Biblical guidelines for growing to Christian maturity. It explains the pattern of God's work in the lives of his people and concludes with a brief spiritual check-up. Relevant to all stages of spiritual development, it provides a guide book that will be specially helpful to new Christians.
Imagine what our world might look like if Christians became known for remarkable love, as well as life-giving truth. The stakes are high and the need is great for Christians to represent Jesus to a watching world. And today, we have more influence than ever before--for better and for worse. We are among the first generations to have access to a global megaphone through social media. But it's not enough to speak truth louder to a noisy culture. To counter the reputation Christians have earned, our love must be just as loud. Ask evangelist Matt Brown, and he will tell you Christians today are facing a crisis of influence. In our rush to speak truth to today's tensions, cultural issues, and trending controversies, it becomes all too easy to focus on proving our points rather than extending God's grace. Conversely, when we seek only to love yet never proclaim a better way, we short-circuit God's plan. Truth Plus Love invites you to rediscover the biblical framework for engaging culture as ambassadors of Christ. Through biblical insight, cultural analysis, and practical principles, Matt Brown outlines how to champion truth without compromise, how to love unconditionally, and ultimately, how to step into this great adventure of representing God to the world. It's hard, it's messy, and it's the unfinished project of a lifetime, yet here we find our great adventure: representing God to a watching world.
The 1950s saw a change of direction for numbers within evangelicalism in England. It was a return to a more doctrinal Christianity, prompted in part by a rediscovery of the Reformers and Puritans and by the contemporary witness of such men as D.M. Lloyd-Jones and J.I. Packer. Amid this change, a little magazine, first published in Oxford in 1955, worked as a catalyst and became by 1958 as publishing house reaching some forty nations. Blemishes and weaknesses the magazine certainly had, but the call for God-centred Christianity, and for a gospel certain that all is of grace, was widely received.
Biblically and practically instructs church members in ways they can labor for the health of their church. What Is a Healthy Church Member? takes its cue from Mark Dever's book What Is a Healthy Church?, which offered one definition of what a healthy church looks like biblically and historically. In this new work, pastor Thabiti Anyabwile attempts to answer the natural next question: "What does a healthy church member look like in the light of Scripture?" God intends for us to play an active and vital part in the body of Christ, the local church. He wants us to experience the local church as a home more profoundly wonderful and meaningful than any other place on earth. He intends for his churches to be healthy places and for the members of those churches to be healthy as well. This book explains how membership in the local church can produce spiritual growth in its members and how each member can contribute to the growth and health of the whole.
"Sheep swapping", "shuffling of the saints"- Whatever you call it, many churches are growing only because Christians transfer from one church to another. What's more, many churches aren't growing at all. The problem, according to authors, Dann Spader and Gary Mayes, is that too many church calendars are filled with outdated, mediocre programs that have become more of a burden than a blessing. That, coupled with the fact that these programs minister almost exclusively to Christians, leaves little for the non-Christian "seeker" to get excited about. Growing a Healthy Church is not a list of trendy new programs for your church agenda. It is a journey of rediscovery. Spader and Mayes look closely at the four stages of spiritual growth in relation to outreach. Using the innovative "M-level" system, these gifted men show how a church can minister to all individuals regardless of their levels of maturity in potential service. This helps eliminate the mistakes of forcing new Christians into service that may overwhelm them or may leave the mature Christian unchallenged. Proven successful through SonLife and churches who have used this system, this resource will help you focus on the simplicity of Christ's ministry, enabling you to build an effective discipling strategy for your church.
The Christian life is built on three seemingly unremarkable practices: reading the Bible, prayer, and fellowship with other believers. However, according to David Mathis, such “habits of grace” are the God-designed channels through which his glorious grace flows—making them life-giving practices for all Christians. Whether it’s hearing God’s voice (the Word), having his ear (prayer), or participating in his body (fellowship), such spiritual rhythms of the Christian life have the power to awaken our souls to God’s glory and stir our hearts for lifelong service in his name. What’s more, these seemingly simple practices grant us access to a host of spiritual blessings that we can only begin to imagine this side of eternity—and the incredible joy that such blessings bring to God’s children today.
What are the most important lessons the New Testament has to teach us about being a Christian? Sinclair Ferguson shows that a deep-seated concern of the writers of the New Testament was to see Christians grow to spiritual maturity‚"‚€‚"and if that was the concern of the first believers, then it should be our concern too. In clear and logical chapters that are rooted in the reality of the Christian life, the author, who has had long experience in pastoral ministry and seminary teaching, seeks to show what Christian maturity is, and how it is to be obtained. It was the apostle Paul's desire to present those to whom he ministered 'mature in Christ'‚"‚€‚"for such a maturity would lead to stable, servant-hearted Christians, and healthy, fruit-bearing churches. All those who desire to live useful, mature, and consistent Christian lives will gain much wisdom from reading and reflecting upon the contents of this book.