BOLIVAR, Mo. – A book signing for Dr. Kelly Malone’s new book will be held from 4-6 p.m., Tuesday, Dec. 3 at the Southwest Baptist University Bookstore on the Bolivar campus.
Malone’s fourth book, “Community Churches: Making Disciples in Urban Areas,” is part of the Urban Ministry in the 21st Century Series and one Malone says is “a call to action.”
“It challenges us to leave behind both debilitating beliefs and ineffective strategies
in order to form communities of Christ-followers,” said Malone, professor of intercultural
studies and Christian ministry and the director of global education at SBU. “These
Christ-followers are committed to laying aside the burdens of the present world in
order to walk with Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit.”
The book also will be used in at least three courses Malone teaches at SBU: Disciple-Making in Context, Urban Ministries, and a church planting course. Malone has written another book in the series titled, “City Church: Working Together to Transform Cities,” published by Urban Loft in 2016.
“The book will expose students to multiple church-based disciple-making models that they can use in their own ministries,” Malone said. “In each class, there will be projects tied to the book to encourage students to move beyond knowledge acquisition to real-life application.”
Malone said that while he plans to use the book as a text, that wasn't his only purpose for writing it. His desire is to help churches help others to grow spiritually.
“You might think, ‘Churches know how to do this,’ but if you look at many churches, there is very little spiritual growth going on among attendees and church members,” Malone said. “Also, many churches are not doing much in the way of reaching people in their communities who are not connected with any church. These unconnected people need to become connected to a church, and through these connections come to faith in Jesus Christ. Then, they also have the possibility of becoming growing disciples. This book is intended to help people and churches begin this process of spiritual change that will change their families, neighborhoods and cities.”
“While I have used all of my books as texts at different times, that has never been my primary purpose. My hope is to help church leaders and regular church goers to grow spiritually, and to help churches to grow spiritually, so that we can become more effective in carrying out the Great Commission (Matt. 28:16-20).”
A limited number of Malone’s book will be available for purchase at the SBU Bookstore both during and after the signing. For more information, contact the bookstore at (417) 328-1530.
*Published: 11-25-19