Saturday, November 30, 2019

About the Book

Book: Be a Disciple, Make a Disciple

Author: Ellie M. Littleton

Genre: RELIGION / Christian Ministry / Discipleship

The twenty-first century Church has the same Holy Spirit power and many more modern-day resources than the first century Church, yet the first century Church had greater success in making disciples. Why? They followed the plan Jesus gave them, and He blessed it. But the more worldly progress we’ve made, the more we’ve deviated from Jesus’s plan by choosing programs, entertainment, and socials with only surface-level encounters.

We neglect to make a connection with the lost, and they see no real commitment from the church. So they come and go as we continue to meet and plan more programs. To end the cycle, we must go and make disciples as Jesus taught—investing our lives in the lives of others.

Do you long to live the Great Commission and make disciples, but you’re not sure how? In Be a Disciple, Make a Disciple, Ellie Littleton offers biblical examples and concepts that break down the hard work of discipleship into sixteen thought-provoking lessons.

So go and make disciples. “This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples” (John 15:8 niv).

Click here to get your copy.

About the Author

Ellie Littleton has spent most of her adult life teaching both high school and adult Sunday school. She is minister of Vision Teams at her church, and serves as an officer on the planning team of her church’s annual Women of the Word Conference. Her husband of twenty-one years and high school sweetheart, Brad Littleton, serves as minister of music at their church. Their daughter, Hannah Kate, has been active in AcTeens and children’s church. She plans to continue competitive cheer in college. Son, Grayson, is home from a six-month internship at Lifehouse Church in Tokyo, Japan, and is seeking a position as a youth pastor. Ellie and her family love their church, family-and-friend cookouts, volleyball, boat riding, and music. She also enjoys reading, women’s conferences, and sneaking away to occasional girlfriend getaways at the beach.

More from Ellie

Eighteen years ago, I was blessed to be a part of a church plant in the community where I was raised and still call home. The new church, South Shelby Baptist, gave me the opportunity to dig in and exercise the spiritual gifts given to me by the Holy Spirit. As I begin to write and teach Bible lessons, a deep passion arose and bloomed within my heart to grow in the grace and knowledge of our LORD and Savior, Jesus Christ (2 Peter 3:18) and see others grow too. I am a people-person and find great joy in connecting with people and seeing people connected, especially within the Body of Christ. In the past five years, God has been and is pulling me out of that comfort zone of lessons into writing Bible studies. My pastor, David Warren, leads the vision of our church- be a disciple and make a disciple. He asked me a couple of years ago, to write a Bible study on the topic of discipleship for our folks as a resource to help us grow and activate the call to make disciples. And that is how Be a Disciple, Make a Disciple Bible study began. I wrote this Bible study for my church to use as resource to grow in discipleship, because my heart for ministry is in the local church, especially my local church, South Shelby Baptist. But God. God began prompting my heart with the dream to have Be a Disciple, Make a Disciple published… and here it is. God is good and He is faithful; great is your faithfulness, O LORD! It is my prayer that you can use it as a resource to help you and your local church grow in discipling others too. To God be the glory and blessings to you in Christ,

Ellie

There are so many bible studies available that sometimes it is hard to know if you are choosing one that will speak to you. I went through this study slowly so I could fairly review it. It is nicely broken up into different chapters with many scriptures to look up. If you don't like looking up scriptures, this probably will not be a study you enjoy. I like looking up scriptures because I can read it directly from the bible. The author gives readers questions that help you dig deeper in the Word.

I did like this statement in the study that says," Real fellowship takes place when people are open and honest, not only with each other, but also with themselves." In order to have a deeper and true relationship with others, we need to love each other and speak truth into each others lives. It is nice to go to church, hear the Word of God but we can't forget that we need to fellowship with others. We need to be there to lift each other up and have accountability.

The study is geared to help us understand what discipleship is and then to go out and share His Word. He wants us to be His hands and feet and lead others to Christ. Jesus had twelve disciples who He guided and prepared to go out and share His word. In order for us to follow Jesus we need to know what His word says. The author asks a very important question which is ," How often do you read your bible." I want to say I read it faithfully everyday but I can't. I need to discipline myself to be more diligent in spending time with Him and less time being busy.

The study is nice and would be a useful tool for churches to teach discipleship. It also can be used in small groups or as a study for individuals.

I received a copy of this book from Celebrate Lit. The review is my own opinion.