EMQ » April–June 2019 » Volume 55 Issue 3
By Ajith Fernando
Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2019
288 pages
USD $19.99
Reviewed by John K., who lives and serves in ministry in Central Asia with his wife and two children.
In Discipling in a Multicultural World, Ajith Fernando quotes Australian pastor Richard Brohier to describe one of the primary challenges facing the church today, “Our culture of individualism sees [discipleship] as a program rather than a lifestyle of sacrifice and inconvenience.” To address this discipling “crisis” Fernando draws on over 40 years of ministry experience focused on making disciples and leading the organization Youth for Christ in Sri Lanka. He suggests that the best solution to this problem is to view discipling as spiritual parenting.
Fernando brings the spiritual parenting analogy to life by presenting scripture passages that portray discipling as a kind of parenting. He refers to the “born again” language of the book of John, the apostle Paul calling Timothy his son, and Peter calling Mark his son. Fernando focuses on spiritual parenting throughout the first half of the book.
Just as multiplication is the result of parenting from one generation to the next, Fernando argues that when disciplers act as spiritual parents of their disciplees, we can expect to see the multiplication of believers. In this way, even in an individualistic society, discipleship ceases to be a program run by churches and becomes a lifestyle that requires communal commitment and sacrifice—just like literal parenting.
Building upon this discipling as parenting metaphor, Fernando describes what discipling has looked like for him in his context in Sri Lanka, and what it could look like for anyone brave who undertakes this difficult but necessary work in a multicultural world. The applications Fernando suggests come out of his more communal context but are aimed at helping those in individualistic Western cultures and the ever increasingly individualistic cultures of the rest of the world.
The book is more practical than theoretical, walking the reader through immediately implementable ways to interact with disciplees as a spiritual parent. Fernando address everything from how to keep disciplees as connected to their earthly families as possible to instilling a passion for disciple making in one’s disciplee, as well as the various and specific ways a discipler should pray for their disciplees. While addressing all these topics, Fernando maintains a vigorous commitment to scripture and emphasizes that spiritual parenting should occur within the context of the body of Christ.
Seemingly written for a general western audience, Fernando’s experience and examples come from vocational ministry in a communal culture. So, it seems as though the book might be more useful in the hands of a cross-cultural Christian worker in the Middle East than in the hands of a typical American churchgoer. However, it is a valuable resource for anyone who is serious about engaging seriously in the glorious calling of making disciples.
For Further Reading:
Laniak, S. Timothy. Shepherds after My Own Heart: Pastoral Traditions and Leadership in the Bible. Downers Grove, IL, InterVarsity Press, 2006.
Smith, L. Edward. Augustine as Mentor: A Model for Preparing Spiritual Leaders. Nashville, B&H Academic, 2008.
