Book review: “Multiply” by Francis Chan

MultiplyChanFrancis Chan, author of the influential books Crazy Love and Erasing Hell, has written Multiply: Disciples Making Disciples for the purpose of multiplying disciples in the church.
The book has some excellent material; however, I was disappointed in the book, because it was not what I expected. I downloaded the book and read it on my Kindle, deceived by the title into thinking it was about how to make disciples. While the introduction and first three chapters (about 40 pages) discuss how to use the book for discipleship, that’s about it. The rest of the book is an overview of the teachings of the Bible.
Don’t misunderstand me. The overview of the Bible is excellent. It’s well-written, and has good support material with questions for discussion and videos available to watch online. If you are a mature Christian, you will find very little new information here, but it is a good, solid summary of what the Bible teaches. If a person goes through this material with a new believer, that person will be very well-founded in a biblical worldview.
The bottom line: if you are looking for material for an in-depth teaching of the basics of Christianity for a small group or one-on-one, this is a great book. But if you are looking for a book on how to organize your church for the purpose of multiplying disciples, you will probably find more help elsewhere, such as Real-Life Discipleship by Jim Putman.

About Bob Rogers

Hospital chaplain in Mississippi. Adjunct history professor (online). Formerly a pastor for 33 years in Mississippi and Georgia. Avid cyclist.

Posted on June 4, 2013, in Books, Christian Living and tagged , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink. 2 Comments.

  1. Thanks for the review! I have been interested in reading this; now I know what I will be getting into if and when I do read it!

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