{"id":21268,"date":"2013-02-24T08:00:22","date_gmt":"2013-02-24T08:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/?p=21268"},"modified":"2018-06-27T23:05:08","modified_gmt":"2018-06-27T22:05:08","slug":"faithfully-pursuing-fruitfulness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/2013\/02\/faithfully-pursuing-fruitfulness\/","title":{"rendered":"Faithfully Pursuing Fruitfulness"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

This is taken from a guest post I have written this morning on the Desiring God Blog<\/a>:<\/p>\n

One key aspect in how we faithfully pursue fruitfulness is what we are hoping for. After last week\u2019s post on Spurgeon, I was asked by someone which of his books I would recommend to begin with if they\u2019ve never read him before. I am tempted to just say, Any of them! But perhaps that\u2019s not a very helpful answer! If you are wrestling with this issue of what our goals in ministry should be, then The Soul Winner would definitely be a good place to start. One of the more personally challenging and instructive incidents of Spurgeon\u2019s life is outlined in that book.<\/p>\n

Spurgeon begins by stressing, \u201cYou must also believe in the power of that message to save people.\u201d He is, of course, right that the heart of a faithful and fruitful ministry is a trust in the old, old, unchanging gospel message. In an anecdote he uses to explain this lies incredible power to transform our hopes and dreams for the effectiveness of our ministry:<\/p>\n

You may have heard the story of one of our first students, who came to me, and said, \u2018I have been preaching now for some months, and I do not think I have had a single conversion.\u2019 I said to him, \u2018And do you expect that the Lord is going to bless you and save souls every time you open your mouth?\u2019 \u2018No, sir,\u2019 he replied.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To see how Spurgeon replied to his student, read the rest<\/a>\u2026<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is taken from a guest post I have written this morning on the Desiring God Blog: One key aspect in how we faithfully pursue fruitfulness is what we are hoping for. After last week\u2019s post on Spurgeon, I was asked by someone which of his books I would recommend to begin with if they\u2019ve […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1268,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[543,380],"class_list":["post-21268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-charles-spurgeon","tag-leadership","tag-spurgeon"],"yoast_head":"\nFaithfully Pursuing Fruitfulness<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This is taken from a guest post I have written this morning on the Desiring God Blog: One key aspect in how we faithfully pursue fruitfulness is what we\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/2013\/02\/faithfully-pursuing-fruitfulness\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Faithfully Pursuing Fruitfulness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This is taken from a guest post I have written this morning on the Desiring God Blog: One key aspect in how we faithfully pursue fruitfulness is what we\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/2013\/02\/faithfully-pursuing-fruitfulness\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Adrian Warnock\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/adrianwarnockpage\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-02-24T08:00:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-06-27T22:05:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Adrian Warnock\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@adrianwarnock\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Adrian Warnock\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/2013\/02\/faithfully-pursuing-fruitfulness\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/2013\/02\/faithfully-pursuing-fruitfulness\/\",\"name\":\"Faithfully Pursuing Fruitfulness\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-02-24T08:00:22+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-06-27T22:05:08+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/#\/schema\/person\/4dc7481b9baa3553d9a7698715084eaa\"},\"description\":\"This is taken from a guest post I have written this morning on the Desiring God Blog: One key aspect in how we faithfully pursue fruitfulness is what we\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/2013\/02\/faithfully-pursuing-fruitfulness\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/2013\/02\/faithfully-pursuing-fruitfulness\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/2013\/02\/faithfully-pursuing-fruitfulness\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Faithfully Pursuing Fruitfulness\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/\",\"name\":\"Adrian Warnock\",\"description\":\"Patheos Evangelical\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/#\/schema\/person\/4dc7481b9baa3553d9a7698715084eaa\",\"name\":\"Adrian Warnock\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e5ff2076e287d1578e3b13fc015d78be?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e5ff2076e287d1578e3b13fc015d78be?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Adrian Warnock\"},\"description\":\"The resurrection of Jesus changes everything. 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