Making Disciples-One Conversation at a Time

Jesus trained a handful of ordinary people to follow Him as He established God's kingdom on earth. His primary training method was intimate, personal conversations on a friend-to-friend basis. As they walked along, in the daily routines of life, He taught them the practical principles of the Kingdom. He then commissioned them to go and make disciples of all nations by teaching others what they had learned.He still calls believers today to accept this great commission, but at times it seems that the work of discipleship is more about public proclamation than personal relationships and conversation. Churches today house hundreds of believers, but few true disciples. Making disciples is more than witnessing to nonbelievers. It is about building authentic relationships with our Christian friends and helping each other follow Jesus one discussion, one conversation, one heart-to-heart talk at a time. Making Disciples-One Conversation at a Time discusses the importance of having redemptive conversations and demonstrates how to turn our meaningless chatter into a means of grace, helping our friends become all God intends them to be and enriching their lives and ours in the process. Author Michael Henderson explains how practicing the disciplines of attentive listening, appropriate questioning, Scripture application, and praying with our friends will allow us to not only fulfill Christ's request to make disciples, but also follow His commandment to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and your neighbor as yourself.Making Disciples-One Conversation at a Time challenges us to examine how we use our words and presents ways to bring Christ into the conversations of our everyday lives to give those around us a better understanding of God and His love for them.

D. Michael Henderson is the executive director of Heart of Africa, a mission resource agency that provides breakthrough projects for African ministries. He has been a college/seminary professor and a teaching pastor for 40 years. His special interest is personal discipleship and ministry training, for which he writes materials and conducts seminars. He has graduate degrees from Asbury Theological Seminary, Yale University, and Indiana University. Michael and his wife, Martha, live in Florida but spend a large part of each year in Africa training church leaders.