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Overview
Believing Is Only the Beginning
Do you long for a deeper sense of meaning and purpose in your life? Do you believe all the right things, go to church, and faithfully read your Bible, still feeling that something is missing? You may be right.
Two thousand years ago Jesus gave an urgent assignment to his followers right before he left. At its essence it was not just an invitation to believe; it was a bold call to action. It was a challenge to go into the world to reclaim, reform, and restore it for Christ.
Simply stated, the message of this book is that God has invited you to join him in this world-changing mission. And if you are not personally participating in God’s great endeavor, you could be missing the very thing he created you to do.
Best-selling author Rich Stearns invites you not just to stand on the sidelines but to get into the game. That is when the adventure begins.
“Unfinished, just might challenge everything you thought you understood about your Christian faith. Unfinished is a call to finish the job Christ gave his church to do. If every Christian read this book and took it seriously, the world would never be the same again.”—Bill Hybels, senior pastor, Willow Creek Community Church; and chairman, Willow Creek Association
“Just when I’ve gotten comfortable with my faith, here comes Rich Stearns, reminding me what matters and who God loves and why. Just when my world is the way I want it, Rich reminds me the world is not the way God wants it. Hungry families. Malnourished kids. Just when I dare think my work is done, Rich reminds me that we are just getting started. First in The Hole in Our Gospel, now in Unfinished, Rich gives me a kind, gracious kick. Thanks, Rich. (I think.)”—Max Lucado, pastor and best-selling author
“Okay, admit it: sometimes you wonder . . . don’t you? Is this it? The life you’re living. Is there more? From his journey in corporate and nonprofit leadership—in very good causes—Rich Stearns concludes there is, indeed, more. More purpose. More meaning. More life. In Unfinished you will discover how your life can be about more.”—Elisa Morgan, author; speaker; publisher, FullFill; and president emerita, MOPS International
“Rich Stearns has done it again! In this winsome, engaging, and challenging book, he calls us back to some of the key issues of what it means to be followers of Christ in a world full of distractions and false gods. This is a book for everyone, about finding the place of our calling in God’s global mission. It is a book about fulfillment, adventure, and a lifetime of transformation. It made me hungry for more of the life God has in store for us.”—Dr. Stephen Hayner, president, Columbia Theological Seminary
“Your story can be a part of the Great Story. Rich Stearns knows the story and lives the story. Unfinished may call you to the greatest chapter of your life.”—John Ortberg, senior pastor, Menlo Park Presbyterian Church; and author, Who Is This Man?
“The kingdom is both already and not yet, the work of Christ both finished and to be completed. Stearns reminds readers of every Christian’s responsibility to live on mission, in light of Jesus’ example and call. Richard shows us by his life, the ministry he leads, and the passion of this book that there is much to be done and we are to be a part of God’s grand plan.”—Ed Stetzer, president, LifeWay Research; and author, Subversive Kingdom
“Every generation of Christians needs a wake-up call to remind us of how serious and strenuous are the demands of discipleship. May Rich Stearns’s Unfinished be that alarm for our time.”—David Neff, editorial vice president, Christianity Today
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780849964398 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Nelson, Thomas, Inc. |
| Publication date: | 01/14/2014 |
| Sold by: | HarperCollins Publishing |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 288 |
| File size: | 616 KB |
About the Author
Richard Stearns went from success to significance when he left the corporate world behind to become president of World Vision U.S. in 1998. After 20 years as the longest-serving CEO of the Christian relief and development organization, he plans to retire in January 2019. Stearns holds a bachelor's degree from Cornell University and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. His professional career included leadership roles at Gillette, Parker Brothers Games, The Franklin Mint, and Lenox Inc., where he became president and chief executive officer in 1995. Stearns brought corporate best practices to World Vision, where he inspired a culture of outcome-focused management. His lasting legacy is his leadership in calling on the Church in America to respond to some of the greatest needs of our time, notably the HIV and AIDS pandemic and the global refugee crisis. Stearns and his wife, Reneé, have five children and five grandchildren and live in Bellevue, Washington.
Read an Excerpt
UNFINISHED
BELIEVING IS ONLY THE BEGINNING
By RICHARD E. STEARNS
Thomas Nelson
Copyright © 2013World VisionAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-8499-6439-8
Excerpt
CHAPTER 1The Meaning of Life and Other Important Things
At the deepest level, every human culture is religious—defined by what its inhabitants believe about some ultimate reality, and what they think that reality demands of them.
—ROSS DOUTHAT
I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
—JOHN 10:10
On Christ the solid Rock I stand; all other ground is sinking sand.
—EDWARD MOTE
A few years ago a new word came into our lexicon that characterizes our human preference to bend the truth to accommodate our desires. In 2006, Merriam-Webster selected the word truthiness as its Word of the Year. The word was coined by Stephen Colbert on his late-night political satire show in order to describe how politicians could bend the truth to support their actions. Here is the Webster definition:
truthiness, n. the quality of preferring concepts or facts one wishes to be true, rather than concepts or facts known to be true
When announcing that truthiness had been selected, beating out candidates such as google and terrorism, Merriam-Webster president John Morse commented, "We're at a point where what constitutes truth is a question on a lot of people's minds, and truth has become up for grabs. 'Truthiness' is a playful way for us to think about a very important issue." Important indeed.
What Is Truth?
Two thousand years before Stephen Colbert, Pontius Pilate asked Jesus perhaps the ultimate question: "What is truth?" Jesus had been brought to Pilate because, as the Roman governor, only he had the authority to order Jesus' execution. Pilate didn't know what to do with this political hot potato. He ended up having a conversation with Jesus and asked him just what kind of king Jesus was claiming to be. After all, it was dangerous, and perhaps a little bit loony, for someone to call himself a king under the nose of Caesar, especially a man standing in shackles in front of a Roman governor. Jesus said to Pilate: "You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me."
This prompted Pilate, perhaps a cynical politician, to reply with his timeless question, "What is truth?"
People today are still asking that same question. Many more seem to be asking the question that comes before that question, "Is there any such thing as truth?" This is not a book on philosophy, so I won't endeavor to make the lengthy philosophical argument required to fully answer this question. Rather, I will just appeal to your common sense. Of course there is truth. How can you make the statement "There is no such thing as truth" and then assert that your statement is true? It is virtually impossible to live our lives at all unless we make some assumptions about what is true and what is false, what is right and what is wrong. Most of us live our lives based on our understanding that some things are true and good and other things are false and wrong.
Why is this matter of foundational truth so important? Because truth has implications. For example, if you believe human life to be of little value, you might become a murderer. Why not? But if you believe that human life is precious, you might instead choose to become a doctor. Every choice you make will be based on the foundational truths you have embraced. Everything in this book and, in fact, everything in almost every book that has ever been written, deals in some way with the ultimate question of truth and the meaning of life. Writers either speak directly to life's meaning, or they base their writing on some underlying assumption of meaning. Certainly every religious leader in the world represents his or her understanding of the true meaning of life to his or her followers. But the meaning of life is not a question only for religious leaders. Every talk show host, political commentator, journalist, schoolteacher, comedian, celebrity, politician, mother, father, and bartender in the world bears witness to some definition—their definition—of the ultimate meaning of our lives. In fact, as I will try to demonstrate, every person who has ever lived has been confronted with the question "What does it all mean?" and has answered it one way or the other.
We all build our lives on some foundational assumptions about truth and reality, and those assumptions matter a great deal. If we build on a weak foundation, then what we build won't stand firm. Jesus warned of this very thing in Matthew 7:
"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash." (Matt. 7:24–27)
Building our lives on the wrong foundations has consequences, disastrous ones. That is why this first chapter is so important. It will become the foundation for understanding where we fit in God's overall plan. So before we jump into a more specific discussion of the Christian worldview and its relevance in our world today, we need to have a first-things-first conversation about this meaning-of-life question that every person grapples with.
We believe that things like freedom, kindness, love, justice, and the dignity of human life are good and right. Don't we even value honesty and truth-telling itself in a person's character? We form friendships with other people because we believe friendship is good. We work to earn a living because we judge that it is wrong to steal. We sacrifice for our children because it is the right thing to do. Our entire legal system is based on the notion that some things are true and right and others are false and wrong. How many tortured prime-time crime dramas spend their full sixty minutes painstakingly seeking to determine the truth that will decide a person's guilt or innocence?
People who say there is no truth are phonies; they actually live their lives based on things they believe to be true. And let's dispense with the notion that something might be true for you but not for me. That may be accurate when describing why we prefer different foods or different music but not for ultimate issues. The law of gravity is not true just for me but not for you. And when it comes to God you can't have it both ways. God either exists for both of us or God doesn't exist at all. Both can't be true.
The really annoying problem with the truth, though, is that it is true. And things that are true put boundaries around us in ways we don't always like. Truth is stubborn. Truth has implications. The law of gravity dictates that we can't jump off buildings without consequence. Moral truths require us to control our behavior. Who wants that? Human beings don't seem to like anything that acts to impose restrictions on our behavior. Wasn't that Adam and Eve's problem with the apple?
Pontius Pilate nailed the key question: "What is truth?" Truth was up for grabs two thousand years ago, and it is up for grabs today. And, yes, it is a very important issue.
Science Fiction
One of my guilty pleasures is collecting comic books from the 1950s and 1960s. I sometimes troll around eBay, seeking to reacquire that special comic I once owned fifty years back, long ago discarded
(Continues...)
Excerpted from UNFINISHED by RICHARD E. STEARNS. Copyright © 2013 by World Vision. Excerpted by permission of Thomas Nelson.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Contents
Acknowledgments.................... xiii
Introduction.................... xvii
1. The Meaning of Life and Other Important Things............... 1
2. God's Big Story.................... 17
3. Why Did Jesus Leave?.................... 31
4. Magic Kingdom, Tragic Kingdom, and the Kingdom of God........ 41
5. The Mission of God.................... 55
6. The Invitation of God.................... 67
7. RSVP.................... 83
8. Let's Make a Deal.................... 93
9. We Were Made for More.................... 103
10. God's Spiritual GPS.................... 117
11. Called for a Purpose.................... 129
12. Spiritual Dominoes.................... 145
13. Outposts of the Kingdom.................... 161
14. The Gates of Hell.................... 181
15. God's Great Adventure for Your Life.................... 199
Afterword.................... 217
Study Guide.................... 221
What Are You Going to Do About It?.................... 241
About World Vision.................... 251
Notes.................... 253
Scripture Index.................... 259
About the Author.................... 261