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Living Stories: How Church History Forms Disciples Today
The shift from members to disciples isn't about changing programs or language. It's rediscovering what it means to be formed by God's story.
The shift from membership to discipleship isn't just about changing programs or updating language. It's about rediscovering what it means to be formed by God's story.
Churches today face what feels like an unprecedented challenge: declining membership, shifting cultural expectations, and a deep hunger for authentic spiritual formation. Many congregations find themselves caught between maintaining traditional structures and addressing the real longing for faith that connects to everyday life.
This free downloadable resource, curated by Faith+Lead editors to share some of our most popular blog posts, is designed to help faith communities take the Pivot in Posture, which is the move from membership to discipleship.
What’s Inside
First, we frame the problem
When we learn how Christians across centuries have wrestled with faithfulness, we start to see that our challenges today
echo familiar themes. The desert fathers and mothers looked for authentic spiritual practices. Medieval mystics navigated institutional expectations while pursuing real encounters with God. Reformers questioned inherited structures that no longer served the Gospel. Each generation has had to figure out how to live Jesus' way of life and love in their own context.
Ask: Is anything really unprecedented?
But what if these challenges aren't as unprecedented as they feel? What if the people who have walked before us offer wisdom for our current moment? When we look at church history, we find that every generation has wrestled with questions of belonging, formation, and what it means to follow Jesus in their particular time and place. This tension points us toward one of Faith+Lead's key pivots: the move from membership to discipleship.
History is more than just facts and dates
Authors explore these connections to show us how studying church history reveals that "history is people and stories." It's not just facts and dates, but the record of how ordinary people have followed God through difficult circumstances. She reminds us that understanding our past matters if we want to understand our faith. Through stories of saints, mystical pilgrimage in our modern world, and theological insights from Luther and Calvin, these authors show how historical wisdom connects to spiritual formation today.
Come join the cloud of witnesses
This collection isn't just about appreciating our heritage. It's about recognizing that we're part of a great cloud of witnesses that spans 2,000 years. As we learn to tell these stories alongside our own, we discover that moving from membership to discipleship means joining this cloud of witnesses who have learned to follow Jesus through listening, discerning, and experimenting with faithfulness in their own time.
What to expect
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