Jeff Noble

Growing Up is the first in what will be a series of books aimed at being used as a resource in discipleship groups - Gallaty's church calls them D-Groups.

As I was reading the book, I couldn’t help feel like I was actually reading a compilation of many different, time-tested and well-known discipleship resources, quotes and tools. From Jerry Fine’s One on One with God to Avery Willis’ MasterLife to Navigators materials to Fighter Verses, Gallaty creates a one-stop guide.

One reality is for Growing Up is that it may have helpfully compiled discipleship processes from across the past 30 years and congealed them into this series of books.

Using the acrostic CLOSER, he helpfully instructs those who wish to be disciple makers in ways to help their disciples grow in their faith in God and practice of spiritual disciplines. Putting my quick synopsis in parentheses out beside each letter, CLOSER stands for:

• Communicate (Prayer)
• Learn (Study the Bible)
• Obey (Do What It Says)
• Store (Memorize and Meditate on Scripture)
• Evangelize (Share Your Faith with Others)
• Renew (Daily Quiet Time)

While GU has some great quotes to amplify the above, the person looking for new material or models should look elsewhere. The book doesn’t chart any new territory. It does offer some helpful and simple ways to teach things such as basic hermeneutics. Even so, it reads like it’s condensing and borrowing from other sources, such as Grasping God’s Word by Duvall and Hays.

See more on this on my blog: http://www.journeyguy.com/review-growing-up/