Evangelism or Discipleship

Description

In this eBook we will explore “What is the relationship of evangelism to discipleship?” Or the more provocative inquiry, “What comes first, evangelism or discipleship—can you have one without the other?”

The title of this eBook sets up a competition of sorts between evangelism and discipleship. In this eBook we will explore the idea, that these two are competitors or at odds with each other. But is it possible that discipleship and evangelism are not in competition? People speak of them in the same sentences and name academic courses after them.

Bill Hull has spent his adult life as a discipleship evangelist. His twenty years as a local church pastor and more than twenty books on the subject testify to his commitment. Bill believes that the church faces a very practical problem, we keep trying to reach the world without first making disciples. We are preaching a gospel that separates conversion from discipleship. When this happens, we make disciples who don’t believe in discipleship. The solution is found in rebuilding a gospel that embraces discipleship. Because the gospel we believe in determines the kind of disciples we make. This problem and its solution are addressed in Bill’s newest work, Conversion & Discipleship: You Can’t Have One Without the Other. The book’s thesis is that “All who are called to salvation are called to discipleship, no exceptions, no excuses.” As Bill often says, “Some believe you can have conversion without discipleship, I believe the proof of conversion is discipleship.”

Bill is co-founder and leader of the Bonhoeffer Project. Its purpose is to create disciple making leaders. For a list of Bill’s other writings go to Billhull.net.

Bobby Harrington is the executive director of Discipleship.org. He is the founding and lead pastor of Harpeth Christian Church (by the Harpeth River, just outside of Nashville, TN). He is an experienced church planter, coach of church leaders (through many years of ministry with Stadia and Church Coaching Solutions), and he is the author of several books on discipleship, including DiscipleShift that he co-wrote with Jim Putman and Robert E. Coleman, Dedicated: Training Your Children to Trust and Follow Jesus and Discipleship That Fits: The Five Kinds of Relationships God Uses to Help Us Grow, co-written with Alex Absalom.

Bobby has studied at such places as the University of Calgary, Harding School of Theology, Regent College (in Canada), Asbury Seminary, and Princeton University. He has a Doctor of Ministry degree from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Consulting (under Thom Rainer). He and his lovely wife Cindy have two grown children who trust and follow Jesus.