Discipleship without mission is discipleship without Christ. The church often lacks maturity and missional impact because discipleship is at its periphery. In order to get discipleship to the center, leaders need a locally rooted, culturally contextual discipleship pathway to tether disciples who are disciplemakers to the neighborhood or network around them. Pastor and discipler E. K. Strawser shows that when discipleship becomes central to your leadership and community, then discipleship becomes central to congregational mission and cultural renewal. Centering Discipleship is a gutsy practice-based guidebook for leaders who are doing the hard work of re-imagining and re-structuring their churches and communities to turn spectators into missional, mature followers of Jesus.
| Foreword |
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| Prologue |
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1 | (6) |
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PART 1 Changing Our Job Description |
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7 | (42) |
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1 Making Discipleship Central |
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9 | (12) |
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2 The Nature of Discipleship |
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21 | (12) |
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3 The Marks of a Mature Disciple |
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33 | (16) |
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PART 2 Developing a Discipleship Pathway |
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49 | (42) |
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4 From Past Recipes to Local Cuisine |
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51 | (12) |
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5 Essential Ingredients for Any Pathway |
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63 | (15) |
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6 The Journey of a Discipleship Pathway |
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78 | (13) |
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PART 3 Underlying Assumptions of Discipleship |
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91 | (52) |
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7 Discipleship Requires Transformation |
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93 | (16) |
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8 Unmasking Our Discipleship Assumptions |
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109 | (17) |
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9 Transforming Our Discipleship Assumptions |
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126 | (17) |
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PART 4 Implementing Your Discipleship Pathway |
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143 | (58) |
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10 The Four Spaces and Discipleship |
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145 | (24) |
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11 Hurdles to Discipleship |
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169 | (16) |
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12 Discipleship in Culture |
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185 | (16) |
| Epilogue |
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201 | (2) |
| Acknowledgments |
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| Notes |
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E. K. Strawser (DO, Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine) is the co-vocational lead pastor of Ma Ke Alo o (which means "presence" in Hawaiian), non-denominational missional communities multiplying in Honolulu, Hawaii; a community physician at Ke Ola Pono; and an executive leader at the V3 Movement, the church planting arm of the Baptist General Association of Virginia. Prior to transitioning to Hawaii, she served as adjunct professor of medicine at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine and of African Studies at her alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania (where she and her husband served with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship), after finishing her Fulbright Scholarship at the University of Dar es Salaam. She and Steve have three seriously amazing children.
