Tag: Discipleship

You Can Change – the 4 Gs

Posted on September 1, 2009

Austin City Life City Groups went through Tim Chester’s book You Can Change YCC will be released in the U.S. in March 2010 (new cover to the left) this summer. It was a powerful experience for all our communities. In chapter 5, Tim helps us fight the fight of faith for Gospel change by introducing four powerful truths we can believe in face of the lies of sin.

1. God is great – so we don’t have to be in control

2. God is glorious – so we don’t have to fear others

3. God is good – so we don’t have to look elsewhere

4. God is gracious – so we don’t have to prove ourselves

Our friends at Soma Church are now calling these the “4 Gs”, which is catchy. I encourage you to meditate on the power of God’s grace promised to us in the 4 Gs. When we are tempted to fear, flee, flaunt, or force our way, God promises a better way. He is Great, Glorious, Good, and Gracious. Memorize these phrases. Look for their truth in the Scriptures. Meditate on God’s goodness, glory, greatness, and graciousness….and Enjoy Grace!

You Can Change Resources

New Resources on Fight Clubs

Posted on August 22, 2009

It’s been encouraging to hear how many people have read Fight Clubs: Gospel-centered Discipleship and are beginning to start these small fighting communities. People are emailing and calling every week to share their stories, learn more about starting Fight Clubs, and to say thank you for the book. Thank you all. May these increase to God’s great glory!

More on Fight Clubs

  • I recently did a podcast interview on the book with Covenant Eyes. This will release soon, along with some articles to continue the equipping for discipleship. I’ll post a link when it goes live.
  • As we continue to field requests, we are developing a Fight Clubs Website that will allow for continued conversation, story sharing, and equipping for fighting the fight of faith well.

What People are Saying

Jonathan has done us a huge favour in writing this book. The best endorsement I can give it is simply that as I read it, a growing sense of wanting to fight sin grew within me. I want to be a card carrying member of a ‘Fight Club’ so that in community we can take sin seriously, encourage one another to believe the gospel deeply and pray for each other to respond to the Holy Spirit passionately. What else can I say? This is an excellent book. Buy it. Read it. Do it.

Steve Timmis // Co-author of Total Church and Co-Director of the Porterbrook Network

Fight Clubs is a timely book about gospel-centered accountability and age of anonymity and shallow relationships. Dodson has done a masterful job highlighting how the Holy Spirit uses gospel truth to give us new Christ-centered affections that dispel our thirst for sin…For those still playing at religion through surfacey pseudo-accountability, this book is a welcome killjoy. You’ll never look at accountability the same way again.

Luke Gilkerson // Internet Director for Covenant Eyes, Inc.

I just read your book, and I wanted to thank you for it.  I am a student at Southwestern Seminary, and for the last 6 months a serious lack of progress in my sanctification has been bothering me.  I seem to fall into legalism often, and I have always expected perfection from myself in every aspect of my life.  It has really caused me to question my salvation, and its just not a happy place to be in life.  Anyway, thanks for writing Fight Clubs…it is a very helpful book in rethinking my concept of what discipleship is about.

Travis, Seminary Student

Where to Get Fight Clubs

What Frees Us to Confess Sin?

Posted on August 18, 2009

In response to the Fight Clubs book, I recently received an inquiry about a particular sentence I wrote in the introduction:

“I can tell people my sins because my identity doesn’t hang on what they think of me.”

I wrote up a response, which Boundless published on their blog. In it I argue that most people approach others from one of two places, above (strong pride) or below (weak pride). Self-doubt sets us off in search of approval and pride sets us up for applause. We need something to free us from our search of approval and applause in order to confess our sin. Here is an excerpt and you can read the rest here.

When our identity is hung up on what people think of us, it becomes difficult to be honest with them. Some of us approach others from below, fearing their rejection or disapproval. In order to keep their approval intact, we refrain from allowing them to see the real, broken us. We may not lie to them (though we probably do), but we certainly don’t confess our sin to them. Why? Because we treasure their approval more than we treasure Christ.