Discipleship That Fits: The Five Kinds of Relationships God Uses to Help Us Grow

Absolom and Harrington make a helpful contribution to the discipleship conversation. Building off the work of Joseph Meyer's The Search to Belong, these authors blend biblical exposition with sociological findings. In his earlier book, Meyers applied the study of Proxemics (use of physical space in different relational spaces to convey belonging) to the notion of belonging in the church. Differing spaces create different sets of expectations.In Discipleship That Fits, Absolom and Harrington suggest we can effectively disciple others in various contexts when we know the rules of the "relational space." (One of the authors' updates to Meyer's work is changing the word "relational space" to "relational context" and "intimate space" to "transparent context" - for fear of men being put off by the term "intimacy.")After explaining the five contexts (they also added the Divine context, where God disciples us one-on-one), the authors proceed to illustrate and make a biblical case for each one, using Jesus, Paul, and notable OT leaders as examples. At times, their biblical argument felt a bit rushed and shallow. In their defense, most people who read these kinds of books are looking for practical tips, not theological arguments.What was more valuable than their biblical defense was the list of three realistic outcomes for each discipleship context. I won't steal their thunder (read the book), but this helped me, as a pastor, rethink my expectations (and disappointments) with small groups and Sunday morning gatherings. (Note: I pastor a church of 90 people, which is a gap category, not fitting any of the categories).When the author's reached the final context (the Divine), the book stumbled to a conclusion. Perhaps I am naive, but the target audience for a book on discipleship likely knows the merits of hearing from God. He or she has likely made spiritual disciplines a practice. Here I skimmed. Had the authors inverted their order, placing the Divine Context first and working from center to periphery, they would have kept my attention. This is why I gave the book four stars instead of five.All in all, it was an easy, helpful, practical read. Every year I work through one book on discipleship. The topic is crucial to Christian living and central to Jesus' mission (Matthew 28:18-20). Thus, I always appreciate authors who reignite my passion for the Great Commission. Absolom and Harrington did stir my thinking and rekindle my passion. Now is the hard work of going to make disciples...

This is a sort of guidebook for implementing discipleship programs.It starts by defining discipleship or “disciple-making” and its goal or goals, then looks at the different forms it takes, basically the size of the group or number of individuals involved, called “contexts” and the types of relationships they involve.After establishing discipleship as what is needed in the local church, its primary task, the authors go on to describe how this can be implemented in five contexts: the public, social, personal, transparent, and divine context.This is a thoughtful, insightful, and well-researched book that thoroughly covers the subject of discipleship or mentoring with guidelines on how to make it work within the life of the local church. And while you may not agree with all the authors’ definitions of terms and conclusions, you will find plenty to think about—issues we believers should give some careful thought to concerning how we are living and seeking to grow and help each other mature and become more effective in this troubled world.Recommended.

I found this to be a very effective book on understanding discipleship especially as the process and goals of it relates to what the authors define as 5 separate relational contexts. The book is good at clarifying not only how each of these contexts differ but also how discipleship in each of these spaces differ as well. An organization that is committed to pursuing developing a framework that integrates all 5 of these contexts well will be setup for lasting impact. As a pastor who currently is designing and developing a system of discipleship, I have found this book well timed and very helpful in confirming much of where God is challenging us on organizationally. There is alot of practical and helpful structures in this book I have gained that can be put into practice for years to come!

I really enjoyed the down to earth practical ideas and powerful principles to get back to the basics of Discipleship!

Great book linking social groupings into areas of disciple making. Highly recommend for church leaders and anyone interested in making disciples... which should be the goal of every follower of Christ.

This book is terrible. It's a sociological approach to church - to growing a church without the help of the power of the Holy Spirit (though he mentions him a couple of times) and the Scriptures. A whole section is given on preaching; however, the Word of God isn't mentioned. If you want to know how to market your church in a clever way that makes people feel more comfortable in a sociological way, this one might be for you. But if you believe salvation is of the Lord, and not of man's clever tactics, there is much better literature out there for disciple making. Andy Stanley is one of his referenced works at the end of a chapter is that helps.

Purchased for my dad, no complaints.

Excellent! A very hepful read for any serious about creating a path to make disciples in a local church.

The authors attempt to fit discipleship into neat categories with clear steps, and I get that desire to do this, but I wish they would acknowledge that while discipleship can be intentional it’s largely dependent on the work of the spirit which is more often messy and rarely linear in its progression.I also really didn’t care for how clearly their biases rang out about far right conservative gender roles. There was no need for that in this book and yet multiple times it came out in the writing.Toward the end one of the authors wrote about what his wife would say when he dies and he bragged on for half a page about his remarkable relationship with God. Rather than finding this encouraging, which is what I think he was going for, I found it overbearing, arrogant, and off puttingWhile there are a few helpful suggestions in this book there are other authors (check out rosaria champagne butterfield) who will be more helpful in getting your feet on the ground moving forward in love for all people rather than pigeon holding ourselves in to charts and theories on discipleship drenched in the heavy complimentarian bias that permeates the chapters.

Excellent!