Be Discipled

“I think Petr’s serious this time, Al…about killing himself…and I, I just have no idea where he is…” Jennifer’s voice was trembling as she told Alfonso Sanchez how her husband, Petr Wolansky and lead pastor of a prosperous church in the suburbs of Indianapolis, had disappeared. When she’d woken that morning he was gone but had left a note that threatened suicide just two days from now, his 45th birthday. Alfonso, another pastor and Petr’s best friend, tries to help Jennifer piece together enough of the clues to track him down. This audiobook follows their harrowing story. Will they find him before it is too late?

This audiobook also asks: “Why was Pastor Petr in trouble in the first place?” Why do some Christian leaders handle life’s pressures with resilience, but others fail miserably under the same pressures? Some come back stronger than ever, thriving and transformed into better people. But others inwardly collapse or implode. Some discover hope for the long haul, and the resilience to lead, but others don’t. Why? We believe that a core element of surviving trials with resilience is to cultivate a biblical differentiation of self. Say what?

“Differentiation” is a term that describes a character quality found in biblical figures like King David, the prophets Nathan or Habakkuk, and especially in Jesus. It is a way of describing how these figures could be fearless in the face of criticism, and strong in the midst of set backs. It’s how they were free from being pushed around by the controlling approval or disapproval of other people. It’s what removed their inner hindrances to loving God and loving people the way we’re commanded. And it is the key to finding the resilience to lead.

Frequently, when a trial hits us, we don’t just suffer from the trial itself. We suffer even more because the trial threatens to rob us of our sense of identity. For example, if a ship sinks in the ocean, its surviving captain suffers not only from the accident, he also suffers from having a marred identity as a failed captain. More than even the shipwreck, this new identity can very effectively prevent him from leading again.

How can you avoid the same fate when you encounter leadership hardships? In this audiobook, you will learn how by embracing the three legs of the stool of biblical differentiation. The first leg is your created self (the authentic way God created you, rather than your anxious, image cultivating self). The second is your re-created self (the person God has reconstructed you to be in Christ). The third is your self-in-relation—your capacity to relate with God and with others.

When Paul wrote to the Romans, he explained that believers can “rejoice in our sufferings” (Romans 5:4). There is no better definition of resilience than this. The reason for this resilience is “because we know that suffering produces perseverance, character, and hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the holy spirit.”

To arrive at this resilient hope, Paul says that we must go through a process that includes suffering. Somehow, suffering trains us to persevere, and that perseverance shapes our character in such a way that we can experience God’s non-disappointing hope. This audiobook is about how those sufferings produce perseverance, so you can walk in that kind of resilient hope.