One of the books that really began to challenge my perspective on spiritual growth personally and within the context of groups or church was Cultivating a Life for God. The thing I appreciated about it was the emphasis on simplicity in spiritual growth. I have been in ministry for over 10 years and find myself making the process to know Jesus and pass that onto others more and more complex; go to this training, read this book, say it this way, study with these techniques, yada yada yada...
Neil Cole in his observations in planting churches in So. Cal. and around the world has found that if you simplify the growth and multiplication process you'll find that people will quickly pass on what they know and learn. Spiritual multiplication happens naturally. I took this almost as a challenge to see if it would work and change me as well. I shared it with some friends who I meet with regularly. We talked about reading high volumes of scripture, sharing what we learn, holding each other accountable and praying for each other. There was a desire to give it a try. My desires is Jesus and I want more of Him than a program or system for getting him. We're still in that process of figuring out why we meet and what we do.
Just recently I learned that Neil wrote another book: Organic Church: Growing Faith Where Life Happens. I'm looking forward to learning, being challenged and growing from what Neil has learned. You can also read a small interview on some of Neil's thoughts and perspectives in regards to church and spiritual growth at a blog by Eric Swanson: Movements everywhere and Church Multiplication.
Categories: Books
Friday, September 16, 2005
Looking forward to Reading
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1 comment:
Steve,
not sure how this works, or if this message is going to get to you. But...I was reading 1 Thes this morning. About how Paul wants the Thessalonians to continue to grow, not stay stagnant in their faith. I realized that that was what I was doing. I was doing ok, but I'm not growing, I'm still struggling with the same sins, I'm being stagnant. God put you in my mind and I was about to email you for some good book ideas or something. Then God put your blogger on my mind and I read this entry. So I ordered "Cultivating a Life for God" that you talk about. Just wanted to tell you how God used you this morning and you didn't even know it. thank you. I can't wait to dive into it.
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