"The Disciple-Making Pastor" by Hull (Top 20)

I first got introduced to Bill Hull through his book "The Complete Book Of Discipleship" (which I also highly recommend!). That book is a comprehensive look at disciple making: a Biblical theology & philosophy, historical models of disciple making, and practically what it looks like today. "The Disciple Making Pastor," as its title indicates, focuses more on the role and responsibility of pastors in disciple making. I believe this is an important read in our given cultural church context in which pulpit ministry is celebrated/elevated. This book challenges pastors to open their homes and their lives to both non-believers and believers alike in order to give their (our) lives to making disciples. I especially appreciated the later chapters on the decentralization of the pastor's ministry, the pastor as coach, and how this looks in local bodies. If you want to check this book out you can get it here. Here are my top 20 quotes:

“The Great Commission has been worshiped but not obeyed. The church has tried to get world evangelization without disciple making.” (pg. 27)

“Eugene Peterson puts it this way: ‘Forming people in Christ is a slow work, so it can’t be hurried; it is an urgent work, so it can’t be delayed.” (pg. 33)

“The disciple making pastor is dedicated to placing disciple making at the very heart of the church. This requires three things: 1) Declare it from the pulpit, 2) publish it in church literature, and 3) model disciple making at the leadership level.” (pg. 44)

“Taking the Great Commission seriously means the church leaders themselves are evangelists. They share their faith; they make disciples. - …They have placed it at the heart of the church and do the most important thing in communicating its value; they model it.” (pg. 46)

“The culture (American) is individualistic; the church is to be strongly communal. The culture is impatient; the church is to be persevering. The culture is celebrity-ridden; the church is to be a culture of humility. The culture celebrates competence; the church’s first priority is dependence.” (pg. 63)

“The Great Commission without multiplication is evangelism paralyzed from the neck down.” (pg 69)

“(to) ‘make disciples’ includes the entire disciple-making process, from conversion to trained disciple maker.” (pg. 77)

“The church best glorifies God by making disciples, simply because fruit bearing believers glorify God (Matthew 28:28-20 → John 15:8).” (pg. 90)

“The work of pastors/teachers is to ‘prepare God’s people for works of service.’ (Eph 4:12) Simply stated, the preparation is designed to ‘build up’ (v. 12-14) the body so it may grow up (v. 15-16).” (pg. 113)

“It is a sad fact that the continuing crisis of Christians is that they don’t read their Bibles or pray very much. Therefore, they have a religious scrapbook understanding of their faith. This heightens the need for pastors to have a comprehensive understanding of the gospel. They need the ability to hold it in their own minds and also get the core of it into the minds (and hearts) of their congregation.” (pg 147)

“Scriptural convictions concerning disciple making must be proclaimed again and again. The effective disciple making pastor never allows the vision to slip from the people’s minds.” (pg. 153)

“One of the deepest rooted church pathologies is exhortation to action without a means to action. The ugly results are frustrated, guilty, angry Christians who give up on making their lives count for Christ.” (pg. 159)

“Not to train and unleash all willing members is the greatest pastoral sin.” (pg. 164)

“Only healthy disciples reproduce. If the church fails to make disciples it fails to multiply. If the church fails to multiply, it fails.” (pg. 168)

“Jesus advocates a two-fold choice: First, make yourself available for work in the harvest field; second, pray for God to send others into the harvest. Pray because it’s God’s harvest field. Pray because only God can convince someone to work in his field. Pray, because no one can recruit enough personnel from his sphere of influence alone. Pray for workers to enter the harvest field from all over the world.” (pg. 179)

“If Christians don’t become comfortable with outreach, Bible study is academic, prayer is boring, and fellowship is superficial. Without outreach, the church has failed, and Christians fail.” (pg. 218)

“People grow in the mundane, sometimes tough trenches of life. Spiritual growth comes an inch at a time; it consists of little daily battles over Scripture memory, prayer time, Bible reading, faithfulness to attend a group, or to share their faith. Without help, normal people cannot sustain protracted spiritual growth. Therefore, they are left to haphazard, sporadic growth that is generated by crisis or special events (on the need for small discipleship groups).” (pg. 219)

“The disciple-making pastor’s belief in and practice of the decentralization of pastoral care grows out of the NT’s most comprehensive pastoral job description, in Paul’s letter to the Ephesian church. The text’s main thesis is that leadership has the role of preparing God’s people to do ministry. Pastoral care, one part of that ministry, is a work given to the entire body of Christ, not the clergy alone.” (pg. 223)

“There are several ways to express Jesus teaching method, and the one I have chosen contains six steps:
‘Come & See’ - 1) Tell them what & 2) Tell them why
‘Come and follow me’ - 3) Show them how & 4) Do it with them
‘Come and be with me’ - 5) Let them do it, & 6) Deploy them.” (pg. 245)

“Jesus has told them what must be done (make disciples), but in order to sustain commitment, he must give them a passion for why. - …Why disciple making, why dedication to multiplication? Because people need forgiveness, new life, to be rescued from the penalty for sin and eternal separation from their Creator.” (pg. 249)