have a man by himself. It withdraws him from the community. The more isolated a person is, the more destructive will be the power of sin over him.” Page: 37
- Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, commit to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. Page: 48
- My friend Tim LaFleur says: “The Christian life is either easy or impossible. It’s impossible if you try to do it in your own strength. It becomes easier as you allow Christ to work in and through your life.” Page: 50
- The Gospel came to you because it was heading to someone else. Page: 53
- Dr. Herschel Hobbs rightly said, “The work of evangelism is never complete until the one evangelized becomes an evangelizer.” Page: 55
- We can’t expect to experience the ministry of Jesus and divorce ourselves from the model he implemented—disciple-making. Page: 57
- There are four qualities we aim to reproduce:
1.Believers who are under the rule of Christ. This comes from Matthew 28:19, “Teach them to observe all that I have commanded You” (emphasis mine). We aren’t just communicating truth from God’s word. We are holding people accountable to live it out.
2.Believers who repeat the Word of God. This comes from Deuteronomy 6:4-9, “Listen, Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is One. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart. Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them be a symbol on your forehead. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” We should recite the Bible in our homes, in our communities, at our workplaces, and to ourselves.
3.Believers who reflect the image of Christ. Paul explains: “We all, with unveiled faces, are looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory; this is from the Lord who is the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18, emphasis mine). Another Scripture that highlights the point is Romans 8:29: “For those He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son” (emphasis mine). The goal of spiritual growth is to be like Christ.
4.Believers who replicate the process of Christ. We want to create people who take what they’ve learned and teach it to others, who will teach it to others. The gospel came to you because it was heading to someone else. Page: 59 - Ed Stetzer and Eric Geiger stated in their book Transformational Groups, “A call to discipleship and spiritual maturity is a call to biblical community. The call to discipleship is an invitation to hear and obey the voice of God. Also, a call to discipleship is a call to follow Jesus and be sent as a missionary to your community and world.” Page: 64
- “Let us be concerned about one another in order to promote love and good works, not staying away from our worship meetings, as some habitually do, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day drawing near” (Hebrews 10:24-25). Page: 72
- Ed Stetzer and Eric Geiger conclude, “We need to stop presenting community as just another option for the religious consumer and start presenting it as God’s will for everyone. It should be seen as the reality of those within the church and the refuge for those without.” Page: 78
- To carry out the commands of Christ by caring for one another, we must avoid isolation at all cost. Page: 79
- A mantra of my life has been: “Get into the Word until the Word gets into you.” Page: 82
- In his letter to the Colossians, Paul wrote: “And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (Colossians 3:15-17). Page: 82
- In Colossians 3:17, Paul continues, “And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” Page: 88
- What is on your mind comes out of your mouth. Page: 89
- For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. He received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain (2 Peter 1:16-20). Page: 93
- If the only time you hear God’s Word is from a pastor on Sunday morning or a devotional book after rising each day, you are depriving yourself. There is nothing better than waking up early, grabbing a cup of coffee, and cracking open the Word to feast on fresh manna for your soul. Page: 96
- Where are you on your discipleship journey? Are you a disciple? Are you making disciples? Page: 104