Serving without sinking: How to serve Christ and keep your joy

by John Hindley

Overview

If you're feeling joyless, weary and burdened as you serve Jesus, this book is for you!

John Hindley shows how Jesus was telling the truth when he offered people an "easy yoke"—a way of serving him that is joyful and liberating. He explains why serving is so often joyless—and how our identity in Christ changes everything.

This book will help you gain a new perspective so that you can serve God out of joy rather than duty.

Serving without Sinking...
• Is written in a personal, warm, gospel-hearted style.
• Encourages readers to see not only how they serve, but WHY they serve
• Points Christians away from themselves and back to Jesus
• Frees people from the burdens of joyless, duty-based serving

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781908762351
Publisher:	The Good Book Company
Publication date:	10/01/2005
Pages:	144
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.70(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

John Hindley is the pastor of BroadGrace church in Norfolk, UK and the author of the bestselling Serving without Sinking. He studied for ministry at Oak Hill College, and then co-founded The Plant church in Manchester before moving to Norfolk. John is married to Flick and they have three children.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Serving can be joyful
3. A wrong view of God
4. A wrong view of people
5. Served by Christ
6. Friends with the Boss
7. Bride of the King
8. Sons in the Father's business
9. Still being served
10. The gift of service
11. Service is love
12. Slaves with a Master
13. The joy of serving Jesus

Editorial Reviews

Serving without sinking is an important book and a necessary one. It exposes how driven we can be (at times subtly) – even in the name of God-honouring ministry.

Rob Ivveson

This new book is seriously one of the most important books I’ve read. It is deeply, simply, and accurately theological. Serving without Sinking by John Hindley is liberating and empowering because it points above all to God’s grace in Jesus. It honours Christ by focusing on him, rather than you and I.

Dave McDonald (TGC Australia)

Buy it! Read it! Pass it on! The open heart surgery at the start is painful but necessary. After that, the route to joyful service is focussed entirely on Jesus' service of us, and will transform the way you think about your own service. I wish I'd read this book 20 years ago!

Carrie Sandom (Director of Women's Ministry

This book is warm, personal, pastoral and practical. It is searching and Christ exalting. It will change your life and help you to change the lives of others. Highly recommended.

David Jones (Moderator General of the Presbyterian Church of Australia)

This fresh, warm, honest, book did me good. It is richly filled with grace, informed by a gritty realism, and shot through with pastoral perceptiveness. There is something in it for every Christian man and woman at every stage of life.

Christopher Ash (Writer-in-Residence

Written with excellent biblical insights, the book exposes our wrong motives for serving, points us back to our Lord Jesus, and then wonderfully inspires us to serve him with ongoing joy. The tone is warm, the illustrations are both personal and applicable, and the style is so accessible. I'm thankful for renewed joy in serving Jesus after reading this book, and I thoroughly commend it.

Paul Dale (Senior Pastor of Bridge Church

If, like me, you don’t read books much and get bogged down with Christian service, this book will help you smile. Not just because it is enjoyable, contemporary and biblical, but because it reminds us that we are served by Jesus, who—as our Master, Friend, Husband and Brother—gives us every reason not to sink, but to smile.

David Burrowes (Former Member of Parliament for Enfield Southgate)

I am so glad someone wrote this book. It is easy for church service to degenerate into a burdensome exercise in works righteousness—here is good news for anyone who wants to avoid betterness or burn-out. I’m commending this to every elder, deacon and ministry elder in our congregation.

Mike McKinley (Pastor of Guilford Baptist Church

An utterly liberating, joy-giving book—and a really fun read. This book opens us up, exposing the problems that cripple our Christian lives, and then applies the healing balm of God’s grace. It’s a book every Christian should read—you’ll thank John for writing it. (President of Union School of Theology)

This fresh, warm, honest, book did me good. It is richly filled with grace, informed by a gritty realism, and shot through with pastoral perceptiveness. There is something in it for every Christian man and woman at every stage of life.

Christopher Ash (Writer in Residence

Buy it! Read it! Pass it on! The open heart surgery at the start is painful but necessary. After that, the route to joyful service is focussed entirely on Jesus' service of us, and will transform the way you think about your own service. I wish I'd read this book 20 years ago!

Carrie Sandom (Associate Minister for Women and Pastoral Care

If, like me, you don’t read books much and get bogged down with Christian service, this book will help you smile. Not just because it is enjoyable, contemporary and biblical, but because it reminds us that we are served by Jesus, who—as our Master, Friend, Husband and Brother—gives us every reason not to sink, but to smile.

David Burrowes (Member of Parliament for Enfield Southgate; Parliamentary Chairman of the Conservati

Written with excellent biblical insights, the book exposes our wrong motives for serving, points us back to our Lord Jesus, and then wonderfully inspires us to serve him with ongoing joy. The tone is warm, the illustrations are both personal and applicable, and the style is so accessible. I'm thankful for renewed joy in serving Jesus after reading this book, and I thoroughly commend it.

Paul Dale (Senior Pastor of Church by the Bridge

This fresh, warm, honest, book did me good. It is richly filled with grace, informed by a gritty realism, and shot through with pastoral perceptiveness. There is something in it for every Christian man and woman at every stage of life.

Christopher Ash (Director

This fresh, warm, honest, book did me good. It is richly filled with grace, informed by a gritty realism, and shot through with pastoral perceptiveness. There is something in it for every Christian man and woman at every stage of life.

Christopher Ash (Director of the Proclamation Trust's Cornhill Training Course and author of Pure J

As I was reading Serving Without Sinking I found myself in conversations with some of the very people it addresses—people who serve their church and who love to serve, but who are also growing weary. It was a joy to recommend the book to them and I anticipate that it will be a great blessing to them. And to you.

Tim Challies

Buy it! Read it! Pass it on! The open heart surgery at the start is painful but necessary. After that, the route to joyful service is focussed entirely on Jesus' service of us, and will transform the way you think about your own service. I wish I'd read this book 20 years ago!

Carrie Sandom (Associate Minister for Women and Pastoral Care at St John’s Church

An utterly liberating, joy-giving book—and a really fun read. This book opens us up, exposing the problems that cripple our Christian lives, and then applies the healing balm of God’s grace. It’s a book every Christian should read—you’ll thank John for writing it.

Michael Reeves (Head of Theology

As I was reading Serving Without Sinking I found myself in conversations with some of the very people it addresses—people who serve their church and who love to serve, but who are also growing weary. It was a joy to recommend the book to them and I anticipate that it will be a great blessing to them. And to you.

Tim Challies (Blogger)

This new book is seriously one of the most important books I’ve read. It is deeply, simply, and accurately theological. Serving without Sinking by John Hindley is liberating and empowering because it points above all to God’s grace in Jesus. It honours Christ by focusing on him, rather than you and I.

Dave McDonald

If you long to serve Jesus joyfully but don’t know how… if serving God feels exhausting rather than restful… this book will help you rediscover his love, enable you to enjoy his goodness, and excite you about serving him.

Marcus Honeysett (Director of Living Leadership and author of Finding Joy and Meltdown)

Buy it! Read it! Pass it on! The open heart surgery at the start is painful but necessary. After that, the route to joyful service is focussed entirely on Jesus' service of us, and will transform the way you think about your own service. I wish I'd read this book 20 years ago!

Carrie Sandom (Associate Minister for Women and Pastoral Care at St John’s Church