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Difference Makers: An Action Guide for Jesus Followers Kindle Edition

by M. Scott Boren (Author), Scot McKnight (Foreword) Format: Kindle Edition
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 18 ratings
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Christians want to make a difference, but sometimes the ministry bar is raised so high that only those who are "go-getters" can do it. Mission work can look like a drastic life change, unattainable to those who aren't in full-time ministry. So the average church member is left without a mission.

Pastor and author M. Scott Boren shows how ordinary Christians can make a huge impact through their everyday lives. Boren teaches church members how to make a difference for God where they are. At work. With friends. In the neighborhood. Mission work doesn't need to be a life-altering event. It can be simply living a life that honors Jesus and points others to him.
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  1. Print length
    210 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    Baker Books
  5. Publication date
    June 15, 2013
  6. File size
    3349 KB
  7. Page Flip
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Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

One ordinary life can make an extraordinary impact

Let's face it: most of us are regular people living in a broken world--a world that needs our touch, our influence, our actions. Difference Makers is not a book about Christians in the headlines. It's about you. This 40-day exploration will show how you can make a difference for God where you are right now--at your workplace, in your neighborhood, with your friends and family--just by the way you live, pray, and act in your daily life.

Ready to get started?

"In this insightful and immensely practical book, Scott empowers us ordinary Christians to become extraordinary 'difference makers' by teaching us how to notice the way God is present and active in even the most mundane aspects of our lives--whether changing our baby's diapers, mowing the lawn, greeting our neighbor, or working a nine-to-five job. This is a book that all of us 'ordinary' Christians need to read!"--Greg Boyd, senior pastor, Woodland Hills Church, Maplewood, MN; author of Letters from a Skeptic

"The creative insights and reflections in Difference Makers encourage us toward a 40-day contemplative journey that will challenge us to more deeply encounter, experience, and engage the grace of God as we begin to make an undeniable difference for good in the world."--Bruxy Cavey, author of The End of Religion; teaching pastor at The Meeting House, Toronto

"This book provides doable first steps that help the average Christian make a difference. You can change the world around you when you live out these principles."--Steve Gladen, pastor of small groups, Saddleback Church; author of Small Groups with Purpose and Leading Small Groups with Purpose

"I hesitate to call Scott Boren's Difference Makers a book because reading it is more like submitting to a tutor, a coach, a spiritual guide. Pastors, Christians, no more conferences, please. Instead, read this book."--David Fitch, B. R. Lindner Chair of Evangelical Theology, Northern Seminary; author of Prodigal Christianity

M. Scott Boren is the founder of The Center for Community and Mission and the author of Missional Small Groups and The Relational Way. He shares life with his wife, Shawna, and their four children. He can be reached at www.mscottboren.com.

About the Author

M. Scott Boren is a trainer, consultant, and author of Missional Small Groups and The Relational Way. He shares life with his wife, Shawna, and their four children. He can be reached at www.mscottboren.com.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00B85M4IC
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Baker Books (June 15, 2013)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ June 15, 2013
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 3349 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 210 pages
  • Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 0801015081
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 18 ratings

About the author

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M. Scott Boren

M. Scott Boren

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M. Scott Boren is the founder of The Center for Community and Mission (www.mscottboren.org). He is a consultant, trainer and author who works with churches to help establish effective small groups and missional communities, and he coaches pastors in leading change in the church. He holds a Masters in New Testament Studies from Regent College and a doctorate from Luther Seminary.

He grew up on a farm in North Texas, raising cattle and hauling hay. He has his undergraduate degree in Agriculture Economics from Texas A & M (Gig'em Ags.) He resided for three years in Vancouver, Canada where he studied under the New Testament scholar Gordon Fee. After that, he served for six years as one of the pastors at Woodland Hills Church in Saint Paul, MN. He lives in the Twin Cities with his wife, Shawna, and their four children.

To learn more about the various services he provides to churches, visit his website www.mscottboren.org.

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
18 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Di Kistler
5.0 out of 5 stars Immensely practical yet profoundly rich
Reviewed in the United States on August 19, 2013
Verified Purchase
We all want to matter in this world but sometimes it seems making a real impact is beyond our reach. This book gives practical ways we can all make a difference, right where we live, in our neighborhoods and networks, putting love where love is not. I am reading this book for the second time now with a few others. This is a book that all of us ordinary Christians need to read!
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ji1034
5.0 out of 5 stars Motivating, spiritual read
Reviewed in the United States on February 14, 2015
Verified Purchase
I will be using this book in a small group class in the coming weeks. I just finished pre-reading. I am very much looking forward to working through this book with my small group.
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Rob
4.0 out of 5 stars Four Stars
Reviewed in the United States on January 20, 2015
Verified Purchase
Arrived in promised condition on was very interesting.
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DPB
5.0 out of 5 stars Difference Makers - excellent book
Reviewed in the United States on May 22, 2014
Verified Purchase
I have not finished reading it all the way through yet, but from what I can see...I know it is a great book and something that will help us make a difference in this world for the Lord!
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SimpleMom
5.0 out of 5 stars I am ready for a difference!
Reviewed in the United States on July 29, 2014
Verified Purchase
Just started the book and although it can captivate you, take your time and really meditate on the scripture and study the details.
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Danny Holman
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on July 29, 2014
Verified Purchase
Great transaction
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David D. Flowers
5.0 out of 5 stars Are You Making a Difference?
Reviewed in the United States on September 18, 2013
Scott Boren writes, "Most difference makers have more in common with George Bailey than the heroes of The Avengers." Just ask the folks in good ole Bedford Falls. One ordinary life can make an extraordinary difference!

If you've ever felt like you're not making a difference where you live, or you're just not real sure how to engage your neighborhood and community for Christ, then I believe that Difference Makers can help you and your church.

Difference Makers is written in forty short chapters that can be read as a 40-day study or in larger sections. Each section concludes with a suggested activity. There is even a study guide at the end that includes an icebreaker, focus Scripture, and discussion questions. It's ideal for small groups.

Difference Makers offers practical ways for making a Kingdom difference in your local neighborhood and community.
Do you struggle to know how you can bring change around you? Does it seem like you don't have any extra time in your schedule? Do you feel like you're all alone and the task is too daunting? Get this book!

One of my favorite chapters in Difference Makers is ch. 16 on Paying Attention to the Spirit. God is always at work around us.

"The Spirit moves, but reading what the Spirit is doing requires that we pay attention to the whispers and nonverbal cues. By simply being attentive to the mystery of what God is up to in those around us, we discover the hidden ways that redemption is being woven into the fabric of life" (p.88).

Difference Makers challenges us to look beyond the surface in order to think in a "deeper" way when it comes to our neighborhood.

What is positive and therefore calls for a response of support (e.g., a local battered-women's home)?
What is a natural part of life and therefore calls for redemption and use for God's kingdom (e.g., vacant buildings that resulted from a recession)?
What is unacceptable and therefore calls for subversion (e.g., hungry, undocumented families)?
What is negative and therefore calls for active resistance (e.g., sex slavery)?
And in ch. 20, Paying Attention to the Routines, Scott writes:

"While books, sermons, and concepts about God's love can be helpful, we become difference makers as we listen to God and pay attention to where he is at work in the routines of life. And as we pay attention to these routines, the life of making a difference gets inside of us. It becomes more and more who we are" (p104-105).

Scott Boren reminds us all that what we do really counts for the Kingdom, more than we know. His book will encourage you to seek out ways to make a difference as Jesus followers motivated by a sincere love for others. This is a book you will want to read and discuss with others in community.

D.D. Flowers, 2013.
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Dr Conrade Yap
4.0 out of 5 stars Making a Difference 1 Step of Faith at a Time
Reviewed in the United States on June 11, 2013
This book is designed as a 40-days journey to be a difference maker, a day at a time, one action at a time, and one step of faith at a time. There are those who can be "leap of faith" difference makers, while the rest are mostly "step of faith" people wanting to make a difference. The core conviction is that anyone who wants to make a difference, can make a difference. The process of change also called the E3 Difference Maker process.

We first encounter God. We then experience God together as a community. Finally, we engage the world with the Word of God. With intentional movement and action, the purpose of the flow is to let the actions we take change us from the inside out. Though Boren describes each stage sequentially, it needs to be understood that all three domains of encounter-experience-engagement are overlapping processes. The Christian life is not about following a set of rules. It is about becoming a follower who lets the truth of Christ shines in the relationships we make or are making. Difference makers essentially act best in the middle of all three circles as follows.

Each chapter is short. It leads with a personal sharing or a story. It brings in some biblical examples, There are lots of diagrams and illustrations to give readers a chance to visualize what the author is saying, and how to place themselves into the image. On some days, it will simply be a straight-through reading. On other days, there will be activity lists. Gradually, the chapters on engaging the world becomes more personal and urges the readers to do more than just read the book.

My Thoughts
===========
The key benefit in this book is that it challenges readers who want to make a difference with a plan that is doable. Whether it is successful in terms of seeing lives changed, or bringing in the numbers, we may not know. What is important is that the steps are changing the practitioner from the inside out, through outside activities. Guided by biblical support and boldness in living, the underlying conviction Boren has is that we can all be a difference-maker. In a way, though the author does not explicitly state it, the book attempts to parallel Rick Warren's Purpose-Driven Life. The ideas are simple enough, but the more difficult thing is to get the reader to get up and do something about it.

Such a book again presents an opportunity for readers to grow. They can do it, but they first have to want to do it. They can be a difference, but first they need to be willing to make a difference. They can make a difference in another person's life, but first they need to have experienced the difference. Boren reminds me again that making a difference does not require one to take a radical bungee leap of faith. We can start small. We can begin humbly. We can commence now, a day at a time, an activity at a time, a person at a time.

Rating: 4 stars of 5.

conrade
This book is provided to me free by Baker Books and NetGalley without any obligation for a positive review. All opinions offered above are mine unless otherwise stated or implied.
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