RENOVATION OF THE HEART – DALLAS WILLARD
PUTTING ON THE CHARACTER OF CHRIST
From the Publisher:
We aren’t born again to stay the way we are. But how many times have we looked around us in dismay at the lack of spiritual maturity in fellow believers? It is evident in the rising rate of divorces among Christian couples. We find it in the high percentages of Christians, even pastors, who regularly view pornography. And we face it each time a well-known leader in the Christian community is found in sexual sin or handling finances dishonestly. Perhaps you have struggled with your own character issues for years, even decades, to little avail.
There’s good news. You CAN experience significant growth in your Christian walk, shed sinful habits, and take on the character of Christ. In Renovation of the Heart, Dallas Willard calls it “the transformation of the spirit”—a divine process that “brings every element in our being, working from inside out, into harmony with the will of God”. As we become apprentices of Jesus our spirits are transformed.
But just what is this transformation? Dr. Willard explains that its ideal end is when “all of the essential parts of the human self are effectively organized around God, as they are restored and sustained by him. Spiritual transformation in Christ is the process leading to that ideal end, and its result is love of God with all of the heart, soul, mind, and strength, and of the neighbor as oneself.”
Although you may acknowledge this as the ideal, you may still wonder: “How do I get there”? Renovation of the Heart is a realistic guide to discipleship and the real challenges of Christian formation that helps to answer that inquiry. It lays a foundation for understanding the ruin and restoration of humanity, by discussing human nature and its components, how they operate, and how they are renewed. It describes common misunderstandings about our human nature, and the discipleship process. Most importantly, it outlines the general pattern of personal transformation—not as a formula, but as a systematic process that we have the responsibility to undertake as intentional apprentices of Jesus. Only then will our transformation be accomplished, through interaction with the grace of God in Christ, the presence of the Holy Spirit, and spiritual treasures stored in the body of Christ.
The Journey 60-Second Review: Here is your college level course in soul transformation and spiritual growth. Other current reads may be more “hip” and colorful, but they are elementary school content in comparison with Renovation. If you’re looking for a quick read that warms your heart, this is not the book for you. This is hardcore meditation material that see you spending as much time – and even more effort – in reflection than in reading. If I had my way, every pastor in America would be required to read and digest this meat under the mentorship of someone who understands and lives this content. Gone would be our attractional model, event center churches; discipleship, a real wrestling with what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ would obsess pulpit and pew, walk out the door with us to our marriages, families, communities, workplaces, politics, and yes, even our use of social media. We at Journey cannot recommend this read highly enough. Put away the light and fluffy sugars of the latest “must-read” on spirituality and sink the teeth of your soul into this meat.
A SABBATICAL PRIMER FOR PASTORS – DAVID C. ALVES
From the Publisher:
Have you noticed the toll modern ministry is taking on our pastors? Pastors are in big trouble but have few resources to help. Pastoral fatigue and burnout cost the church more than just money; it costs lives, drying up the pastoral pool. More pastors and church leaders leave ministry today than in the history of the Christian Church. And I almost became a statistic. I learned the hard way how can we equip young pastors to plan for ministry longevity; and, help more experienced pastors foster the spiritual health and renewal that they need after years of ministry? More and more has been written about sabbaticals, yet few comprehensive, but simple, guidebooks are available to assist a pastor to initiate and maximize the gift of his or her pastoral sabbatical. This primer is designed to take a pastor through the sabbatical from conception to conclusion.
The JPC 60-Second Review: This is a practical guide fashioned from the personal experience of pastor who knows both the highs and lows of ministry. Alves writes on solid scriptural foundations as he encourages the reader not only to take a Sabbatical, but to plan for it – everything from presentation to church board, finances, exit-to-sabbatical, the day-to-day of the sabbatical, and even re-entry from sabbatical. A relatively short read, it is designed to inform, yes, but even more, to provoke thought, prayer, and action. Well worth your time, Pastor, especially if you are one of us who thinks you don’t need a Sabbatical or that your church simply couldn’t survive your absence.
THE WAY OF THE HEART – HENRI J.M. NOUWEN
Desert Spirituality and Contemporary Ministry
From the Publisher:
Inspired by the ancient teachings of St. Anthony and the Desert Fathers, The Way of the Heart clears before us a spiritual path consisting of three stepping-stones: Solitude (learning not to be alone but to be alone with God); Silence (the discipline by which the inner fire of God is tended and kept alive); and Prayer (standing in the presence of God with the mind in the heart).
Distinguished theologian Henri Nouwen brilliantly illuminates each of these disciplines. In reflections that are beautifully clear and practical, as uplifting on the fourth reading as on the first, he helps us separate the wheat from the chaff in our spiritual lives–and reconnects us with what truly matters.
Within this one small book lies the most relevant and inspiring challenge that we shall ever face: to surrender the compulsive noise of the world for the way of the heart that leads us to God.
The JPC 60-Second Review: Once upon a time, ministry was first a contemplative life: men and women of God drew away from the every day to draw close to God. The minister’s closest friends were the Word of God, solitude, silence, prayer, meditation and reflection. From this contemplation on God, the minister then came back into the every day with the touch of the transcendent, the marks of eternity. Life and ministry were one. People were touched and marked by these kinds of ministers. Ministry today has become over-complicated, so much so that contemplation and its friends have been relegated to antiquity and irrelevance, we are told. Nouwen not only challenges this modern charge, but conquers it, demonstrating that it is only a life of contemplation that leads to a ministry of power effectiveness. I oversimplify the intent of the book, but the point is made: modern life is not found in the fast lane but in the desert – in solitude, silence and prayer. Turn off your phone and take this book out to a quiet place, alone with God and with yourself. Life changing.
CELEBRATION OF DISCIPLINE – RICHARD J. FOSTER
From the cover of the original edition:
One of the pinncles of the Christian life is the moment in which Christ brings us to know Him in a deep and radically renewing way. But what follows it? How can the Christian develop this incomparably fertile experience into a lifestyle that will bear abundant spiritual fruit/ In the tradition of Thomas Kelly, Richard J. Foster guides us to a solid, usable path that can lead us to a deeper inner life and infuse it with overwhelming joy.
Foster locates this path in classical spiritual disciplines. Meditation. Prayer. Fasting. Study. Simplicity. Solitude. Submission. Service. Confession. Worship. Guidance. Celebration. Each of these disciplines break us free of superficial habits that distance us from God. All have traditionally played a vital part in Christian meditative life, and Celebration of Discipline recovers them for today. . .
Each chapter of Celebration of Discipline outlines the history and potential of the discipline discussed, then clearly and practically shows how to practice it in daily life . . .
JPC 60-Second Review: Foster’s opening chapter is entitled, “Spiritual Disciplines: Door to Liberation.” This is a lofty claim, but Foster backs up this claim with a book to match it. For many of us, this was our introduction to what we had imagined to be that mysterious “secret knowledge” monastic world of the spiritual disciplines. Foster explodes this false idea with a book that is both spiritual and practical in focus: Foster sets us free from our false ideas about spiritual disciplines, and then sets us free to understand and experience the abundant life in Christ that is ours. This book will woo you and win you into the disciplines: you will want to understand biblical meditation as Foster describes it; you will want to dwell in the solitude he presents; you will want to live in the celebration of which he writes. When we were in youth ministry in the ’80s, we invited our older teens and young adult leaders to join us once a month for a time of prayer in which we taught on the principles found in Foster’s book and then entered them together that evening. Each session was a life-changing time, opening a season of powerful spiritual growth, as always follows when we live in the spiritual disciplines. You’ll disagree with Foster on a point here or there, but don’t let that stop you: pick up this book and discover life IN Christ.
THE SPIRIT OF THE DISCIPLINES – DALLAS WILLARD
From the Publisher:
To perform appropriately in the moment when you’re “on the spot” you must be preparing when you’re “off the spot.” We understand this principle when we think of great athletes or musicians, but rarely see it’s application in our own efforts to be a “good Christian.” The Spirit of the Disciplines presents a way of living that enables ordinary men and women to join with God and realize their highest aspirations of well-being and -doing. The key to this self-transformation resides in the practice of the spiritual disciplines. Readers will learn why the disciplines work and how their practice affirms human life to the fullest.
The Spirit of the Disciplines places solitude and silence, prayer, simple and sacrificial living, meditation upon God’s word and ways, and service to others at the heart of the gospel. “We can increasingly resemble Christ in character and in power by following him in his overall style of life … This was the method of his earliest disciples, and it is as valid today as it was then.” After all, if Jesus regularly engaged in these activities, how is it that we simple humans expect to get by without them? To enter into the spirit and practice of the disciplines is to move toward the authentic life of faith in Christ and active participation in the Kingdom of God around us.
The Spirit of the Disciplines is a thoughtful guide to an enriched spiritual life, a book about how to live as Christ lived, directed to those who hope to be his disciples in deed as well as intention. It details why the disciplines are essential to our deliverance from the concrete power of sin, and outlines the ways that they can help each of us achieve the blessings of the companionship of Christ.
JPC 60-Second Review: hDallas Willard’s book is a great stand-alone read, and an even better read-along with other books on spiritual disciplines. Where other books explore individual spiritual disciplines, Willard’s book takes a more global perspective, looking at the overall value of the disciplines to our discipleship. Where other books explore the “hows” of individual spiritual disciplines, Willard’s book looks at the “whats” and “whys” of the disciplines as a whole. Writing with the same depth and excellence for which he is so well known and admired, Willard brings the disciplines to us in a way that provokes our thinking and prompts our heart, a great exercise of mind and heart. Highly recommended.
THE PRACTICE OF THE PRESENCE OF GOD – BROTHER LAWRENCE
From the Publisher:
For three centuries the writings of Brother Lawrence have taught Christians that God is as present in the kitchen as in the cathedral and as accessible in the living room as He is around the Lord’s table.
This simple, yet profound teaching will empower you to seek the joy of God’s presence in the midst of every moment and circumstance.
JPC 60-Second Review: Brother Lawrence is one of the best “known unknowns” in church history. Lawrence was born in 1614 in Lorraine, not far from the birthplace of Joan of Ark. Through a set of circumstances, he came to serve as a layman in a monastery near Paris where he helped to care for the needs of the household. But his humble position in no way defined his ministry. His life was marked by an unusual peace and the presence of God. He took joy in the simple, every day duties of life, from cooking to cleaning, helping someone or tending to his room. Monks would sometimes find him lost in the presence of God as he worked in the kitchen preparing meals or cobbling shoes. People would come from the surrounding area simply to sit and talk with him. His way or practice of life marked their life with the presence of God. Hidden in his humble service to God, his way of life became known to others by his example and by letters he would write to encourage those whom he had met. Those letters became the basis of this book seemingly written within the veil of the Holy of Holies.
BACK TO VIRTUE – PETER KREEFT
From the Publisher:
We have reduced all virtues to one: being nice. And, we measure Jesus by our standard instead of measuring our standard by Him.
For the Christian, explains author Peter Kreeft, being virtuous is not a means to the end of pleasure, comfort and happiness. Virtue, he reminds us, is a word that means “manly strength.”
But how do we know when we are being meek–or just cowardly? When is our anger righteous–and when is it a sin? What is the difference between being virtuous–and merely ethical? Back to Virtue clears up these and countless other questions that beset Christians today.
Kreeft not only summarizes scriptural and theological wisdom on leading a holy life, he contrasts Christian virtue with other ethical systems. He applies … moral theology to present-day dilemmas such as abortion and nuclear armament. Kreeft restores to us what was once common knowledge: the Seven Deadly Sins have an antidote in the Beatitudes.
By setting up a close contrast between the two sets of behaviors, Kreeft offers proven guidance in the often bewildering process of discerning right from wrong as we move into the questionable mores of the twenty-first century. He provides a road map of virtue, a map for our earthly pilgrimage synthesized from the accumulated wisdom of centuries of Christians, from Paul and the early Church Fathers through C.S. Lewis.
JPC 60-Second Review: “Back to Virtue” is one of Journey’s top five must reads. The title alone explains why: it calls us back – home – to virtue, back to the root and the fruit of true life in Jesus Christ. Kreeft begins with an analysis of contemporary culture, concluding that it is dancing on the edge of a precipice, ready to collapse in upon itself not from outside forces, but from internal emptiness: it is abandoned the virtues that make people, and so cultures, strong. His prescription is to return to the biblical virtues of justice, wisdom, courage, and moderation (the Cardinal Virtues), as well as faith, hope, and love (the Theological Virtues). Each virtue merits its own examination and Kreeft drives these home with a velvet hammer, nailing them painfully and comfortably to our faith and life. This book is a must, must, must read.
GOD’S CHOSEN FAST – ARTHUR WALLIS
From the Publisher:
Having proved over many years the great value and blessing of fasting, the author has written this book to share with others what the Bible has to say about this important and neglected subject. His aim has been to furnish a handbook which deals not only with all the main passages in Scripture that touch on the matter, but also with the practical issues involved.
This is a balanced study which seeks to give to the subject that weight that Scripture gives it and avoids exaggeration and over-emphasis. The book includes a biblical index, and a appendix dealing with the textual problems surrounding four references to fasting in the New Testament.
JPC 60-Second Review: For many Christians, the subject of fasting is an “amen,” “oh no” subject: we believe in it, but, not understanding it, we avoid it. As the publisher rightly points out, this is a handbook, an instruction manual in this spiritual discipline: biblical teaching and practical instruction are combined in one simple, easy to follow book. Pastor, not only will this manual prove personally beneficial, but you can take this book and form a single sermon or series.
© [2015] — Journey Pastoral Coaching