Book Interviews

Book Interview: Walking As Jesus Walked Making Disciples the Way Jesus Did by Dann Spader

Dann, why did you decide to write Walking As Jesus Walked?  For years I’ve taught the Life of Christ and when people ask me what it means to walk as Jesus walked, my answer is always the same. There are six attributes I consistently see in Jesus that are captured with the HS POWER acronym: Holy Spirit dependence, Prayerful guidance, Obedience to a Kingdom agenda, Word centered, Exalting His Father, and Relationships of love and integrity. This look at Jesus’ character and priorities has become foundational in helping so many… so I wanted to put it all together in a study for others to learn. Read More
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Book Interview: Parental Guidance Suggested by Mark Smith

Why did you decide to write Parental Guidance Suggested? I was in my twentieth year of student ministry and having over one-hundred fifty students participating in youth activities on a weekly basis. As a result, students were getting saved and the youth ministry was growing. I was enjoying what many would consider "success." Then one day God graciously began to show me that there was something horribly wrong. Slowly, the Lord began to show me a disturbing undercurrent of instability that was rocking the moral and ethical foundations of many of the students that I was ministering to. Large numbers of students were filling the student center on Wednesday nights to worship and praise the Lord. Then by Monday these same students were posting pictures of themselves on social media of the latest weekend "unchaperoned" parties. It was obvious they were living two different lives. For some time I could not understand what I was doing wrong. Then the Lord revealed to me that I was missing a key component of real success in youth ministry...I was not discipling the parents of these students. I was proficient at discipling students at church but my best efforts were not enough. I needed help and the Lord showed me a much better plan. I needed to encourage parents to follow God's plan outlined in Deuteronomy 6 and Proverbs 22:6. Parental Guidance Suggested is the tool I developed and use to disciple moms and dads so they can be the primary disciple-maker of their homes. I have discovered that when parents learn God's Word, do God's Word, and teach God's Word in their homes, not only does it make my youth group better it makes our church and community better as well.   The layout of Parental Guidance Suggested is a 5-week training, why 5 weeks? How does a 25-day journey turn into a lifestyle of discipleship? The reason Parental Guidance Suggested is broken down into five short days of reading over five weeks is simple; parents' schedules are overloaded and their time is valuable. This format gives parents time to meditate on the small bitesized portions of each day's reading to discover what the Lord wants to reveal to them. As parents progress through each week the Holy Spirit has more than enough time to teach and empower them to become the disciple-maker the Lord has called them to be. Parental Guidance Suggested helps parents face the facts of God's Word and challenges them to examine their own discipling methods while at the same time encouraging them to implement new habits to form a natural lifestyle of discipleship in the home.   You wrote, “Parents are outsourcing their responsibility of discipling children to others.” Briefly, why do you think parents do this? In our culture we have people who mow our yards, keep our kids while we work, clean our clothes, educate our children, wash our pets, etc... You name it and it can just about be done by somebody else (AKA:Outsourcing). We as Americans have become very accustomed to and in many ways dependent on the convenience of outsourcing. Read More
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