THE WHOLE OF LIFE FOR CHRIST
Enriching Everyday Discipleship
By Antony Billington and Mark Greene
IVP. 90 pages. £4.99
ISBN 978 1 783 593 613
This is a set of seven Bible studies for individuals and groups and is a joint production by Keswick Ministries and IVP.
The authors’ aim is to encourage believers that Christ is interested in every aspect of their lives and so to motivate them to live every day for Christ. The topics covered are: gospel, wisdom, purpose, fruitfulness, mission, hope and worship. Each study comprises an introduction, the Bible text, questions, a going deeper section, living it out, ideas for prayer and a further reading list. Some studies end with testimonies. At the end of the book there are comprehensive notes for leaders with full answers to each question.
Worship, mission, hope
In many ways this is a helpful and unusual approach to the subject of discipleship. It does not cover the usual topics of prayer, Bible study, church, giving and service. The authors try to cover these under broader topics like worship, mission and hope. Their emphasis is t h a t Christians should be both salt and light in their communities, families and workplace. They fully encourage whole-life discipleship with lots of practical application. The book is probably more suitable for women than for men: more of the examples and testimonies are from women, and the second study on wisdom is from Proverbs 31, the good wife.
I have small reservations: they emphasise salt over light, prioritising good works as if good works are enough, and they assume healings are normative.
