Edmund Chan is probably Singapore’s foremost expositor and thinker on discipleship and missional leadership. This latest offering from Chan brings clarity and critical focus on the right perspectives and approaches to establishing biblically-sound Spirit-led, Jesus-pleasing, disciple-making processes in our churches and for sound leadership development.
Building on an insightful dictum by C S Lewis: ‘ We may think God wants actions of a certain kind, but God wants people of a certain kind’, Chan argues that the ‘who’ and ‘why’ of discipleship must precede the ‘what’ and ‘how’. His basic thesis is that the mandate of being disciples (that we are called to be disciples rooted in Jesus and obedience to his every word) is fundamental and prior to the mission of making disciples of all peoples.
Excellently organised into chapters that build up to a composite and rich picture of what intentional disciple-making churches ought to look like in practice, Chan helpfully clarifies terms, unpacks critical ingredients and provides a clear pathway for biblically-informed strategies and battle-tested essentials.
We would do well to get this book into the hands (and mind and heart) of every pastor and leader we know.
Book Details
Author: Edmund Chan.
Publisher and Year: Singapore, Covenant Evangelical Free Church, 2018
Number of pages: 246pp
Reviewer: Revd Manik Corea is the Global Executive of NAMS, a missionary order of disciple-makers and church-planters. A Singaporean, he and his family have been based in Thailand for the last 11 years.