‘Cultivating a Life for God’ by Neil Cole: Reviewed by Chad Harrington

Neil Cole’s primary message in Cultivating a Life for God is that we can most effectively make growing disciples by holding weekly, gender-specific group meetings with two to three members who multiply through confession, reading 25–30 chapters of Scripture a week, and praying for the lost specifically by name.

My Three Biggest Takeaways From Cultivating a Life for God

1. The LTG model works.

While I don’t agree with everything Neil Cole has written, I think his Life Transformation Groups (LTGs) are golden.

My first exposure to them was on the mission field when I was 20 years old living on Cyprus. My team of five college students went to the Turkish side of the island to witness to those there, and we used a combination of this method—along with “Bible discussion groups,” which is another story. The LTG method helped me disciple a recent Jordanian who had converted from Islam and an Iranian believer.

Then, when I returned from Cyprus, I used LTGs to disciple college-age students, and it worked incredibly well. Our young adult group at Harpeth Christian Church used the LTGs to multiply groups, and it was great for bringing us closer together, getting us in the Word, and seeking the lost together.

Cultivating a Life for God was written for the North American church to multiply disciples. As the back cover of the 2014 version states, “This is the book God used to help launch a global disciple-making movement.” That’s saying something!

2. This model appropriately challenges disciples like no other book I’ve used.

Neil Cole’s approach, as Bob Logan writes in the foreword, is focused, balanced, flexible, and reproducible. It’s focused on making and multiplying disciples; it’s balanced between action, evangelism, prayer, Word, and personal growth; it’s flexible to adapt to any context; and it’s easy to reproduce because it’s so simple.

The three-fold structure of these groups produces incredible fruit:

a. Scripture
b. Confession
c. Prayer

a. Reading 25–30 chapters of Scripture every week.

Every LTG group reads tons of Scripture. People try to negotiate the number of chapters down, but Cole says in the book, “No, it’s got to be this way to work.” Now there’s flexibility to adapt within bounds, but the volume of Scripture is effective.

The crazy, communal part of this is radical: If someone doesn’t complete their reading, the whole group has to read the same chapters again for the next week. It’s a sink or swim kind of group, but that’s good—it cultivates passion and decision.

In Cyprus, my guys failed to read the 28 chapters of the book of Acts four weeks in a row. So I got to read Acts every week for a month. It was awesome! Life-changing. In fact, it was the first time my eyes were opened to how we need to join God where he’s already at work—namely through the people of God who already have boots on the ground. This led to my eventual dogged emphasis on the vital importance of ecclesiology before missiology. It created an unforgettable experience for me as a missionary, and God used it radically to change the way I think of mission and the book of Acts.

b. Confessing your sins to each other weekly.

Nothing says discipleship to me like confession. It’s so rare! Yet confession is a vital element of the LTG model. It’s hard to maintain an addiction when you’re confessing it every week.

I see people squirm and squeeze their way out of direct confession in Christian circles. “I messed up,” or, “I made a mistake,” or, “I slipped up.” But this model encourages confession of sin. Saying “I sinned” helps us know it was more than a mistake. This bring-to-the-light culture of a group offers the opportunity to be real with each other like few other discipleship models out there.

Cole calls confession “exhaling” and Scripture reading “inhaling.” I love that!

Then, what really makes the groups grow outward and expand is the third vital element.

c. Praying for the lost by name.

I love this because it builds into the culture of the group both prayer and seeking the lost. Growth is built into the DNA of the group, each and every week. You write down the names of two or three people, then as you gain courage and inspiration and direction from God, you invite them to discover God with you through Bible study.

Then you’ve got a way to disciple them!

Grassroots disciple-making multiplication can happen in North America through methods like this, and I’m convinced it’s got to include these three vital elements (at least).

3. Transformation is crucial for both spiritual growth and evangelism.

The two aspects of discipleship are walking as a disciple and making disciples of others. But what of the connection? Cole writes,

The miracle we need most right now is one that the Lord has freely given us already. It is the power of a changed life. The world is poised and ready to see the relevance and power of our message if only we would let them see it firsthand. (12)

He does a great job emphasizing in Cultivating a Life for God, which is about transformation, the vital importance of actual change in the life of a disciple.

How do we grow? We encounter God and then take obedient action. Neil Cole’s LTGs offer an incredible and simple model for doing both of those.

How to use Cultivating a Life for God with your group?

This book would be best used with a group of just two or three people to start. Go through the book together and start implementing the LTG model of disciple-making.

As your group gains traction and interest from others around you, use the book—if you need to—as an introduction to the method. Otherwise, you can skip the book and just have them join your group! Most people can naturally learn the content of the book by experiencing it in action. Cultivating a Life for God is primarily for leadership training in Cole’s specific method and deepening one’s understanding of the call to make disciples.

Vital Information about Cultivating a Life for God for Groups

• Chapter Count? 13 chapters
• Weeks of Study? 4–14 weeks
• Recommended size of group? 3–12 people
• Age of target audience? Adult
• Gender specific? No
• Reader difficulty? 5 out of 10
• Appropriate for New Believers? No
• What level of maturity does Cultivating a Life for God assume? This is a book for leaders who want to learn about a method for making disciples that Neil Cole calls “Life Transformation Groups” (LTGs). The maturity level assumed is mainly just leaders, but it’s optimal for leaders who want to serve God. The book helps motivate them, give perspective, and provide tools.
• Discussion questions in the book? No, but it does have the questions necessary for using the tool he teaches you to use.
• Homework required? No
• Video series available? No

Theology of Cultivating a Life for God

• Theological red flags? No
• Denominationally specific content? No
• Author’s preferred Bible translation? Not listed.
• Publisher? CMA Resources, 2014

What can Cultivating a Life for God accomplish for your group?

• Introduces you to the methodology of “Life Transformation Groups”
• Encourages and supports people to follow Christ by fueling internal motivation
• Provides a simple way to release the most essential elements of a vital spiritual walk
• Calls upon you to rethink your busy, fast-paced life
• Gives you tools for making disciples who make disciples

Recommended Purchase Links for Cultivating a Life for God

Keep this tool free by using our affiliate link!

Buy on Amazon here.

My Favorite Quotes from Cultivating a Life for God

Read below my favorite quotes from the book:

• “The miracle we need most right now is one that the Lord has freely given us already. It is the power of a changed life. The world is poised and ready to see the relevance and power of our message if only we would let them see it firsthand” (12).
• “The real question we need to answer is ‘How can I release a spontaneous multiplication of growing disciples in my community?’ The answer lies in planting seed in the soil” (24).
• “Unless we are given into the hands of Christ we are nothing more than a humble sack lunch, but in His hands we can see multiplication fill the hearts of the multitude” (25).

“Strong disciples make a strong church, growing disciples make a growing church” (28).

• “The first principle for leaving a lasting legacy of multiplication is that it all begins with being a strong disciple yourself” (28).
• “Not all Christians are meant to be leaders, but all are meant to be reproducing disciple-makers!” (33).
• “The best context for a life-changing community is in a group of two or three. Three, in fact, is the ideal number for a group to experience real growth through community” (50).
• “The power of the LTG system lies in the unleashing of God’s word into the lives of people” (66).
• “Each member of the LTG is to identify the two or three people who are the highest evangelistic priorities that God has laid on their hearts” (69).
• “When pastors speak about the Greek or Hebrew meaning of the text, they separate their flock a little further from God’s word. After all, how can common Christians understand the Scriptures themselves if they don’t know the original languages? The languages are best kept in the pastor’s study or the classroom and not in the pulpit” (76).

Subscribe to HIM Publications here to get long-form discipleship content delivered to your inbox each week.