How to Make Disciples

Doug Burrier

How to Make Disciples follows Doug’s journey from struggling to make a few disciples to having fourteen generations of self-sustaining, self-replicating disciples of God. Packed with real stories, insights, and illustrations, How to Make Disciples provides a simple, proven, step-by-step process for making disciples. You will discover:

  • the secret sauce that resulted in Doug’s five-generations-deep disciple-making culture,
  • a simple and succinct definition of discipleship that clears up “what” we should really be doing,
  • how to give disciples what they need, when they need it, as they travel along the very Predictable Discipleship Pathway,
  • the five foundational elements found in every successful discipleship model, and
  • Doug’s seven core practices as he helps people become prepared, confident, and skilled followers of God.

Whether you are a pastor, small-group leader, or a layperson, How to Make Disciples is the answer you have been looking for.

This book's Disciple Making Purpose

We use this book as the last book in Year Two to “seed the field” with a passion and simple method for disciples to begin to make disciples. By this point, their passion for transformation and the awareness of those around them about the change in their life set them up to be ready to make disciples. How to Make Disciples shows them what has been going on for the last two years, why it works, and most importantly reaffirms the call and passion for disciple making. Our team regularly sees disciples all around the world become wanting, willing, and able to make disciples in a gap year before Year Three. Leaving this book off the reading list results in a decline of folks asking, “Can I go make?”

Key Topics or Truths

Making Disciples
Bible Reading Methods
Building Great Groups
Biblical Modes of Discipleship

This Book is Good For...

Anyone who wants to improve their disciple making and is looking for a step-by-step model that is succeeding across denominations and cultures.

How We Use this Book to Make Disciples

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How to Make Disciples is the magnum opus of the Sustainable Discipleship Model. Since many of the disciples in your Discipleship Two group will be taking a gap year to make Discipleship One disciples, you should use this book to show them what to do and how to do it. Let them see behind the curtain. We always stress that new disciple-makers should get to know the system and work the system before adapting it. The first round of disciple making should be very much like a residency where disciples embrace and execute a successful model.

We ask disciples not to read the “Finish Discipleship Well with Discipleship Three” chapter (Chapter 17) so that we do not derail the Year Three process by revealing it to them before they have walked through it. If disciples know the mechanics, the process, and the goal of Discipleship Three before beginning it, they often get derailed by trying to meet certain goals instead of just enjoying and walking through the process.

We read the book over four weeks reviewing each week’s reading in the following meeting. As always, we ask disciples to highlight aha moments and ideas. We also create thought vacuums asking many questions to make sure that the disciples understand the process and why it works. Here is our reading plan with a few starter questions (you might need to generate more),

Week 1 – What is Disciple Making: Chapters 1–7
Focus: Understanding the biblical mandate, defining a disciple, and the purpose behind making disciples.

Starter Questions:

  • How does the author define a disciple, and how is it different from a believer?
  • What misconceptions about disciple-making are addressed in these chapters?
  • What is the secret sauce?
  • What did you think about the Biblical models presented?

Week 2 – The SD Model Part 1: Chapters 8–10
Focus: The steps and principles for guiding someone from new faith toward maturity.

Sample Questions:

  • Which stage of disciple-making did you find most challenging?
  • Do you get the four year plan?
  • How do these chapters describe the role of relationship in disciple-making?

Week 3 – The SD Model Part 2: Chapters 11–14
Focus: Practical methods, resources, and habits that make disciple-making effective.

Sample Questions:

  • What practical tools or methods from these chapters could you implement immediately?
  • How does the author balance structure with flexibility in disciple-making?
  • What are the steps on the Predictable Discipleship Pathway?
  • What is your role?
  • Do you think you could customize the process? How have you seen it customized in this group?

Week 4 – The How to Framework for Making: Chapters 15–16, 18 (skip Chapter 17)
Focus: The practical how tos of Years One and Two and a call to action.

Sample Questions:

  • How does the author describe the heart and mindset of a disciple-maker?
  • Do you see how simple the plan is that we have been using for two years?
  • Are you interested in making disciples?
  • Who would you make?
  • Do you think you could run a group?

We are cautious not to push disciples into disciple making as this book (nor the entire process) is about “making disciple makers.” We use this tool to give them the tools to go make. We allow God to call them. Pray for them. Tell them it’s possible. Pitch the opportunity and move on. Pitch it all four weeks!

Real Life Story

Senior Pastor, Daren Patrick, says, “Sustainable Discipleship has transformed the people of our church in ways that 800 sermons could not. My prayer is that 100 years from now the Sustainable Discipleship method will be accepted and followed by so many that it will be considered as a “Christian classic”. Doug Burrier is a great person and a gifted writer. The Sustainable Discipleship book is my absolute favorite on this subject.”

Know Issues or Controversies

A few church leaders have pushed back on some of the Companion Books that the Sustainable Discipleship Model uses to teach critical thinking and to challenge disciples to evaluate their faith in light of the Bible. We simply remind people that the model is a model – it works – but it can be fit to any culture and adapted as necessary. If leaders are uncomfortable with a book that we use, we remind them to replace it with a book that achieves the same objective so that the model will continue working. Each book has a very specific purpose.

A few church leaders have pushed back on the definition of discipleship which says, “…and release them (the disciples) to live their best day ever on earth.” These leaders have a feeling that focusing disciple-making on the individual’s success and abundant living could draw disciples into a self-centered or prosperity gospel. We respond with the truth that Christ is supreme, that we are to join Him in His mission to save mankind, and deliver to them “the abundant life” that He died to give them. Well-made disciples will be selfless while enjoying God’s hope, promises, and abundance.

We love this book because it has resulted in a 90% success rate for making prepared, confident, and skilled disciples. It actually tells you how to do it.

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Doug Burrier
Book Details
Pathway Steps: 9, 10
  • Phase: Year 2
  • Book Type: Non-Fiction
  • Flair: Instructive
  • Tags: Discipleship, Leadership
Reading Time
Four Weeks
Start Reading After Week 44
10 Pages per Day
14 Minutes per Day
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