About the Author
I was born again on June 7, 1991, saved out of a background steeped in the occult and brought into the light of Christ by nothing other than His grace. In the formative years that followed, I was given something increasingly rare even then: I was actually discipled. Someone took the time to walk with me, to answer my questions, and to show me — not just tell me — what it looked like to follow Jesus. That investment shaped everything that has come since, including this book.
I have had the privilege of serving the church in a number of capacities over the years: helped in street evangelism, outreaches, counseling, as a bible teacher, a worship leader, a deacon, and a music minister at coffeehouse outreaches. I have helped in three local church plants, and in 2018 I was ordained as a pastor (coming from a church plant where I served as worship leader, elder, and teacher).
Over the last thirty years I have watched discipleship, and face-to-face relationships in general, decline across the American church. I have also, more than once, met real resistance simply for suggesting that discipleship — and the accountability that must undergird it — belongs at the center of church life rather than the periphery.
The American church, as a tree, has gone soft and wood without resilience tends to rot from the inside out. That rot is easy believism and shallow faith. The result is sunday services that more closely resemble concerts (rather than a gathering of saved souls as His body) and those people thinking that going to a sunday service is the very definition and expression of the christian life. How sad and how wasteful.
I currently serve as pastor for a home based fellowship in New Bedford, MA where I use the socratic teaching method on Sunday morning fellowships, Tuesday night discipleship, and Friday night roundtable discipleship.
My prayer for this book (and the accompanying bible study) is simple: that it would inspire and motivate you, the reader, to step up and step into the discipleship model God ordained for His church. That’s us, by the way.
Be blessed.
My thanks to the men who discipled me:
Pastor Gene Giguere, who showed me how to read and understand my bible.
Pastor Rick Bringhurst, who showed me how a man serves others.
Paul Hill, who showed me, with great investment, what a husband and father ought to be like.
Pastor Dave Brooks, who spent exhaustive time with me showing me how to love a local assembly,
and Pastor Phil McGlauflin, who showed how Jesus ties all that together in each man’s heart.