Recently, Philip Nation (my former co-pastor) and I completed the manuscript for a new book. It will be published in English and Spanish next April.
The name of the book is Compelled by Love: The Most Excellent Way to Missional Living. (One of the covers has the wrong subtitle, so please ignore that.)
As you can tell by the title, the theme of the book is discovering love as the biblical ethic for mission and is taken from 2 Corinthians 5.
This will be my first foray into writing for the "Christian Living" section of the bookstores and Philip's first credited title. I think we have put together a book that will help the people get a hold of why it is so important to live a missional lifestyle. Plus, this book will make "missional" an accessible and do-able pursuit in the lives of all believers.
The book is divided into three major sections: the heart of God, the church, and the individual believer. Each chapter will have a discussion guide for small groups.
Here is a small sampling from the book:
You can have those debates all day long about how God did this, but Ephesians 1:4-6, tells us the why: "For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will-- to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves."
Preoccupied with debates, we miss those three beautiful words: "In love, he." Because of his nature, God does an adopting work that surpasses all of humanity's compassion combined. Adoption is an amazing thing. A loving set of parents choose a child who has no merit above other children. There is no dowry that will reward the parents for their compassion; in fact, sometimes the opposite is true. The child can offer nothing but his presence. Adoption happens as the grace-filled work of loving parents. In the same way, our spiritual adoption wasn't by chance or fortune, but in love. "In love, he" is a phrase that should ring through the Church every week as we consider the work of Christ on our behalf.
Or here is another quote:
It's interesting that Jesus was most harsh with the religious people who isolated themselves from the world. Luke 7 tells us about Jesus eating in the home of Simon the Pharisee. A sinful woman comes in to wash the feet of the Master with an expensive perfume. Simon is appalled at her presence but even more at Jesus' reaction to her. In verse 39, Simon thinks to himself, "If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is--that she is a sinner." Jesus confronted Simon with a lesson on forgiveness and love. He pointed out how little Simon had been forgiven and how great was the forgiveness that sinful woman had received. I look forward to meeting her some day in heaven; I hope that Simon will be there as well.
The church must stop worrying about who is touching us. Certainly, we don't surrender to the moral quandary in which the world operates. But it's time for us to see people through the same lens God uses. We need the exaggerated passion Paul displays in Romans 9:3-4 - "For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, the people of Israel." We will address more of this subject in another chapter.
But before we can go any further in the publication process, we would like your input. So, would you take a look at three proposed covers for the book and give me your thoughts (and your suggestions).
Thanks for your help!
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