Recommended Reads For Your Connect Group in 2022
Hillsong Sunshine Coast North
True discipleship (apprenticeship to Jesus) is marked by accepting the call to be ‘with’ Jesus, to be ‘like’ Jesus, and to ‘do’ what Jesus did. It is a journey of spiritual growth, discovery, and fulfillment.
Here are 5 great books to help you become more like Jesus in 2022…
- Emotionally Healthy Spirituality — Peter Scazzero
- Live no Lies — John Mark Comer
- Celebration of Discipline — Richard Foster
- The Purpose Driven Life — Rick Warren
- Master Plan of Evangelism — Robert Coleman
Each is written with a practical and helpful focus on spiritual growth and formation. Spiritual growth happens best in community, and for us, community is more than attending a Sunday service. It is ‘life together’, Monday to Saturday — it is the context for being ‘with’ Jesus, being ‘like’ Jesus, and ‘doing’ what Jesus did.
We encourage you to buy a book to read and discuss with your Connect Group. If you’re not in a Connect Group, chat with our team on Sunday — we’d love to find one for you, because we are better together!
See below a little more info on each recommended book and a link to purchase from Koorong of Amazon…
Emotionally Healthy Spirituality
Author — Peter Scazzero
Topics
Emotional Health, Mental Health, Spiritual Health
Quick Quote
“Ignoring our emotions is turning our back on reality. Listening to our emotions ushers us into reality. And reality is where we meet God. . . . Emotions are the language of the soul. They are the cry that gives the heart a voice.”
Quick Summary
After almost three decades of pastoring New Life Fellowship Church in New York City, Peter Scazzero discovered that most people are not being changed in our churches, and, as a result, are not changing the world.
Scazzero found two truths to be true: (1) you can’t be spiritually mature while remaining emotionally immature, and (2) unless you slow your life down for a first-hand relationship with Jesus Christ, little change is possible. The integration of these two truths unleashed a spiritual revolution in Scazzero, in his church, and now in thousands of other churches.
In this revised bestselling book, Scazzero outlines his journey and offers a roadmap for a discipleship with Jesus that is powerfully transformative. Topics include how to identify emotionally unhealthy spirituality, how to grow your soul through grief and loss, and how to develop into an emotionally mature adult.
Live no Lies
Author — John Mark Comer
Topics
Faith & Culture, Spiritual Formation
Quick Quote
“Our deepest desires — usually to become people of goodness and love — are often sabotaged by the stronger surface-level desires of our flesh.”
Quick Summary
We are at war. Not with a foreign government or domestic terrorists or a creepy new artificial intelligence hell-bent on taking over the world. No, it’s a war we feel deep inside our own chests: we are at war with lies.
The problem isn’t so much that we tell lies but that we live them. We let them into our bodies, and they sabotage our peace. All around us in the culture and deep within our own body memories are lies: deceptive ideas that wreak havoc on our emotional health and spiritual well-being, and deceptive ideas about who God is, who we are, and what the good life truly is. The choice is not whether to fight or not fight, but whether we win or surrender.
In this provocative and practical book, bestselling author John Mark Comer combines cultural analysis with spiritual formation. He identifies the role lies play in our spiritual deformation and lays out a strategic plan to overcome them. Do you feel the tug-of-war in your own heart, the inner conflict between truth and lies? The spirit and the flesh? The Way of Jesus and the world? It’s time to start winning. It’s time to live no lies…
Celebration of Discipline
Author — Richards Foster
Topics
Discipleship, Spiritual Disciplines, Personal Leadership
Quick Quote
“Silence is one of the deepest Disciplines of the Spirit simply because it puts the stopper on all self-justification.”
Quick Summary
This modern classic explores the age-old disciplines of the Christian life — the inward ones of meditation, prayer, fasting, and study; the outward ones of simplicity, solitude, submission, and service; and the corporate ones of confession, worship, guidance, and celebration.
Praised by many as the most important contemporary book on Christian spirituality, this timeless classic has helped well over a million people discover a richer spiritual life infused with joy, peace, and a deeper understanding of God. The book explores the ‘classic disciplines’ of the Christian faith. The inward disciplines of meditation, prayer, fasting, and study. The outward disciplines of simplicity, solitude, submission, and service. And the corporate disciplines of confession, worship, guidance, and celebration.
The Purpose Driven Life
Author — Rick Warren
Topics
Purpose, Discipleship, Christian Living
Quick Quote
“You cannot fulfil God’s purposes for your life while focusing on your own plans.”
Quick Summary
Why am I alive? Does my life matter? What on earth am I here for? Translated into over fifty languages, The Purpose Driven Life is far more than just a book; it’s a guide to a spiritual journey that has transformed millions of lives. Once you take this journey, you’ll never be the same again.
Throughout The Purpose Driven Life, Warren will teach you to spend time getting to know yourself and your creator in order to live your life to the fullest. Unlocking your true purpose will also reduce your stress, simplify your decisions, increase your satisfaction, and, most importantly, prepare you for eternity.
Master Plan of Evangelism
Author — Robert Coleman
Topics
Evangelism, Leadership, Living like Jesus
Quick Quote
“Having called his men, Jesus made a practice of being with them. This was the essence of his training program — just letting his disciples follow him.”
Quick Summary
“Few books have had as great an impact on the cause of world evangelization in our generation as The Master Plan of Evangelism.” — Billy Graham
It all started when Jesus called a few people to follow him and share God’s message with their neighbors. We are called to do the same. But evangelism can be difficult — even intimidating. With all the evangelism resources available, where should you turn to find sound advice on how to share the Good News with others? The answers aren’t found in TV evangelism, easy-evangelism guidebooks, or the latest marketing techniques. Rather, Robert E. Coleman points to the Bible, to the ultimate example found in Jesus Christ.
