Robby Gallaty

Robby Gallaty is the Senior Pastor of Long Hollow Baptist Church in Hendersonville, TN. He wasn't always a pastor though. For three years, he battled a drug addiction that ravaged his life. A $180 a day heroine and cocaine addiction forced him to steal $15,000 from his parents. After living without gas, electricity, and water for months, losing 8 of his friends to drug related deaths, watching 6 friends arrested, and completing two rehab treatments, Robby remembered the gospel that was shared with him by a friend in college and was radically saved on November 12, 2002. Eight months later, David Platt, a seminary student and church member at the time, asked Robby to meet weekly for accountability, prayer, and bible study. For the next 2 years, David installed a passion for missions, expository preaching, and disciple-making in his life. He also encouraged Robby to go back to school to pursue theological education. Robby completed his Masters of Divinity Degree in Expository Preaching in 2007 and his Ph.D. in Preaching in 2011 from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. His dissertation was on "A Critical Examination of the Use of the Biblical Invitation." In 2008, he began Replicate Ministries to equip and train men and women to be disciples who make disciples. Replicate Ministries offers the Discipleship Blueprint twice a year for leaders to spend three days at Brainerd learning incarnational principles for developing and implementing a disciple-making strategy in their churches. In addition to exposing attendees to a mock-discipleship group, leaders are given a metric for measuring success in their individual groups. The M.A.R.C.S. of a Healthy D-Group are used to gauge effectiveness: Missional, Accountable, Reproducible, Communal, and Scriptural. Replicate Ministries contains a wealth of disciple-making resources for anyone desiring to grow in their faith. In addition to the multiple articles that are posted weekly, Robby produces mini training videos called Making Disciples in a Minute, Infographics explaining the entire process, and comprehensive training videos, which will comprise the Discipleship University (Spring 2016). In 2015, Replicate released the F-260 Bible reading plan (A Bible Reading Plan for Busy Believers). The F-260 is a two hundred and sixty day reading plan that highlights the foundational passages of Scripture that every disciple should know. After failed attempts of reading through the Bible in a year with previous discipleship groups, Robby wanted a manageable plan that believers who never read through the Bible before could complete. Believers are expected to read 1 or 2 chapters a day for 5 days each week, with an allowance for weekends off. The 2 off-days a week are built in so a person may catch up on days where you're unable to read or spend time journaling. Shortly after becoming the pastor of Brainerd Baptist Church in Chattanooga, TN, he implemented what is now called the Disciplemaking Pathway. This three-fold strategy moves believers through a process for spiritual maturity: the congregation (large gathering), the community (life groups/Sunday school), and core (gender exclusive discipleship groups--D-Groups-- of 3 to 5). He is constantly encouraging his people to take the next step on their spiritual journey. D-Groups have grown from 15 in 2008 to 1100 at the beginning of 2015 (This is in addition to small group attendance). Robby launched the Growing Up challenge in 2013 in conjunction with the release of his book. Believers from most of the United States and 18 countries worldwide participated in the Challenge. Robby is the author of Creating An Atmosphere to Hear God Speak (2009), Unashamed: Taking a Radical Stand for Christ (2010), Growing Up: How to Be a Disciple Who Makes Disciples (2013), Firmly Planted: How to Cultivate a Faith Rooted in Christ (2015), Rediscovering Discipleship: Making Jesus' Final Words Our First Work (2015), and Foundations: A 260 Day Reading Plan for Busy Believers. Robby's wife Kandi is as passionate about discipleship as he is. They are currently raising two disciple-makers named Rig and Ryder.