AFTER THE FISHERMEN
How did Jesus train his disciples?
By Terry Young. Paternoster. 94 pages. £5.99
ISBN 0 900128 28 3
This is a cracking little book. It’s written in an engaging manner about two issues; how Jesus trained his disciples, and how we could make better use of the training many of us get in our vocations and use that wisely for the sake of the kingdom of God.
This is definitely not a ‘management guru’ book, but a sane, biblical and suggestive overview of the Master at work. Always aware of the danger of reading back into the text the ‘latest equals greatest’ leadership training fad, Terry points out valuable lessons all Christians could benefit from, especially church leaders.
I was challenged by the importance of us parents teaching the solid content of the faith to our children while we can. That background of biblical truth was about the only thing Jesus’s disciples had in common, and it stood them in good stead when they were called to a ‘grander vision’ and mentored by the Lord.
Are we imparting to our next generation what those fishermen had from their heritage, so that training becomes much more productive when it’s received?
And are we as leaders inspiring others to serve as Jesus did? Many of us have heard of the 80/20 principle — 80% of your time with the 20% of the most promising so that they can multiply ‘kingdom work’.
But with all the pastoral fire-fighting, committee maintenance, and rounds of services to take, training gets driven down the priority list. If that’s your problem this book will help push it back up to where it ought to be, and also give you some helpful ‘how to’.
So I was attracted to the subject, I enjoyed the style, I appreciated the content. But why couldn’t there be more? It deserves to be a cracking larger book and I am sure Terry could have pulled it off.
Dr. Ray Evans,
one of the leaders of the newly renamed Grace Community Church, formerly Kempston Evangelical Church, Bedford
