Spiritual Multiplication in the Real World

By: Bob McNabb

ISBN: 978-1942374008

READ: January 2023

RATING: 7/10

Summary: This book is full of practical insights into disciple making and what it takes to live life as a disciple each and every day. McNabb grounds his points in both research and real-world experience. He excels at communicating vision and does so with deep conviction. His disciple making advice is solid, Biblically rooted, grounded in experience, and insightful. The chapter on Evangelism was great as was the chapter on exporting or world missions.

My main issue with the book was with the data that support his methodologies. It is based on the research of 410 people in the SE United States. Time and again he refers to “highly effective disciple makers,” before making a point. The highly effective group was just 12%, but the ineffective group was 55%. He never explicitly identifies who the 410 people were, but insinuates they were graduates from his and other campus ministries. If his methods are only producing 12% fruitful disciple makers, seems off to me. He also unnecessarily pits disciple making methods against each other (team vs. 1-1 and 1-2). Lastly, many of his illustrations are from ministry experience in Thailand. As someone who has lived and ministered there, effective methods vary greatly from the US to Thailand.

So overall, a helpful book that provides a lot of food for thought. I’d recommend it to an established disciple maker looking to grow and wanting to consider other viewpoints.

Chapter Titles are: Part One: The Vision and Challenges of Spiritual Multiplication. 1. Stars and Sand 2. Maybe Someone Else 3. Trouble in Multiplication Paradise Part Two: Effective Disciple Making Contexts. 4. Soil 5. Essential Elements 6. Gone Fishing [Evangelizing] 7. Parenthood [Establishing] 8. Learning to Fly [Equipping] 9. The Lost Aspect of Disciple Making [Exporting] 10. You Can! [Empowering] 11. From Vision to Reality Appendix and End Notes

Part 1: The Vision and Challenges of Spiritual Multiplication

Chapter 1: Stars and Sand

“Now that you’re comfortable, let me ask you a few questions. 1. Do you believe God wants to multiply your life and make your spiritual descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sand under your feet? 2. What are you specifically asking God to do through your life? 3. How many men and women are you asking God to equip through you as multiplying disciples? 4. How many nations are you asking God to impact through you?” pg. 21

“When Jesus ascended to heaven, he didn’t take his disciples with him. He had something he wanted them to do here first—go and multiply disciples in all nations. You and I are no different. We were born again to multiply. Our salvation doesn’t just deliver us from our sins. It also sets us free from living meaningless lives.” Pg. 23

“From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible is a book about God’s desire and plan to spread the glory of his own image by multiplying a people for himself.” Pg. 26

“Examples of Discipling in the Scriptures: God’s plan for multiplying laborers is illustrated in the mentoring relationships we see in the Bible. This mentoring took the form of on-the-job-training, as mentors engaged with proteges and trained them to assist in the mentor’s work. A few notable examples of these relationships include the following: Moses and Joshua, Elijah and Elisha, Jesus and the apostles, Barnabas and Paul, Barnabas and John Mark, Paul and Timothy.” Pg. 31

 -Some confusion here or lack of clear communication about the difference between disciple making and mentoring.

“From cover to cover of the Bible we see that God is going to accomplish his plan of spreading his glory throughout the earth by multiplying his people.” pg. 31

Chapter 2: Maybe Someone Else

“The crops won’t come up if the farmer doesn’t put seed in the ground.” Pg.34

“The certainty of the promise depends on the ability of its giver to deliver on what was promised. The verses before the promise in this passage (Psalm 19) demonstrate that its giver can certainly make good on his pledge.” Pg. 35

“We must understand what God may choose to do through us is often much greater than what God does with us.” pg. 39

Chapter 3: Trouble in Multiplication Paradise

“The goal [of the Great Commission] was not proclamation, but reproduction—disciples who multiply other disciples.” Pg. 44

“The group started meeting with great excitement. By the end of the year, though, only one of my disciples continued to meet with me.” Pg. 45

Theories about why more aren’t laboring fruitfully: pgs. 47-49

1. The “Poor Job and living situations” Theory

“They lacked extended and meaningful daily contact with lost people their own age and gender. They needed to select a job and living situation that daily immersed them in significant contact with lost people….In fact, we found no statistically significant relationship between where one lives and effectiveness in disciple-making, nor between the number of lost people with whom one works closely on a daily basis.”

2. The “It just takes a few years after graduation to adjust” Theory

“Unfortunately, time has proven this theory to be more of a myth than a reality.”

3. The “Insufficient Preparation” Theory

“The failures of graduates to multiply in the real world is not a result of deficiencies in their instruction. The problem lies elsewhere.”

4. The “It’s just too hard in the real world” Theory

“Thankfully, they (ordinary disciple makers) have proven for us that spiritual multiplication in the real world is in fact possible.”

“We should interpret our research findings in light of Scripture, not vice versa. Research, however, can play a valuable role in helping us learn to appropriately apply biblical principles.” Pg. 49

“How well we labor will affect the fruitfulness of our ministries.” Pg. 51

“Only 12% of the people surveyed were found to be highly effective….33% of those surveyed were found to be ‘effective’ and the remaining 55% were ‘non-effective.’” Pg. 52

Part Two: Effective Disciple Making Contexts

Chapter 4: Soil

“College disciple-making movements provide the nutrients of leadership, vision, encouragement, fellowship, teamwork, accountability, and coaching needed to bear fruit in personal ministry. Unfortunately, most graduates are transplanted into churches that don’t function as disciple making movements.” Pg. 58

 -It’s unclear how he is defining movements here. Also simplistic view of the change graduates experience. Blaming it on the church is an all too easy and frequent reaction.

“As we will discuss further, a believer placed in the environment of a healthy local church that functions as a disciple-making movement has a far greater chance of multiplying his or her life than one who isn’t.” pg. 58

“However, when it comes to disciple making. somehow we tend to think that individuals can go out and do it on their own. This is a root cause of why so many fail to reproduce.” Pg. 59

“If we didn’t need others to spur us on to love and good deeds, God wouldn’t tell us to do that.” Pg. 60

“We can see [based on data and chart] that some evangelism training is better than none, but these results show no correlation between an increase in evangelism training and how many people that person will lead to Christ.” Pg. 61

“We found that those who were involved [in some evangelistic training] led more than twice as many people to Christ as those who weren’t.” pg. 61

“What do these findings say to us as disciple-makers? Join a disciple making team or an evangelism training program! Winning someone to Christ is just the first step in the discipling process, but it is where laborers most often stumble when attempting to multiply their lives.” Pg. 62

“Becoming a part of a team that evangelizes together is the most important thing you can do if you want to multiply disciples, no matter where you are.” Pg. 62

“Don’t just join a small group. The church is full of inwardly focused small groups that do very little to help their members make disciples.” Pg. 63

“Instead he [Jesus] worked hard to build his followers into a disciple-making team. Jesus’ goal was never to build individual disciples. He built a team and expected them to go build other disciple making teams called churches.” Pg. 64

“The ministry model of Jesus lived out for his men involved forming a community of believers that functioned together as a disciple-making team.” Pg. 64

“Attempting to multiply individual disciples and not disciple-making teams will inevitably result in failure and frustration.” Pg. 64

 -This is clearly untrue. The Navigators, Young Life and others have flourished by focusing on multiplying individuals instead of groups or teams. Pitting two methodologies against each other here seems unproductive to me. Why does it have to be either/or?

“In many cities if you want to be a part of a disciple-making team, you are going to have to join a para-church ministry.” Pg. 65

“Rather than asking, ‘Are we growing?’ we [church leaders] need to ask, ‘Are our members leading people to Christ?’ and ‘Are they successfully helping new converts grow into mature believers?’” pg. 65

“How did we lose the idea that the church should function as a disciple making movement that helps its members bear fruit in evangelism and disciple making?” pg. 67

“I believe the single greatest determining factor as to whether people multiply themselves is not their level of maturity, the amount of training they have received, the receptivity of the lost in their context or how long they have been discipled. But it is whether or not they are immersed in a disciple making team.” Pg. 67-68

Chapter 5: Essential Elements

“There is little chance that any church or small group will develop a disciple making culture if spiritual multiplication is not central to the vision of the leader and frequently on his lips.” Pg. 71

“If Peter, who was discipled directly by Jesus, needed to hear the vision that frequently, then so do we.” Pg. 72

“It is hard to imagine a situation where believers are actively multiplying themselves spiritually though their pastor or small group leader is not. Ministry leaders must both speak the vision and live it out in front of their people. When people hear you talk, they listen. When people see you do, they do. Maybe we should call this the ‘monkey see, monkey do principle’!” Pg. 73

“Wherever you find disciples exponentially multiplying, you will find an emphasis on training.” Pg. 74

“Training involves showing a person or group how to do something. Coaching usually follows training and involves a coach giving feedback and ideas for improvement.” Pg. 76

“It should be no surprise that we found highly effective disciple-makers received ministry coaching.” Pg. 77

“When looking for a church to join, it is important to ask whether they have a coaching system in place for those who want to multiply their lives.” Pg. 77

“We need our systems to work well if we are going to grow and multiply.” Pg. 78

“Developing coaches (leaders of leaders) may be the single most overlooked yet vital task in spreading a missional movement.” -Dave & Jon Ferguson

“Most small groups that function well as a disciple-making team define multiplication as their reason for existence.” Pg. 78

“The best groups I have ever seen at assimilation and care, though, are those that form for the purpose of equipping and mobilizing their members. The church is supposed to build laborers, not hospitals.” Pg. 79

“…abundant prayer was not just a common element, it was universal in every movement.” Pg. 80

“…large group events that cast vision and challenged the disciples to walk with God were actually a way that we partnered with our leaders and helped reinforce what they were doing on a micro level with the people they discipled.” Pg. 83

“Just to be clear, I am only advocating large group events that are specifically planned with the purpose of partnering with disciple-makers and helping them be successful in their ministries.” Pg. 83

Chapter 6: Gone Fishing [Evangelizing]

“Our research found that highly effective disciple-makers not only immerse themselves in helpful contexts, but they also engage in certain ministry practices that set them apart.” Pg. 85

“It is possible to lead men and women to Christ in the real world. Many have proven it. Every day, all over the world, people are leading their family members, neighbors, coworkers, and even strangers to Christ.” Pg. 88

“When I get to the section on evangelism, I tell my students, ‘Welcome to the logjam in the multiplication cycle.” Pg. 89

“Paul’s ministry involved not only sharing the good news, but also trying to interest non-believers in the gospel and its implications.” Pg. 91

“Seeing Jesus create interest with the Samaritan woman at the well before he disclosed that he was the Messiah was the clincher for me.” Pg. 92

“One of the ways I describe what we were trying to do is in terms of parking a car in a garage. We wanted to get the car (the gospel) into the garage (someone’s heart), but we were failing to open the garage door (create interest) first. Let me tell you, it is not only frustrating for the driver, but it also isn’t appreciated very much by the door!” pg. 94-95

“Four simple steps of evangelism can be remembered with the acronym FISH: Find, Interest, Share, Help.” Pg. 95

Step 1 FIND

“Instead, we first had to figure out how we could break out of our Christian circles and meet people who didn’t know the Lord. All of the other steps depend on this.” Pg. 95

“It is important to find a way of meeting a continual flow of new people.” pg. 96

 -Super insight for me in reaching those who don’t yet follow Jesus.

Attitudes towards Christ: Anti- Open – Interested- Considering -Faith pg. 96

Step 2 Interest

Show the relevance of a relationship with Jesus to current life struggles

Share your testimony

Pray for their needs

Let them see Christians interacting with each other in love

Pray for God to create interest in them

Help them see they have a sin problem

Step 3 Share the Gospel

Step 4 Help them Make a Decision

“Christ promises entrance into a new kingdom, an easy yoke, eternal life, living water, an esacpe from punishment, fellowship with Him, and on and on.” Pg. 98-99

“When we realized the power of a loving community as an interest-creating tool, we began to rethink how we did evangelism.” Pg. 102

“I don’t do well living on mission without being a part of a like-minded community.” Pg. 110

Chapter 7 Parenthood [Establishing]

“With most pastors today focused on establishing instead of their biblically assigned role of equipping the saints to disciple others, is it any wonder that few churches produce multiplying disciples?...Wouldn’t it be great if every pastor had a trained army of equipped saints to share the workload?” pg. 115

 -Pretty simplistic assessment of pastors and one that seems to come from a place that hasn’t walked beside pastors and the challenges they face.

“Discipling others is the process by which a Christian with a. life worth emulating commits himself for an extended periof of time to a few individuals who have been won to Christ, the purpose being to aid and guide their spiritual growth to maturity and equip them to reproduce themselves in a third spiritual generation.” Pg. 115 -Allen Hadidian

“While this is the best definition [the one above] of discipling I have heard, we must add one thing to it: the integration of new believers into the life of a disciple-making team.” Pg. 115

         -While agree about teams (even publishing a book on their value soon), I don’t think it’s as emphasized in the Scriptures as he is making it.

“Over 80% of the believers we surveyed who had never been discipled fell into the category of non-effective disciple-makers.” Pg. 116

“There is a strong correlation between the helpfulness of that relationship and effectiveness in disciple-making.” Pg. 117

“Praying for your spiritual children is not optional, it’s essential!” pg. 118

“I would pray for growth in the 5 ‘F’s’. Father: Pray about their relationship with you, Family: Pray they will bond with other believers and integrate into the family of God, Food: Pray they will learn to self-feed on God’s Word daily, Foundations: Pray they will grow strong and deep in their knowledge of God and the doctrines of the faith, Freedom: Pray they will grasp their position in Christ and experience the freedom that is theirs in him.” Pg. 118

“Did Jesus tell us to make disciples by teaching them all that he taught? No. What are we to teach them? Obedience to all of his commands.” Pg. 120

“Getting them to share what they are learning with others as quickly and frequently as possible is key.” Pg. 120

“Nothing straps a rocket onto the back of a new believer like vision.” Pg. 121

“Challenge them to pass along what they are learning from you every single week. Of course, the starting point for me teaching them is to set the example for them in my own obedience and the attitudes of my heart. It starts with me modeling it.” Pg. 121

“He [Jesus] wants them connected into a family of believers who will love and nurture them as one of their own. Can you see why I call this a growth multiplier? One-one-one discipling does not speed up someone’s growth but actually keeps it from accelerating.” pg. 123

 -Again, he pits one to one against connection to a broader body of believers. Why can’t it be both? He is also mixing this idea of parenting and not doing one to one. What kind of parent never has one-to-one time with his child?

“Jesus didn’t disciple people one-on-one. Individual disciples don’t do well when they are not part of a disciple-making team.” Pg. 121

“Disciples who are competent self-feeders know how to to take in God’s Word in such a way that it brings significant nourishment to their souls.” Pg. 125

“One of the great dangers of intake without meditation is that you may very easily become puffed up.” Pg. 126

“Our best chance at consistency comes when community is combined with conviction and confidence.” Pg. 127

“Besides meditation, Scripture memory is probably the greatest turbo charger for Christian growth.” Pg. 127

“Reproduction happens more frequently when we give people clear tracks to run on. A new disciple’s integration into the family is more important than getting a perfectly customized curriculum in a one-on-one setting.” Pg. 130

“While customizing should be kept to a minimum during the Establishing stage, it becomes pretty important in the Equipping stage where the needs of individual disciples diverge.” Pg. 131

Chapter 8: Learning to Fly [Equipping]

“Unfortunately, I have seen church after church attempt to train people for just about every aspect of ministry by using only a classroom.” Pg. 138

“…there is no substitute for hands-on training.” Pg. 139

“As you can see, training disciples becomes more individualized in the Equipping stage and will require more one-one-one time.” Pg. 147

“From the very beginning of his ministry, Jesus called many people to follow him as his disciples and to participate in the mission of God as ‘fishers of men.’ Notice he didn’t say to people, ‘Come follow me and I will help you grow.’” Pg. 152

“Even well-equipped people will struggle to be fruitful and may even discontinue ministry if they are not part of a disciple-making team.” Pg. 157

Chapter 9: The Lost Aspect of Disciple-Making [Exporting]

“When it comes to the idea of needing a special missionary call, Jim Elliot put it this way: ‘Why do you need a voice when you have a verse?’ Up to this point I had been willing to go, but planning to stay. In light of this new information, I committed to flip that. I needed to plan to go and be willing to stay.” Pg. 160

Keys to Growing and Exporting World Christians: pgs. 164-177

1. Conviction

2. Consecrattion

3. Community

4. Commissioning

“The mandate is to make disciples of all the ethne (nations).” Pg. 165

“It is preposterous to believe that half-committed leaders will raise up fully-committed followers.” Pg. 165-166

“Encourage them to immerse themselves into a community with other World Christians.” Pg. 168

“Plan an active role in identifying well-prepared laborers and pointing them to strategic opportunities for impact.” Pg. 168

“We see this pattern in the New Testament. God leads mission team members through mission team leaders in what they should do and where they should do it.” Pg. 170

“The reason there are still over 7,000 unreached people groups is not a shortage of laborers. Two thousand years ago, there was a shortage of laborers in general. Today, we have approximately 1,000 churches for each remaining people group.” Pg. 172

“A missionary is someone who goes where they are needed but not wanted, and stays until they are wanted, but not needed.” Pg. 175

Chapter 10: You Can! [Empowering]

“The world and the church are full of well-meaning people who will tell you ‘You can’t’ when that’s just not true.” Pg. 180

 -Why take shots at the church? I just don’t see what good this does.

“Nothing motivates like vision….If nothing motivates like vision, nothing demotivates like failure.” Pg. 182

“We must empower potential disciples to have a new vision for their lives.” Pg. 184

“The most effective disciple-makers aren’t the ones who are the best trained. They are the ones who share with the most people!” pg. 189

“One of the keys for empowering people to plant churches and unleash church planting movements is to strip away all cultural and historical baggage from our definition of church.” Pg. 192

 -Yet the author offers no definition of church, just a model.

“One model that has proven healthy and highly reproductive is the POUCH church. POUCH stands for: Participative Bible study and worship, Obedience as the mark of success for every believer and church, Unpaid and multiple leaders in each church, Cell groups of ten to twenty believers meeting in, Homes or storefronts.” Pg. 192

“Lies from Satan:

1. I don’t know enough

2. I fear failure and man—what people think about me

3. I fear that I might fail! I won’t have enough time to do something good enough.

4. My attempts will always fall short

5. What I offer is not good enough

6. I don’t have enough skills or experience

7. I’m not doing enough, or the things I am doing, I’m not doing well enough.

8. Maybe I don’t have what it takes.

9. I’m not good enough yet.

10. God won’t come through, and I will end up feeling foolish and alone.

11. I will fail doing it or look dumb

12. If I am not successful or unable to complete the task, I fear people will think that I was insincere, not persistent, or inconsistent. I have a bigger fear of people incorrectly perceiving my motives.

13. If God hasn’t already used me to bring my family to him, why should I expect other greater things to happen through me? Also, maybe I’m not old enough?

14. I think satisfaction with good keeps me from aiming at great. Sometimes I’m tempted to think, ‘What I’m doing makes a difference and that’s good enough.’”

15. What I attempt will fail, I’ll look dumb, and God will be seen as weak because of my failure.” Pg. 200

“God loves to use the young and ill-equipped to do great things for his glory.” Pg. 201

Chapter 11: From Vision to Reality

“…it is possible for you to not only be a faithful disciple, but to be a fruitful disciple-maker, no matter the circumstances.” Pg. 205

“Immersion into a favorable context is no guarantee of personal fruitfulness. The Bible gives us at least four indispensable prerequisites for our visions to become realities.” Pg. 206

1. Devotional Consistency

2. Death to the Other Visions

3. Development of a Plan

4. Determination

“Highly effective disciple-makers have learned that multiplication is a result of overflow, not overwork.” Pg. 206

“Do not have your concert first, and then tune your instrument afterwards. Begin the day with the Word of God and prayer, and get first of all into harmony with Him.” Pg. 206 – Hudson Taylor

“You can’t just tack disciple-making on to everything else you are doing and expect to succeed. It must be central. Your life must revolve around it.” Pg. 207

“If you’re not careful to set your vision squarely on eternal impact, other things will come in and choke your disciple-making efforts.” Pg. 207

3 Enemies of multiplication are 1. The cares of the world 2. The deceitfulness of riches 3. The desires for other things. Pg. 208

“Some men die by shrapnel. Some men die by flames. Most men die inch by inch, playing silly little games.” Pg. 210 – C.T. Studd