Multiply

What Multiply is

Multiply is a disciple-making guide and curriculum by Francis Chan, written with Mark Beuving and published by David C. Cook in 2012. It is organized into four parts: living as a disciple-maker, the heart of God, understanding the Bible (an overview of how Scripture fits together), and how to study Scripture (a practical method). Each part is broken into short chapters meant to be read and then discussed, and the book is explicitly designed to be worked through by two people together rather than read alone.

The defining feature is the pairing of the workbook with a free set of companion teaching videos. Chan and his team recorded sessions that line up with the book's chapters and released them online at no cost, so a more experienced believer and a newer one can watch a video, read the corresponding pages, and talk through the questions. It is broadly evangelical in its framing and its approach to Scripture, and it positions disciple-making as the normal calling of every Christian — not a specialized task reserved for pastors or missionaries.

Why disciple-makers reach for Multiply

Most resources on discipleship are written to be read — you finish the book, you feel inspired, and then nothing in your week actually changes. Multiply is built differently. It is a curriculum, not a monologue, and its entire design assumes two people sitting across a table from each other. The reader is not expected to absorb information alone; they are expected to use the book as a track for a relationship, with the free videos carrying the teaching the reader might not feel equipped to deliver themselves.

That lowers the bar to entry dramatically. The biggest reason ordinary Christians never disciple anyone is not unwillingness — it is the quiet conviction that they are not qualified, not knowledgeable enough, not a good enough teacher. Multiply answers that objection structurally. You do not have to be the expert; Chan's videos do that part, and your job is to show up, do the chapters alongside someone, and have the conversation. For a church or a believer who wants a simple, reproducible way to obey the call to make disciples, that is exactly the on-ramp the resource is built to be.

Designed for two: a curriculum you do together, not a book you read alone

The structural heart of Multiply is that it is meant to be worked through by a pair — an older believer and a newer one — rather than consumed solo. Each short chapter is written to be read between meetings and then discussed when the two come together, with questions built in to push the conversation past information and into application. The book is not arranged as a lecture you receive; it is arranged as a path you walk with someone, which is how the New Testament actually pictures disciples being made.

This sounds like a small thing. In practice it is the whole point. A book read alone tends to inform without transforming — you underline a few lines and move on. A curriculum done with another person creates accountability, conversation, and a relationship that outlasts the material. By forcing the format into a pairing, Multiply turns disciple-making from a concept the reader admires into a habit the reader practices, and it gives the more experienced partner a structure so they are never staring at a blank table wondering what to do next.

The free companion videos: the teaching load taken off the reader

Alongside the workbook, Chan and his team produced a full series of companion teaching videos and released them online for free, each session keyed to a part of the book. The intended rhythm is simple: the pair watches a video together, reads the corresponding chapter on their own, and then meets to discuss what they read and saw. The videos do the heavy lifting of explanation, so the more experienced partner does not have to be a polished teacher — they only have to be a present and willing one.

That is a deliberate and unusually generous design choice. The most common reason a willing Christian never disciples anyone is the fear of not knowing enough to teach. By putting the instruction into free videos, Multiply removes that excuse — the cost of entry becomes a roughly fifteen-dollar book and a willingness to show up, not a degree or a gift for public speaking. It is also what makes the resource reproducible: the person being discipled can, in turn, pick up the same book and the same free videos and start the cycle again with someone else.

Four parts: from your calling to the storyline of Scripture to how to study it

The content moves through four parts in a deliberate order. Part one establishes the reader's identity and calling as a disciple-maker, confronting the assumption that making disciples is someone else's job. Part two turns to the heart of God — His character and His desire for the world — to ground the work in who God is rather than in technique. Part three is an overview of how the Bible fits together as a single story, and part four is a practical walk through how to actually study a passage of Scripture for oneself.

The progression matters: Multiply does not want to leave the reader merely motivated, so it tries to put real tools in their hands by the end. The Bible overview and the study method in parts three and four are introductory — a flyover and a starter kit rather than a deep dive — and from a broadly evangelical approach to reading Scripture. But the aim is sound: send the pair out not just inspired to make disciples but with a basic, repeatable way to open the Bible together and keep going long after the workbook is finished.

Pricing

Where Multiply falls behind

Depth. Multiply is introductory by design, and it shows. It is built to get a first-time disciple-maker started, not to satisfy someone who has been doing this for years, and an experienced reader will move through it quickly and want more. That is the right call for the audience Chan is writing to. It does mean the book is an on-ramp, not a destination.

An evangelical lens. The book's framing — especially its approach to studying Scripture in parts three and four — comes from a broadly evangelical tradition. A reader from a Catholic, Orthodox, or Latter-day Saint background can still use the disciple-making structure and the relational format, but will want to bring their own tradition's framing to the Bible-study portions rather than take them as given.

Dependence on the videos and a partner. Read alone, with no companion watching the sessions and no one to discuss them with, Multiply loses a great deal of what makes it work. It is a curriculum for a relationship, and stripped of the relationship it becomes a fairly basic book. That is a feature when used as intended and a limitation when it is not.

The harder middle miles. Multiply is strongest at getting started and lighter on what comes after — the accountability, the relapses, the awkward conversations, and the long obedience of following someone over years. It points the pair down the road well; it spends less time on the hard stretches further along it.

Multiply vs. The Master Plan of Evangelism vs. Discipleship Essentials

These three are a natural disciple-making shortlist, and they do different jobs. Multiply (Francis Chan, 2012) is the accessible modern curriculum — a four-part workbook with free videos, built for an ordinary believer to walk another through with no special training. The Master Plan of Evangelism (Robert Coleman, 1963) is the foundational classic — a short, much-loved study of how Jesus made disciples by investing deeply in a few, more a set of principles than a step-by-step program. Discipleship Essentials (Greg Ogden) is the structured workbook — a guided, fill-in-as-you-go study designed for one-on-one or small-group use over a longer arc.

Different strengths. Multiply is the easiest to start cold and the most multimedia, thanks to its free videos and low bar to entry. Coleman is the most timeless and the most concentrated — the book you read to understand the why before you pick a how. Ogden's Discipleship Essentials is the most thorough as a workbook, with more material and a more defined curriculum to work through. If you have never discipled anyone and want the gentlest on-ramp, start with Multiply. If you want the principles behind the practice, read Coleman. If you want a fuller, longer guided study, look at Ogden.

All three are written from within Protestant, broadly evangelical traditions, and all three are used widely across churches in that family. Readers from other traditions can adapt the relational core of any of them, but should expect the Bible-study and theological framing to reflect where the authors are writing from.

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