Welcome to all

Hey! I’m glad you found me in this lil corner of the web. This is where I try to “think out loud” about faith, community, and mission.  Our Western world is full of spiritually curious folks but institutionally skeptical. I try to find ways through short posts, books, videos and on-site hospitality events to make walls into on-ramps and barriers into pathways…because nothing is for nothing. 

New Release!

Small-Batch Disciplemaking

A metaphor for discipleship is as the fuel in a car AND knowing where you want to drive. A vehicle (ie a curriculum or spiritual practice) is helpful but simply not the goal. We upgrade vehicles all the time but it doesn’t help us get further along or become better drivers, as it were. If you want to go, great. But if you don’t know where to go, you’re not a great driver. Maybe we can reframe it this way:

Mission is the context for disciple-making and disciple-making is the fuel for mission. 

Small Batch Disciple-making is a “field guide” to give earnest Christians the means to connect with the heart of God, leverage faith for the benefit of others, and maybe most significantly - describe and animate the difference Christ is making with those closest to them.

David Sunde

I collaborate with an ecosystem of faith-based, community organizations, pastors, and spiritual leaders as a Spiritual Director, Thought Partner, and Missional Catalyst. I’d love to explore ways I could be a resource in your context.

I’ve been involved in professional non-profit and spiritual leadership for over 20 years. I’m a native son of San Francisco, the son of an immigrant, and learned to make a lower level of assumption about culture, class, race, and religion against this backdrop of diversity. Along the way, I’ve sought to keep learning - bachelor’s in public administration from San Diego State University and a master’s degree from Azusa Pacific University. I’m currently working on a Doctorate in Semiotics, Culture & the Church through George Fox University. 

David and his wife, Laurel, have two kids, Bjorn and Annika and live in Austin, TX.

Weekly Newsletter

I regularly like to “think out loud” to encourage, nudge, and inspire the faith of others in 300 words or less. You can visit the blog portion of this website but if you’d like it delivered in style to the top of your pile and are interested in the ideas I share here please subscribe.

Endorsements

“This book reminds us that there is a way, the way of Jesus…and it is not easy but it is good. It does not exist in the clean lines of information but in the messy places between people…Small Batch Disciplemaking…is personal, tailored, and developmental. Rhythms of planting, cultivating, waiting, and reaping remind us of the time factor with which I am so hopelessly impatient. So turn the page with expectation. I did and was not disappointed.

- Nancy Ortberg, CEO, Transforming the Bay with Christ

About Small-Batch Disciplemaking

“Dave Sunde has written a beautifully eloquent but practically thick primer on how to apprentice ordinary Christians to become change agents in the world…Get this resource in your hands and in your heart, it has the ability to create ripple effects that can change everything!”

Dan White Jr., Founder Kineo Center, V3 Coach, Author Love Over Fear, Co-author, Church as Movement

About Small-Batch Disciplemaking

“I've known David Sunde for over 25 years, and I'm thrilled he has finally taken the time to share his insights and experiences with the world! This field guide will be a resource you look to again and again as you journey with Jesus and help others do the same."

Kurt Johnston, Pastor of NextGen Ministries, Saddleback Church, Lake Forest CA

About Small-Batch Disciplemaking

“Small Batch Disciplemaking is a fresh and much-needed contribution to the practice of discipleship…I’ve known David for many years. Discipleship is his passion, and this book is his legacy. After 50+ years of leading churches, my assessment is that life-changing discipleship is the church’s greatest weakness. We need this book!”

Sam Williams, Pastor, Catalyst, Author To Transform a City: Whole Church, Whole Gospel, Whole City

What can we do with what we have already experienced, learned, and overcome?

The disciplemaking process was never supposed to happen en masse. Disciplemaking in small batches is the most effective way to live into our calling. We must learn how to train the few to reach the many.