School of Global Missions:
Teaching and training disciples for a life of being “on Mission” with God.
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SGM Recommends...
The School of Global Missions recommends the following titles for study and for inspiration for those who have been called to missions or who have a desire to become personally involved with fulfilling the Great Commission of Matthew 28:19-20. Jesus commissioned His church to "go" and seek and save the lost; to baptize them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; and make them disciples by teaching them to observe all He commanded us. For whoever does that, the promise of the Father is that He will be with them to the ends of the earth for His glory.
Resources to Encourage & Strengthen Disciples
Follow Me
by David Platt
2014 “Christian Retailing’s Best” award finalist!
What did Jesus really mean when he said, “Follow Me”?
In this new book, David Platt, author of the New York Times bestselling book, Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream, contends that multitudes of people around the world culturally think they are Christians yet biblically are not followers of Christ.
Scores of men, women, and children have been told that becoming a follower of Jesus simply involves believing certain truths or saying certain words. As a result, churches today are filled with people who believe they are Christians . . . but aren’t. We want to be disciples as long as doing so does not intrude on our lifestyles, our preferences, our comforts, and even our religion.
Revealing a biblical picture of what it means to truly be a Christian, Follow Me explores the gravity of what we must forsake in this world, as well as the indescribable joy and deep satisfaction to be found when we live for Christ.
The call to follow Jesus is not simply an invitation to pray a prayer; it’s a summons to lose your life―and to find new life in him. This book will show you what such life actually looks like.
The Man God Uses
Henry and Tom Blackaby use scriptural analysis, prayer, and study questions to explore God's will and His process of refining an ordinary man into an extraordinary agent of God.
Studies in the Sermon on the Mount
Much has been written about the Sermon on the Mount, but Oswald Chambers’ unique way of explaining these teachings will give us eyes to see so much more than just rules or ideas or goals. Chambers ushers us into the mind-set that our relationship with God comes first, and then Christlike character and desires will follow. Through this book, you can better understand Jesus’ teachings on how to honor Him and what “living” really means.
and how it relates to all of Jesus' teachings on the Kingdom of God, see Frederick Osborn's book and study guide This Gospel of the Kingdom.
For further study on Jesus' Sermon on the Mount
Bakht Singh of India: The Incredible Account of a Modern-Day Apostle
This is the story of Bakht Singh, a man who God used, despite his human frailties and limitations, to do extraordinary things. During the time of India's struggle for political independence, Singh's ministry grew from obscure evangelist and revivalist to world-renowned church planter and speaker. This amazing account of Singh's life journey--from a Sikh to an atheist to a miraculous conversion to Christ--is filled with examples of a life lived totally comitted to God. Along the way, he depended solely on God for his every need, both personal and corporate. Even in the simplest matters he did nothing without first seeking to know the will of God. The result is a story full of God's miraculous provisions and timing for this man of faith and prayer. This authorized biography, written by Dr. T. E. Koshy, narrates how God led Bakht Sing to establish indigenous local churches patterned after New Testament principles, which helped dispel the misconception that Christianity is a Western religion and not relevant to the people of India. Dr. Koshy's intimate account of the vision and mission of this incredible man includes his extensive research and interviews with Singh, his siblings, friends and fellow associates to give an account of this man of God previously unknown to many. You will be inspired as you read what God can do with someone who is willing to trust him, no matter the cost.
Reaching and Teaching: A Call to Great Commission Obedience
Most Christians know and understand that we are to seek to reach the lost around the world. Yet, Christ's command to us is more specific and calls us to a higher standard of involvement with the peoples of the world. He has called the church to make disciples of all people groups and to teach them to observe all He commanded us (Matthew 28:18-20). In recent years mission agencies and missionaries have increasingly shifted away from discipleship and teaching toward an emphasis upon evangelism and church planting—many to the exclusion of any other field activity. While evangelism and church planting are essential components of a biblical missions program, they are not sufficient for the complete task to which we have been called. Reaching and Teaching examines the task Christ gave in the Great Commission and redefines the task of missions from that which is currently prevalent. It surveys missions strategies and methodologies that have increasingly replaced Christ’s Great Commission instructions even as they have sought to fulfill it. It is a clarion call to return to the biblical task of reaching and teaching the nations for Christ’s sake.
They Found the Secret
"The exchanged life." Hudson Taylor first used the term to describe what it means to know Christ as our sufficiency in all things. Taylor is but one of the many Christian luminaries who have discovered Christ as the secret to abundant living. John Bunyan, Andrew Murray, Amy Carmichael, Oswald Chambers, Charles Finney-behind the varied lives and personalities of these and other men and women lies a common theme, a pattern that leads from desperation to the abundant life Jesus promised. From their stories, we too can find the path to deeper faith and a more vital relationship with God. In They Found the Secret, Raymond Edman presents the lives of twenty well-known and little-known Christians. "The details of their experience of the crisis of the deeper life are delightfully different," Edman writes, "yet their testimony to the reality of the joy and power of the Spirit-filled life is unanimous . . . It is [the Lord] who satisfies the longing soul. He is the secret of the exchanged life!"
not a fan
This expanded and updated version of Not a Fan adds a new introduction and an entirely new chapter about how to practically live out the message of this mega bestseller.
Are you a follower of Jesus? Don’t answer too quickly. In fact, you may want to read this book before you answer at all. Consider it a “Define the Relationship” conversation to determine exactly where you stand. You may indeed be a passionate, fully devoted follower of Jesus. Or, you may be just a fan who admires Jesus but isn’t ready to let him cramp your style. Then again, maybe you’re not into Jesus, period. In any case, don’t take the question—Are you a follower of Jesus?—lightly. Some people don’t know what they’ve said yes to and other people don’t realize what they’ve said no to, says Pastor Kyle Idleman. But Jesus is ready to clearly define the relationship he wants with his followers.
Not a Fan calls you to consider the demands and rewards of being a true disciple. With frankness sprinkled with humor, Idleman invites you to live the way Jesus lived, love the way he loved, pray the way he prayed, and never give up living for the One who gave his all for you.
Radical
What is Jesus worth to you?
It's easy for American Christians to forget how Jesus said his followers would actually live, what their new lifestyle would actually look like. They would, he said, leave behind security, money, convenience, even family for him. They would abandon everything for the gospel. They would take up their crosses daily...
But who do you know who lives like that? Do you?
In Radical, David Platt challenges you to consider with an open heart how we have manipulated the gospel to fit our cultural preferences. He shows what Jesus actually said about being his disciple--then invites you to believe and obey what you have heard. And he tells the dramatic story of what is happening as a "successful" suburban church decides to get serious about the gospel according to Jesus.
Finally, he urges you to join in The Radical Experiment--a one-year journey in authentic discipleship that will transform how you live in a world that desperately needs the Good News Jesus came to bring.
Agape Road
The road believers travel is broken with twists, turns, and detours into worldliness and man-made religion. Thankfully, God uses that broken road to draw us back toward the destination our hearts long for----intimacy with Him. In Agape Road, author Bob Mumford illustrates how to avoid taking detours by abiding in Jesus. Experiencing God's unconditional agape love gives us the security, identity, and belonging we cannot get any other way.
Walking in the Dust of Rabbi Jesus
What difference does it make that Jesus was Jewish?
In Walking in the Dust of Rabbi Jesus, Lois Tverberg challenges readers to follow their Rabbi more closely by re-examining his words in the light of their Jewish context. Doing so will provide a richer, deeper understanding of his ministry, compelling us to live differently, to become more Christ-like. We'll begin to understand why his first Jewish disciples abandoned everything to follow him, to live out his commands.
Our modern society, with its individualism and materialism, is very different than the tight-knit, family-oriented setting Jesus lived and taught in. What wisdom can we glean from his Eastern, biblical attitude toward life? How can knowing Jesus within this context shed light on his teachings for us today?
In Walking in the Dust of Rabbi Jesus we'll journey back in time to eavesdrop on the conversations that arose among the rabbis of Jesus' day, and consider how hearing Rabbi Jesus with the ears of a first-century disciple can bring new meaning to our faith. And we'll listen to Jewish thinkers through the ages, discovering how ideas that germinated in Jesus' time have borne fruit. Doing so will yield fresh, practical insights for following our Rabbi's teachings from a Jewish point of view.
The Latent Power of The Soul
"For the word of God is living, and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and quick to discover the thoughts and intents of the heart" (Heb. 4:12). The peril of the believer is to confuse the spirit for the soul and the soul for the spirit, and so be deceived into accepting the counterfeit of evil spirits to the unsettling of God's work. The greatest advantage in knowing the difference between spirit and soul is perceiving the latent power of the soul and in understanding its falsification of the power of the Holy Spirit. Such knowledge is not theoretical but practical in helping people to walk in God's way.
In this book, Watchman Nee shares his insight on The Latent Power of The Soul, The Christian and Psychic Force, and Spirit Force vs Psychic Force. Nowadays the atmosphere is so charged with the commotion of all kinds of counterfeit that the Lord seems to be calling the Church to come to a higher ground. Today's situation is perilous. May we "prove all things; hold fast that which is good" (1Thes. 5:21)
Living Water
Living Water is a compelling saga of Brother Yun’s sacrifice to bring Jesus and the Bible to non-believers. Through his dynamic teachings, Brother Yun shares a message of radical trust and authentic Christian discipleship to churches around the world. Using the message of the Bible and interweaving it with stories of life-changing faith, Living Water distills the wisdom of this courageous Christian man who suffered intense persecution for his beliefs. Brother Yun challenges Christians to go deeper in their faith, and become bold in their witness for Christ. He shows how God can make you as bold as a lion, and bring your days as a timid Christian to an end. The book of Acts continues today in the lives of courageous believers like Brother Yun. An inspirational challenge to deeper discipleship, Living Water offers moving stories of struggles and victories, miracles of grace and mountains moved.