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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...
An Invitation to Deeper, More Joyful, and Rewarding Relationships with God and Others None of us is lovable all of the time. People are unreasonable, arguments flare, feelings are hurt. And no one can make us feel worse than those closest to us. It's easy to fall into the trap of closing ourselves off in order to protect ourselves, rather than opening ourselves up for relationship with each other. But think of who Jesus invited into his life and ministry. They weren't always lovable. Yet he modeled perfect love for us and showed how the mark of a spiritually mature believer was always love. In The Power of Together, pastor and author Jim Putman uncovers the core of true discipleship with an in-depth, biblical look at how Jesus always invited people into relationship with himself. He loved them with God's perfect love and, in the process, showed everyone around him that the act of following God is the act of extending and receiving love that endures all things.
"Pastors and church leaders desperately want to make disciples, but they often find themselves veering off the road of discipleship—or even heading toward a cliff. The many challenges of ministry cause churches to stray from effectively making disciples. Stay the Course keeps leaders on the path, so they can help people follow Jesus until the end. Church consultant and lead pastor Brandon Guindon uses seven essential practices—or “guardrails”—to guide you along the road of disciple making in your local context. These core practices come from his experience in various church contexts—from church plants to churches in transition—and guard you from danger on your journey. Embrace these seven practices as Stay the Course challenges and inspires you. This resource helps you apply them to your personal life and implement them in your church, resulting in churches that faithfully make disciples and disciples who stay on track." -- Book cover.
The statistics are sobering: between 80 and 90 percent of kids who have grown up in the church are leaving the church after age eighteen. Children slipping away into a culture that tells them the Bible isn't true, sin is no big deal, God isn't real, or there are many ways to get into heaven. Whether parents may blame themselves or the culture, the result is the same: lost souls. But our God specializes in lost souls and the gospel is as powerful as it ever was. With wisdom that comes from personal experience, Jim Putman and his father, Bill Putman, offer brokenhearted parents and loved ones hope for their prodigals. A prodigal son himself, Jim has also found himself in the role of the prodigal's father when his own son rejected the faith. This family's powerful story of restoration, along with solid biblical truths and practical advice, will inspire, motivate, and equip readers to go after their lost sheep with acts of love and service.
Today in America, half of the people won’t or don’t read that much. Begin creatively transforming the lives of this generation by using first-century methods of teaching—storytelling, drama, and dialog. The “TruthSticks” strategy is a revolutionary approach using the DNA of the first century disciplemaking that will Use Bible Storying to effectively make disciples at all levels Unite families by using fun methods to disciple children Revitalize small groups Develop a disciplemaking church A creative tool to use in leadership, evangelism, or missionary work.
Can you identify the key qualities of a committed, passionate, and healthy disciple of Jesus? Chuck Lawless, a respected professor, pastor, and church consultant, discovered that many pastors haven’t thought deeply about that question. He wrote this book to provide answers and transform churches for the better. Many church leaders know their communities well and who they are aiming to make disciples of Christ. But too often they haven’t thoroughly articulated their goals and painted a vision for what a disciple looks like within their specific communities. In this book, Dr. Chuck Lawless provides a model for church leaders to build committed disciples of Christ. In Disciple, Chuck Lawles...
For far too long, the church has tried to make disciples using a one-size-fits-all approach. Some churches advocate 1-on-1 discipling, others try getting everyone into a small group, while still others training through mission trips or service projects. Yet others focus all their efforts on attracting people to a large group gathering to hear biblical teaching and preaching. But does one size really fit everyone? Based on careful biblical study and years of experience making disciples in the local church, Bobby Harrington and Alex Absalom have identified five key relationships where discipleship happens in our lives. In each relational context we need to understand how discipleship occurs an...
Scripture places high priority on the disciplemaking capacity of the church, This book shows how to accomplish it. Foreword by Howard Ball.
The rebirth of the illegitimate son of one of the most powerful men in American politics.
"Go and Make Disciples" will become more than a church slogan as the power of Jesus's command transforms our lives. Jesus Christ intentionally discipled twelve people every day for three and a half years and then commanded us to go and make disciples as well. And he empowered us by sending us the indwelling Holy Spirit to guide us. The early church thrived and expanded by imitating the intentional relational methods Jesus modeled, yet somewhere along the way we lost sight of the simple truth that Jesus' methods of disciple making are as holy as his message. Today, churches and their leaders relentlessly pursue innovation of the next new idea that will somehow capture the attention of the spi...