"The Gospel Disciple" (David Putman)

TITLE: The Gospel Disciple
AUTHOR: David Putman
PUBLISHER: Exponential Resources, 2012.

[Free ebook available here.]

This ebook seeks to answer three fundamental questions.

1. What is the Gospel?
2. What is a Disciple?
3. What is the Church?

Beginning with a frantic phone call from a Church leader in Haiti, to help disciple the workers there, Putman starts to wonder about the rediscovery of the gospel mission not just in his own Church, but the American Church context. The big problem he identifies is this. Belief is one thing. Be willing to follow and put that into action is another. Thus, the order in answering the three questions become very significant.

A) The Gospel

This announcement of good news need to be RE-discovered. The gospel is not something earned but given. It is redeemed in Christ. We are saved by grace. It also renews us. We grow when the truth of the gospel transforms us. When the gospel is written into the hearts of people, we will be excited to tell our story, our testimony, and our lives of these three things: How we are redeemed in Christ; how the Spirit continues to restore us; and how we ourselves can be agents of restoration for others. Being a gospel disciple is about sharing this journey with others.

B) The Disciple

Our mission as gospel disciples is to make disciples. That is also the mission of the Church. It is not a program. It is a way of life to become the disciple that you want others to become. In other words, live by example. Live like Christ. Live for Christ. This calls for a constantly renewed focus to learn, to live, to loge, and to lift up the Name of Christ. Just like the saying: "Hurt people hurt people. Loved people love people." We need to let our mission for God flow out of God's love for us.

C) The Church

The third question is about living together as a community of Christ. The body of Christ is the Church, and not the institutional structures that many of us have come to refer the Church as. It calls for prayer for one another in the faith. It calls for caring for the least of the people. It calls for planting the gospel, just like Christ. For Putman, to be a "Gospel Disciple" means building the Church around the disciples, instead of building disciples around the Church. Let the Church be the strengthener of the relationships. Build a gospel community and link up with other gospel communities. Here are some of the suggestions in "rediscovering Church."

• "Re-discovering church is less about gathering and more about scattering."
• "Re-discovering church involves shifting power from the center to the edges."
• "Re-discovering church involves hitting the reset button."

In other words, let the Church be one that is more concerned about reaching out, about touching outside, instead of worried about inner church life and about internal concerns. Let the Church empower others who are serving people at the edges. Let the Church constantly be renewed, and not try to keep things status quo.

The instructions are short and sharp, and will be useful for Church leaders, planters, and laypersons to read and apply straightaway. The pointers can also be good conversational starters.

conrade

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This book is provided to me free by Exponential.org resources without any obligation for a positive review. All opinions offered above are mine unless otherwise stated or implied.

"Discover Your Mission Now"

TITLE: Discover Your Mission Now
AUTHOR: Dave Ferguson
PUBLISHER: Exponential Resources, 2012.

[Free ebook available here.]

Each of us has a mission. Every Church is called to a mission. The trouble is, have we forgotten it? Are we totally clueless about what mission we have? When in doubt, check back with Jesus. This is the prescription that Ferguson has for us.

First, we discover what is the mission of Jesus. Second, we look at five ways (missional practices) in which Jesus accomplishes this mission. As followers of Christ, we are to do no less. Using the story of Jesus with the Samaritan woman at the well as a launching pad, Ferguson highlights the 3Rs of discovering the mission of Jesus.

A) The Mission of Jesus

First, there is the REACH aspect where Jesus sets off purposefully to reach out to those who are far away from God. Just like the way Jesus reaches out to the woman, so too we are to reach out to our neighbours and friends.

Second, there is RESTORE. Jesus restores the woman's life, and urges her to sin no more. God's love is so deep and wide that He cares for the down and out, the outcasts, and the most marginalized people on earth. We are to be channels of God's grace.

Third, there is the REPRODUCE element. Note how excited the woman was when she goes to share of her encounter with the rest of the folks in the town. One good deed deserves another. One great act of kindness leads to another.

All these three elements are applicable to both Church as well as the individual.

B) Discovering Our Mission (BLESS)

Five steps are given.

1. B = Begin with Prayer
2. L = Listen
3. E = Eat
4. S = Serve
5. S = Story

All significant spiritual work must begin with prayer. Prayer is the window of relationship for man to meet with God, and for God to empower man to serve better. If we fail to pray, we are set for failure for we are then going forth in our own strength rather than God's.

Before we can bless the world, we need to be able to discern the needs of the world. Listening is a key activity. Prayer prepares the person to listen better.

Eating is essentially about opportunities to build relationships with people over a meal. In our busy world, while many people claim to lack time, opportunities are there for meal times.

Serving people from where we are is also an opportunity to bless our neighbourhood.

Finally, share the story of God and our testimony.

Ferguson ends the book with a challenge. Are we going to be people who "Read and Regret" or are we going to be people who "Read and Repeat?" Hopefully, in discovering our mission through BLESS, we learn to do the latter more and more.

The steps to discover our mission is very simple and practical.  Go and make disciples of all nations, and BLESS them.

conrade

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This book is provided to me free by Exponential.org resources without any obligation for a positive review. All opinions offered above are mine unless otherwise stated or implied.

Book: "2:46: Aftershocks: Stories from the Japan Earthquake"

TITLE: 2:46: Aftershocks: Stories from the Japan Earthquake
AUTHOR: The Quakebook Community (various writers)
PUBLISHER: Quakebook.org, 2011.

This book is released as an electronic book for the purpose of spreading the message as wide as possible, through a medium as cheaply as possible. It contains short quips, observations and testimonies of the many Japanese victims affected by the reason tsunami. The infamous tsunami hit Japanese shores at 2:46pm on March 11, 2011. Caused by an undersea earthquake on the East of Japan, it devastated homes, buildings, properties, and swept away livestock and people. One thing led to another, and even the world at large are shocked at the widespread disaster, that wiped out basic infrastructures of one of the most earthquake prepared nations in the world.

The book began with a tweet that became a large fundraising initiative. It is helmed by a person that goes under the name "Our man in Abiko." The project is comprised of short messages of about 250 words to a page long story of witnesses, and observers who managed to live through it all. The primary beneficiary is the Japanese Red Cross.

You have various options to download and read the book:

1) Through Sony EPUB download here. (Free but you are encouraged to donate here)

2) Through Amazon kindle here. (Costs $9.99 but 100% goes directly to American Red Cross Japan Fund)

It is a worthy read, and a worthy cause. Note the words of Our Man in Akiko.

"Those of us who live in Japan are in a state of war. But not a war against a nation, or even nature. We are fighting defeat, worry and hopelessness. The question is: Are we strong enough to overcome?"

This book is full of stories. Some are hopeful. Others are shocking. The photographs themselves often tell of a story that words cannot describe.

booksaint