I recently picked up the book “Gospel Centered Discipleship” by Jonathan K. Dodson. It was a book that Brent has actually been wanting to read for a while. It helps that the foreword is by Matt Chandler. Matt Chandler is a pastor at The Village Church down in Texas. We both have spent time recently listening to his sermons. He has a great way of sharing the gospel that not only convicts me but gets me even more excited with knowing my savior Jesus. He is very gospel centered. I respect his love for the Lord and his passion for Him as well, now back to the book.
I was excited to continue reading as soon as I opened the pages. The book starts off with making the distinction between being evangelistic and being a discipleship. Two different things that are more often than not seen as he same. Evangelism is about making disciples and discipleship is about teaching people how to grow in their lives with Jesus. The cool thing about discipleship is that it can also be done with non-believers. Dodson then goes into being overly legalistic or overly missional. In both ways people start to take God out of the picture and bring themselves in His place. There needs to be a balance that brings it all back to Jesus. The book goes on to talk about things that tend to get in the way of us being disciples. How our image can taint our views. We leave out the holy Spirit. How we twist our motives when being disciples. Dodson brings it all back to the gospel and focuses on what being gospel centered is suppose to be. Lastly, he talks about ways to start being disciples. You need to fight for the gospel and show others Jesus’ love.
I was never good with book reviews in school but I hope I did this book at least a little bit if justice. I also hope that I sparked a little bit of interest. Just remember to bring it back to Jesus. It is about Him and not ourselves.
