Do I practice what I write?

I met with a gentleman today who flew in from San Jose to meet with me. Gordon is a retired airline pilot who is passionate about helping churches experience the power of mission. He had attended several conferences I helped lead through the leadership center at Community Church of Joy. For a lay person, he really knows his missional church stuff. I was a bit jealous of some of the conferences he was able to attend.

He basically wanted to know if I was following the model I had written about in a book published back in 1995. It was actually one of my better books, I thought. Not many others did!

Much has changed since 1995 but the essence of what I wrote back then still motivates me today--that God through Jesus wants to invite and equip each of us to follow him back into this world that he loves, bringing grace, hope and love.

The essence of that 1995 book was more programmatic. Now, philosophically I think discipleship happens more in groups and community and in missional opportunities than in programs. Rather than forcing people down certain paths to grow, we need to create environments where people can learn with others what it means to follow Jesus.

But, in the end, while the implementation may be different, the passion behind the book is the same.

That's true of most of the books I've written. At the time I think they were helpful books. But their "shelf life" is over. Guess it's time to write another one.