"It wasn’t supposed to be this way. We start out with hearts brimming with hope and excitement. And that energy carries us for awhile, maybe even years. But one day we suddenly find ourselves like the man in the Prodigal Son story: half-dead, going through the dreaded motions hoping no one around us notices. But they do. It’s not that we’ve stopped loving God, but it’s just that things have happened along the way that have caused us to settle for a small life, one defined primarily by activity for God. We look around and sigh: It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Author Greg Hawkins knows that reality first-hand. He also knows there is something beyond that reality if we have the courage to step out and hope once more. Far from simply more stuff to do, Greg shares the necessary and doable shifts in our thought and language that lead to true intimacy with God. That’s the life of more we’ve hoped for all along, the life where everything is waiting for us!"
"One of the church's primary responsibilities is to foster genuine spiritual growth in people's lives. Today's pastors bring tremendous effort and passion to this task, but they are often disappointed by people who sit in the pews for years, knowing about Jesus but never really knowing him. In 2004, Willow Creek Community Church in suburban Chicago undertook a three-year study to measure spiritual growth called the REVEAL Spiritual Life Survey. Over the next six years, additional data was collected from over a quarter million people in well over a thousand churches of every size, denomination, and geographic area. Move presents verifiable, fact-based, and somewhat startling findings from the latest REVEAL research, drawing on compelling stories from actual people-congregation members of varying spiritual maturity, as well as pastors who are equally candid as they share their disappointments and their successes. It provides a new lens through which church leaders can see and measure the evidence of spiritual growth. The local church is uniquely equipped to foster spiritual growth and challenge people to pursue a life of full devotion to Christ. Move helps pastors and church leaders inspire and direct that challenge with confidence as they lead their congregations to move closer to Christ."
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