Life with Jesus: A Discipleship Course for Every Christian (Let the gospel and God's grace shape your attitude to church, Bible reading, prayer, ... or small-groups. Confirmation/baptism)

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I love the way books like this take seemingly mundane topics (food/eating) and show their theological significance. Books like this are powerfully formative and can reshape people's thinking in significant ways. Leithart's Blessed Are the Hungry is mentioned/cited a lot. Jesus eats with self-righteous Pharisees too; Prodigal Son story ends without resolution—leads us to consider our own response Incorporating Bible study, clear explanations, and thought-provoking discussion questions, these sessions can be completed in around an hour and are designed to be used flexibly in different contexts. The guide has plenty of content, so if you're aiming to use it for a homegroup or similar, you might want to start with it as a foundation and then trim it down, but most will find the sessions about the right length for a 45-minute session. It would also work well to go through one or two sessions with a friend over coffee. expressing appreciation for food can be "an involuntary exclamation of delight"; meals are "embodiment[s] of . . . love"

God-centered, application-oriented, and driven by the text throughout, this resource is a gift to God’s church." hospitality is worth the "collateral damage" (mess, cost, time); meals are "a microcosm of social reality" Life with Jesus: A Discipleship Course for Every Christian has a somewhat misleading title. It is for "every Christian" in the sense that it isn't for any particular demographic group, but this is best for new believers who are learning about their faith. People who have already been Christians for years may find this to be a helpful review, but the material focuses on basic concepts that will already be familiar to most Christians. Although there is nothing shallow about the material, it is very basic, and the title and book description could have better reflected the book's target audience. This course is great for new Christians and for those who'd like a refresher about what living as a Christian distinctively looks like. There are some great sessions about big topics that we don't often revisit in our Christian lives (e.g. communion, money and witness). I particularly love the case studies offered in each chapter so that the bible passage can be immediately applied to see what it might look like in practice.

Life-changing encounters from John's Gospel

open your home and look for opportunities to throw a party for various occasions (personal, sporting, seasonal, cultural); "You don't have to give a little sermon—just be attentive to people and open about your faith" Disclaimer, I'm a big fan of Tim Chester's books and came into this looking for the positives, but I'm pretty sure I found plenty!

great section on what exactly we are doing when we pray for the food (dependance on God and others, goodness of food, gratitude to God and for community); food points to the goodness of the physical creation Jesus enjoyed eating and drinking so much that he was accused of being a glutton and a drunkard (Luke 7:34)

food leads to conversation; at the table, we "shar[e] news, tell stories, and pok[e] fun"; "Values have been imbibed. Guests have been welcomed. People have found a home. Love has blossomed."; families bond by laughing around the table Life with Jesus: A Discipleship Course for Every Christian" has a somewhat misleading title. It is for "every Christian" in the sense that it isn't for any particular demographic group, but this is best for new believers who are learning about their faith. People who have already been Christians for years may find this to be a helpful review, but the material focuses on basic concepts that will already be familiar to most Christians. Although there is nothing shallow about the material, it is very basic, and the title and book description could have better reflected the book's target audience. He was a party animal" [bit of an overstatement, but okay]; "Luke's Gospel is full of stories of Jesus eating with people" hospitality can go wrong (when withheld); Americans annually spend billions on dieting ("food gone wrong"; "curing our overconsumption"); "Food is so much more than fuel" I've read several blog posts and articles written by Tim Chester over the years and have typically enjoyed them so I was excited to get a chance to go through his new discipleship study.

Tim Chester has a keen ability to reflect on gospel, community, and mission, making them accessible to the common person through the mess and movement of everyday life. Tim certainly accomplished this again in A Meal with Jesus. With each meal, my convictions about how the gospel informs all of life and relationships went deeper, and my affections for Jesus grew stronger. I want everyone in my church to read this book.” meals might "involve people invading your space or going to places where you don't feel comfortable" Look at the Head, Heart, Hands application as they're a good opportunity to really ground the application for the young people, perhaps using the whiteboard to draw these symbols and then talk about the possibilities for each, or giving them an opportunity to draw/write responses as something more creative. Matt Smethurst, Gospel Coalition reviewer and Master of Divinity student at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary In ‘Life With Jesus’, Tim Chester provides a course for new believers who want to know the next step in their journey with Jesus, or for the more mature follower of Christ who simply wants a refresher.

Discovering grace, community and mission around the table

Chester does a great job of pushing one to dig deep into what a disciple looks like biblically and how to apply that to their own walk and following of Jesus. The Think Through It sections and Action Points provide practical and personal steps to lead one to a deeper relationship with Christ. condemning vices from a distance is legalism (although some things deserve to be condemned)—come alongside people to help them in their weaknesses I was really excited to read this book, and I really wanted to love it, but I just kinda didn't. I didn't hate it either, and there was certainly some good stuff in there, but it didn't offer the inspiration and encouragement I'd hoped for. That may be my fault -- I may have been wanting it to be something other than what it was, and therefore rendered myself unable to appreciate it. The Son of Man came eating and drinking" (Luke 7:34; statement of method/how)—we usually think of "The Son of man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Mark 10:45) and "The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost" (Luke 19:10)—statements of purpose/why

Here at Covenant Life Church, we have greatly benefitted from the small group resources from The Good Book Company. Many small groups in our family life ministry have used "Colossians: Confident Christianity" in their study of scripture. Additionally, our youth ministry has used "Romans 1-5: God and You" in their small groups. Both resources were very easy to use, helped the reader engage directly with the scriptures, and had a wonderful pastoral emphasis demonstrated in all the questions.

A Discipleship Course for Every Christian

eating and drinking are signs of friendship; "In the ministry of Jesus, meals were enacted grace, community, and mission"; meals are "social occasions" and "represent friendship, community, and welcome"; "meals should be an integral and significant part of our shared life" I have always told the congregations I've served that if you take the mountains and meals out of the Bible, it's a very short book. In a world of competing church models and strategies, Tim shows us that Jesus employed one practice over all others: Sharing a meal with people. This book serves as a poignant reminder that grace, mission, and community are never enacted best through programs and propaganda, but rather through the equality and acceptance experienced at the common table. May our lives never be too busy to live this out.” Life With Jesus’ is a helpful resource, providing a useful Bible study structure to be done one on one or in a small group. Perfect for a new believer, but would have to disagree with the cover when it states that this is for “every Christian” as this is really Christianity 101 and more advanced resources would be useful for those more mature in the Faith. A couple of it's-not-the-author's-fault notes: The book could have used better editing to help direct the flow of the arguments. The typography was irritating. (Yes, this sounds petty, but noting such things is a professional hazard with me!) Although the book is called a "course", it's essentially a daily or weekly bible study that walks through what it means to be a disciple of Jesus.