Transformational Discipleship

I've been reading quite a bit on discipleship recently. So I thought I'd share my notes with you. The first book I read was called Transformational Discipleship: How People Really Grow by the triad of Eric Geiger, Michael Kelley and Philip Nation. It should not be surprising that it is a pretty deep book. However, I found the first portion of it very compelling, and that is where I grabbed most of these quotes:

• "Every person who has ever lived is a disciple...Everyone everywhere is a disciple of someone. Or something."
• "Many churches equate discipleship with knowledge...The essence of discipleship is transformational not informational."
• "From Judas we learn that knowledge about Christ alone does not result in true discipleship."
• "Leading a ministry that approaches discipleship as merely information and not repentance devalues discipleship and denies the power of the gospel."
• "If a church views discipleship as merely tweaking behavior, then their work is contrary to the content of the gospel and the way of Jesus. Go after hearts. God does not desire to tweak our behavior. He desires to transform our lives."
• "As a church leader your role is not to transform people. You cannot, and it is offensive to God if you believe you can. Your role is to place people in the pathway of God's transforming power."
• "If people in our churches graduate from the gospel, they are not advancing to spiritual maturity but rather to lifeless religion, moralistic self-righteousness, or performance-based faith inaccurately called Christian."

This book is the second best book I've read on discipleship in recent weeks. I'll share more about the first best in a few days.