Real-Life Discipleship: Building Churches That Make Disciples by Jim Putman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Imagine you have a friend who dreams of becoming a pilot. They claim that flying is a great hobby because they travel commercially so often. They also have a lot of frequent flyer miles, know a few pilots themselves, and once worked at a food stall in an airport. They’ve even bought a personal plane and invited you on its maiden voyage. However, despite all of their pilot-adjacent experience, they have never undergone any flight training, never touched a simulator, and never flown before. Would you fly with them? Of course not. Although they have a lot of experience related to pilots, they are not actually a pilot. Becoming a pilot requires a defined and intentional process. We agree that this is how people become pilots, and yet most churches believe that disciples are created not by an intentional process, but by attending church, baptism, and perhaps sitting through a few small group meetings.

Unfortunately, discipleship is not something that happens by accident. It requires an intentional process. This is the main argument of Real-Life Discipleship by Jim Putnam. Not only does the book argue for developing an intentional system for discipleship, but it also outlines how to create and implement such a system.

Putnam explains that people become disciples by engaging three areas of their being: their head, by changing the way they think; their heart, by changing the way they feel; and their hands, by changing the way they act. By intentionally changing these areas to reflect more of Jesus, people begin to actually become disciples.

These areas are cultivated in the context of relationships to move people along the discipleship process. Categorizing discipleship into distinct stages can be challenging, but Putnam breaks it down into simple stages that mirror human development. Disciples start as spiritual infants, unable to do much on their own. They transition to children and then to young adults. Disciples reach their final stage as spiritual parents who have reproduced other disciples. These stages are clear and intuitive.

Putnam does a great job of communicating a clear system for creating disciples. The process could work well in almost any ministry environment, and any church that does not have an intentional and clear process for developing disciples could easily apply it in their own church to begin creating disciples. The theology behind his process is also clearly explained, providing a solid foundation for any church to develop their own program.

The strategy that Putnam presents is thorough, but he does not spend much time explaining how to adapt the strategy for your own church. Since every church is different, it’s important to take these sorts of blueprints and learn how to best adapt them for your church. Putnam does not make it very clear how you can adjust his process, but if you work to understand the philosophy behind his strategy, then keen ministry leaders shouldn’t have much trouble finding ways to adapt it.

Most churches do a good job of creating converts, but not always of creating disciples. Real-Life Discipleship provides clear guidance on how to change that. It’s important that we all have an intentional process that people can go through in order to actually become fully realized spiritual parents. Although this book has little value for people not in ministry, it is invaluable for those who are. Overall, it’s an important read that any ministry leader can understand and find ways to immediately apply in their own context.

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