Continuing the story begun in their One Of eBook, this new release describes how RiverTree Church in northern Ohio is building a culture that combines disciple making with mission. Greg Nettle and Alex Absalom describe the practical steps the church has taken to begin the shift from merely reaching people to making disciples who in turn are equipped to go and make more disciples.
Disciples Who Make Disciples covers what it means to define discipleship in a biblical, simple yet challenging way (What is Jesus saying to you and what are you doing in response?); moving from educating to modeling, particularly through “balancing REI” (relationships, experiences and Information) and keeping the Bible at the center of discipleship by showing people how to understand Scripture in the details of their own lives, rather than relying on others to do it for them; developing clear language and practices that help communicate the shift from programs to discipleship as our primary purpose, specifically:
How RiverTree has developed Napkin Discipleship to build a common vocabulary of discipleship.
How the church has learned from other churches as RiverTree has identified core practices of discipleship.
Other topics include implementing and developing leadership Huddles as part of the wider realignment from an activity-based to a relationship-based paradigm; and allowing this dynamic discipleship model to move the church’s key metric from accumulating people to deploying disciples, detailing how this measure of success impacts staff, missional communities and the church as a whole.
Author(s)
As President of Stadia—a global church planting organization—Greg Nettle has a God-given passion for the Church and its responsibility to plant new churches … churches specifically designed to reach out to children at physical and spiritual risk. He is an author, speaker and consultant as an agent of change in the global Church. For 25 years, Greg served as visionary leader of the RiverTree Movement in Ohio. During that time, the church grew from 100 to more than 3,000 people and from one to four campuses; helped plant 15 churches throughout Ohio and 13 in Latin America; and sponsored more than 2,000 children with Compassion International and involved more than 200 families in adoption. Greg came to RiverTree after beginning his ministry as a church planter in Dublin, Ireland. His sense of adventure has taken him around the world as he has climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, Cotopaxi and Whitney among others to raise funds to bless children on the margins of society. Greg’s most important partner in life is his wife, Julie, as they lead their children, Tabitha and Elijah, to fall deeply in love with Jesus. He is the co-author of two books: 
One Of and Disciples Who Make Disciples, blogs regularly at gregnettle.com and tweets @gregnettle.
Alex Absalom is a writer, thinker and above all practitioner on the art of leading in a disciple-making, mission-focused culture. He writes two or three times a week on intentional missional leadership at alexabsalom.com. He serves on the leadership of RiverTree Christian Church in northeast Ohio, where he has led the church into planting multiple dozens of mid-sized missional communities, along with the associated discipling structures. He also co-founded Synergy, which offers one-day conferences and learning communities for churches and leaders on the missional journey. Alex has been married to Hannah since 1994, and they have three naughty but charming sons. He is a passionate fan of Liverpool Football Club and is a connoisseur of both fine tea and good Scotch!
Sponsors
A special thanks to the sponsors of this eBook. This eBook is available to you thanks to their generosity. Please consider showing your gratitude to these sponsors by visiting their web sites.
Exponential is a growing community of leaders committed to accelerating the multiplication of healthy, reproducing faith communities. We equip movement makers with actionable principles, ideas and solutions. We are passionate about accelerating multiplication through movement makers!
Compassion International exists as a Christian child advocacy ministry that releases children from spiritual, economic, social and physical poverty and enables them to become responsible, fulfilled Christian adults.
For the past few years, the term “Missional” has become commonplace – a Christian “buzz” word. Ironically, with all the people writing about what it means to lead or plant a Missional Church, there are not many resources to help with the practical nuts and bolts to make the theory reality. Synergy is a response to the growing need for a more missional approach to leadership development, making disciples and church planting.
The Provision Ministry Group is a family of non-profit ministries serving Christian churches and ministries across the United States and around the world. Provision was established in 2003 to provide direction, leadership and support services to a growing family of ministries that began with Church Development Fund in 1953.
Stadia Brings People and Churches Together to Transform Lives and Communities Through Church Planting.
