The Discipleship Gospel: What Jesus Preached—We Must Follow

Hull and Sobels put down a hard word for pastors and lay leaders, which in essence is: you are preaching a false gospel, and it is making false disciples who are unable to share any gospel or make any disciples.The apparent goal of this book is to teach pastors and lay leaders how to preach a true, complete, and biblical gospel and to teach individuals this gospel until it permeates, transforms, and radiates from them, so that those individuals can preach and teach to others who are themselves enabled to preach and teach.The book is written in an active and dynamic style worthy of the active and kingdom-minded nature of the discipleship gospel as they define it.Hull and Sobels deliver a cogent and relentless argument for the discipleship gospel being the only true gospel. Their logic is airtight, supported with scripture, and is very systematic- which makes their argument in itself replicable. They give a frame-by-frame explanation of each element of the gospel and argue outward in concentric circles fitting each component into the whole, so their argumentation itself becomes a usable template for church leadership and motivated disciple makers. This isn't meant just to be read; it's a head-heart-hands effort.If you buy this book, intend to utilize it. Utilize it to refute falsehoods, provide definitions, source logic models, drive motivation and exhort your own leaders, and jump off from the authors' sweeping coaching approach and strategic pointers to mobilize your own key players to start a discipleship movement. From overcoming objections to answering "where do we start," The Discipleship Gospel delivers.Hull and Sobels also provide an easy two point system for diagnosing the discipleship status of your church. First, open and unrepentant sin in the regularly attending, bible-believing, Christians at your church. And, second, how many of your faithful members are following Jesus evidenced by obeying His commands, including to multiply the number of disciples by discipling others?Where the people are following Jesus' commands by multiplying themselves, you know that there is a belief in, and urgency about, the realness of the kingdom of God and the realness of Jesus as its king-- This is truly believing that Jesus is who He says He is. Are you as a pastor or lay leader leading people to an actual belief in Christ in how you preach or share the gospel?If by looking at the state of your members' actions you are unsure of how to answer that question honestly, you probably need to purchase, and read, The Discipleship Gospel immediately.

I cannot recommend this book strongly enough! Bill Hull and Ben Sobels have done a superb job explaining why we need to go back to the drawing board to clarify and define the gospel that Jesus actually preached. I love the way the book leads you step by step to understand how the message of the gospel has become distorted, how to get clarity on what the gospel is from the words of Jesus, and why becoming a disciple and making disciples is not optional, it is at the very core of Jesus message! This book is easy to read and is short enough (166 pages) for someone with a busy schedule to read easily. I would recommend this book to everyone from pastors to brand new followers of Jesus!Mark Da VeePastor, Cypress Church of Gonzales CA.

The Discipleship Gospel challenges the many popular gospels in the church today: the gospel of the right, the gospel of the left, the prosperity gospel, the social justice gospel, the “love“ gospel. It makes the solid claim that a gospel not centered on Jesus as the crucified and resurrected Lord of the kingdom of God, and indeed the world, is no gospel. It makes the further solid claim that a gospel that doesn’t call people to join that kingdom by repenting, believing, and following Jesus in every area of life is no gospel. This is an important word from God to the church.

Having only part of the true Gospel is like having only part of the cure for a deadly disease. This book lays out all 7 parts of the true Gospel as Jesus taught it in the Book of Mark. This book and the companion workbook are essential for a well-rounded discipleship program.Discipleship is a big scary word. There are so many discipleship programs out there that are big, unwieldy albatrosses. This program is simple to use, but not simplistic. You will grow in Christ if you follow this book.

I've had this book for a while now, and I'm still reading, or better described, re-reading it. It an excellent guide to the Gospel, focusing on Mark's for simplicity. I wanted to get back to the basics of Jesus's Way and this opens so much for meditation, covering what I thought I knew, This helps to trim the wick, so to say, on that Lamp for my feet... and just when I thought I knew it all, I can see there's more. If you seek to meet the Lord's challenge, I can recommend this book for you.