Download or read book The Pathway To Discipleship written by Johnny Hunt and published by Thomas Nelson. This book was released on 2012-10-29 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Begin and end each day focused on the presence of God. Whether starting out the day or winding down for the night, staying connected to the presence and work of God is the most important thing a believer can do. The Pathway to Discipleship is a perfect resource for men and women alike for daily devotions and prayer. It is the third book in the bestselling devotional prayer book series. After an introduction by Johnny Hunt (former Southern Baptist Convention president), each of the 51 contributing pastors and evangelists share a week’s worth of devotions and prayers, all centering around discipleship and the way an active and vibrant Christian is to live. Each week includes a prayer journal page with writing/prayer prompts. The handsome leatherflex design is beautiful for any desk or nightstand, keeping the precious time spent with the Savior as close as one’s fingertips.

Download or read book No Silver Bullets written by Daniel Im and published by B&H Publishing Group. This book was released on 2017-09-01 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What if I told you that you were only one step away from unlocking new levels of maturity and growth in your church? The myth of the silver bullet still exists because we desperately want it to. We all prefer quick fixes and bandage solutions to the long, hard, slow work that produces real change. So the moment we learn about a new ministry or strategy and see its effect in another church, we run to implement it in our own. Unfortunately, this impulse is usually met by opposition, skepticism, and ultimately, rejection. What if the solution isn't a new model or a complicated strategy, but a shift in perspective? What if you could keep your church's current vision, values, and model, and simply make a few micro-shifts...leading to macro-changes? This book explores five micro-shifts that have the potential to produce macro-changes in your church. As you read, you will discover how to integrate these micro-shifts into the life of your church, starting with the way you disciple. You will finish by developing a plan to structure, communicate, and evaluate these changes to ensure that they take root and pave the way for lasting change and kingdom impact.

Download or read book Gospel Discipleship Congregation Guide written by Michelle J. Morris and published by Abingdon Press. This book was released on 2020-03-31 with total page 135 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Each congregation has a unique mission field. Several tools for developing disciples and for engaging in discipleship are available to churches; however, the resources assume that the churches using them are similar to the church that created them. With Gospel Discipleship, individuals and churches learn how to engage in self-reflection, which then defines a path that fits their context. The discipleship path for each individual disciple is assessed and determined through the Gospel Discipleship Participant Guide while this Gospel Discipleship Congregation Guide guides the implemntation of the program and assesses the discipleship path for the congregation as a whole. Therefore, the program leader(s) needs the congregation guide while individual particpants need their own participant guide. With Gospel Discipleship, churches can identify a pathway for discipleship applied from one of the four Gospel storytellers: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Each had a distinct approach to discipleship which can be applied to a given church's identity, vision, and mission. As disciples are encouraged by the church to step beyond the door and engage the needs of people, they can be sent forth confidently with an awareness of personal, unique gifts, and insights into the actual mission field where they participate with God in changing the world.

Download or read book Next Step Discipleship written by David Daniels and published by . This book was released on 2016-10-06 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The destination of the spiritual life isn't merely heaven. God invites His people to join Him in His global, redemptive plan. Understanding a simple Spiritual Pathway, the Christian will discover timeless principles to help move their life to greater missional living. "Next Step Discipleship" is a vital spiritual growth resource to help Christians live, teach and model biblical principles for their own spiritual growth and so that healthy churches are established everywhere. If you want to get your spiritual life moving in the right direction, this book is for you.

Download or read book A Disciple s Path Companion Reader written by James A. Harnish and published by Abingdon Press. This book was released on 2012 with total page 82 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Disciple's Path is an engaging approach to discipleship from a distinctly Wesleyan perspective. Whether used as an introduction for new members or a renewal course for existing members, the program guides individuals to take the next step in discipleship and become dynamic, engaged followers of Jesus Christ. The study combines a Wesleyan understanding of our growth in God's love and grace with the time-tested practices of spiritual discipline expressed in the membership vows to uphold the church with our prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness. Participants will develop spiritual p.

Download or read book The Unstuck Church written by Tony Morgan and published by Thomas Nelson. This book was released on 2017-05-16 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Acclaimed church leader, blogger, founder and chief strategic officer of The Unstuck Group, Tony Morgan unpacks the lifecycle of a typical church, identifies characteristics of each phase, and provides practical next steps a church can take to move towards sustained health. Think about your church for a moment. Is it growing? Is it diminishing? Is it somewhere in between? Acclaimed church leader, blogger, and founder and chief strategic officer of The Unstuck Group, Tony Morgan has identified the seven stages of a church's lifecycle that range from the hopeful and optimistic days of launch, to the stagnating last stages of life support. Regardless of the stage in which you find your church, it carries with it the world's greatest mission—to "go and make disciples of all the nations . . ." With eternity at stake the Church should be doing most everything within its power to see lives changed forever. The Church should strive for the pinnacle of the lifecycle, where they are continually making new disciples and experiencing what Morgan refers to as "sustained health." In The Unstuck Church, Morgan unpacks each phase of the church lifecycle, and offers specific and strategic next steps the church leader can take to find it's way to sustained health . . . and finally become unstuck. The Unstuck Church is a call for honest an assessment of where your church sits on the lifecycle, and a challenge to move beyond it.

Download or read book Deep Discipleship written by J.T. English and published by B&H Publishing Group. This book was released on 2020-09-29 with total page 153 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book Pathway to Discipleship written by Charles Adebayo Abanishe and published by Independently Published. This book was released on 2015-02-18 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Pathway to Discipleship seeks to provide an answer to the growing concerns of believers generally, and the author in particular, about increasing number of new converts "taking their lives back" immediately after "giving their lives" to Jesus Christ. With the benefit of hindsight, it is concluded that there should be an articulate, easy-to-read material that will help new converts along the new path they have chosen. This will help propel them to a steady growth to maturity in Jesus Christ with little external supervision, which in any case, may not be readily available. Armed with this book, a new convert can check out how well he or she is progressing, whether or not he or she is making any progress at all, and, with the help of the Holy Spirit, determine what to do next to avoid falling away out of discouragement. Knowing who gave you life and committing to Him early enough and, on the other hand, knowing the person who will vehemently contend with you in an attempt to win you back will help you to decide which way to go. This all important knowledge is brought to you in Chapters 1-4. The essential steps along the pathway to discipleship follow immediately after and flow to the end of the book.

Download or read book The Promise of Discipleship written by Neal A. Maxwell and published by Shadow Mountain. This book was released on 2001 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Resilient written by Valerie Bell and published by Awana Clubs International. This book was released on 2019-12-10 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As new research continues to show, the cultural gap between secularism and the convictional Church continues to widen. KidMin and youth leaders are asking, "Are we adequately discipling today's kids to lead the future of the church in a culture that's becoming increasingly hostile to the gospel?" For many, the answer is "no," and a new conversation around making Resilient disciples is emerging. Resilient is an honest calling to ask robust questions about the future; it is a timely conversation in the midst of changing cultural landscapes; and it's a love letter to KidMin leaders and disciple makers to walk this road of child discipleship together. Resilient Child Discipleship focuses on three key areas, essential for shaping long-term faith: Belonging - Highly relational ministry led by a loving and caring adult Believing - Deeply Scriptural ministry rooted in the truth of God's Word and the power of the gospel Becoming - Truly experiential ministry, designed to move kids from simulation to real-world application of faith-based living Resilient equips you with an innovative, biblical and proven child discipleship philosophy to build your ministry around - plus practical questions to equip you and your team! Inspires and facilitates the crucial conversation of our time that will shape the future of the church Loaded with content to help your pastor cast vision and elevate the importance of children's ministry Helps cut through the clutter of the many responsibilities of KidMin to get to the most essential and effective aspects of children's ministry that most influence long-term discipleship into adulthood Child discipleship is the leading factor when shaping the future of your church The culture is changing so rapidly and radically that the future is likely to look far different than the world we know today. The children's ministry community has new conversations to explore as we prepare today's kids to lead the fearless future of the church.

Download or read book Sacred Pathways written by Gary Thomas and published by Zondervan. This book was released on 2020-09-08 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sacred Pathways reveals nine distinct spiritual temperaments--and their strengths, weaknesses, and tendencies--to help you improve your spiritual life and deepen your personal walk with God. It's time to strip away the frustration of a one-size-fits-all spirituality and discover a path of worship that frees you to be you. Experienced spiritual directors, pastors, and church leaders recognize that all of us engage with God differently, and it's about time we do too. In this updated and expanded edition of Sacred Pathways, Gary Thomas details nine spiritual temperaments and--like the Enneagram and other tools do with personality--encourages you to investigate the ways you most naturally express yourself in your relationship with God. He encourages you to dig into the traits, strengths, and pitfalls in your devotional approach so you can eliminate the barriers that keep you locked into rigid methods of worship and praise. Plus, as you begin to identify and understand your own temperament, you'll soon learn about the temperaments that aren't necessarily "you" but that may help you understand the spiritual tendencies of friends, family, and others around you. Whatever temperament or blend of temperaments best describes you, rest assured it's not by accident. It's by the design of a Creator who knew what he was doing when he made you according to his own unique intentions. If your spiritual walk is not what you'd like it to be, you can change that, starting here. Sacred Pathways will show you the route you were made to travel, marked by growth and filled with the riches of a close walk with God. A Sacred Pathways video Bible study is also available for group or individual use, sold separately.

Download or read book Gaining By Losing written by J.D. Greear and published by Zondervan. This book was released on 2015-07-28 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: People are leaving the church J.D. Greear pastors. Big givers. Key volunteers. Some of his best leaders and friends. And that’s exactly how he wants it to be. When Jesus gave his disciples the Great Commission, he revealed that the key for reaching the world with the gospel is found in sending, not gathering. Though many churches focus time and energy on attracting people and counting numbers, the real mission of the church isn’t how many people you can gather. It’s about training up disciples and then sending them out. The true measure of success for a church should be its sending capacity, not its seating capacity. But there is a cost to this. To see ministry multiply, we must release the seeds God has placed in our hands. And to do that, we must ask ourselves whether we are concerned more with building our kingdom or God’s. In Gaining By Losing, J.D. Greear unpacks ten plumb lines that you can use to reorient your church’s priorities around God’s mission to reach a lost world. The good news is that you don’t need to choose between gathering or sending. Effective churches can, and must, do both.

Download or read book The Selfless Way of Christ written by Henri Nouwen and published by Orbis Books. This book was released on 2011-10-24 with total page 65 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "When I first came across Nouwen's phase 'downward mobility, ' it struck me as radical, counterintuitive, and profoundly true. His reminder of Jesus' message goes against nearly everything in modern life, but ignoring it has led to most of the urgent problems we now face: global warming, poverty, and a deep sense of alienation. Perhaps it is not too late to change, and Henri Nouwen has shown the way." Philip Yancy In this short work, Henri Nouwen offers a penetrating reflection on the challenge of the spiritual life, especially the call to imitate Christ's example of "downward mobility." Illustrated with drawings by Vincent van Gogh, The Selfless Way of Christ is an inspiring guide for ministers and everyone walking the path of discipleship.

Download or read book The LEGO Principle written by Joey Bonifacio and published by Charisma Media. This book was released on 2012-09-04 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Using the example of LEGO®, a company that has been transforming the way people play for more than fifty years, Joey Bonifacio shows you how to make a difference—one connection at a time.

Download or read book DiscipleShift written by Jim Putman and published by Zondervan. This book was released on 2013-04-23 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book Stride written by Ken Willard and published by Abingdon Press. This book was released on 2017-10-17 with total page 142 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Churches of all types around the country are struggling. The more programs they try the more evident it becomes that there is no quick fix or secret formula to help them out of their rut. John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Movement, once said, “The way to keep a Methodist alive is to keep him moving.” It is time to recapture this simple yet profound truth and get back to the basics of making fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ. The authors developed and launched a highly successful pathway to discipleship in their church (Morning Star UMC, in St.Louis). Here, they show others how to create a successful discipleship pathway for their own particular contexts, based on the principles developed at Morning Star. Willard and Scheiner share the process of developing a discipleship pathway that meets individual people where they are. They provide examples of each element and practical instruction on how to plan, implement and sustain the discipleship pathway. The authors are teaching this material in conferences around the UM connection, from New Mexico to Missouri. They also share examples of how the pathway works in other churches. For small group study participants working through Stride, the Stride Participant Book (ISBN 9781501876257), a workbook designed to facilitate individual work on creating a discipleship pathway, is available to purchase separately.

Download or read book Discipleship written by John Woolston and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2015-10-15 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For the person who just became a new creature in Christ this is what I see: New life in Christ is a journey. It is a process. It is all about transition- from where we to where God wants us to be; yet in reality, it is the discovery of where we already are now that we are in Christ. Jesus said, "Follow me and I will make you fishers of men!" The apostle Paul taught that "We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works which He has before ordained that we should walk in!" (Eph. 2:10) When writing to a young pastor whom he had mentored he wrote: 1 Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. 2 And the things that you have heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also. 3 Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. 4 No man that wars entangles himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. 5 And if a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully. 6 The husbandman that labors must be first partaker of the fruits. 7 Consider what I say; and the Lord give thee understanding in all things. (II Tim. 2:1-7) Timothy at some point became a Christian. In his opening greeting to Timothy (who he called his "dearly beloved son"), Paul wrote these words: 1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus, 2 To Timothy, my dearly beloved son: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. 3 I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience, that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day; 4 Greatly desiring to see thee, being mindful of thy tears, that I may be filled with joy; 5 When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and I am persuaded that in thee also. II Tim. 1:1-5) Timothy was a person who had the privilege in his life of enjoying a heritage of faith! What Timothy had was not just a common belief in Jesus, but an "unfeigned faith!" An unfeigned faith is a faith that is not tainted and polluted by religious tradition! We could say that he was a third generation Christian (although we know that God has no grandchildren, only sons and daughters!) But Paul reminded him of his heritage of faith. He wrote of the "unfeigned faith" that first dwelt in his grandmother Lois, then in his mother Eunice and now in him! There is so much truth here! We can see that a woman had found Jesus and had become his disciple. And she had not only become a disciple, but a disciple maker! She had imparted the faith that was in her to her daughter, who also became a disciple and a disciple maker! She in turn had passed that same "unfeigned faith" into her son Timothy who became a disciple of Jesus and a student of the ministry of the apostle Paul! Timothy had used the gift that had been passed on to him through two generations wisely. Now he was becoming a leader in his own right. As Paul writes to him, allowing himself to use him to impart some finishing touches to God's work of art, he writes in Chapter 2 of his personal letter to Timothy, "And the things that you have heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also." So we can see in this that in the early days of the church, discipleship was the pathway to leadership! Timothy had followed this path and now he was stepping up to the plate to fulfill the role of leadership that God had prepared for him to walk in! In this book we are going to study these principles and by the help of the Holy Spirit we will impart them to all who are ready to become the leaders that God would have them to be!