It’s been a full season of ministry, of working on good, kingdom projects and investing in people that God brings across my path. In every way, ministry has been rewarding, purposeful and mostly, a lot of fun. I really do love the work of the ministry I’m a part of.

And yet.

What started as a tiredness which I attributed to my week-long battle through on and off fever and a hacking cough - it’s been going around - has now settled into a low grade feeling of blah. It’s not depression. It’s not despair and I wrestle to even know how to explain it but it's there. And as I actually sit with it and think back, it's been there for a while, weeks perhaps. 

It is unfortunately a familiar feeling, something that visits once, sometimes twice a year and which usually, as Douglas Rumford observes, follows a season where I find myself “unable to keep all the fires that we’ve started fueled.” I took on too much. One project in particular has turned into a bit of a roller coaster of on again off again waiting with a lot riding on my shoulders. 

At this point it’s just a season of the blahs, of fighting to stay motivated and occasionally feeling tired throughout the day. I’m thankful that I’ve had good mentors and friends that have taught me to see the symptoms and through the years I have learned to respond proactively and early. It is easy to see however that, left untended, this sort of season could easily descend into full scale burnout. We read about it in others more than we’d like and wonder why it happens so often to pastors and leaders and regular people alike.

One thing that I often find helpful is to pick up a book on the topic of soul care - that’s what it is after all - and so yesterday I began Douglas Rumford’s Soul Shaping.  I’m just one chapter in but found this first chapter, “Recognizing the Symptoms of Soul Neglect” an excellent resource for anyone wondering if they are wandering into the beginnings of the blahs or the blues or the dark night of the soul. His list of ten symptoms is a useful rubric to hold yourself up to if you’re not quite sure. The list is a simple tool which will help you reflect on the state of your soul. 

I won’t explain each here, most are pretty easy to understand, but I’d encourage you to prioritize setting aside regular time to reflect on your life and thoughts and how your soul is doing. In our hurried, harried lives of the 21st century few prioritize anything other than keeping busy doing productive things. This of course flies in the face of John 15 and the abiding life that Jesus calls us to but it seems the siren song we cannot restrain ourselves from following. 

Here are Rumford’s list of ten soul symptoms:

1. Low Grade “Depression Fever”
2. Busy But Bored
3. Loss Of Control Over Life’s Routine
4. Loss Of Responsiveness To Others
5. Withdrawal From Responsibility And Leadership
6. Preoccupation With Projects Of Lesser Importance
7. Restlessness And Dissatisfaction
8. Resurgence Of Unhealthy Habits, Diminished Impulse Control And Diminished Resistance To Temptation
9. Guilt And Shame
10. A Hard Heart

It should be noted that everyone will find themselves in seasons like this from time to time. There are things we can do to guard against it but we do live in a broken world. We started the article with a Psalm of David, a man after God’s heart and he sounds like he’s in a pretty dark place. The Apostle Paul once wrote that he “despaired of life itself” (1 Corinthians 1:8). Charles Spugeon, in a talk to ministerial students, once said, “Fits of depression come over the most of us. Usually cheerful as we may be, we must at intervals be cast down. The strong are not always vigorous, the wise not always ready, the brave not always courageous, and the joyous not always happy.”

If you reflect on the list above and find you check off more of the symptoms than you’d like to admit, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ve somehow been disobedient to God or failed. It does mean that you probably need to take steps to return to a place of greater soul health though.

Near the end of the chapter, Rumford says, “Paying attention to our hearts is the first step to valuing ourselves – as God values us – and to setting us free to value and love others – as God through Christ values and loves  them.”

Set aside some time this week - a good half day or so - to sit with the Lord and reflect on the state of your soul. 

Other Helpful Books

• Embracing Soul Care by Stephen W. Smith
• Emotionally Healthy Spirituality by Pete Scazzero
• Leading on Empty by Wayne Cordiero
• Do you have a book you've found helpful for this topic? Share it in the comments.

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With a description like the one above, I came to this book expecting an academic tome, something created for the intellectual heights of academia or those dedicated missiologists who read everything they can get their hands on. I was therefore pleasantly surprised to find that Nabeel's voice in the book had stayed true to his voice in both of his other books: winsome, accessible, narrative and generous.  I think this highlights one of Qureshi’s greatest gifts to the church: His ability to speak with authority and deep knowledge about complicated and complex topics in ways that we can all understand.  He is engaging without being flippant, compelling without being preachy and committed to the truth without being pedantic.

No God But One: Allah or Jesus? Is written in two main sections which each explore two important questions through five different parts. 

The two questions are:

1. What are the differences between Islam and Christianity?
2. Can we know whether Islam or Christianity is true?  

With these questions framing up the discussion, Nabeel makes a rock solid case for the claims of the Biblical understanding of Jesus and graciously pulls apart the Islamic arguments both for Islam and against Christianity. At nearly 300 pages, this is an in depth study of the topic.  Just about everything a person has heard or wondered about Islam is covered.

A few years ago I was sharing with a group of high school students who were reading Kate McCord’s book, In the Land of Blue Burqas.  Most of them were not interested in ministry to Muslims but all of them felt that they had grown in their understanding of the God of the Bible because for the first time, they’d seen their God side by side by the god of the Quran.  The distinctions they were sensing brought about a deeper understanding of and appreciation for the God they worship. 

With No God But One: Allah or Jesus?, Nabeel Qureshi gives readers a chance not only to learn about Islam, but in so doing, he invites readers to grow in their own understanding of and appreciation for the God they serve.  Because of this, I want to encourage everyone who follows Christ to read this powerful book.

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Sometimes you need a book that, through reading a chapter a day, you receive encouragement in your faith.  Fear Not: Living a Life of No Regrets was just that book for me this past summer.   Author James Cha weaves captivating stories, Biblical truth and a lifetime of wisdom into this great devotional.  James and his wife Faith spent over a decade serving the Lord in Central Asia, saw more than 120 Muslims come to faith in Christ and experienced their own share of persecution.  It is because of these experiences and James' deep knowledge of the Bible that Fear Not is an excellent resources for any believer wanting to grow in their faith.  It will be an especially helpful resources for any interested in moving to the Muslim world to serve the Lord.  The book covers a myriad of topics all of which work toward helping the reader to respond to the call of Christ in obedience and surrender. It was incredibly encouraging, filled with exhortation and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to grow closer to Christ and learn to be a more active participant in His kingdom mission.

Fear Not: Living a Life of No Regrets
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Do you want to be a "tramp for the Lord"?

Do you want to roam the Gap with the savior?

Do you want to journey fourth to give a dying world the good news of Jesus?

Start by reading David Bryant's article, To Be A World Christian.

Contact Us and we'll work to encourage and equip to you go into the harvest, locally, regionally and globally.  

Growing up in a small, rural Texas town, Chris Clayman’s journey to West Africa and then to one of the worlds largest and most diverse cities may be surprising to some.  But in light of God’s superplan, it makes perfect sense.  

Clayman is the Co-Founder and an Associate Director of Global Gates, a mission organization focused on reaching the ends of the earth through global gateway cities.  Superplan:  A Journey into God’s Story is Clayman’s telling of his unexpected journey into the superplan of God.  It is a book filled with encouragement and challenges readers to step into risk taking obedience to Jesus.

“Superplan” is a term a Bangladeshi brother in New York City coined in thinking about his own story and after hearing the of the circuitous journey on which God took Chris to bring him to Harlem where he regularly shares the love of Jesus with the very West African Muslims he had hoped to reach when he originally moved across the ocean.  

"God’s Superplan is the redemptive story of God, rooted in eternity, recorded in the Bible, and realized even today. God’s Superplan transcends our strengths and weaknesses, victories and sufferings, ideas and efforts. In dramatic ways, God is drawing people into knowledge and love of him from all peoples and areas of the world. This redemptive story is one God does not keep to himself. Instead, he beckons us to leave our mundane, small plans to join him in his Grand Narrative." - Chris Clayman

Part memoir, part biography of former Muslims, part missiological treaties, Superplan is an excellent book.  The book is also a lens into ministry among diaspora peoples in North America and is therefore both an instructive and helpful resource for anyone wanting to share the love of Jesus with immigrants and refugees.   

​Superplan is a vivid example that modern missions is truly everywhere to everywhere.

Buy Your Copy

When I first received training and began working to apply the principles and strategies that would lead to multiplying movements of disciples-making-disciples and churches-planting-churches, I thought I had it figured out. 

After all, I'd sat through a few hours of training and read the book, T4T: A Discipleship Re-Revolution.  

I quickly realized that the way I'd always done things and learned to do things - my old paradigms of ministry - were well worn into my life.  Like a deep rut in a country road, these paradigms kept sucking me back in.  I'd think I was applying the principles of multiplication only to find out I'd slipped back into old habits.  

What I needed was a way to continually refresh and re-form and recast vision.  If vision leaks, I needed a way to constantly be refilling the vision.

24:14 - A Testimony To All Peoples is just that sort of resource.  A collection of articles and testimonies from movement practitioners around the world, it provides a great source of inspiration, testimonies, new ideas and a clear vision for finishing the task.

The book is built around Jesus' words in Matthew 24:14, "And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come."  It has forty three chapters, all easily readable in five to ten minutes.  

The old saying goes, "An apple a day keeps the doctor away."    With this book I'd reframe that old proverb and rather say, "A chapter a week keeps the vision refreshed."

>>> Find 24:14 Here (FREE)

It was early 2008 when I was first introduced to movement thinking at a world wide gathering for the mission agency I was working with at the time.  I was new to the mission field, to church planting and so the week long seminar I attended rocked my world.  There were so many paradigm shifts in what I was hearing, so much that was counter intuitive to what I'd done my entire church life in the U.S.  It was disorientating at first but it struck a chord deep in my soul.  

Church planting movments (CPM), disciple making movements (DMM), the spontaneous expansion of the church - all of it seemed born in the pages of  scripture.    Reading the case studies of movements happening in Asian and Africa looked like the book of Acts far more than my own church experience.  And we we living in a country that was less than 0.01% Christian. 

Doing what we'd always done was just not an option.

Over the next several years, we got some great training, had a great coach and dove into our own personal journey of rewriting the paradigms of church that had been embedded in us by a lifetime of North American church culture.  I also began reading everything I could get my hands on in order to help me  grow in my understanding and practice of all that it would take to see a church planting movement birthed where we were.

The first book that I read over and over again was the book of Acts.  It is where everyone should start.  But after that I began to find other books that helped me learn what God was doing in the book of Acts.

And so here are seven books that I found helpful on that journey.