Best Christian Books on Discipleship: 12 Classics, Free to Read
If you want one book on what it means to be a disciple of Jesus, read G. Campbell Morgan's Discipleship. It's short, about two hours, and it follows a disciple through ordinary life: becoming one, the first lessons, and then the disciple at home, at business, at play, as a friend, at work for the Master, in sorrow, in joy, and going home. If you'd rather start with something warmer and slower, read S. D. Gordon's Quiet Talks on Following the Christ.
A disciple is a learner. That's what the word means, and the old writers never let it drift into a program or a class. Jesus is the Teacher, and a disciple is someone who has come to Him, sits under His teaching and does what He says. They agreed on the shape of it. It starts with surrender: you can't follow someone while you keep your own road. It goes on in obedience, one day's light at a time. It is fed by the Bible and prayer. It touches your home, your money and your work. And it always turns outward, because a disciple of Jesus ends up serving people the way He did.
If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.
Luke 9:23
Here are twelve of the best books on discipleship in TheWay Library, ordered so a new believer can start simply and grow.
Start here
1. Discipleship, by G. Campbell Morgan
Morgan opens with what the word means, a taught or trained one, and then with what the Teacher gives and what He asks. The middle chapters are the reason to read it. What does following Jesus look like at the kitchen table, at the office, on a day off?
The disciple of Jesus, recognizing his calling in life as of God, cannot possibly treat it carelessly or with any measure of indifference.
Discipleship, The Disciple at Business
The scan has some stray page numbers, but it reads easily. See G. Campbell Morgan's books. Read Discipleship.
2. Quiet Talks on Following the Christ, by S. D. Gordon
Gordon pictures following Jesus as a road. Jesus is the lone Man who walked it first. The main road is the way of power, entered by full surrender; the valleys are the experiences of suffering; and at the end is the glory of seeing Him face to face.
There will need to be the initial act of full surrender to the Lord Jesus as Lord indeed, for most of us have been going another way than this.
Quiet Talks on Following the Christ, The Main Road
See S. D. Gordon's books. Read Quiet Talks on Following the Christ.
3. The School of Obedience, by Andrew Murray
A small book on the one thing every disciple has to learn. Murray traces obedience through Scripture and in Christ Himself, then gets practical with a chapter on the morning watch and ends with obedience to the Great Commission.
God did not reveal all His will to Christ at once, but day by day, according to the circumstances of the hour.
The School of Obedience, The Obedience of Christ
That sentence frees a lot of anxious believers. You don't need the whole map, only today's step. See Andrew Murray's books. Read The School of Obedience.
Learning from the first disciples
4. Peter: Fisherman, Disciple, Apostle, by F. B. Meyer
The best book in the library on how Jesus trains a disciple, because it watches Him do it with one man. Meyer follows Peter from Andrew bringing him to Jesus, through the great catch of fish, the walk on the water, the confession, the denial, the message "and Peter," the restoration by the lake, and on into Acts.
The Apostle does not bid us pray for the abundance of grace, but calls on us to take it.
Peter: Fisherman, Disciple, Apostle, chapter 10
If you have failed Christ badly, read chapters 12 to 16. See F. B. Meyer's books. Read Peter.
5. The Footsteps of St. Peter, by John R. Macduff
A fuller, more devotional walk through the same life, scene by scene. Macduff is especially good on the dark interval after the denial and the restoration on the shore.
The Apostle who walked on the stormy lake, had now, by the grace of God in his soul, lost all the fitful instability of earlier life.
The Footsteps of St. Peter, Peter and Cornelius
Read The Footsteps of St. Peter.
6. Blessed Are Ye: Talks on the Beatitudes, by F. B. Meyer
The Sermon on the Mount is Jesus' teaching for His disciples, and the Beatitudes are its door. Meyer pictures them as eight gates into the city of blessedness, from poverty of spirit to persecution, and he won't let you read them as soft sayings.
The Lord Jesus never contemplated that His children should go quietly through the world exerting only a negative influence.
Blessed Are Ye, Martyrs and Prophets
The daily habits of a disciple
7. How to Study the Bible for Greatest Profit, by R. A. Torrey
Torrey's short, practical method: how to study one book of the Bible, how to trace a topic, how to study a chapter, and the conditions that make study fruitful. He insists on a daily habit.
What regularity in eating is to physical life, regularity in Bible study is to spiritual life.
How to Study the Bible for Greatest Profit, Final Suggestions
See R. A. Torrey's books. Read How to Study the Bible.
8. The Christian Life and How to Live It, by W. H. Griffith Thomas
Ten short chapters that cover the basics: what Christianity is, the response of surrender, prayer and the Bible as the two meeting places with God, and the link between joy and praise. A good book to hand a new believer.
In prayer the soul speaks to God; in the Bible God speaks to the soul and this is another of the meeting places with God.
The Christian Life and How to Live It, Walking with God
Read The Christian Life and How to Live It.
9. The Young Convert's Problems and Their Solution, by A. C. Dixon
Dixon answers the questions new Christians actually ask: about power for service, assurance, temptation, money and more. Plain and encouraging.
I think I have eternal life, not because I feel so and so, but because God says so.
The Young Convert's Problems, The Bible
Read The Young Convert's Problems.
Following Jesus in ordinary life
10. Life in Earnest, by James Hamilton
Six short lectures on diligence, fervor and devotion, first given to young men in London. Hamilton calls idleness a sin and love to Christ the motive for honest work.
Deeper than the love of home, deeper than the love of kindred, deeper than the love of rest and recreation, deeper than the love of life, is the love of Jesus.
Life in Earnest, An Eye to the Lord Jesus
See who James Hamilton was. Read Life in Earnest.
11. The True Estimate of Life and How to Live, by G. Campbell Morgan
Sermons on the choices that make or break a disciple: Paul's estimate of life, Naaman's "but," the clay in the potter's hand, and Lot pitching his tent toward Sodom. Morgan keeps asking what small thing is standing between you and God.
What is the little thing that is keeping heaven and God out of your heart, and all these blessings away from your soul?
The True Estimate of Life, chapter 2
Read The True Estimate of Life.
Disciples who serve
12. Quiet Talks on Service and Working for God! by S. D. Gordon and Andrew Murray
Two books on the outward turn every disciple makes. Gordon's Quiet Talks on Service begins with the hidden life that only the Master sees and ends with Gideon's band, sifted down to the few God could use.
God reckons our service not by our ability but by our willingness.
Quiet Talks on Service, Gideon's Band
Murray's Working for God! ties all work to waiting on God and to His life in us.
WE have been saved, not of works, but for good works.
Working for God!, chapter 9
Where to go next
The greatest book ever written about following Christ is still Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress; see our Pilgrim's Progress summary. James Stalker's Imago Christi, on the example of Jesus, is in our guide to the person of Christ. For the growth of a disciple in holiness, see Christian books on sanctification and holiness. For prayer and sharing your faith, see the best books on prayer and on evangelism.
More by these authors: G. Campbell Morgan, S. D. Gordon, Andrew Murray and F. B. Meyer.