MOVING IN THE RIGHT CIRCLES
Embrace the discipleship adventure
By Chick Yuill. IVP. 189 pages. £7.99
ISBN 978 1 844 745 036
This is a robust, well-written and largely very helpful book on the subject of being a real disciple, or apprentice, of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Yuill’s thesis is that there are four concentric circles that make up the authentic Christian life: walking with the Lord, growing in the church, engaging with the culture, and looking to the coming of the King. Each of these facets of discipleship is discussed in turn, with a fine balance of insightful Scripture exposition, striking illustrations and hard-hitting application.
I found some sections of the book particularly helpful (and often challenging). The highlights for me were:
- his repeated assertion of the crucial place of the local church in every authentic Christian life;
- his description of the training of a Jewish Rabbi, and its helpful insight into the purpose of disciples as those who imitate and model Jesus;
- his sustained emphasis on the primary need to be Christ-like if we are to make an impact for the Lord;
- his warnings about being satisfied with ‘narrow piety’: of being content with high personal morality and being active in and conforming to the culture of the local church’
- his focus on the return of the Saviour as crucial to Christian living.
There were a few areas that this reviewer found less satisfactory. Yuill makes an appeal to us to be inclusive fellowships, and yet he doesn’t face the fact that belonging is not really possible without true faith. In a few other places he seems rather vague, and commends things (like self-made rituals) that are not rooted in Scripture and are of questionable value.
However, all in all, I found it a biblical, practical, easily readable book on a crucial and neglected subject. I would especially recommend it to well-grounded Christians who need a challenge to grow in the Lord.
Graham Heaps,
co-pastor of Dewsbury Evangelical Church, a modern Reformed Baptist congregation in post-industrial West Yorkshire
