More About Miraculous Movements

Yesterday I featured and reviewed the book Miraculous Movements: How Hundreds of Thousands of Muslims are Falling in Love with Jesus by Jerry Trousdale. It is an incredible book that testifies of a reality that is not portrayed on the news channels: God is moving in the hearts of Muslims and wooing them to Him! Today I want to share this Q&A with the author, Jerry Trousdale.

1. In Miraculous Movements, you take readers through stories of what you have witnessed in countries where Muslims are coming to Christ in staggering numbers. Why do you think Cityteam is seeing this depth of conversion?

I think it may have something to do with God’s sense of humor and his delight in inviting unlikely people and organizations to join Him in extraordinary Kingdom adventures. There are several things that characterize not only Cityteam but other organizations we train and coach that are also seeing success in disciple making movements.

First, a passion for engaging lostness. Cityteam’s history is working with people in cities who are in desperate and dangerous situations, showing not only compassion on human suffering, but also a commitment to being faithful disciples of Jesus making other disciples.

Second, Cityteam and others are willing to make radical paradigm shifts to align ministry with biblical values and principles. This is very counter-intuitive but powerful.

Third, wherever you see rapidly multiplying movements you see much prayer. It is always prayer that initiates processes by which we partner with God to do what we can, and He does what only He can.

Fourth, most ministries having success in disciple making movements have a Kingdom of God mentality. It is not about their own ministry but about freely giving away what they are learning to other ministries.

Fifth, it is all about making disciples, not converts. This makes a huge difference in our ministry’s strategic intent, our focus on obedience to God’s Word, and transforming families and whole
communities.

2. You talk about Discipleship Making Movements. What does this refer to?

Jesus last words on earth were among his most important. It was a charge to the church to "make disciples of all peoples of the world, teaching them to obey everything He had commanded.”

But today the church seems to have more focus on making converts who accept some propositional truths and then try to make them become obedient disciples. This strategy is not the model Jesus used and this strategy is typically slow and not easily reproduced from person to person.

The Great Commission will never be achieved by addition, it has to be multiplication. That is the principle that Paul described in II Tim. 2:2 and what we see in the book of Acts.

Today disciple making movements of “disciples making disciples and churches planting churches” are sweeping across more than 40 countries and more than 170 different people groups, including some of the most historically unreached Muslim and Hindu people in the world. And now they are beginning to happen in North America and Latin America.

3. Do you have to be a so-called leader, pastor, or even consider yourself an evangelist to put this into practice in America?

Ordinary Christians, with or without a lot of theological training are not only permitted to engage lostness and make disciples—they are commanded by Jesus to do exactly that. As the body of Christ we are not always so encouraging of ordinary Christians going outside of their church’s programs to make disciples and perhaps even launch communities of faith.

As a pastor for 15 years I did not do a very good job of mobilizing and training the people who called me their pastor to take the gospel into their part of the marketplace. I didn’t know how.
I might have done so if I had known how simple and powerful it could be.

I think a lot of pastors today are in the same boat I was—we really want to empower people to change our communities but we just don’t know how, so we default to small groups that are great for nurturing, but typically not so good for engaging lostness around us.

Jesus chose 12 very ordinary people to invest his attention to make them his disciples, and they launched movements that swept over the Roman Empire within 70 years.

The greatest joy in my life is observing hundreds of thousands of farmers, school teachers, taxi drivers, police officers, soldiers, custodians, and domestics discovering that God has an
“extraordinary call” on their lives, and then he empowers them to do it.

The church will always need well-equipped leaders to train, coach, and mentor God’s people but the model we see succeeding around the world bears little resemblance. It’s time for us to
realize that leaders of local churches can mobilize and utilize their members in the marketplace to change their communities.

4. One of the fascinating things shown in the book is the Sheiks and Imams who are coming to Christ. Why is this happening?

Early on as we watched movements begin to happen in Muslim populations of Africa we realized that a high percentage of the people that the Bible calls “people of peace” – the people whom God had prepared to bridge the Gospel into Muslim communities – were in fact Imams, Sheiks, senior Muslim leaders. That was shocking to us. We never expected that.

In God’s historic economy of things, he seems to pluck great men and women of faith out of the most unlikely circumstances.

In our interviews with more than 100 former Muslim leaders we have discovered that there is a tremendous dissatisfaction and discouragement among the very people who know the Qur’an
best and who are themselves desperate for assurance in their own religion. Many of these people are hungry to experience a God that loves them.

And then when they become Followers of Jesus they naturally related back to many of their former Muslim associates whom they know also are hungry for more than they have experienced in Islam. We have a chapter in the book called “Expect the Greatest Results from the Hardest People” because this is an extraordinary phenomenon.

5. What percentage of converted believers in countries that Cityteam has trained leaders for disciple-making movements will suffer for their faith?

Eighty to ninety percent of the former Muslims we interviewed described the persecution that they experienced when they made that decision. Since most of those interviews were with former leaders that percentage is likely less with former Muslims with a lower profile. Still a very high percentage of new Muslim background disciples experience persecution. And that is to be
expected--the Bible says more about persecution than it does about love.

We had one case in a very dangerous place where one new Christian leader reverted to Islam after his family was taken away from him. That was of course devastating to the church there, but that is the only case like that I know of.

New Muslim background disciples of Jesus are just fearless. We have a section in the book that describes the answer to the question we asked of six leaders of an underground movement where almost all of the leaders have been arrested at least once, and some have been imprisoned for years. The answers are incredibly powerful and humbling.

6. How many teams does Cityteam have set up to help believers in Africa and other countries share their faith?

There are about 18,000 new churches planted over the last seven years in Africa, more in North America, Latin America, and Southeast Asia. But we have our greatest concentration of focus in about 20 African countries. Most of those churches have been planting among people considered “least reached” or less than 2% Christian and 1/3 totally unreached--virtually no Christians in that region. There are somewhere between 20,000 - 25,000 new leaders serving 600-700,000 new Christians.

It is difficult to give precise numbers of trainers because the situation changes daily, but in general there are 350 partner ministries. Between their teams and ours there are about 1,000 trainers who coach and mentor 600 trainers, coaches, and mentors who have some regular contact with the 20,000 plus leaders. This is by cell phone or by regular visits in their area during a week with 10 or 15 leaders gathered every 3 or 4 months for training and coaching.

This is key: training does not extract people from where they live.

7. How is it that Cityteam is training leaders of many other ministries? What is applicable for any ministry regardless of size or function?

Our ultimate goal is to see the fulfillment of the Great Commission and especially the fulfillment of Matthew 24:14.

Many of our team members are veterans – seasoned missionaries and students of mission – and God has allowed us to see outcomes beyond what we had ever believed possible in our lifetimes. But the reality is that no one ministry can ever hope to close the gap on the thousands of unreached people groups who are living and dying with no option of Jesus. So one of our most important goals is to introduce thousands of other ministries to the simple Biblical values and principles that will challenge our traditional practices but which seem to produce tremendous outcomes that give God much glory.

Over the last seven years we have probably trained the heads of more than 1,000 different ministries – Western, African, Middle Eastern, European, Southeast Asian, and Latin American. There is no syllabus and no take-home packet. Until this book came out there wasn’t anything in print.

What we do is encourage in-room discovery Bible groups where individuals open their Bibles and search the scriptures for a week with one question: “If I was to obey these teachings of Jesus how would my ministry change”? God does the rest. Engaging lostness is simple, but not easy. But for sure it is very exciting.

8. Do you think current models of discipleship are wearing out or are no longer as effective? Is the Church going to need to rethink how we attract people to become followers of Christ?

Pastors have the most difficult job I know. I pastored two churches over 15 years and both were by far harder than my 60 hours a week job as director of marketing. Pray for your pastors. They are working very hard to see the Kingdom of God happen in your life and in your families.

Our Western world has become more developed, our lives more mobile, and our schedules completely jammed as technology both enhances some aspects of life but also squeezes our relationships. And the church has had to adapt to all of this.

The one constant of our world is relationships suffer at the expense of schedules. And so churches have compensated beginning with the first drive-in churches 40 years ago. Pastors have tremendous challenges like meeting people’s needs, serving them in crises, and seeing them become discipled. It boils down to a few simple things that are left out of the equation:

• No time for prayer for God-sized visions
• No time for reading the Bible, and no group process that we commit to obey what we are reading and hold each other accountable
• No time for being discipled or making disciples
• No time for intentionally engaging lostness around us the way Jesus did
• No time to find people God is preparing to bridge the Gospel into a new family
• No time to facilitate Discovery Bible groups that result in new communities of Christ followers

This is why Cityteam is focused on disciple making movements. We see that it is very effective not only for us but for those we are trying to reach as we work to fulfill the Great Commission.

9. What do you want to underscore from what you have shared in the book, Miraculous Movements?

Disciple making movements are counter-intuitive, completely Biblical, and transformational. It requires a total reorientation of ministry models with much less control than we’re used to having. But it produces outcomes we have only dreamed about. Some of the strategic points of disciple making movements are:

1. Go slow at first to go fast later. Focus on a few to win many.
2. Share only when and where people are ready to hear.
3. A novice insider is often more effective than a well-trained outsider.
4. Start with creation not Christ.
5. Disciple people to conversion - not vice versa.
6. Prepare to spend a long time making strong disciples, but anticipate miracle accelerations.
7. The best time for a church to plant a new church is when it is brand new.
8. Expect the hardest places to yield the greatest results For more on this, go to our website at www.Cityteam.org/books/

10. How do you plan to help church leaders and lay leaders implement the methods behind Discipleship Making Movements that are not just attracting individuals but entire families to follow Jesus?

We would recommend that churches not try to change their whole program to do this, but rather adopt it as a way of reaching their community outside the walls of the church.

Finding people of peace is easy and starting discovery Bible studies is easy, but if you try to implement all of the paradigm shifts in a church you may create some unnecessary stresses.

We find it is better to encourage some members of a church to implement the full Disciple making movement processes as a ministry of the church and the resulting new communities of faith will likely be most productive if they are allowed to grow in their own unique context to be a community of Christ followers in their unique cultural niche—likely different from the church that launched the initiative.

Some U.S. churches are already experimenting with this among a range of segments of a population, including immigrant populations, people recovering from addictions, and others.

11. For anyone who wants to see our world penetrated with who Jesus really is, what is your encouragement for those who want to follow Jesus – not a program or a church but a Savior?

If you will begin to implement in your life a few things that Jesus modeled when He was on the earth to engage lostness around you, then God will honor your partnership in doing what you can but He will do what only God can do and you will get to see people’s lives changed by the power of God. You will never be the same again. Nor will your community.


(Q&A provided by Thomas Nelson and The Blythe Daniel Agency.)

View blog reactions

Miraculous Movements - Muslims Falling in Love with Jesus

Miraculous Movements
How Hundreds of Thousands of Muslims
are Falling in Love with Jesus
Jerry Trousdale
(Thomas Nelson)
ISBN: 978-1418547288
March 2012/208 pages/$9.99
The Book That Will Tell You How Hundreds of Thousands of Muslims Are Falling in Love with Jesus

“This book, these people, and the miraculous stories are for real! We heard, we saw, we went and we have partnered with CityTeam in Africa. This is a paradigm shifting movement of God that anyone and everyone committed to making disciples must read and apply!” -Chip Ingram, Senior Pastor, Venture Christian Church

Miraculous Movements recounts an amazing changetaking place within Muslim communities where the truth of Jesus Christ is turning around the lives of many thousands of Muslims. This close look at what the Lord is doing to spread the gospel highlights the key scriptural principles that help Christian reach out in love to share the gospel in their own community and around the world. Over the past 6 years, 600,000 new believers have become rapidly reproducing disciples and have started 18,000 new churches.

Find out how to more effectively share the gospel through touching stories of how God is transforming Muslim hearts in Africa

Discover ways to reach out to communities of nonbelievers with love and grace

Learn the key scriptural principles for successful, God-inspired discipleship



MY THOUGHTS:
This is an incredible book. It will refresh your faith, encourage you, amaze you, inspire you, instruct you, and convict you. Most of all, it will cause you to realize anew that God is at work and transforming the hearts and lives of a people whom many of us as Christians often have viewed as unreachable. Testimonies of former Muslims fill the pages as they tell of the spiritual emptiness and dissatisfaction that simmer beneath the surface of so many within the Muslim community, revealing their experiences, many of them miraculous and supernatural, of coming to Christ. More than just a collection of anecdotes, however, this book provides practical guidelines for effective evangelism and discipleship following the model set forth by Jesus as He invested in the disciples. I highly recommend it!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Jerry Trousdale is the Director of International Ministry for Cityteam International. He has been a missionary among a Muslim people group in Africa and has pastored two mission-sending churches that launched ministries which have planted thousands of churches. He co-founded Final Command Ministries to facilitate missions to some of the least-reached people groups in West and Central Africa. In 2005 he became part of Cityteam, which provides training in obedience-based discipleship models to thousands of ministries. The ministry has planted more than 6,000 Muslim background churches. Jerry is a former Director of Marketing for Thomas Nelson Publishers and host of LifeTalk, a Nashville drive time radio show. Jerry graduated from David Lipscomb University with a B.A. in Communications, Abilene Christian University with a M.A in Missiology, and has a year towards his doctorate through Fuller Seminary.

ABOUT CITYTEAM INTERNATIONAL:
Founded in 1957 in San Jose, California, Cityteam touches the lives of more than 500,000 people yearly with their compassion ministries for the poor and homeless in the U.S. Cityteam is a ministry called to love and obey God, love their neighbors and multiply disciple makers who repeat the process among their friends and family. Cityteam is an organization that is fully committed to God’s commandment to love and care for individuals and families through their compassion ministries and the Great Commission to disciple the nations. They are touching the lives of hundreds of thousands of those in need around the corner and around the world with the hope that real change is possible through the power of Jesus. For more information, visit www.cityteam.org and www.miraculousmovements.com.

Miraculous Movements is available directly from the book's website or from your favorite local or online bookseller.


Join me tomorrow for a Q&A with the author, Jerry Trousdale!


Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson & the Blythe Daniel Agency as part of their Blogger Review program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

View blog reactions

Which None Can Shut - A Must-Read!

Which None Can Shut:
Remarkable True Stories of God's
Miraculous Work in the Muslim World
Reema Goode
(Tyndale)
ISBN: 978-1-4143-3720-3
September, 2010/164 pages/$13.99
Imagine a place where becoming a Christian is a punishable crime—and your own family exacts the punishment. Where those who spread the gospel among locals are deported if discovered. Where converts to Christianity face persecution, isolation, or even death as the price for their faith. “Reema Goode” and her family are Christians working in a closed Middle Eastern country where all of these things are true. Yet they are also firsthand witnesses of a whole new trend that is taking shape in missions to Muslims. Despite all obstacles, God is opening miraculous doors in the Islamic world, where an unprecedented number of Muslims are becoming followers of Jesus. In this powerful collection of personal stories, Reema takes us deep inside her Arab neighborhood to show how God is opening doors in just one of many Islamic communities. As she walks us through everyday life in a Muslim town, she reveals the diverse, creative, unexpected, and thrilling ways God is reaching her neighbors with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. “See, I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it.”—Revelation 3:8


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
"Reema Goode" and her family are Christians working in a closed Middle Eastern country. For security reasons the author's name has been changed to protect her family and those whose stories are told.

MY THOUGHTS:
For God so loved the world. Go and make disciples of all nations. You will be my witnesses. . .to the ends of the earth.
Most Christians recognize and claim to believe these verses (John 3:16, Matthew 28:19, and Acts 1:8, respectively) as the springboards for evangelism and missions. Yet for many of us, especially those in the USA, sometimes we can't (to reverse a well-known adage) see the trees for the forest, especially when it comes to Muslims; we see them as a single group, not individuals. Without starting a debate on predestination or God hardening the hearts of those who turn against Him, it is easy for our human eyes to see those who practice the Muslim religion as unreachable, a lost cause, if you will. But only their hearts, not the cause, are lost.

In this amazing book "Reema Goode" has put a face, albeit anonymous, on the individuals she and her family, as well as others, are attempting to reach. This is not a book filled with statistics which give credibility to certain programs or methodology. These are stories, glimpses into the hearts and homes of the ones to whom Reema and her family are ministering. In the Arab world, missionaries do not build church buildings or seminaries or have crusades. Rather, friendships are quietly developed and as life is lived side by side and opportunities arise, the "Book" is shared. These powerful stories of encounters, spiritual warfare, and "Mount Carmel experiences" will amaze and encourage you, allowing you to see beyond the burqas and the politics to the heart and soul of each individual. God is moving and changing hearts in the Arab world. Don't miss this book.



Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Tyndale as part of their Blogger Review program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

View blog reactions

Monday Miscellany

Today is my last full day that the kids are in school. For the rest of the week, they just go for the finals they take. And for some miraculous reason, they are totally in sync with their exemptions. In December it seemed that I was continually taking one and picking the other one up! They really have a dream of a schedule; they don't have to go at all Tuesday (other than to check in with the attendance office sometime before noon), they each have one final from 9:05 to 11:05 on Wednesday; two finals, 9:05 to 1:15 Thursday, and one "final" final Friday morning from 9:05 to 11:05. Then it's hello, summer vacation! And while I know I'll feel a little bit like I've returned to the Mother's Day Out time of my life with such short days, there is one huge benefit to finals.

No sack lunches to fix! Woohoo!

And the other thing that's nice about finals week is that there are no more performances to attend! I enjoy going, but after last week when my girl had a voice recital, piano recital, viola recital, and choir concert, I am ready for a breather!

My girl does have one more school-related activity on Saturday - she qualified for State Solo & Ensemble and will perform for judges at that. She will play a solo piece and also be part of a quartet.

But being finished with all of the other school stuff for a few months? That's music to my ears!

* * * * *
I've been so swamped with performances and book reviews that I haven't had a chance to thank some folks for some very fun awards! Whenever I get one of these, it makes me think, "They like me; they really like me!" It's always fun to be encouraged.


Michelle V at Life in Review honored me with the Sunshine Blog Award, which is given to bloggers that "inspire others and show positivity and creativity." She's a fellow book reviewer, and her blog has lots of fun links on it as well as reviews.



Janet Ruth at Along the Way gave me the Blog Neighbor Award. Thanks so much, Janet Ruth!


Julia Reffner at Dark Glass Ponderings blessed me with the Bodacious Blogging Book Reviewers Award. What a fun award! And I love the name of her blog and the verse posted in her header.


I thought there might have been one more -- not that I'm being greedy! But if there was, I apparently inadvertently deleted the email for the comment that told me about it. So if you gave me an award in the last 6 weeks or so and I haven't acknowledged it, please accept my apologies!

Now I am horrible about passing these things on. I never can choose! So if you are one of my blog readers who leaves me a comment, consider the Sunshine Award passed on to you! Because your kind comments are just like sunshine to me, only without the migraine!

And if you have enjoyed any of my reviews, or if you have picked up a book because of one of those reviews, I consider you Good Blog Neighbor, so that one is for you!

I am going to pass along the Bodacious Blogging Book Reviewer Award to some specific folks that also review books. I have so enjoyed connecting with you through our mutual enjoyment of the written word! If you aren't familiar with these folks, check them out!

1. Kim at Window to My World
2. CeeCee at Book Splurge
3. Quilly at Quintessentially Quilly
4. Cathy at Tales of the TCKK Family
5. Tami at Tree Swing Reading
5. BP at Rainbows and Rainbows

* * * * *
On a more serious note, our pastor has been preaching a series on personal evangelism over the past six weeks. Yesterday he pointed out a verse in Romans which is incredibly convicting regarding the urgency and sorrow Paul felt over those who were lost without Christ:

I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, the people of Israel.
Romans 9:2-4a

Ouch. I don't have unceasing anguish in my heart and I'm not willing to give up my "seat on the bus," as our pastor put it, for someone else. (I know it's not an option, but Paul was willing to if he could.) May God prick our hearts and give us a burden for the lost.

What could be too great a cost
for sharing life with one who's lost?
When will we realize. . .
People need the Lord

View blog reactions

Helping Friends Find Christ

Faith.
Everybody lives by it—even skeptics and atheists!

That’s right. Everyone you know trusts something they believe in but can’t prove or know absolutely. They take it on faith. And if you want to talk to your friends about your faith, it helps to understand what they believe and how they got there. Because badgering people to change their minds just doesn’t work.

Based on Mark Mittelberg’s book Choosing Your Faith, the Faith Path workbook and DVD set builds on Mittelberg’s sensible, evenhanded approach to evangelism. Inside you’ll meet six fascinating people who looked at the world in six different ways before they embraced faith in Christ. Very likely you’ll recognize people you know—and you may even recognize yourself.

Work through Faith Path and you will:

• Understand people who approach life differently from you
• Recognize the danger of paths that lead away from Christ
• Deepen your own faith in Christ and reinforce your reasons for believing
• Gain confidence in talking about Christ with others

Relativists, traditionalists, mystics, authoritarians, and others…they’re all here. And after you understand how these folks think about faith, you can help them find a trustworthy pathway to truth. Because no matter what your friends believe, they still matter to God.

Mark Mittelberg explains the 6 Faith Paths (adapted from an interview with NewManMag.com):

As Christians, we need to understand that the people we’re trying to reach think in differing ways when they consider faith. And if we don’t learn to speak to what they value, it’s almost like we are speaking a different language. For example, if all we want to do is give testimony, but they think like scientists and want the evidence, then we’re not going to connect.

So the best way I know to share about this is to go through the six paths people take when they are considering faith, and the six best ways to help them.

· First, for example, is the relativistic path. A person on the relativist path basically decides what they want to believe and calls it truth. This one’s popular on college campuses. They decide what they want to believe, and that mystically becomes true for them. Their truth may not be the same as your truth, and they think that’s OK. So what do we say?

What I try to show is that relativism does not work in any other area of life. For instance, try running your investments based on relativistic, wishful thinking. Would you pick a company out of the blue and invest in them without doing any research into their finances or outlook? No, because you would eventually go bankrupt. Your belief does not change reality. If your beliefs don’t change reality in the realm of daily life, why would they change your spiritual life?

· The second approach is traditional. This one says, “I believe what I believe because that’s what I was taught when I was growing up, period.” How do we respond?

Congratulations on honoring your father and mother, but let’s be honest, someone’s mom and dad were wrong. You’ll never know if your traditions are true unless you test them. Which of your relatives figured it out once and for all for your family? If I look around the table on Thanksgiving, there’s no way I would want to trust my eternity to any of my relatives.

You’ve got nothing to lose by examining your beliefs, because if they prove true, you will only reinforce them, and if they prove not to be true, don’t you want to know? Jesus warned in Mark 7 not to let tradition get in the way of the truth of God.

· The third path to faith is authoritarian, which is similar to the traditional in that it’s a hand-me-down, but this one has a lot more force. This one says, “You will believe this.” One example, and it’s not the only one, is a friend of mine who was raised in the Muslim faith, where he was taught that Allah is God, Muhammad is His prophet, and you will accept this. He did growing up, but he reached a point where he realized he needed to weigh whether he could trust the authorities that were telling him this.

That’s what we teach—the need to help everyone really evaluate whether they can trust the authorities in their lives. It’s not anti-authoritarian; we just want to make sure we have the right authorities. I think when you compare the religious authorities out there, you will see Jesus that stands up to scrutiny like no one else. That’s what my friend, the former Muslim, found as well, and today he is a follower of Jesus.

· The fourth is the intuitive faith path. This is the person who says, “I don’t need all your arguments and evidence because I know in my heart what is true.” It’s the Star Wars approach: “I feel the force.” And it’s sort of the Oprah Winfrey approach, where she teaches in her classes to get rid of doctrine and just follow your heart, or your spirit.

The wisest man who ever lived, named Solomon, warned us in the Old Testament that there’s a way that seems right to a person that ends in death. People tell you to follow your heart, but the Bible says that the heart is deceitfully wicked.

Intuition is like a flashing yellow light on a dark intersection at night. It can warn us to pay attention, but it doesn’t tell us everything we need to know. We still have to look around and figure out what the situation is. When it comes to your spiritual life, don’t just look at your heart but look at the information available to you.

· The fifth one is the mystical faith path. This is the one that says, “I know what to believe based on what God has told me.” Someone in this mindset feels that their spiritual experience trumps everything else.

So what do we say? First, we don’t deny that God can speak to us today. God did not lose His voice 2,000 years ago. I think we need to be seeking His voice and His guidance in our lives daily. But not everything that feels spiritual is from God.

First Thessalonians 5:20-22 says, “Do not treat prophecies with contempt, but test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil.” That’s a very appropriate warning for this discussion. We shouldn’t ignore something that is from God, but God Himself tells us to test it very carefully and to hold on only to what we know to be from God.

· The sixth one is evidential faith path. This one can be misused, but when applied correctly, it can lead us into truth and help us test what we’ve come to believe from other faith paths.

I give priority to this one. It relies on two undeniable vehicles of truth: logic and evidence. I say “undeniable” because you can’t argue with logic without using logic. It’s through logic and evidence that we determine truth in every other area of life.

When it comes to spiritual matters, logic and evidence can point us in the right direction. For example, I’m convinced that historical and archeological evidence will support the Bible in ways that don’t support the Quran or Book of Mormon. The evidence for the Resurrection supports the authority of Jesus in ways that make Him unique among all spiritual leaders. The evidence of science points to the reality of a Creator who made us.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Mark Mittelberg is a best-selling author, sought-after speaker, and a leading outreach strategist. He is the author of Choosing Your Faith, coauthor (with Lee Strobel) of The Unexpected Adventure, and coauthor (with Bill Hybels and Lee Strobel) of the Becoming a Contagious Christian curriculum. He previously served as the evangelism director for Willow Creek Community Church and the Willow Creek Association. Mark earned a Master’s Degree in Philosophy of Religion from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He lives in Southern California with his wife, Heidi, and their two teenage children.

MY THOUGHTS:

I've flipped through the workbook and watched a couple of sessions of the DVD, and I can tell this is a good study for personal evangelism. The DVD sessions run from eight to twelve minutes long, leaving plenty of time for group discussion. There is essentially no homework, and the presentation is easy to understand and not theologically heavy. The description of the various types of faith paths provides insight into these viewpoints while pointing out their flaws as a belief system, making it easier to identify ways to open a discussion with individuals.With eight sessions to the study, this would work great for a short-term Bible Study or book club.

You can purchase the DVD and workbook directly from the publisher or from Amazon.

Thanks to The B&B Media Group for providing a copy of the workbook and DVD for my review.

View blog reactions