Grown-Up Faith: The Big Picture for a Bigger Life

Myers (Home Run)—founding pastor of 12Stone Church in Gwinnett County, Ga.—sternly addresses the question of why many Christians appear to have an uncommitted faith and live the same lives as non-Christians, concluding that they have not “grown-up” into their faith. Myers defines spiritual maturity as a transformation of the mind, heart, and will, and believes that many Christians excel in one area but often neglect the other two. For him, this imbalance manifests as intellectualism, emotionalism, or legalism—depending on which aspect becomes the focus. Comprehensive growth, he writes, is rooted in close reading of the Bible, and he meticulously explains his belief that the Old and New Testament serve as a perfect mirror, divided by the birth of Jesus. To help readers rebalance their faith, he constructs sections around strengthening each of his three fundamental aspects: discussions of ceremonial law appeal to the mind; descriptions of the tabernacle are meant to affect the heart; and his conclusions about God’s all-encompassing power, drawn from the book of Revelations, aim to reinforce reader’s faith and willpower. Myers’s evangelical overview of the Bible is both a practical guide to dynamic spiritual growth and an intricate work of apologetics. (Jan.)