Commissioned to Love

Commissioned to Love, teaches readers, as Christians, as leaders, and as the Church to engage the whole Gospel. The Great Commission is a call for us to Love. Believers today are dealing with the great issue of living out the whole Gospel. We live the Gospel in part, while Jesus desires us to live the whole Gospel. There are huge issues The Church must address as we strive to live out the whole Gospel.

The Buy in USA link is through Bookshop.org. The Buy in Germany link is through Amazon.de. The Buy eBook link is through Amazon.com. We may receive a referral bonus for purchases made through either link, which helps to fund us without increasing your cost or decreasing the author’s earnings.

About The Book

 This book addresses these difficult questions: What is it to do justice? What is it to live in reconciliation? What does it look like to do evangelism? What is the process to do discipleship? We look at each of these areas through the lens of Christian Community Development and the clarion declaration through Acts 1:8, “…you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you shall be my witnesses first in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and carry the Gospel to the ends of the earth.”

What happens when we:

  • do evangelism without discipleship?
  • pursue justice without reconciliation?
  • engage in activities without relationship?

When we do any of these things we present the gospel only in part. But we are commissioned to love: Not just to do a part, but to live out the whole Gospel.

 

What’s inside

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Foreword

by Wayne “Coach” Gordon

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Chapter 1

Jesus is the Way

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Chapter 2

Introducing the Commission Circles

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Chapter 3

Christian Community Development

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Chapter 4

The Church in Action: Learning, Living, Loving, and Learning

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Chapter 5

Leading in Practice

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Chapter 6

Church-Based Community Development: Fruit in Keeping with Repentance

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Afterword

by Dr. Robert L. Owens

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Bonus Content

Commission Circles Worksheets

Chapter 1

(excerpt)

Jesus Is the Way

IN THIS BOOK, WE SHARE a lot of thoughts about how we should be living. But before we start sharing ideas and concepts, we want to clearly state that Jesus is the way! There are no methods, processes, or operations that lead to salvation other than believing in Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world. These pages will share our insights, passions, and beliefs, but they mean nothing without the power of Christ behind them. Whether we are ministering to those in the streets or preaching in the church, Jesus is the only way to eternal life. He is Lord!

We share for, in honor of, and because of our belief in Jesus Christ. He told us in John 12:32. “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”

Jesus, We Lift You Up!

A New Age of Leadership:

Leading, Living, Loving, and Learning
There is a question being asked all over this country, whether in the classrooms, at kitchen tables on Main Street, in boardrooms of corporate America, or in pulpits of the Church. The discussion is framed as succession planning or transition in leadership, and it simply asks, “Where are the next generation of leaders coming from?”

While we (John and Anthony) represent the next generation, we do not feel that we should be held as the “gold standard” models for the next generation. Instead, our goal is to discuss and share what God has put in our hearts about leadership and especially the need in these days for the church to thoughtfully engage issues such as justice, inequality, and diversity.

We are the children of the promise. We are old enough to lead, yet young enough to learn. We are more the beneficiaries of the greatness of our teachers, yet now we are called to help heal the physical, spiritual, financial, and social ills of our time. We are two young men of God, striving to live out the call of God on our lives; we are upholding the legacies of our family while charting a new course in these last days.

Leadership, The Next Generation

We both have observed leaders all our lives. With great leaders in our families, communities, and churches, we could not help but be shaped by their words, wisdom, and actions. Similar to the pull of God that has motivated and moved our forebearers, we are drawn to the crisis of our time and its void in leadership.

The world needs leadership from the next generation. Our generation has not directly suffered the depths of the Great Depression, experienced the collaborative force of a Civil Rights Movement, or the victories of women’s rights like leadership of previous generations did. Ours is the generation that has been scarred by the drug epidemic in America. We have devastatingly lost loved ones and friends to AIDS and cancer. Voices are silent in the boardroom, and hands are missing in the marketplace because they are behind prison bars—caught in the prison industrial complex.

Chapters

Pages

2020

978-1-940105-80-2

The Buy in USA link is through Bookshop.org. The Buy in Germany link is through Amazon.de. The Buy eBook link is through Amazon.com. We may receive a referral bonus for purchases made through either link, which helps to fund us without increasing your cost or decreasing the author’s earnings.

About the authors.

John P. Perkins

Anthony D. Bobo, Jr. has over 25 years of public service, leading at the highest levels of the federal government. He has also served on many boards in the private and public sectors, including the boards of Virginia Tech University and College of Natural Resources (Blacksburg, VA), Maryland Governor’s State Parks Community Advisory Committee, and Maryland Chapter of the Association for Conflict Resolution. He coaches leaders from every background and from many locations, including civil servants, community leaders, and pastors

Anthony’s commitment to seeing organizations achieve their best has caused him to partner with many organizations in providing strategic plans, business practices, and conflict resolution programs. His call to serve propels him to share experiences with others through lectures, courses, and workshops. He has served as an adjunct professor in Christian Leadership and Diversity at Greenville College (Greenville, IL) and as an instructor in Leadership and Workplace Conflicts at Center for Alternative Dispute Resolution (Greenbelt, MD).

John P. Perkins (1984-2022) was the Lead Pastor of Common Ground Covenant Church, a multi-ethnic missional church in Jackson, MS. He had also previously served as the President and CEO of the Spencer Perkins Center and John and Vera Mae Perkins Foundation, a Christian non-profit that focused on youth and community development in the heart of West Jackson.

Pastor John’s heart for community and economic development led Common Ground in efforts to blend church and community by engaging in partnerships with local business, schools, and churches in urban West Jackson. Recognizing, while shepherding, the most felt need for many of his congregation was jobs led to establishing Common Ground Enterprises which currently has a catering business, lawn care service, and barbershop & beauty salon.

Anthony D. Bobo, Jr.

Resources

In Commissioned to Love (pp.161-162 paperback), we have several recommended resources. Here are Amazon Affiliate links to those resources. Please note, we may earn a commission from books purchased through these links.

Click here to view resources

 

    • Assimilate or Go Home: Notes from a Failed Missionary on Rediscovering Faith
      D.L. Mayfield    from Amazon
    • Being Intercultural: A Jesus Follower’s Introductory Guide to Navigating Culture Well
      Stephen W. Jones   from I AM Intercultural
    • Church Forsaken: Practicing Presence in Neglected Neighborhoods
      Jonathan Brooks    from Amazon
    • Grow Down: How to Build a Jesus-Centered Faith
      Ken Castor    from Amazon
    • Let Justice Roll Down
      John M. Perkins    from Amazon
    • Real Hope in Chicago
      Wayne “Coach” Gordon    from Amazon
    • Rethinking Incarceration: Advocating for Justice that Restores
      Dominique DuBois Gilliard    from Amazon
    • Roadmap to Reconciliation 2.0: Moving Communities into Unity, Wholeness, and Justice
      Brenda Salter McNeil    from Amazon
    • Seeing Jesus in East Harlem: What Happens When Churches Show Up and Stay Put
      José Humphreys     from Amazon
    • The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church’s Complicity in Racism
      Jemar Tisby     from Amazon
    • White Awake: An Honest Look at What it Means to Be White
      Daniel Hill     from Amazon
    • With Justice for All: Strategy for Community Development
      John M. Perkins     from Amazon