Published Works
Small Matters
(Greg Nettle & Jimmy Mellado)
Children have always been close to the heart of God and as followers of Jesus it is our responsibility to protect, nurture, and pass our faith to children. In Small Matters: Why Children are Such a Big Deal, we offer a model of discipleship that encourages us all to raise up the next generation to be deeply committed to and in love with Jesus.
When we awaken to the fact that children between the ages of four and fourteen are the most likely to make a decision to follow Jesus, and that the discipleship that children receive forms their future, it will transform the way we view children, invest in them, reach out to them, teach them and ultimately, empower them to be disciples of Jesus.
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Over the past several years as RiverTree forged ahead to make the transition from being a purely attractional model church (discipleship takes primarily in the weekend gatherings) to a missional church that is attractive (discipleship takes place primarily in relationships as followers of Jesus are on mission together), our leaders kept asking for something to read that would help them on the journey. “One Of” is our response to that need.
Our prayer is that “One Of” will help you wherever you are on the journey to becoming an individual or a church who is serious about Jesus’ command to make disciples.
One Of is a practical guide to transition your church into a movement of disciples who make disciples. It tells the compelling story of RiverTree (a church of more than 3,000 people), as they moved from a purely attractional model of church to become a missional church that is attractive.
One Of offers practical steps for every new or established church to begin the journey to missional life and church. In One Of you will discover:
- Simple discipleship tools to help followers of Jesus become disciples who make disciples.
- Thought provoking stories that will help you assess if you are genuinely For people, With people and One Of people.
- Steps to take to help you on the journey to becoming One Of.
- Principles of generosity, service and being ‘good enough’ that will impact your neighbors and the communities in which you live and work.
- How to connect with networks of people that will enable you to share Jesus in a way that is non-threatening and life transforming.
Disciples Who Make Disciples walks through how the Lord has led us to more intentionally develop the discipling culture at RiverTree Church. It is all about the critical shift from merely reaching people to making disciples who in turn are equipped to go and make more disciples.
Co-written with my former colleague Alex Absalom, we cover a variety of topics, including:
- Defining discipleship in a biblical, memorable yet challenging way
- Moving from educating to modeling, particularly through balancing Relationships, Experiences and Information
- Keeping the Bible at the center of discipleship by showing people how to understand Scripture in the details of their own lives, rather than relying on others to do it for them
- Developing clear language and practices that help communicate the shift from programs to discipleship
- Identifying core practices of discipleship that people can uniquely and specifically respond to in their daily lives
- Implementing and developing leadership Huddles as part of the wider realignment from an activity-based to a relationship-based paradigm
- Allowing this dynamic discipleship model to move the church’s key metric from accumulating people to deploying disciples
We’ve already had some very kind feedback from a wide variety of churches and leaders, which is so encouraging! Our hope and prayer is that this simple eBook will help everyone from planters to Missional Community leaders to mega-church leaders.
