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    Disciple: Getting Your Identity from Jesus
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    Disciple: Getting Your Identity from Jesus
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    Disciple: Getting Your Identity from Jesus
    Ebook275 pages3 hours

    Disciple: Getting Your Identity from Jesus

    By Bill Clem

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.” —Jesus

    This is a book about pursuit. How God pursues people. How we pursue him. And how he uses us to pursue others.

    God pursued us when Jesus came into this ruined world as an agent of redemption, asking us to follow him and to become his disciples. Yet, what does Jesus actually mean by disciple? And as his disciples, what is our mission?

    Pastor Bill Clem masterfully answers these questions, explaining what Jesus meant when he called his followers “disciples”, and what he intended when he told us to then make disciples. This helpful guide weaves together Scripture and real-life stories to illustrate the essential elements of Christian discipleship.

    Whether you’ve just become a follower of Jesus or you’ve been one for years, Disciple will help you see that Jesus invites his people to freedom rather than mere rule keeping, and it will give you a relational framework—instead of behavioral prescriptions—for pursuing God.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCrossway Books
    Release dateSep 7, 2011
    ISBN9781433523526
    Unavailable
    Disciple: Getting Your Identity from Jesus
    Author

    Bill Clem

    Bill Clem is an RN and international bestselling author of medical and scientific thrillers with ten novels published worldwide. He is currently working on several new novels to be released in 2011.

    Read more from Bill Clem

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    Reviews for Disciple

    3.5/5

    21 ratings8 reviews

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    • 3/5
      This book came at a time when I was thinking much on discipleship, studying and getting ready to teach others on discipleship. For some reason, Clem's book did not capture me. I tried a few different times to get through it but never made it past the fourth chapter. On this topic, I love and have been greatly helped by "Disciples are Made, Not Born", "The Master Plan of Evangelism", "Training of the Twelve" and "Following the Master." Given the numerous positive reviews of this book, I am sure that I should pick it back up to try and read it again at a later date.
    • 4/5
      Although the basics of discipleship are covered in this book, they are basics that even the seasoned believer needs to be reminded of. I appreciated the 'assignments' at the end of each chapter because they do what many books about discipleship fail to do, namely, take us back to God's Word as our source for authority pertaining to discipleship.
    • 3/5
      This book became better as I moved further into it. Int he earlier chapters I found the notes for further study very useful, it was nice to have a list of references dealing with a certain topic like the Trinity. As I progressed through the book I found it applying more to me, helping me think through things like community, fellowship, and my interactions with the church. I really benefited from considering the intimacy level that really should occur within the body of Christ.
    • 4/5
      This book is a good book about how the gospel changes a person's identity and how Christ-like identity everything else. I like this book. Read it.
    • 3/5
      There were some passages that were profound in this book. This is one that struck me: "The God of the Bible does not seem as interested in us knowing ABOUT him as he desires for us to actually KNOW him - to have experiential knowledge of him. (Paul prays that the Ephesians would 'know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.' Eph 3:19"Here is another one: "'[An idol] is anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, anything you seek to give you what only God can give.'"Another pearl: "The most common assignment I find myself giving to those I counsel is to journal what's right with the world every day for a week."I enjoyed the profound thoughts but felt I had to wade through a lot of less compelling reading to get to them. The first part of the book held my interest better than the later parts.
    • 4/5
      This was a fabulous book that seeks to encourage the Christian to find their identity in Christ as His disciple. Clem studies how a disciple made in the image of God should see themselves in God's story in areas such as image, worship, community, and mission. He also talks about many ways in which each of these four things can be distorted in a fallen world. I found each of these categories helpful as Clem gave a solid biblical framework through which to view the Christian life. Then the chapters on distortions were especially helpful as he was clear about what he meant and deconstructed the folly of the distortions.Clem finishes with a call toward a discipleship plan. This plan involves the reader surrounding him or herself with the proper shepherd-coach or even multiple shepherd-coaches that can help them mature in accordance with a self-designed plan. He also includes a final chapter on multiplication which takes the process and lays it out in the lives of others. I especially liked Clem's hesitancy to be overly formulaic in the discipling process. Much of what we find in Christian literature about discipleship focuses on a "reproducible process" that is really just code for a formulaic process that is not unique to the struggles and needs of the individual. If you are looking for a packaged way to "make disciples" by putting them through a list of generalized assignments, this book is not what you are looking for. However, it might be helpful for you in seeing a different perspective that focuses more on imaging Christ and the individual's needs than the reproducible process.This is a great book. Get it! Read it, and use it to help you be a valuable shepherd-coach in the life of another disciple.
    • 4/5
      Disciple: Getting your Identity from Christ is a new book by Bill Clem under the Re: Lit imprint of Crossway Books. I don’t know much about Clem other than his association with Mars Hill Church (Seattle), but I liked the title of the book. So, I was eager to dig in and see what I found. The book is designed to help people better understand what it means to live as a disciple of Christ. Throughout the book, Clem seeks to ground “our identity as disciples in the storyline of the Bible.” We see this as he lays out what he sees as the essential elements of Christian discipleship: image, worship, community, and mission. Each topic is first put forth positively as Clem gives an overview of the biblical teaching. Then, he offers a brief survey of the ways in which the discipleship element can be distorted. For example, for the element of image, we see that the image of God is common to all humans and that, as image bearers, we are valuable, mysterious, designed for wonder, interconnected, for a broken world. However, this idea of image is distorted when we believe I am what I do; I am what has been done to me; or I am my relationships, roles, and responsibilities. The discussion of these distortion chapters reads like a mini-counseling seminar, with the counsel being driven by the Scripture—i.e., biblical counseling at its best. The instruction on the four essentials is based on the foundation of two chapters where Clem lays out the reality of God’s story of redemptive history, showing how Jesus is the hero of the story and how he calls people to be a part of that story. Although, one could argue with the four essentials he picks, every section is important and Clem offers good material on each of them. This leads to one of several strengths of the book—biblical instruction. Clem uses a lot of Scripture to back up what he write, using both clear instructive statements and biblical examples found in narratives. Related to this is another strength: the digging deeper section at the end of each chapter. Clem knows he can’t hit everything in each chapter. So, he ends with a list of Scripture that serves as a short Bible study on the given topic. The result is the option of fulfilling the title, namely, digging deeper into God’s word to find out more. Another positive to the book is the practical helps given for implementing the instruction on discipleship. Clem ends the book with a chapter on making a plan for growing as a disciple on a daily and weekly basis. Then, he takes it to another level and has a chapter on multiplication--making all of this work on a church level. I was especially happy to see the first thing on his list be something that is often overlooked and assumed, which means it doesn't actually happen--prayer. Finally, Clem also writes in an engaging way. Though sometimes there is slight sarcastic edge that sounds very similar to his ministry partner, Mark Driscoll, he often has his own voice, which is clear and helpful. Clem is not a wordy writer, and the result is a book that moves fast, providing a lot of good teaching in a short space. Despite what I liked about the book there were a couple things I didn’t like. Most of these were found in the first chapter. First, Clem doesn’t integrate well the history of God’s redemption and the revelation of it in his word as classic theological concepts. Given the high view of the Scriptures demonstrated in the book, I doubt very seriously that he doesn’t hold to inerrancy. Nevertheless, he uses language that’s a little muddled when he says, “The God of the Bible does not seem as interested in us knowing about him as he desires for us to actually know him—to have an experiential knowledge of him. . . . This experience of coming to know him happens to every person, but in many different ways. One of the primary ways we can come to know him is through the Bible. It contains the story of God’s revelation to us” (10). First, I was surprised that he didn’t say ‘the primary way people know God is through the Bible.’ Yes, creation tells us something of God (cf Romans 1), but not in a saving way. Furthermore, many ways of knowing God is set in contrast to one primary way of knowing him through the Bible. How can someone come to actually know God in a saving way apart from the Bible? But maybe Clem doesn’t mean a saving way at this point in the chapter? If he doesn’t it’s not clear in that section. If he does, then I’m not sure what he means because it sounds like he is undermining his view of God, the Bible, and salvation in Christ. Furthermore, the last line—“[The Bible] contains the story of God’s revelation to us”—is confusing. In one sense that is true. We see a history of redemption unfolding in the narrative of Scripture. Yet, that sentence also evokes the language of recent debate about what the Scriptures are—the revelation of God or the record of his revelation. The first says the Scripture are the Word of God, the second that they merely contain the Word of God. This is all bound up with issues of inerrancy and the specific language of that debate. Again, I’m fairly certain Clem is speaking about the history of redemption, but it would have been nice to see different language used or more clarity of explanation here. Second, Clem has much good to say about the Triune nature of God and how that plays into the unfolding story of God. But, here, I think he falters as he tries to make God’s clear passion for his glory more palatable for lost people: “Now consider all the objections of your friends or maybe even objection you have raised because it all seems like an egocentric God created people just to worship him. What a different picture it is if the Father longs to have people worship the Son and the Spirit, the Son longs for people to worship the Father and the Spirit, and the Spirit longs for image bearers to worship the Father and the Son” (21). This seems like a dodge for the ego-busting reality that God does create man to worship him. But the reality is that worshipping him actually brings us joy and satisfaction because that is exactly what we were created for! John Piper has ably defended this understanding, I think, in Desiring God. More than that, though there is truth in what Clem says, I think he overreaches. Theology rises and falls on exegesis and I think there are no verses that say the “Father longs to have people worship . . . the Spirit.” There is certainly a mutual desire for the Father to glorify the Son, but the Son only desires to be glorified in order to glorify the Father (John 14-17), and the Spirit seems to direct all worship to the Father through the Son (John 14:26; John 15:26; 16:14). The last quibble is certainly a small one. I love the cover of the book (see insert) but I have no idea how it connects to the content of the book! There is so much of an emphasis on story I’m surprised that they used warfare imagery to promote it. Again, a small matter considering the sage advice to never judge a book by its cover. So, would I recommend this book? Absolutely. Despite, what I would see as minor tweaks that I would make on a few (important) issues, the large majority of the book is excellent—biblically rich and practically helpful. Clem presents a compelling vision of living as a disciple of Christ and offers encouraging counsel on how to actually get there, establishing a life rooted in the grace of the gospel. I think the book could be used as a resource for a church’s pastoral team to think through its ministries and strategies for the future as much as it could be used for study with the church at large. Clem writes in a clear, straightforward style that makes the content clear as well as compelling.*Disclosure: I received this book for free from the publisher for review purposes. This has not affected the content of this review. Furthermore, this was a pre-publication edition and some of the book may have been edited in the print edition.
    • 3/5
      Let me begin by describing what I really appreciated about this book. I appreciated the author's passion for his subject and his passion for God. I also appreciated Clem's high view of Scripture and the fact that the book was loaded with passages of Scripture to support and expound on his conclusions. Further, I appreciated the fact that the book was gospel rich and that Clem referred often to God's garce, mercy, and love.The book was also filled with true and genuine descriptions of God's character that were often times revelatory. There were many occassions when I would feel challenged and convicted by what I read. However, I appreciated the fact that the author was not coming at me with a verbal baseball bat so that I would feel "guilty," he merely wrote the truth and allowed the Holy Spirit to convict where He willed.The only "complaint" I had with the book was the style in which Clem wrote. I wouldn't even mention it except that it was truly troublesome.There was an almost stream of consciousness style to much of his writing and many times sub-topic headings did not seem to match the content beneath them. He would also often seemingly change directions mid-paragraph like he had writer's ADD.This combination became so difficult to navigate at times I found myself going back over passages and even entire pages trying to catch on to his train of thought. Several times I had to give up in frustration. And stood on the tracks so to speak, watching the train leave without me on it.The thing that makes this so dissappointing is that there is a lot of wonderful material in this book. It just gets lost in writing that is sometimes thick and difficult to navigate and at other times, downright confusing.It was like the author wasn't really sure who his audience was. For example, on one page he is using quotes that contain words like "fecund fellowship" and "pactum salutis" without even explaining what they mean, assuming I suppose that his readers will have the theological background to understand them.Then on another page he writes "we've already seen how God rolls."What?It was all very confusing. So much so that I was tempted to give up several times. However, there is a lot of powerful material here and that is why I continued to forge ahead. There was enough there that I was willing to overlook style (troublesome thought it was) in order to get the truth that was being revealed to me by the Holy Spirit through the book.I hope all readers will give it the same effort. I found that, in the end, it was worth it.