Development of Personal Disciplemaking Personal Disciplemaking was written by Chris Adsit and was originally published in 1988. The vision God developed in Chris through the writing of this book and his subsequent seminars eventually led Chris to launch a ministry devoted to training and resourcing disciplemakers, Disciplemakers International, a ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ. The book is currently being published by another ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ, Integrated Resources, ISBN 1-57902-022-4. Because it was previously listed as being out-of-print when Thomas Nelson Publishers ceased printing, it has often been hard to find. It can be ordered through us, New Life Resources and also Amazon.com. This is the story behind the development of the book. (Read an excerpt from the book.) In 1981, while Chris was Director of the Athletes in Action Track Team (a ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ, International), they decided to expand the ministry to three other track-oriented cities: Eugene, Oregon; Phoenix, Arizona; and Waco, Texas. They also moved the headquarters to Eugene, leaving some staff in Southern California, as well. Chris was concerned that each of the staff members have a clear grasp of disciplemaking as they moved to their respective assignments, so he put together a rudimentary disciplemaking program for them. It was simply a series of spiritual training objectives that would give each staff member concrete ideas about what they needed to do to help their disciples to grow, yet allow them great flexibility in how they actually went about it. Some time after that, Chris' home church's pastor saw the program he had put together and strongly encouraged him to make it available to the rest of the Body of Christ. Chris approached a publishing company about it and they agreed to publish it if he would adapt it for the general public. About the same time, his pastor asked Chris a pivotal question, "This is a tremendous approach, but are you positive it's Biblical?" He had to admit that he wasn't positive, so he embarked on a very intensive, three-and-a-half year study of the Word to determine what the Bible had to say about disciplemaking. He felt this was so important that he asked for and was granted permission to resign his position as Track Team Director in order to spend full time on the research. At the conclusion of that research, he felt he could confidently pronounce judgment on his original disciplemaking system as "Biblical", but quite a bit of the structure and detail were changed. The primary distinctive of the disciplemaking program he developed is that it is "Needs-oriented" rather than "Materials-oriented". That is, rather than attempting to find standardized materials that will meet the needs of every growing Christian (materials which do not -- and never will -- exist, by the way, due to the uniquenesses inherent in each of us), the disciplemaker should first assess the individual needs of the person he or she is discipling, tailor-make a program to meet those needs, and then integrate the appropriate materials. But the key in employing a needs-focused approach to disciplemaking lies in the ability of the disciplemaker to discern the needs of the person he or she is discipling. That's where people who are not especially sensitive, intuitive and greatly experienced in disciplemaking (i.e., most of us!) have problems. The only way we "average Joes" can do this (accurately discern needs) is to first have a picture of what a "needs-less" person looks like, build a specific profile of our individual disciple, and then compare the two. Where they don't match, a "need" is easily identified and can be addressed through a customized approach. Chris spent approximately 2000 hours in an effort to define that idealized "needs-less" person in terms of a highly biblical, generalized-yet-exhaustive scope-and-sequence chart describing all of spiritual growth in terms of seven "Areas of Growth" through four "Levels of Growth." It's all contained on a poster-size "Disciplemaking Growth Grid" available through Disciplemakers International. Order materials This "dynamic" approach to disciplemaking is necessary because the needs of a baby Christian are considerably different from the needs of a mature Christian. This greatly affects the theme of the discipling relationship and the strategy of the disciplemaker. For instance, a spiritual adult "needs" to develop leadership abilities, but a spiritual baby does not have that need. He has other, more foundational needs that must first be addressed. If those aren't met first, he'll never have the background to gain leadership skills. The needs change as the disciple grows, so we must be able to spot the changing needs and adjust our strategies accordingly. Further, even Christians who have been walking with the Lord for many years may have "holes" in their previous training, and this approach will help identify those deficits and facilitate their elimination. Also you might like to read an excerpt from the book.
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