Discipled by Jesus is a powerful, yet practical manual for not only growing as a disciple but for making disciples. The principles in this book are drawn directly from Scripture and have been proven effective for over 40 years. This book is a must read for people who want to grow in their walk with Jesus, small group leaders who want to cultivate connection with the Master, and for pastors who want to grow their churches on the Biblical plan.
Want to make disciples, but not quite sure how? Learn from the Master. Making disciples is tough. To walk someone from no knowledge of Christ to a deep, transforming relationship… that’s a challenge. But it’s our job. In Discipling as Jesus Discipled, you will be equipped to follow Jesus’ masterful strategy of making fishers of men. Through an interactive study of Jesus’ prayer in John 17 and various “mission trips” in the Gospels, you’ll learn: Three words that capture how Jesus made disciples Seven disciplines of a successful disciple-maker How to make the Great Commission a way of life Strategies for making disciples who make disciples You have one life, but when you impart it to others for the sake of Christ—and in the way of Christ—your life will multiply for the glory of God. Ready to learn from the Master?
"A must-read for every leader." —Dan T. Cathy, Chairman and CEO at Chick-fil-A, Inc. Preston Poore has spent decades in corporate America. Despite all the excellent advice he was given for growing in leadership, there was something missing: a way to bring his Christian beliefs to bear in his professional life, not just his personal life. So Preston sought his own answer to how his faith could impact his management of hundreds of employees. What he discovered was this: the first step wasn't adjusting his leadership style. Instead, he needed to let God change him before he could effect real change in his workplace. And in order to model discipleship to his team, he needed to first be discipled by the Spirit. Here, in the day-to-day practice of being a disciple of Jesus Christ, Poore found where his faith and exceptional leadership intersect. Through personal stories, biblical principles, and hands-on workplace guidance, Poore offers readers a unique look at this seldom-discussed connection. He challenges struggling leaders to engage in the hard work of daily discipleship. And he charges experienced leaders to return to the fundamentals of their faith, encouraging them to disciple other Christians with leadership potential. For anyone wrestling with how to bring faith to the workplace, whether it be a cubicle or a boardroom, Discipled Leader reveals that leadership doesn't begin behind the desk--it begins in the soul.
If Jesus were a parent, would He use the same principles He used with His disciples? Exploring principles found in the Gospels. Hal Perkins helps parents put them into practice. He shows how to lead a child's heart into obedience through a constant context of parental grace and honest. With illustrations on how to establish God's truth - about Him, about right relationships, about abundant life-parents will discover how to empower their children to connect with Jesus and follow Him with passion.
Question: What is the God-given purpose of the local church? Answer: Relational discipleship. DiscipleShift walks you through five key "shifts" that churches must make to refocus on the fundamental biblical mission of discipleship. These intentional changes will attract the world and empower your church members to be salt and light in their communities. Over the last thirty years, many influential church leaders and church planters in America have adopted various models for reaching unchurched people. While many of these approaches have merit, something is still missing, something even more fundamental to the mission of the church: discipleship. Making disciples—helping people to trust and follow Jesus—is the church's God-given mandate. Devoted disciples attract people outside the church because of the change others see in their Christ-like lives. And discipleship empowers Christians to be more like Christ as they intentionally develop relationships with non-believers. Through biblical and professional insights, Jim Putman and Bobby Harrington discuss the transformational effectiveness of making disciples and just how to do so, in practical terms. You’ll learn: The specific roles of a disciple-making pastor. The components of person-to-person discipleship. How each ministry in your church leads to discipleship. How to implement discipleship in your church. Disciple-making leaders will not produce perfect churches, but they will create effective churches.
Whether the issue of the day on Twitter, Facebook, or cable news is our sexuality, political divides, or the perceived conflict between faith and science, today’s media pushes each one of us into a frustrating clash between two opposing sides. Polarizing, us-against-them discussions divide us and distract us from thinking clearly and communicating lovingly with others. Scott Sauls, like many of us, is weary of the bickering and is seeking a way of truth and beauty through the conflicts. Jesus Outside the Lines presents Jesus as this way. Scott shows us how the words and actions of Jesus reveal a response that does not perpetuate the destructive fray. Jesus offers us a way forward—away from harshness, caricatures, and stereotypes. In Jesus Outside the Lines, you will experience a fresh perspective of Jesus, who will not (and should not) fit into the sides.
Everyone is being discipled. The question is: what is discipling us? The majority of Christians today are being discipled by popular media, flashy events, and folk theology because churches have neglected their responsibility to make disciples. But the church is not a secondary platform in the mission of God; it is the primary platform God uses to grow people into the image of Jesus. Therefore, as church leaders, it is our primary responsibility to establish environments and relationships where people can be trained, grow, and be sent as disciples. There are three indispensable elements of discipleship: Learning to participate in the biblical story (the Bible) Growing in our confession of who God is and who we are (theology) Regularly participating in private and corporate intentional action (spiritual disciplines) Deep Discipleship equips churches to reclaim the responsibility of discipling people at any point on their journey.
Most women in the church don't aspire to "lord" it over men, nor do they want to scramble for position. Instead, they want to be accepted as full participants in God's work, sharing in kingdom tasks in ways that use their gifts appropriately. In Gender Roles and the People of God, author, radio host, and professor at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, Alice Mathews surveys the roles women have played in the Bible and throughout church history, demonstrating both the inspiring contributions of women and the many hurdles that have been placed in their path. Along the way, she investigates the difficult passages often used to preclude women from certain areas of service, pointing to better and more faithful understandings of those verses. Encouraging and hopeful, Mathews aims for an "egalitarian complementarity" in which men and women use all of their gifts in the church together, in partnership, for the glory of God.
The most comprehensive volume ever produced in defense of the Gospels and Acts The four Gospels and the book of Acts tell stories of Jesus’ life and the birth of Christianity. Are these stories true history or just religious fiction? Christians accept the stories as true and say that the entire Bible is a reliable communication inspired by God. Against this, non-Christians have argued that the Bible is a book of legends, myths, and historical inaccuracies—just another example of human religious endeavor. In this volume, four world-class New Testament scholars address challenges to the reliability of the Gospels and Acts. In order to identify the most important challenges, the authors drew from the literature of skeptics and New Testament critics, plus they included questions that many Christians ask as well. The result is the most comprehensive defense of the Gospels and Acts that has ever been published. The primary purpose of the Holman Apologetics Commentary on the Bible is to equip readers to defend the reliability of Scripture and the historic evangelical understanding of its teachings. It is designed for use by general readers, though scholars will find it a probing and welcome resource as well. A secondary purpose is to encourage awareness and discussion of Bible difficulties that are not commonly mentioned from the pulpit or even the seminary lectern. This is not a verse-by-verse commentary. The authors were provided an index that identified verses known to be relevant to the topics of apologetics and biblical reliability. They restricted their comments to these verses, plus any others that they recognized as germane to the aims of this project. Typically, each commentary note begins by stating the challenge or challenges regarding the text at hand. We attempt to state the case in all its potency, as a critic would state it. This approach takes seriously the critical viewpoint and helps ensure that the reader feels the full weight of the challenge. The contributors take each challenge seriously and seek to describe viable solutions that support faith and align with a high view of Scripture.
This fresh look at the Gospel of Matthew highlights the unique contribution that Matthew's rich and multilayered portrait of Jesus makes to understanding the connection between the Old and New Testaments. Patrick Schreiner argues that Matthew obeyed the Great Commission by acting as scribe to his teacher Jesus in order to share Jesus's life and work with the world, thereby making disciples of future generations. The First Gospel presents Jesus's life as the fulfillment of the Old Testament story of Israel and shows how Jesus brings new life in the New Testament.
