Jim Putman's new book, Real- Life Discipleship by Navpress publishers is an informative resource for anyone involved in church leadership. Nevertheless, even for those of us who are not pastors, reverends, ordained ministers or deacons, this book provides some useful and insightful direction into the mission that Jesus has given to each and every one of us, to go everywhere and make disciples of everyone we can. Saving souls is the job of every believer, not just the clergy.
According to Putman, there is no "plan B" for saving the millions of spiritually dead souls in the world- it is up to us! Its not enought to save our own souls and attend church we must bring others as well. Nevertheless, the irony is that oftentimes, no matter how well meaning we are, we are often the reason so many unchurched and nonbelievers refuse to place their faith in Christ Jesus. Just as Jesus told to his followers over 2000 years ago, that often time leadership and hypocrites draw people away from the truth. We are called to be the beacons of light, teachers as well as fishers of men!
Yes, this book does have a short footnote that laymen- aka the general believer not involved in leadership may benefit from this book. Even so, the obvious intended audience of this work is the active leader in a church whether a pastor or bible study leader or some other type of leader. There is a detailed section where each level of believer is identified and described. This book is remeniscent to a field guide of spiritual maturity, armin the reader with clues and specific information on how to determine an individual's level of spiritual maturity. One can easily spot the spiritually dead from the spiritual infant. With this handy charts, the reader can easily identify a spiritual infant from a spiritual child. And lastly, the distinction between a spirirtual young adult from a spiritual parent is clear enought to enable the church leader to effectively find the most spiritually qualified persons to assume key church leadership roles. A spiritual infant or child can be effectively used in any program for simple volunteer work, but would not be an appropriate choice for leadership roles. In contrast a sporitual young adult is not quite ready to assume a key pastoral role, and this book will help you sort the spiritual young adults from the spiritual parents! This book also has a chapter titles "A Few Warnings" which tells you about the disasterous consequences that may result, if for example, you place a spiritual child in a key leadership role instead of a spiritual parent. As a blogger for Navpress I receieved this book for the purpose of writing this review. I recieved this book at no cost and was not required to write a positive review.
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