Book Review | Replicate

Replicate by Robby Gallaty and Chris Swain

• Disciple-making is intentionally entering into someone’s life to help them know and follow Jesus (evangelism) and teach them to obey His commands (discipleship). p. 9
• Evangelism is sharing the gospel (good news) of Jesus Christ with someone to help them know and follow Jesus as Lord through repentance and faith.  p. 9
• Discipleship is intentionally equipping believers with the Word of God through accountable relationships empowered by the Holy Spirit in order to replicate faithful followers of Christ.  p. 9
• A disciple is a devoted follower of Jesus.  p. 9
• Disciple-making is the overarching theme of the Great Commission.  Discipleship and evangelism are how we carry out the command.  p. 9
• “One must decide if he wants his ministry to count in momentary applause of popular recognition or the reproduction of his life in a few chosen men to carry on his work after he has gone.” Robert Coleman, The Master’s Plan of Evangelism p. 13
• How do we move new believers beyond a one-time decision?  How do we grow our existing believers to become coworkers instead of consumers? p. 14
• “Are you making disciples?” p. 17
• What God commanded the first humans to do physically is what Jesus commanded believers to do spiritually. p. 18
• Multiplication—not addition—is Jesus’ plan for reaching the world with the gospel. p. 19
• Baptism is not the finish line of a relationship with Christ.  It’s the starting line of a lifelong journey toward God. p. 25
• Every ministry leader must ask themselves and those they lead two questions: 1.  Do we have a process for making disciples—moving new believers toward biblical maturity in Christ? 2.  Is it working? p. 27
• Jesus didn’t just save us from sin; He saved us for something. p. 29
• Two questions I ask my discipleship group each week are: 1.  Who did you share your faith with this week? 2.  Did you even try? p. 43
• THE GREAT COMMANDS It’s worth noting five words in The Great Commission: go, make disciples, baptist, and teach.  Only one of them is an imperative.  The driving force of the commission is to “make disciples.”  + Think Missionally (“Go, therefore”) + Share Intentionally (“Baptizing in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”) + Live Obediently (“Teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you”)
• “Apply yourself wholly to the Scriptures; apply the Scriptures wholly to yourself.” – J.A. Bengell, p. 59
• “A church can excel at anything and everything else, but if the church fails to make disciples, she has wandered from her fundamental reason for existence.”-Eric Geiger, p. 61
• “”The Church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them into little Christs.  If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time. God became Man for no other purpose.” -C.S. Lewis, p. 61
• John 17 records the seven practices Jesus repeatedly ingrained in the disciples’ minds: John 17:6: Revelation John 17:8: Information John 17:9: Supplication John 17:12: Protection John 17:18: Mobilization John 17:19: Sanctification John 17:22: Replication p. 63
• The goal is not just to learn more; it’s to live out what we know. p. 63
• “Open my eyes so that I may contemplate wondrous things form your instruction.” (Psalm 119:18) p. 76
• “Now we have this treasure in clay jars, so that this extraordinary power may be from God and not from us.” (2 Corinthians 4:7), p. 83
• “We proclaim him, warning and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ.  I labor for this, striving with his strength that works powerfully in me.” (Colossians 1:28-29), p. 84
• How many decisions have we made without really seeking a word from God?  How many ideas have we implemented without hearing from God? p. 86
• ELEMENTS OF A DAILY RESET + Relationships + Environment + Scripture + Emotions + Thankfulness p. 94
• “Has your role outpaced your soul?” -Pete Scazzero, p. 95
• “The surest way to discipline passion is to discipline time: decide what you want or ought to do during the day, then always do it at exactly the same moment every day, and passion will give you no trouble.” -W.H. Auden, p. 100
• “Rather than encouraging people to use their vocations to serve the church, what if we made it a church task to mobilize Christins to use their vocations to serve people in need.” Bob Roberts, p. 114
• “Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer, p. 117
• You change the culture by celebrating the right scorecard. p. 138
• THE IRREDUCIBLE ELEMENTS OF BIBLICAL COMMUNITY + God’s Word + Breaking Bread + Prayer + Fellowship and Unity + Mutual Care + Missional Living + Biblical Community Model p. 144
• The goal is to spend at least as much time praying as you do requesting. p. 153
• “Faithful me” are men or women who are people of FAITH: Faithful, Available, Intentional, Teachable, and Humble. p. 158
• Invite: “Would you be interested in meeting once a week to study the Bible, memorize Scripture, and pray?” p. 160
• Evangelism is what we do when we introduce lost people to Jesus by sharing the good news of Christ.  Discipleship is taking that person and helping them become more like Jesus. p. 170
• There is a danger about living life on mission that few believers acknowledge: it is far easier to occupy our time working on the kingdom than it is to spend time with the king. p. 175
• Gathering crowds isn’t difficult; it’s what we do with the crowd that makes all the difference.  For too long, we have been crowd-gatherers rather than disciple-makers. p. 176
• We can manufacture the best ideas and processes, but if we don’t change the culture, our people will digress to what they know best: a non-discipleship culture. p. 184
• Motivation leads to execution.  When people don’t understand the why behind the what, they revert back to the “old way” of doing things. p. 185
• KISS: Keep It, Increase It, Start It, Stop It. p. 198
• While church staff should be expected to grow personally and consistently, leaders can undergird that spiritual growth by providing community and accountability. Leaders must inspect what they expect. By investing in discipling staff, ministry leaders ensure those they lead are accountable and growing in a community of peers. p. 200
• “You cannot lead where you will not go; you cannot teach what you do not know.” -Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch, The Faith of Leap, p. 205
• The more you know Him, the more you love Him.  The more you love Him, the more you obey Him.  The more you obey Him, the more He manifests Himself to you. p. 214
• The MARCS of a healthy discipleship group are guideposts for determining the health of your discipleship ministry and discipling relationships.  + Missional + Accountable + Reproducible + Communal + Scriptural p. 233
• JESUS’ MODEL FOR MINISTRY + Jesus ministered while the disciples watched. Matthew 5-7, Mark 1 + Jesus progressed to allowing the disciples to assist Him in ministry. John 6:1-13 + the disciples ministered, and Jesus assisted them. Mark 9 + Jesus observing as the disciples ministered to others. Luke 10:1-17, p. 236
• “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.” – Dietrich Bonhoeffer, p. 253
• “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.” 2 Timothy 2:1-2, p. 257
• “Therefore, I remind you to keep ablaze the gift of God that is in you through the laying on of hands.  For God has not given us a spirit of fearfulness, but one of power, love, and sound judgement.” (2 Timothy 1:6-7). p. 258
• “Hold on to the pattern of sound teaching that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.  Guard, through the Holy Spirit who lives in us, that good thing entrusted to you.” (2 Timothy 1:13-14). p. 258
• “The work of evangelism is never complete until the one evangelized becomes an evangelizer.” -Dr. Herschel Hobbs, p. 261
• Four qualities we aim to reproduce: 1.  Believers who are under the rule of Christ. (Matthew 28:19) 2.  Believers who repeat the Word of God. (Deuteronomy 6:4-9) 3. Believers who reflect the image of Christ. (2 Corinthians 3:18, Romans 8:29) 4. Believers who replicate the process of Christ. p. 264
• A discipleship group offers the opportunity to live out the “one anothers” in the Bible.  p. 270