"Tyler Ellis is a College Minister at the University of Delaware and author of Question Everything. His blog is dedicated to exploring the challenges of knowing God and helping others do the same."
"Tyler Ellis is a College Minister at the University of Delaware and author of Question Everything. His blog is dedicated to exploring the challenges of knowing God and helping others do the same."
As someone who desires to use my life to do good, the title of Peter Greer’s new book immediately caught my attention as I browsed the shelves at a local bookstore, “The Spiritual Danger of Doing Good.”
Curiosity made me take the book off the shelf and flip it over to the back. There, I saw the book’s subtitle, “Charity and service have a dark side,” followed by endorsements from three people I know of and respect, Craig Groeschel, Shane Claiborne, and Brad Lomenick.
Thanksgiving Song, by Mary Chapin Carpenter
Guest Post by Heather Thornton
“What if…..?”
Questions are generally important in life. All of us depend on the question. You’ve likely spent today relying on the answers to that question asked by someone else at some point in the past, and you didn’t even think about it.
“What if…..?”
Such a simple question that has begun thousands of amazing journeys that change our world forever. And it’s still inspiring more.
But the opposite is true as well.
INTERVIEW #44 – JOSH (21, WILMINGTON, DE)
1. What is your religious background?
Presbyterian. I grew up going to Westminster Presbyterian Church ever since I was born, up until college.
2. Do you currently practice a religious faith?
I would say no. I mean, I do believe in God but I don’t pray on a daily basis. I don’t really go to church anymore. I don’t know why. My girlfriend and I were having this discussion the other day. {laugh} I guess just being on my own in college. Also, not having transportation to get to church. When I did go to church it was more about being part of the community than it was about going to pray or worship. I was in the youth group. I was in the youth choir. I helped out with Sunday school. I helped out ushering. I would do all kinds of stuff. It was an overall good experience.
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INTERVIEW #43 – STEPHEN BARR, (60, NEWARK, DE)
1. What is your religious background?
I’m a “cradle Catholic” as they say. Actually, I didn’t know this until I was about ten, but my father wasn’t religious. The religion came from my mother’s side. When I reached the age of reason, I knew my mother and our family was Catholic (I went to Catholic schools through sixth grade), but also I knew my father wasn’t a religious believer. So the person I most revered in this world wasn’t a believer. So in that sense, I didn’t come from a cocoon; an environment where there was no challenge. Still, he deeply respected the Church and didn’t want to undermine our faith in any way. Quite the contrary. But he came around. At 79 years old, he finally took the plunge.
About The Author: Dr. Robby Gallaty
In his forward to the book, Growing Up: How To Be A Disciple Who Makes Disciples, David Platt described the Robby Gallaty he met years ago as a “6’6” 290-pound thieving drug-dealing pill addict trained in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu” who had just become a follower of Christ. This caught my attention, first because I learned some Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu myself, but more importantly because here is a powerful testimony of Jesus at work in someone’s life whose perspective I could learn from. Plus, I have great respect for David Platt, author of best-selling book, Radical, who became one of many men to disciple Robby before he went on to earn his Ph.D from the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, and become a pastor and President of Replicate Ministries.
About The Book: Growing Up
Robby’s book is endorsed by a handful of respectable people, including Robert Coleman, Dr. Greg Ogden, J.D. Greear, Ph.D., Derwin L. Gray, Larry Osborne and Dr. Ed Stetzer. Looking back, Clayton King’s endorsement best describes my feelings about the book, “I usually skip over books with the word ‘discipleship’ in the title because they’re either incredibly boring or totally impractical. This book is different.” I agree!
The book starts by addressing the sad reality of how so few Christians and churches are involved in evangelism and discipleship. David Platt accurately describes the book as “a practical, reproducible, and simple starting point for growing as a disciple of Jesus and giving your life to making disciples of Jesus.”
Growing Up walks Christians through how to start a gender-exclusive Discipleship Group (D-Group) of three to five people who meet weekly (for 12-18 months) for the express purpose of becoming disciples who make disciples. Accountability plays a crucial role in these groups. The book is written in such a way that it can be read in a D-Group together. Each group has a mentor and mentees, and is meant to be reproducible.
Growing Up is divided into two sections. The first three chapters build a case for the necessity of making disciples. Chapter 4 deals with training yourself to become godly. The remaining six chapters follow the acrostic, C.L.O.S.E.R., which highlight six principles in developing a closer walk with Christ.
Additional Resources
My Opinion
I highly recommend reading Growing Up. In fact, I plan to use this book in my College Ministry next semester. It is well written and full of ideas, stories, illustrations, and scriptures. I especially like chapter 4 on training ourselves for godliness. Overall, I give it Five Stars!
My Top 25 Favorite Quotes
Book Trailer
Follow Dr. Robby Gallaty
Buy the Book
Last night, one of my grad students and I had the privilege of making the 2.5 hour drive from the University of Delaware to New York City to attend an event called Socrates In The City, hosted by Eric Metaxas.
I heard about the event from the facebook page of Dr. Stephen Meyer, who would be the guest speaker, being interviewed by Eric Metaxas.
When I found out the tickets were fairly inexpensive, I immediately determined to go for three reasons.
Being an author is tricky business.
Like it or not, getting your book into people’s hands requires that you “toot your own horn” so to speak. It’s not something I’m particularly comfortable with, but when you believe your book has the potential to change lives, you’re reminded that it’s not about you, but the message you believe in. And that’s enough to make you blast that horn loud and clear.
Earlier this year, I published my first book, Question Everything: A fresh way to read the best-selling book of all time. In it, I wrote a question for every single verse in the New Testament. While it took me about one year to write, it took me two years to learn how to publish it. I read a stack of books on publishing, blogging, marketing, and twitter. I learned about designing a good cover, collecting endorsements, editing and typesetting, making a trailer, doing radio interviews and writing press releases. It has been a bit overwhelming, but so worth it!
A number of these sources recommend that authors enter their books in contests, which have the potential to add credibility and help spread the word. So I did. And on September 1, Reader’s Favorite 2013 International Book Awards notified me that my book was awarded the Gold Medal in the category of “Devotion/Study.” 
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How did I not hear the name William Wilberforce until I was 26 years old?
In the year 2006, some 173 years after Wilberforce died, many people, like myself, learned for first time of his significant contribution to the world. This was made possible by a movie produced about of his life, entitled, Amazing Grace (see trailer below).
Wilberforce was an English politician, born in 1759 in Hull of Yorkshire. Though he was only 5 feet, 3 inches tall, he was a giant in faith and compassion, who dedicated his life to ending slavery in the British Empire.
