Maximum Discipleship in the Church
A Church Leader’s Guide for Building a Strategic Approach to Making Disciples
By Randy Wollf
Randy provides a great overview of some of the personal and church/corporate aspects of discipleship. I really appreciated his blend of theory and practical. He clearly wants to provide some practical tools to help leaders and churches to move forward in terms of discipleship.
Brad Reid – Pastor
Focus on discipleship is a timeless strategy in building God’s people towards maintaining their faith and spiritual development. Discussing the five layers helps shed light for many small groups in building their members. And the reflection questions assist the learner of the important lessons learned in every chapter. It is an easy read but filled with great principles about discipleship strategies.
Aldrin Navo – Denominational Leader
Book Description
Do you want your church to be a disciple-making church, but aren’t sure how to get there? Are you struggling to come up with a church-wide strategy for making disciples?
In Maximum Discipleship in the Church, veteran pastor and leadership coach, Dr. Randy Wollf, helps church leaders understand and grow 11 essential elements that will move their churches toward greater disciple-making effectiveness. In the pages of this book, you will discover:
How the culture of a church can set the stage for discipleship to thrive
Why focusing on one discipleship approach is not enough to make disciples in a maximum way
How you can strengthen each of the 11 essential disciple-making elements and take your church to the next level in making disciples
The book comes with access to the online Church Discipleship Assessment, a tool that helps you measure your church’s effectiveness in the 11 disciple-making areas. Every chapter has reflection/discussion questions that will help you and your leadership team identify and apply key insights.
Imagine that discipleship in your church is like a grape vine. Of course, we want our churches to bear fruit like seeing people accept Christ and grow in him. Yet, the growth of the vine and its ability to produce fruit is dependent on at least four things: water, sunlight, good soil, and a supportive structure.
As we think about making disciples in the church, it’s imperative that we recognize the Holy Spirit’s role. He is the One who draws people to Christ and helps them grown in him. He provides water and sunlight to make discipleship flourish in our churches. Unless God grows the plant, our efforts are pointless.
Even though God ultimately causes discipleship to thrive in our church, He has chosen to partner with us in this great, vine-growing venture. One of the ways that we can participate is to make sure that the soil has the right nutrients to support the growth of the vine. The first five disciple-making elements relate to your church’s culture – the heart of your church. The five church cultural factors are like nutrients in the soil. They provide what discipleship needs to thrive in your church.
Of course, growing a vine requires more than just the right soil. You also need to have appropriate structures like a trellis that support the vine’s growth. That’s where the remaining six discipleship elements come in.
The church is God’s primary way of making disciples, but only if we grow certain qualities and strengthen structures that will support optimal disciple-making. If you are longing to see your church make more and deeper disciples of Jesus, Maximum Discipleship in the Church is for you!
Navigating Church Politics
A Church Leader’s Guide for Managing Conflict and Power Struggles while Leading Organizational Change
By Randy Wollf
Are you tired of dealing with church politics? Do you sometimes feel like giving up on the church because of power struggles and conflict?
In Navigating Church Politics, veteran pastor and church leadership expert, Dr. Randy Wollf, explores one church’s productive, yet painful, direction-setting process. Through an in-depth look at this church’s journey and a study of relevant research, he will help you discover:
- How to recognize and address inappropriate uses of power without sinking the church
- How to help people focus on their God-given calling so that they don’t have the desire to torpedo others
- How to make the most of good uses of power to avoid danger and accomplish the church’s mission
- How to empower people to contribute their ideas to the decision-making process, so that good decisions are made that people own and want to implement together
- How to manage conflict so that it strengthens the church
Many church leaders have faced the unwelcome intrusion of church politics into their ministries. It can be very distracting and frustrating. Yet, Randy shows that church politics is a normal and necessary part of church life. Wherever you have a group of people, you will have good and bad exertions of power. Unfortunately, many Christian leaders check out of leadership, not realizing that the church politics that hurt them could have become one of their greatest allies for enacting positive change.
Why do many Christian leaders fall prey to the dark side of church politics? Leaders are often ill-equipped to use and help others use power in ways that are of maximum benefit to their ministries. Both paid and volunteer leaders in the church and in other ministries often find themselves wandering in a daze through minefields of competing interests.
Understanding and navigating power dynamics well is an essential part of leadership. This book provides both veteran and emerging church leaders with knowledge about power dynamics and direction for managing these influential forces while leading organizational change.