Question - Book Recommendation on Finding Your Mission?

Red-Curious · 2019-01-04T04:58:43+00:00

I'm removing secular sources from this thread for obvious reasons.

Thu Jan 1 0:00:00 1970 UTC

[permanently deleted]

Redactedddd · 2019-01-03T18:19:00+00:00

Waiting for an answer to this as well...

OsmiumZulu · 2019-01-04T22:12:49+00:00

“First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.” ‭‭1 Timothy‬ ‭2:1-2‬ ‭ESV‬‬

IMO that and the great commission is more than enough mission for most people. Unless you feel specifically called otherwise, I think there is great peace in the relative simplicity to which we are called to live.

Consider, the vast majority of the 2.2 billion self professed Christians in the wild (the term Christian here being broadly defined) he vast majority of them were not converted from another faith, but born into the Christian tradition of their parents. The single greatest weapon wielded against the world has been godly parents raising godly kids.

nonfictionfan · 2019-01-04T02:56:48+00:00

These aren't necessarily RP, but they might help:

It's Your Call by Gary Barkalow
Living The Life You Were Meant To Live by Tom Paterson
The Art of Work by Jeff Goins
Let Your Life Speak by Parker Palmer
The Road Back To You by Ian Morgan Cron

There are probably others out there, but this is a good start. Honestly, no one method or book will get you there. You'll have to take the parts that work best for you and intuitively sound like the right direction for you. Then combine them and look for the commonalities. What keeps showing up?

Similarly, what themes pop up in your life over and over? What movies, books, art, songs, quotes resonate the most and, again, what are the similarities?

Where were you hurt the most in life? What's your biggest wound? Redeem that wound. You were hurt there the most because it was where you could make the biggest difference.

Find where these things seem to overlap and you start zeroing in on it.

Red-Curious · 2019-01-04T04:57:02+00:00

Lost Art of Discipleship, by LeRoy Eims

Master Plan of Evangelism, by Coleman

Sermon: Born to Reproduce, by Dawson Trotman

RPCJoeMak · 2019-01-06T00:50:02+00:00

One thing that really helps me is to look for truth wherever I can find it. There is truth in the bible and related sources and there is also truth in secular sources.

As far as a reading list for helping guys to find their God given mission in life, some of the best books I have found are what some would call secular. For example, I consider No More Mr. Nice Guy to be a secular book. But that book is also listed here in the sidebar.

Another fantastic book is the Secret of Ultimate Self Confidence by Robert Anthony. This book is one of my top choices for guys starting on this journey because his introduction to the concept of Awareness is the best I have seen. It's sad that this book doesn't have a larger readership in churches, because there are a lot of spiritual concepts in the book and a lot of scriptures as well. But again, I have never seen the book in a bible book store and have never seen it widely circulated in church related circles. The topic of awareness is so crucial because without a heightened sense of awareness I don't know how you can understand what your God given mission is and how it relates to your place in the world.

The next book rounding out my top 3 books for newbies is Married Man Sex Life Primer. It may seem an odd choice for your topic, but it is essential reading if a guy is to really focus on his God given mission in life. It's essential because it gives a good foundation for explaining how the woman/female/spouse/girlfriend, etc. plays in the life of a man. If guys don't understand the intersexual dynamics involved with females, they can be easily led astray even if they started out on the right track with the God given mission in life. Guys have to know the pitfalls presented by women and they also have to understand the influence women play in our faith and in society in general.

So those are my top 3 books that guys go through in my program when working with men. To me all three of these books are essential reading. These 3 books help guys build a core confidence in dealing with relationships -- with both guys and girls. These 3 books also help guys build a vocabulary so they can learn to talk about all the issues that guys have.

From there we have a long list of books for guys to read as they advance down the trail.

The Bible is part of all of it, of course. I view the Bible as the foundation. But these 3 books start to really build the toolbox for guys in our program.

Hope that helps.

RPCJoeMak · 2019-01-06T01:47:33+00:00

One thing I would tweak is your premise. And maybe your terminology.

I feel that my mission is to tell others about Jesus. That's it. I can live out that mission in any number of ways. As a younger person in school I had some options available to me. Maybe my platform was more limited at that time, maybe not. But certainly my awareness was more limited.

So with a limited awareness comes limited options. As your awareness in life is raised, you realize that you have more options, etc.

I wouldn't worry so much about choosing the right "God given" mission. I think that can get a person into a oneitis mentality.

You current awareness might lead you to believe that you have a particular "God given" mission. That mission might not be in line with God's reality though.

If you are married to a particular "mission," or mindset, you might not see or be aware of many other bigger things that God has in store for you.

Keep showing Jesus to people. That's enough of a mission for any person.

I am not a fan of all that Jeff Bezos stands for, but in the business world he has few equals. He also provided one of my favorite quotes: "We are stubborn on vision and flexible on details."

I think that's a great way to view your God given mission. Be stubborn on your vision of showing Jesus, but be flexible in how you carry it out.

Some guys are too hard on themselves in this area of mission. It takes up too much RAM in their heads IMO.

As long as you have as your mission to show Jesus to others, it really doesn't matter if you make tents or sell purple. You can do just about anything while you live on this earth. Just keep showing Jesus to all around you.

Also, you don't need to go through a ton of books to find that answer.

Just keep showing Jesus to people.

Hope that helps.

Title	Question - Book Recommendation on Finding Your Mission?
Author	SkimTheDross
Upvotes	8
Comments	12
Date	January 3, 2019 12:48 PM UTC (5 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/RPChristians
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/RPChristians/comments/ac5evx/question_book_recommendation_on_finding_your/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/RPChristians/question-book-recommendation-on-finding-your.301522 https://theredarchive.com/post/301522