A Crisis in Discipleship — Frank Viola | Beyond Evangelical
Welcome to another Thursday UNFILTERED blog post, the only blog that believes there’s no need to learn from your own mistakes when you can learn from the mistakes of people who take your advice.
In 2014, I wrote a 25-page eBook entitled Discipleship in Crisis: 9 Reasons Why Discipleship Isn’t Working Today — Problems & Solutions.
For years, we’ve given the book away to everyone who subscribes to my UNFILTERED email list.
Recently, however, one reader pointed out that at least two of the links inside the book were broken. So last month, we had them fixed.
Note that I wrote this book before I penned my signature work Insurgence: Reclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom.
If I were writing Discipleship in Crisis today, I’d add this 10 thproblem and solution.
Problem 10: Absence of the Life-Altering Gospel of the Kingdom. Meaning, most Christians today have never heard it, and precious few pastors, teachers, and evangelists preach it.
Solution: Start with reading Insurgence (it’s on audio also) and listen to conference messages on the gospel of the kingdom on the Insurgence podcast.
This past Sunday, I heard a megachurch pastor give a sermon to his enormous congregation. The sermon was fine, but at the end he addressed the lost in the audience saying they simply had to believe to receive eternal life now and after death.
Then he led them into the Sinner’s Prayer.
There was no word about repentance or surrender.
As you know, the message of the gospel in the New Testament is repent and believe. And faith is not mental assent to a set of theological truths.
Like this pastor (and countless others who preach the same message), I seriously doubt he read Insurgence. So if you’re part of a church that has a pastor, I hope you’ll give him/her a copy of the book.
The world desperately needs a revolution in our understanding of the gospel. This is precisely why I took the time and energy to pen the book.
Insurgence released in 2018, and the gospel of the kingdom is still foreign to the masses of Christians today, including pastors, teachers, and evangelists.
Even though sales have been far above average, most Christians have never heard of the book, let alone read it. There’s just too much noise and competition in the way of Christian books.
Anyways, you can download the corrected version of Discipleship in Crisis here.
If you have the old version with the broken links (which would be ALL versions prior to March 15th), delete it and replace it with the new version.
The book is short, and I hope you find it illuminating.
A final word to those of you who are leaders and creators: Over on the “Christ is All” podcast, we recently dropped 3 episodes entitled “Uncommon Advice for Christian Leaders and Creators” — Parts I, II, and III. Part IV drops April 9th.
Already, those episodes have received over 4,000 downloads on podcast platforms.
Because of the interest, we’ve opened up my PROLIFIC productivity, creativity, goal-setting audio program (featured on major news and business outlets).
After releasing 30+ books, over 1,000 blog posts, over 300 podcast episodes, along with running an online network, holding masterminds, speaking in conferences, etc., I’m often asked about my processes and productivity hacks.
I’ve uncorked all of it in the PROLIFIC audio program, which comes with a workbook and an extensive list of tools I use.
The program covers my goal-setting process, productivity hacks, mission-discovery process, and strategies for creativity. Once you get it, you have it for life and take it at your own pace.
PROLIFIC is available until April 9 th. Go here for details and ordering, if interested.
Until next Thursday,
Your brother in the Insurgence,
fv
Originally published at https://www.frankviola.org.
