GCD Weekly Newsletter - 5/09/22

Hello there, Neighbor. Good to see you again.

This spring I’ve been helping out with a local high school track and field team. Where we live the weather is finally warming up, and it’s been so nice to finally have some practices where coaches and athletes don’t have to wear winter coats!

With the change in weather, we are also starting to see neighbors we haven’t seen all winter. This change makes me think it’s a good time to share again about the book Placed for a Purpose, a book GCD published a little over a year ago. The subtitle to the book says it all: A Simple and Sustainable Vision for Loving Your Next-Door Neighbors. Authors Chris and Elizabeth McKinney provide a sustainable vision for the “low and slow” lifestyle of neighboring and supply practical tools that help readers build meaningful, gospel-motivated relationships with their fellow image-bearers right next door. You can get the book from Amazon.

Additionally, if you are attending the TGC Women’s Conference in Indianapolis from June 16-18 please join us for a special auxiliary event around Placed for a Purpose. Elizabeth and Chris will give practical tools that will help you invest in your community and build meaningful, gospel-motivated relationships with your fellow image-bearers right next door.

A continental breakfast and a copy of Placed for a Purpose will be included. The workshop is $10.

Last Week at GCDiscipleship.com

Persistence in Unanswered Prayer by Johnathan Gerrits | “Prayer should be for us a joyous time in communion with God,” writes guest author Johnathan Gerrits. “It is to be a time for both supplication and thanksgiving, a time for both mourning and gladness.” Sometimes, however, it can seem as though our prayers bounce off the ceiling, if they even get that high. Gerrits reminds us that believers can take comfort that while we may feel our prayers are unanswered, no child of God has ever prayed a prayer that went unheard.

He Shall Gently Lead by Tim Shorey | In a few days many people will be celebrating Mother’s Day. Although it is not explicitly a post about mothers, staff writer Tim Shorey opens his article with the images we’ve all seen of Ukrainian mothers caring for their children as they flee the war. It’s a powerful image. And Shorey believes it helps us understand how God promises to care for his people.

Shame Is a Cruel Taskmaster by Brianna Lambert | This article from one of our staff writers was actually published last month. But I wanted to share it again because I thought it was so helpful. In transparent and vulnerable ways, Lambert tells us how shame may feel like a good motivator at the time, but its roots are too weak to sustain any real fruit in our lives. The article begins with the line, “I always wished I had another body.”

Letters to the Editor

We’d love to hear from you. Please send me feedback about our articles (or anything else!) at Benjamin@GCDiscipleship.com. And if you’ll allow us, we’ll share your comments in future emails.

Thanks for reading,
Benjamin Vrbicek, managing editor for Gospel-Centered Discipleship