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Contagious Disciple Making: Leading Others on a Journey of Discovery
by
It is hard to deny that today's world can seem downright hostile toward Christians. Some may look down at their iPhones when we mention God, motion for the check when we bring up church, or casually change the subject when we talk about prayer. In a world full of people whose indifference is greater than their desire to know Christ, how can we dream of growing the church?
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Paperback, 256 pages
Published
December 23rd 2014
by Thomas Nelson
(first published December 1st 2014)
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Start your review of Contagious Disciple Making: Leading Others on a Journey of Discovery

The main idea of "contagious disciple making" is both simple to summarize and presents a real challenge to the contemporary church. It is to model and encourage trusting obedience to Christ as we discover his will in scripture, and to share these discoveries with others. This simple and compelling idea is a breath of fresh air for a Western church long on talk and short on obedience.
The authors (father and son) have been involved in church-planting movements throughout the world resulting in tho ...more
The authors (father and son) have been involved in church-planting movements throughout the world resulting in tho ...more

Contagious Disciple Making is a useful resource on the essentials of disciple making and provides good insight if you're looking into Disciple Making Movements (DMM) or Church Planting Movements (CPM).
The basic premise for disciple making goes something like this. Time is spent praying and listening to God about a neighbourhood which is followed up by seeking to meet observed needs in the community. Through serving and loving others, opportunities will arise to make connections with people and f ...more
The basic premise for disciple making goes something like this. Time is spent praying and listening to God about a neighbourhood which is followed up by seeking to meet observed needs in the community. Through serving and loving others, opportunities will arise to make connections with people and f ...more

A refreshing, challenging, and inspiring read despite some significant flaws.
The Good:
David Watson and Paul Watson are a father-son duo who have a wide range of ministry experience. David has apparently seen 1 million Bhojpuri people (India) baptized as a result of his church planting efforts. This book describes their disciple-making methodology and is broken into two parts.
Part 1 is on "The Mind-Set of a Disciple-Maker" and lays the groundwork for the kind of person a disciple-maker must be i ...more
The Good:
David Watson and Paul Watson are a father-son duo who have a wide range of ministry experience. David has apparently seen 1 million Bhojpuri people (India) baptized as a result of his church planting efforts. This book describes their disciple-making methodology and is broken into two parts.
Part 1 is on "The Mind-Set of a Disciple-Maker" and lays the groundwork for the kind of person a disciple-maker must be i ...more

"Knowledge transfer is not disciple-making." Excellent book that would make for an excellent ongoing resource. This is not leaving my bookshelf. Both theoretical and practical, the book is divided in two parts.
Part 1 is "Mindset of a Disciple-Maker". It looks at the overall mission given to us by Christ, ways we are missing the mark and specifics like the difference between disciples and converts. Love this quote: "Jesus left eleven men, some of whom doubted, standing on a hilltop. Some were il ...more
Part 1 is "Mindset of a Disciple-Maker". It looks at the overall mission given to us by Christ, ways we are missing the mark and specifics like the difference between disciples and converts. Love this quote: "Jesus left eleven men, some of whom doubted, standing on a hilltop. Some were il ...more

If I could give 3.5 stars I would because 3 stars seems too stingy for all of the amazing sections and chapters which had me nodding along or even pausing to really complicate the incredible things that this father-son duo was delivering. However, 4 stars seems a bit too generous for what became an overwhelming amount of unnecessary lists throughout the book, and for the pretty noticeable drop off towards the last third of the book in clear, precise, and relevant information.
David Watson & his s ...more
David Watson & his s ...more

This book provides some very thought provoking ideas. There are some weird aspects (women pastors and how one author portrays hearing from God), but the core premise of the book is a refreshing take on what has become a dull way of seeking to grow the church in America. Instead of trying to pull people out of their communities (or "silos") and into the church, the authors call us to transform the silo: make it Christian. The main keys are prayer, finding Persons of Peace, Discovery Groups, and m
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This book offers a new way of looking at dicipling and church planting at home and abroad. It is an easy but challenging book in that it will completely shift the way that the church and believers traditionally evangelize unbelievers. Contagious Disciple Making explains how to make discipleship simple. The way it is taught removes the burden from being the one with all of the answers and the charisma to gather a following to allowing the Holy Spirit to be the teacher and for groups to naturally
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Seminary class reading. Very practical, structured approach to planting churches via creating disciples (the author would argue that by creating disciples, you ARE church planting). This book falls along the "leaders develop leaders" strategy of building movements by having a continual chain of mentors and mentees - that is, the mentor is always mentoring someone who is mentoring someone, and the information doesn't stagnate at any particular link in the chain. What is learned in mentoring is al
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Astonishingly good step-by-step description of how to shepherd disciples into those who foster movements within communities. Clear biblical guidance in how to cut through all the churchy, denominational distinctives to focus on the gospel in discovery groups that move attendees to trust the Holy Spirit of interpret Scripture and lead attendees to obey the Scripture. Finding persons of peace. Making disciples not converts. How to inspire discovery groups. Inspiring others to lead. What to study.
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My biggest takeaway from this book is the centrality of obedience. Obedience to God's commands is the foundation of a discipleship relationship and thus the growth of the church.
The book also presents an excellent and likely very effective way of reaching out with spiritual truth to people who would not set foot in a church.
Bottom line, I find this a must read. ...more
The book also presents an excellent and likely very effective way of reaching out with spiritual truth to people who would not set foot in a church.
Bottom line, I find this a must read. ...more

Enjoyed this quick read. I'm looking forward to reading it again together with a friend. The short chapters were very practical and biblical. The advice in the book was both encouraging and empowering. I highly recommend it to others.
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This is a companion book to a book called Miraculous Movements, and it spells out in detail the methodology used to spur on the movements described in that book. I found it incredibly practical, at times underlining nearly entire pages. My prayer is that I'll be able to put the principles of this book into practice so that I can have a small part to play in reaching people in my city for Jesus. I believe that anyone with a desire to do the same wherever they live would find this book a great hel
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It took me a bit to get into this and once I get about half way through I found the odd tid-bit. I think I'm reading from the point of view that what he was saying wasn't new but biblical (and my view of the church right now was similar to his)...that being said, I also struggled because it really felt like a "striving mentality." He gave many examples on things to do but unless the Holy Spirit directed you PERSONALLY that way - you could get burned out, go down a works based path, not have boun
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I found this book really helpful in reevaluating how I help people come to conclusions about their view of God and what God has called them to do. I like to tell people what to do a lot, but instead, maybe I need to start taking more of a step back and letting people figure it out for themselves by pointing them in the right direction of the Word of God. That way instead of people feeling dependent on me for answers, they are learning that they can go to the Lord's Word to get their answers.
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An overall great and inspiring book on CPM/DMM methods. (Church Planting Movements or Disciple Making Movements.) We read this as a group and discussed every chapter and it was a valuable in the formation of our missions strategies here among an unreached people group. The authors do a pretty good job of breaking the principles into separate chapters, expouding fairly well on each one, and also making it mostly practical for people to implement in their own lives.
A few critiques I have are just ...more
A few critiques I have are just ...more

David Watson and Paul Watson have given us a useful guide for following Jesus into the world God loves with Good News in Contagious Disciple Making: Leading Others on a Journey of Discovery. It's filled with a very simple, yet proven with experience, method of developing disciples for Jesus Christ.
But the book avoids those pitfalls that usually come from Church Growth guides. There's no new method here, because Contagious Disciple Making is most certainly not a book about theory. It's engagemen ...more
But the book avoids those pitfalls that usually come from Church Growth guides. There's no new method here, because Contagious Disciple Making is most certainly not a book about theory. It's engagemen ...more

Making disciples is at the heart of what we as Christians should be doing. The decline of Christianity in the West over the past fifty or so years would indicate that we have done this very poorly. Many denominations and churches think that if we work harder, giving more effort to what we are currently doing, we will be able to turn the tide. That has not proven to be true. Finally, we have a book which gives us a clear path to help us focus on the one priority which we should have – Make Discip
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Unlike the other books on Church-Planting Movements (CPM) put out by City Team (Miraculous Movements and The Father Glorified), this one by David Watson and Paul Watson focuses more on the most common characteristics of a disciple-maker and the key elements involved in movements. The book is straight-forward and simple, and although it does not include as many examples as other books on this topic, the authors do point to several stories of their own work. If you have already read other books on
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“Lost people are mostly repulsed by religion but inexplicably drawn to spiritual men and women.” ~David Watson
This. Right. Here. Has me pondering deep and long about what my beliefs look like to my neighbors. I get it. Christian-ese and church-i-ness can get under my skin like nobody’s business. (And I am an avid church goer…). The world hungers for real faith, faith that breathes the same air in the church as outside the church. Faith that touches everyday life in the real world.
I went into rea ...more
This. Right. Here. Has me pondering deep and long about what my beliefs look like to my neighbors. I get it. Christian-ese and church-i-ness can get under my skin like nobody’s business. (And I am an avid church goer…). The world hungers for real faith, faith that breathes the same air in the church as outside the church. Faith that touches everyday life in the real world.
I went into rea ...more

Covers similar ground as previous books in series. Fewer stories, more how-to. Assumes the reader wants to be involved. May not be enough to train him in these methods, which don't come naturally to us, but enough to understand how it works and why and to get someone started. I'll add additional notes when I prepare a more formal review for publication.
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There are thoughts and ideas in this book that everyone needs to interact with. Many of the ideas, I had a hard time with when I first heard about them (it might have been the communicator, sorry David Watson :-)) but as I walked away and thought more and attended more seminars I realized that this was how I could make the greatest impact for God's kingdom. Read it!
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David Watson serves the global church through Cityteam Ministries as the VP for Global Disciple-Making. He is also actively involved in mentoring the next generation of Disciple-Making strategists. Since 1989, Watson has been involved with movements that have seen 100,000 churches started, and he has trained more than 30,000 leaders from 167 nations.
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“Consistency. Absolute consistency is required if you want to impress God’s love and commands on your physical and spiritual children.”
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“Most people have no idea how to pray for you. If you want them to pray something more than, “Be with [fill in the blank] as she works with lost people in [fill in the blank],” then you need to teach them how to pray. Teaching them how to pray effectively is your responsibility.”
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