The Power of Together: Why Real Relationships Are Vital for Spiritual Growth
Ebook
Overview
Do you long for a genuine Christian community?
Many of us experience loneliness and isolation, even in our church communities. Churches often emphasize increasing knowledge rather than encouraging believers to foster deep, authentic connections that reflect the heart of God. We sometimes forget that both are important if we want to experience vibrant spiritual growth.
In The Power of Together, Jim Putman invites you to develop deeper, more meaningful relationships within your church community and to move beyond superficial interactions to form genuine bonds. Putman draws on his extensive pastoral experience to offer a compelling blueprint for spiritual growth that goes beyond individual practices. Discover how God can use you to make a significant impact in your community.
This insightful guide to relational discipleship includes:
- Practical Insights: Gain actionable advice and real-life examples from Jim Putman’s many years of pastoral experience.
- Biblical Foundations: Rediscover the true meaning of love and relationships.
- Relational Discipleship Model: Learn how genuine relationships within the Christian community can enhance your spiritual journey.
- A Comprehensive Resource: Part of the Real Life Discipleship Resource Line, this resource provides a cohesive approach to discipleship.
Eugene Peterson once said, “It is hard being myself, by myself.” Ubuntu is a popular phrase in South Africa that means “We are, therefore I am.” Jim Putman gets this profound truth about our design by God as relational beings and provides a path for us to discover it with power in our “all about me” culture.
Jim Putman helpfully shows us that the “Just Jesus and me” attitude of so many Christians is not only unbiblical but soul destroying and faith killing. Discipleship happens in relationships, period. As Jim points out, all the fruits of the Spirit are others-related. This book not only paints a positive, compelling vision for Christian community, it charts the way forward. Both pastors and dissatisfied Christians will find this book a refreshing, practical, and helpful read.
Jim is known for his commitment to Jesus’ relational method for disciplemaking. But in this book, he challenges the definition of spiritual maturity most accepted in the American church. He asks and answers the question What is spiritual maturity? He makes the point that most Christians are not experiencing all that Jesus has for them, and the result is a faith that does not satisfy them, does not create stability in a shaky world, and does not attract the lost. This book gives everyone a better goal to shoot for and asks each of us questions that we need to answer about ourselves. Jim’s advice in this book can help you be all that Jesus desires you to be and help the church become a light in a dark world again.
Through humor, pain, life experience, and a biblical foundation, The Power of Together will raise your vision to new heights for the power of relationships in God’s family. Jim Putman will inspire you to fight for authentic, life-giving, and soul-building relationships.
Jim Putman’s The Power of Together touched me deeply. Most of the mistakes people make in attempting to be a disciple come from thinking that information is the key to transformation. No one believes more in the power of Scripture and is more faithful than Jim to preach it. But what the people from afar don’t see is Jim’s commitment to relationships and how powerful they are. This book plumbs the depth of the human soul in a simple, powerful way. You can’t read this book without changing—I know it ministered deeply to me.