Small Batch Discipleship

Most Christians want to disciple others, but don’t know where to start. Small Batch Discipleship: Embrace Your Greater Purpose Through Handcrafted Relationships by Tracy Sullivan is meant to help you get started by understanding discipleship, knowing what steps to take, and by pointing you toward a vision for leading discipleship.

Target Audience

Small Batch Discipleship is written for women. Most of the illustrations and references in the book are geared toward a female audience within the church. However, the principles described in this book apply to all Christians, and anyone interested in discipling others could benefit from reading this book. Sullivan writes:

This material is for all women who believe there’s something more to the Christian life than what they’ve experienced so far – and perhaps for the men who know and love them.

Approach

Sullivan envisions the discipleship process in three phases:

• exploring discipleship
• building foundations of the faith into practice
• equipping disciples to lead others

The book is organized around these phases. It begins with Sullivan’s own story. Part one then defines discipleship from Scripture and emphasizes the importance of relationship in discipleship, helps us understand the kind of person to look for, and describes the kind of group we should aim to create.

Part two helps us understand our identity in Christ, and then guides us in building lives of intimacy with him through Bible study, prayer, evangelism, and fellowship. It covers the basics of the Christian life and assumes nothing.

Part three reminds us that God created all of us to influence others as teacher, coach, mentor, spiritual parent, and friend. We’re all called to lead others to follow Jesus as we follow him, so that they can lead others too.

The message of the book is clear, and Sullivan provides examples to show what her teaching looks like as it’s lived out.

Key Takeaways

• A disciple is a lifelong learner and follower of Jesus.
• We should look for people who know the least about Jesus and are hungriest for him.
• Before we disciple others, we must be disciples ourselves.
• The greatest measure of our lives is the influence we have on others.
• If you are a follower of Jesus, you are qualified and called to make disciples.

Recommendation

This book would best be used as a study for a group of women who are interested in how to disciple others. It is clear, practical, and approachable.

We need more books like this that help us understand not only how we can grow, but how we can invite others to join us. Small Batch Discipleship provides a clear plan on how we all can do this.

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