Tuesday, May 29, 2012

52 in 52 Week 22: Miraculous Movements by Jerry Trousdale

 This is a tremendously encouraging look at what God is doing with Muslims in Africa. I have had the pleasure of learning from one of the people who catalyzed a movement there, and he is a humble and wonderful servant of God. 

Our African brothers and sister in Christ put the Western church to shame in their commitment to obeying (applying) the Word, praying, fasting, and accountability. I loved hearing each and every story. The book is also very practical. One could walk away and have tool that will help them in catalyzing their own disciple-making movement, and it will replace Church Planting Movements by David Garrison in the curriculum we use (we may still use the 60 page PDF version though). 

The biggest drawback of this book is that it implies that no one has every thought of obedience-based discipleship before, and that no one had ever discovered what was "hiding in plain sight" in the Bible. Have you ever read The Master Plan of Evangelism by Robert Coleman and The Training of the Twelve by A.B. Bruce (written in 1871 and the book from which Coleman derived his principles)? These biblical principles were discovered and have been practiced for many years. In fact, the rich biblical heritage in which I was raised called for obedience-based discipleship and application of 2 Timothy 2:2. We were always to pass on what we received resulting in a disciple-making movement. It is as old as Genesis 12: You have been blessed to be a blessing. My mentors, who spent 25+ years in Japan also practiced these principles. While fading in Western Churchianity, they have been practiced long before the people of this book "discovered" it. 

All that said,  I do believe that, of the majority of people who have come to believe in the West, most have NOT been exposed to obedience-based discipleship. I just have a problem with someone claiming they discovered it. 

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