After 340 blog posts over 8 years about discipleship, my first book on discipleship has been published: A-Z of Discipleship. It’s a short, simple, no-nonsense guide to following Jesus in the 21st Century.
The inspiration behind the book came in a dream. In March 2013 I dreamt that I’d written a book. Although I didn’t see any of the chapter titles, each chapter was short and compact and could be read in just a few minutes. It was ideal for relatively new disciples of Jesus. It was called A-Z of Discipleship. Now, four years later, it’s done. Helped by a period of sabbatical study last year and with the support of Authentic Media (my publishers) the book is beginning to be read and the feedback so far has been really positive!
This book has three unique things about it.
First, it meets a real need. Because there aren’t many books like it. There are books out there helping you begin following Jesus. There are other books on discipleship that help you go deeper, but many of them assume too much prior knowledge. This books sits in that gap – the kind of book you’d give to someone just starting out on the wonderful adventure of following Christ. (It would also help someone who wouldn’t yet call themselves a Christian but is thinking about following Jesus, wanting to know what this life would be like).
Second, each chapter ends with an ACTION and PRAYER section. That’s intentional. Because the best way to grow as a disciple is to put into practice what you’re discovering – and to do so straight away. Most of us know that if we put things off to another time it often never happens. And nothing of lasting significance happens without prayer, so it’s good to pray over and pray in the message as soon as possible.
Third, each chapter includes lots of footnotes that can be followed up, if someone wants to go deeper. Most of the footnotes are bible references. In fact there are over 650 bible references in this book, which is very unusual for such a short book. This means that whilst the book is simple and easy to read, readers can do extensive bible study to examine what the bible has to say on each theme.
If you’re already following Jesus, I hope you’ll read the book and be encouraged to keep going and really enjoy the journey of faith. I also hope you’ll think of someone you know who needs this book – and either give them yours or buy them one for themselves. Because the ultimate aim is to help not just those who’ve been believers for a while, but to see many people who aren’t yet believers chose to follow Christ and then build firm foundations for a life of following Jesus.
A-Z of Discipleship (subtitled Building strong foundations for a life of following Jesus) by Matthew Porter is published by Authentic Media in paperback (ISBN: 978-1-78078-456-4) and kindle (ISBN: 978-1-78078-457-1), priced £9.99 and is available from eden.co.uk, authenticmedia.co.uk, amazon.co.uk and your local bookshop.
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