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If you are in church leadership and desire to engage your mind with a simple, succinct, and studious overview of what it means to be an authentic church in the 21st-century, then you will enjoy and benefit from reading "Grow: Reproducing Through Organic Discipleship." In a mere seventy pages--including endnotes--Bevins presents a helpful discipleship vision for cultivating genuine communities of Jesus followers. Why is there a need for such a work? Chapter one addresses this question by presenting the problem of the contemporary church that has fixed its focus on converts and numbers rather than growing members. Thus a new approach is needed that addresses the present day... More > roadblocks to making disciples in the church. Bevin hits, head-on, three such barriers--the radically unchurched, evangelism at the expense of discipleship, and institutionalism--prior to his launching into the proposed solution to this dilemma.

Chapter two unveils the organic way by revealing the theological foundation of this discipleship vision--and all of Christianity. In Bevins' words, "The gospel of Jesus Christ that saves individuals is also the gospel that grows individuals through discipleship.” Simply put, grounding discipleship in the gospel is a must to biblical organic growth.

With the foundation laid, chapter three pushes the gospel out of the building as the true church of Christ sees itself on mission as a missionary in culture--just like Jesus, "the first missionary." For Bevins, being a missional follower of Jesus requires both an evangelical witness, sharing Christ with words, and a social witness, modeling Christ-likeness by caring for the needs of people within our communities. The biblical model reflects no dichotomy between the two and therefore the church must implement both as a natural outflow of genuine Christianity.

Chapter four gets personal as Bevins seeks to challenge believers to personal involvement with each other in developing authentic Christ-centered communities of faith. Disciples, he argues, "are made in community not isolation." A tool for developing disciples through relationships is community groups. Organizing these small gatherings of believers and non-believers around the Word creates opportunities for "real ministry" as the body of Christ lives out its faith with each other. Community groups are essential to building a healthy church, but beware of potential "landmines" that can destroy healthy community groups. Belvins addresses five such concerns. Communities can become a gossip group, a one-man show, a place to complain about the church, a place for crazy people to take over, or an end in themselves--so beware and take action accordingly.

The final chapter, "Reproductive: A Few Good Men," ties the reader back to the mission of the church. The church is to be a reproductive body--both individually and corporately. Upon reviewing Robert Coleman's "Master Plan of Evangelism" for making disciples of men--selecting, associating, consecrating, imparting, demonstrating, delegating, and supervising--Bevins makes a helpful argument for churches to be about the business of planting churches--as one of the best means to reach the unchurched and continue the natural organic growth of God's kingdom.

This vision of organic discipleship presents a biblically balanced view of the church’s call to make and develop Jesus followers. The essentials are covered, captured by Bevins four basic categories. His organic model is "gospel-centered, missional, community, and reproductive." Most importantly, Bevins has shown how this natural discipleship process is grounded in Christ and the gospel from start to finish. He writes, "The organic process begins by sowing the gospel seed of Jesus Christ through intentional personal evangelism and missional living. It seeks to connect new believers to biblical community through small groups, bible studies, and serving. Lastly, it seeks to reproduce disciples through leadership development and church planting. Discipleship and spiritual formation are rooted in the gospel of Jesus Christ from beginning to end." As previously stated, it is simple, succinct, and studious to the Word--Jesus.

Therefore, if you are a pastor who needs to clear the fog of contemporary confusion in the church by seeing clearly the simple scriptural plan for making disciples and advancing the kingdom, then I recommend you take a few hours and read this work. Better yet, if you want your congregation to catch the vision as well, then have them read it too! It will not cost them or you much to do so, thanks to Bevins and TheResurgence, while paying great dividends by helping disciples grow naturally for God's glory and the edification of His church. < Less