another great read by J.T. English. Discipleship is a lost art and I think he's found it again! I can't wait to put in to practice what I learned from this book at our new church.

Deep Discipleship is what the church has been crying out for, perhaps without knowing how to articulate it. The importance of closing the pulpit/pew divide cannot be overstated, and there's nothing more beautiful than a church than opens the Scriptures together in community. Immensely practical, and thoroughly inspiring; the warning label should read "caution, after reading this book, you'll want to implement everything it touches immediately'.

Deep Discipleship by J.T. English is fantastic. When I picked it up, I wondered if I would be able to take much from it, seeing as I am not currently employed on a church staff. In short: YES. The book is thoughtful, wise, and gracious. It has deeply impacted how I view discipleship. . . I wish I could give a copy to everyone I know in church leadership!

J.T. English has become one of my favorite people to glean from these last few years, so I was excited when I saw that he was coming out with this book! It did not disappoint! It’s been said that anyone can point out a problem – that’s just complaining – but offering solutions is what’s needed. In this new book, J.T. English helps us rightly diagnose the discipleship disease plaguing our churches and offers a practical vision for discipling every member of the church - inviting them deeper for more of God! He encourages us to make meaningful, in-depth changes, not just to our programs, but to the very culture of our churches. This book is an invitation to a God-focused, Gospel-saturated mission: to close the amateur-expert divide and to multiply disciples who go deeper, are thoroughly equipped to love God rightly, and who will in turn multiply disciples. Each chapter ends with a helpful recap, discussion questions, and a to-do list to help you move towards the next step. It is time to raise the bar in our churches and this book will point you in the right direction!

*I received an electronic copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. But I had already bought a hardback copy for myself, and used it to form my opinion, so that may not be relevant information.

J.T. English hits the nail on the head with this book. It's a topic that can easily get watered down or ignored. I am glad he wrote this to address a real issue and concern in some of the churches today. Not only does he address the issues he gives examples on how to change it and examples of living it out. I admire his dedication to making disciples and showing churches how to live it out as well. He was able to walk the walk and not just talk the talk.

J.T. goes back to the roots of what a disciple is and what they are to do and justifies his reasoning for why we need additional training from the church not just our closest friends and an hour on Sunday. These conversations can sometimes be hard when you are trying to grow the church. What we don't want to do is grow the church solely for numbers and lose the foundation of what God designed disciples for. This risk would lead to a bunch of "disciples" who don't understand or misunderstand the biblical truths and lead to more people missing out on the true joy and glory of God in their lives.

I highly recommend this book to anyone in leadership or ministry to read. His way of implementing the "both/and" instead of "either/or" is a must. It is important to have the learning and community aspects. It is important for the church to grow disciples, it's even more important to grow disciples correctly. We are never done growing, which means we are never too far along to forget what we did in the beginning. If the church isn't forming disciples the world will. Thank you J.T. for this book and your obedience to God's calling.

Discipleship is a popular word in churches, and rightfully so. There are a lot of books on this topic and within these books there are different understandings of how Christians are to disciple each other and what programs the author has had success with. J.T. English's book Deep Discipleship is not just another book on discipleship that gives a list of what to do, instead "the main aim of [his] book, [is to remind the reader that] the call to deep discipleship in our churches, is for the sole purpose of pointing ourselves and those we lead toward the infinite beauty of the Triune God. Success in ministry is not found in building programs but in building disciples – disciples who love God with all of their heart, soul, strength, and mind (Luke 10:27)." (17).

The reason he feels like a book which reminds the reader of why the church does discipleship is so necessary is because "the secularist promise that salvation is found in self-improvement, self-actualization, and self-growth, ... is slowly becoming the promise in the church as well” (24). He sees this promise leading to churches which are more concerned about "keeping people’s attention rather than [focusing on] the beauty of Jesus" (31); he points out that the solution to helping people grow in their relationship with God is "giving people more Bible, not less; more theology, not less; more spiritual disciplines, not less; more gospel, not less; more Christ, not less" (8).

English points out how "the rhythms and habits of the world are forming our people, and the church that is focused on creating holistic disciples is offering counter rhythms and habits that form us into the people of God” (126). Churches should intentionally provide space for members to grow in specific areas of their knowledge of God and His Word so that they are equipped to minister to their house, their work, their church, and the world. “Disciples who are in community but are not learning run the risk of loving their neighbor but not God. Disciples who are learning but who are not in community run the risk of loving God but not their neighbor. Disciples who are both learning and in community have the opportunity of being people who love God and neighbor” (86).

While English returns the reader's attention to Christ throughout this book as he provides an antidote to a church that is confused about why people are struggling to grow deeper in their relationship with Christ, he also offers practical suggestions and frameworks for how discipleship may be accomplished in the local church. Rather than give a one size fits all solution, he contemplates the various aspects of discipleship - the space where discipleship happens, the scope of discipleship, the sequence of how discipleship happens, and where the disciples are sent - and gives principles which should shape how a church does discipleship.

Each chapter is filled with wisdom and helpful principles, one of the things which I appreciated about this book was the summary at the end of each chapter. English would give a few short summaries of the main ideas he had explained in greater detail in the chapter, ask a few questions to help the reader begin moving these principles from the book to their own church context, and provide a to do list for the reader to begin to apply these principles. This not only moves the reader through the basic steps of discipleship but it gives a page which the reader can turn to and quickly be reminded of the principles they had read earlier.

This book is a wonderfully informing and transforming book which reminds the reader of the beauty of Christ and encourages the reader to think about how well they know Him and how well they are reflecting Him to those around them. Reading through this book and contemplating the principles which English introduces would be beneficial not only for ministry leaders, but for Christians who want to grow deeper in their relationship with Christ and want to help others grow deeper in their relationship with Christ as well.

Disclosure: I received this book free from B & H Publishing through the B&H Review Team program. The opinions I have expressed are my own, and I was not required to write a positive review. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255

J. T. English offers a pastor's retrospective of ways that The Village Church in Dallas has approached the calling and formation of disciples of Jesus. Embracing the mission of God for the Church, to make fully-formed disciples of Christ, English explores God's vision for discipleship and examines what most churches are missing.

Under broad categories of space, scope, sequence, sending, and strategy, the author offers a model with practical examples of how his congregation has intentionally brought people into the family of God and helped them to mature in faith.

Helpful for pastors, lay leaders and boards, and small group leaders. This examination of the outcomes of a deep discipleship process versus a hospital nursery model (birth them and send them on their way) is thought-provoking and stimulating. Recommended.

A must read for church leaders! Be encouraged to build a stronger discipleship ministry at your church with JT English's experience and advice. This is a well-written, Biblical look at discipleship and the church in the current age.

If you’re a ministry leader, this book is for you!

Discipleship is central to the growth of a Christian. This book helps guide you through what discipleship is, it’s importance in the life of the church and always to incorporate discipleship in the life of the church.

This book is important for churches as we lead and teach, it provides us with a way to navigate priorities in discipleship and develop cultures is discipleship in our gathering communities. Even for the lay person, discipleship is important and this material will encourage you to think through your own spiritual growth and the areas you can continue to draw nearer to the Lord

A big thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC and the opportunity to post an honest review!

The book provides an excellent framework for developing a church discipleship plan. Many of the readers will resonate with the sad fact that much discipleship takes place outside of the church. In this book, the author lays out a solid map for integrating and developing "holistic discipleship" within church life. Buy it. Read it. You won't regret it.

This book is excellent serving as a call to both the church and the saints to focus on intentional discipleship. English outlines how we need both structured community and learning environments within the church so that all the saints are encouraged to learn and disciple others.

English outlines the three areas that he believes are important from a structured learning context: Bible study, Christian principles and spiritual habits plus provides examples on what such might look like from his own church's experience and others. He also outlines how a church can go about setting such a mechanism up and encourages us all to actively engage in facilitating both increased awareness and attention to both learning and community within our churches.

This is an excellent, practical read that every church leader and congregant will benefit from spending time devouring.

I received an early ebook copy from the publisher via NetGalley with no expectation of a favourable review.

Many churches today focus on counting the converts rather than depth of disciples. While both are important, this book emphasizes the necessity of the church fostering an environment to facilitate the making of deep disciples. The church’s focus should be on life-on-life discipleship to help people grow closer to the Lord and more into His likeness. Instead many focus on entertaining Sunday morning services to the neglect of training believers to know and live out the teachings of Scripture. This book provides a framework for how to facilitate deep discipleship in the church to grow believers into the church God has called us to be. I highly recommend this book for any believer wanting to live out God’s design for believers and the church.
Thanks to B&H Books and NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The church has a disease.
J. T. English states this as fact at the beginning of his new book, Deep Discipleship, and it’s not shocking because most of us already know it. People are leaving churches in America more quickly than they are joining. The effect is less pronounced in evangelical churches when compared with mainline churches, but it is happening. So how do we solve that problem? How do we heal the disease? For many years the salve we have used is “relevance”. Make church more relevant to the lives of people by changing the music or the preaching style or the topics or branding. When you are reaching out to unchurched people, that strategy practically causes you to stop going deep and instead go wide.

But what if, J. T. English says, that strategy is all wrong? That’s not a hypothetical. It is all wrong. English writes:
People are leaving the church, not because we have asked too much of them but because we have not asked enough of them. We are giving people a shallow and generic spirituality when we need to give them distinctive Christianity.

What does this “deep discipleship” entail? It means asking more of the people in our pews. It means getting them out of the pews and into true discipleship experiences, where they are learning actively instead of simply passively. It means the process of becoming a disciple doesn’t occur only at 10:30 on Sunday morning once a week.

I am not a minister. I never went to seminary, never took an official theology class, but my spiritual life has been thoroughly shaped by organized, scheduled discipleship classes. In college, it was in the form of weekly house meetings with the guys in my Baptist Collegiate Ministry house, along with a weekly book study with other college students from my church. Throw in an occasional theology class at my church on Sunday evenings (I remember the one on systematic theology especially well) and a campus Bible study I either led or participated in almost every semester, and a lot of spiritual formation happened in a short period. And these are all small group environments outside of Sunday morning. Since then, my spiritual life has been formed mostly by Sunday school groups, Sunday evening discipleship classes, and a year-long discipleship group with three men that continue to be my closest friends.

Why are these small-group experiences so impactful? They transform your life easier because they require active learning. You can’t skate by without doing the work, so all your excuses for not reading God’s Word or not digging deep enough for it to impact your life, those are just gone! This is what J. T. English calls deep discipleship: people teaching each other what God has taught them. Very rarely were any of these formative discipleship experiences led by the senior pastor or even a pastor at all. Often they were led by a college peer or a layperson in the church or ministry, sometimes even myself. But they were scheduled, regular meetings that required preparation from every participant beforehand. And both the meeting itself and the preparation mean you have to commit time outside of your regularly-scheduled Sunday morning activities.

“But everyone is so busy!”, you’re probably thinking. And that is true. But people are choosing to fill their time with something. But I have to tell you that, even with three young kids who I love spending time with, I have never regretted meeting with a few other believers to talk about what God taught us through our reading that week. It causes you to think bigger than just what is going on in your life. As English writes:
The invitation to deep discipleship is the invitation no longer to live with the next fifty years in view, but the next fifty trillion, and to aim our whole selves, our churches, and our ministries toward the kingdom of God.

This requires our churches (the leaders or the laypeople) to plan learning experiences for the sheep who are already in the fold. Expect more of your people, and they will deliver. But this model isn’t common:
Our discipleship model is conversion and community; we have removed the concept of learning and growing from the equation and, therefore, we have largely removed spaces where learning can happen. Conversion is not the touchdown of the Christian life; it is the kickoff. Adoption into the family is not the end of life; it is the beginning.
When the church becomes a place where people are an audience, rather than participants, we have moved far away from the New Testament’s understanding of discipleship.

So, whether you are a minister or a learner, what can you do to contribute to deep discipleship in your church community? While Deep Discipleship is written with ministers in mind, it is essential to reframe the mind of disciples everywhere: to be active learning participants instead of an audience; to teach each other instead of hoping paid church staff will provide us with everything we need for our entire spiritual life.

A church that relies on the staff to lead everything creates a situation like the saddest moment in the Deep Discipleship: when English relays what happened when he told his pastor he wanted to grow deeper in his knowledge of God. “You need to go to seminary!” In other words, if you want to go deep, go outside the church. But what if the church could train its own future pastors, as well as those who would plant and pastor other churches, and even disciple missionaries who are deeply trained in Scripture? As English writes:
If we are not making disciples in the church, we will never make disciples among the nations.

I received a review copy of Deep Discipleship courtesy of B&H Publishing and NetGalley, but my opinions are my own.

I was almost convinced that Gentle and Lowly by Dane Ortlund was going to be my favorite book of the year, but *Deep Discipleship* by J.T. English gives it a run for that spot. Having facilitated Bible studies and small groups for years, I’m especially interested in discipleship and spiritual growth. *Deep Discipleship* diagnoses the churches’ discipleship problem and reframes key questions to point us to solutions that will grow deep followers of Christ.

### What’s The Problem

English starts the book by diagnosing the discipleship problem in the church. He writes:

> Over the past several decades the Western church has noticed alarming symptoms of our discipleship disease. Some of these symptoms include people leaving the church; students dropping out of church after high school; attendance dropping; and perhaps most important, a lack of seriousness among our people about what it really means to be a follower of Christ.

He goes on to say that the church has assumed that the problem is we’ve asked too much of people. So, what does the church do? Lower the bar of discipleship. I’ve heard it called “putting the cookies on the bottom shelf.”

### The Danger of Misdiagnosis

Churches have created programs designed to entertain and keep as many people coming back as possible. We’ve watered down doctrine and deep biblical study. In exchange, pastors have developed quick self-help, step-based positivity messages full of tweetable quips and hip graphics. Essentially, the church has begun to use marketing and business strategy to gain and keep consumers, instead of using the Word of God to make and grow disciples of Jesus.

English says the church has misdiagnosed the disease and prescribed the wrong treatment. He writes:

> People are leaving the church not because we have asked too much of them but because we have not asked enough of them. We are giving people a shallow and generic spirituality when we need to give them distinctive Christianity. We have tried to treat our discipleship disease by appealing to the lowest common denominator, oversimplifying discipleship, and taking the edges off what it means to follow Christ.

### The Why Behind The What

If churches are bringing in crowds with slick marketing and Bible-lite sermons, how can it be wrong? Don’t the ends justify the means? English addresses the question of “why does deep discipleship matter” in the first chapter.

English uses a short example from the prophet Habakkuk to illustrate that world history is heading towards the kingdom and prescence of God. That’s the future of the world. That’s our future. That should be our greatest hope and aim. He writes:

> The main aim of this book, the call to deep discipleship in our churches, is for the sole purpose of pointing ourselves and those we lead toward the infinite beauty of the Triune God. Success in ministry is not found in building programs but in building disciples—disciples who love God with all of their heart, soul, strength, and mind (Luke 10:27). Christ is the goal, not better or more impressive ministries. He is what we want.

English argues that there are two challenges in our culture that the church has to overcome to have deep discipleship: Self-centered Discipleship and Spiritual Apathy. I found myself underlining and taking notes on so much throughout this whole book, but especially here in the first chapter. I don’t want to overload this review with quotes, but English nails the *why* behind deep discipleship in this first chapter.

### The Where

Each chapter of *Deep Disicpleship* reframes a question that English thinks the church should be asking itself. The question in chapters 2 and 3 is “Where *should* we form holistic disciples?” English’s answer is in the church. Chapter 3 digs into where specifically discipleship should happen in the church.

These chapters hit home for me having just heard a deacon nominee give his testimony about growing up in the church, but not feeling like he was taught doctrine, theology, or spiritual disciplines. He had to go to seminary for that. I have a similar story and feel like I had to seek those things for myself outside of the local church. English makes a strong argument that the local church should be raising up its next deacons, Bible teachers, and even pastors.

English writes:

> Someone should be able to come to faith, grow in the faith, and walk in Christian maturity solely from being formed by a local church. That is the basic sequence of the gospel. We are orphans who have been adopted into Christ’s family. Then, as adopted infants, we learn how to grow into mature members of the household—all of which can happen in and through the local church.

English goes on to lay out four distinctives that make the local church the primary place for deep discipleship: place, people, purpose, and presence. He walks through an explanation of each. He also goes on to discuss the difference between learning spaces and community spaces and the roles they play in discipleship.

### The How

Chapters 4 and 5 really get into the meat and potatoes. They answer the questions “what do disciples need” and “how do disciples grow.” English was previously on staff at The Village Church where he developed what they call the Training Program. It’s a one year intense discipleship program within the church itself. So, these aren’t just theories and concepts. He has very successfully put them into practice. These two chapters get into the practical “how do we do this?”

Most churches are unsure how all of the pieces fit together—classes, curriculum, groups. What I like about English’s approach here is he leaves room for individual churches to evaluate their congregations and answer questions to determine what their church’s scope and core essentials are. It’s not a one size fits all solution.

However, he does lay out three broad topics or buckets disciples need: Bible, beliefs, spiritual habits. He writes:

> A healthy disciple must be growing in the understanding of God’s Word, founded on distinctively Christian beliefs and practicing spiritual disciplines. What does every disciple need? They need Scripture, doctrine, and spiritual habits.

### Scope and Structure

*Deep Discipleship* gives enough examples, approaches, and questions to help churches determine the best scope and competencies for them. I especially appreciated the discussion on structured levels of discipleship, which allows people to eventually grow into leadership.

As one example states in the book, people should not stay at an 8th-grade level of discipleship for 40 years in the same class. People should be continually growing in their faith and spiritual maturity. Eventually, they should be disciples who are making disciples, teaching Bible studies, and leading. Which leads to chapter 6.

### Where Do They Go

You may be asking where is evangelism in all of this? Chapter 6 is dedicated to how deep discipleship leads to evangelism. English writes:

> A culture of deep discipleship is not intent on sending a few, but on sending all. A deep discipleship church is also a missional church. A church that trains also sends. Christian maturity does not hinder mission; it fuels mission.

I like how he states there are no graduates from these discipleship programs. There are only “commissioned participants.” The chapter goes on to discuss that they don’t just emphasize people being called to national or international missions. Those are obviously important. However, they also discuss those who are called to serve in the church as volunteers, people who minister to their neighborhoods, those called to missions in their secular occupations, as well as those being called to vocational ministry.

### Strategy

English closes *Deep Discipleship* with a chapter on how to implement this model in your church. As in previous chapters, the recommended questions and approaches leaves room for churches to find what will work for their individual congregations. This is not just a discipleship model for megachurches with large staffs. English discuss how this approach can be scaled for churches of all sizes.

*Deep Discipleship* is probably the most practical and important book regarding discipleship in the local church that I’ve read. I can’t recommend it enough to those looking to grow deep, robust followers of Christ. I’m sure I will be coming back to this book over and over through the years.

This book was good but far different from what I expected. J. T. English is known for starting an education institute at the mega-church, The Village Church. Those familiar with that background, would like me, expect a book on discipleship through education. But, this book was a pleasant surprise and reached farther than that. It was organized and presented well.

This book is Ok. It is pretty basic and I dont think it trails any new ground. Anyone interested in discipleship should just read the Trellis and the Vine series.

I first heard J.T.'s wisdom on discipleship by listening to the podcast, Knowing Faith. I was thrilled to see that J.T. wrote a book on the topic. J.T. discusses why the church is the crucial venue for discipleship. I appreciated how J.T. broke down the ways the church can participate in the work of discipling. As a pastor's wife, this is our heart and I am glad that this book was written. This is a must read for anyone in ministry.

4 stars
Deep Discipleship is an exceedingly good book for pastors or those in the ministry. I do not believe it is meant for a layperson. English deftly explains the issue of seeker-friendly churches and how to grow true disciples in Christ.