aboutgg

What GROW AND GO is about.

Bible Teachers cannot be made, they have to be grown. The next decade will only have the teachers it needs if they are growing now.

It takes time for the Holy Spirit to prepare a teacher. Grow and Go material is produced to encourage those of Christ’s disciples who, whatever their age, are determined to keep growing and moving forward with their Lord; learning to give stability, maturity and direction to the church; so that it may go and grow.

EXPANSION AND RENEWAL CREATES A NEED.
Wherever God’s people are renewed by the Holy Spirit there will follow a deep hunger for God’s Word, coupled with a burning desire to live pure lives, to care for others and to share the Good News,

OR - there will be stagnation.

Wherever the Church expands in numbers there is an increased need for mature Christians to teach their new brothers and sisters. Throughout the world, the message of Christ is spreading as never before, and everywhere there is a cry for teachers. If today’s church members do not grow into tomorrow’s Bible Teachers, the church will stop growing.

CHURCHES GROW - TEAMS GO.
Jesus Christ did not plant a church, He trained a team.
The team planted the Church.
As time went on churches trained teams and teams went out to plant more churches. So His reign expands, with churches growing and teams going - but it is only possible if individual disciples are growing in maturity.

JOHN WESLEY’S PLEA.
John Wesley pleaded for, SHORTER, CLEARER and CHEAPER literature to help Christian disciples learn and grow. Today he might have added one more criterion (Actually he applied it in his own time but it was not seen as so great an issue then). To reach the people it is intended for it must be FREELY COPYABLE.

This is no criticism of the many large organisations which produce Christian books commercially. Without them we would not have the books. Grow and Go studies are only available because scholars have written reference books, which are only available because of the work of commercial publishers. So we are interdependent.

The fact remains that Grow and Go literature is free to be used in places where, if it were copyright and commercial it could not be used.

BIBLE PARAPHRASES USED.
Grow and Go paraphrases of key Bible passages are used because most modern versions are copyright and Grow and Go material has to be copyfree. No claim is made that Grow and Go paraphrases are better than any others, many were originally written for the writer’s personal devotions and study. They should be compared with other versions and used cautiously - a paraphrase is always something of a commentary - but they are available and may be copied.

PERSONAL NOTE.
Grow and Go material is edited, and most of it written, by Philip Collier who lives in Carlisle, England, was born in 1936, has served twelve years with The Leprosy Mission and six with Operation Mobilisation - both in the finance offices. Now retired, he is married to Barbara, has four children and twelve grand-children. He serves as a Bible teacher in a local church and is accountable to its leaders.

These studies have been developed over about seven years, after more than forty years of living with the Bible.

“GROW AND GO” DOES NOT MAKE FINANCIAL GRANTS.

Grow and Go Statement of the Christian Faith.

God made us, loves us passionately and wants all people, without exception, to know Him. We are made for Him and for Heaven and can never be satisfied without Him.

There is a barrier between us and God - our sin. He is angry because of it and knows that we would spoil Heaven if He let us in as we are.

In order to forgive without compromising Justice, God the Father sent Jesus Christ, His only Son, Our Lord, who was born of the Virgin Mary and shared human experience without sinning.

He was put to death by being nailed to a cross. There He suffered what we deserve, died for us and was buried.

He rose from the dead and is alive for ever. He sent His followers into all the world to tell the Good News to people of every nation, tribe and language. He then returned to Heaven where He occupies the supreme place. He will come back to Earth to raise the dead and judge mankind.

Forgiveness is unearned and undeserved but offered freely. If we accept it we become new creations, citizens of Heaven, united with God’s people in one body of which Christ is the Head. We are given eternal life which can never be taken away.

God the Holy Spirit then becomes resident in us, to transform our lives into His character, teach us Truth through God’s inspired Word the Bible, and enable us to take this message to the world.