You can really grow

Alison Bolton | August 2015 - Highfields Book of the Month

By John Hindley - (2015) New Malden: The Good Book Company

This book is a wonderfully refreshing read. A cup of tea for the soul! And a timely one for me.

If you've ever felt like you 'ought' to be growing but wondered where to start, or felt a twinge of guilt or a pang of regret that you're not growing in your relationship with Jesus the way you once were, this book will really help you.

I decided to do a little interview with myself(!) about the book to whet your appetite. 

What is the book about?
Unsurprisingly, it is about growing as a Christian. John Hindley starts with the startling (and challenging!) statement that “if you are not growing, you are shrinking.” There's no in between. Moving on from that premise, he presents us with a model for thriving as a Christian – something which is God's work in us, but which he delights to involve us in too. As always, Hindley gets to the heart of the issue, helping us to really want to grow, not just to feel that we ought to. He paints a wonderful picture of Christian growth in the context of the church family, he gently helps us to broaden our understanding of things that might help us to grow, and he's not afraid to challenge some of our dangerous presuppositions along the way.

Did any particular chapters stand out?
Casting your eye over the contents page, the chapter 'Bible reading can damage your health' might stand out as surprising! And yet Hindley is quite right, there are ways of reading the Bible that can indeed damage us. Just think of the Pharisees! As well as exposing some of the 'dangerous' ways we approach the Bible, John Hindley gives us some really helpful pointers on how to read the Bible in a way that spurs us on to love Jesus more and become more like him. Intrigued? You'll just have to read the book!

There is also an excellent chapter called 'Seeing Jesus in creation' about how we can see Jesus all over the place in his world, a world that was designed to declare his glory. Hindley helps us to connect some dots in this chapter, because while most of us would probably have a vague understanding of how creation reveals God's power and majesty, we probably wouldn't think of it as one of the means God uses to help us grow. This chapter really inspired me to go out into God's world with my eyes peeled for Jesus – to think of his warmth as the sun peeps out from behind the clouds and warms my face; to marvel at his strength as the rain beats the window and lightning flashes across the sky, remembering how he stilled a storm with a word; to long for God's refreshing streams of mercy when the land is parched and the grass goes brown (a rare occurrence in Wales I'll grant you!). We need to have eyes to see more of Jesus as we go about our day. This is one way that will help us grow to be more like him.

Why should we all read it?
I love John Hindley's approach. It is thoroughly biblical and refreshingly freeing! How often have you thought that growing was about becoming more disciplined or doing more ministries or developing harder skills? And how often have you felt burdened by a weight of guilt as you see how much you fail and how far you have to go? Well this book will blow those false ideas out of the water and give you Jesus instead. Read it to love him more.