Get Your Pretense On!

Preface • 17

Christian discipleship and ministry. They are integrally connected. The themes in each of the chapters have been preached, proclaimed, and presented dozens of times in every possible venue, all with great verve and energy. (What I lacked in light I made up in sweat!) Hopefully, the integration of the themes will be apparent and clear; any lack of clarity, I claim as my own. One brief comment should be made about the Appendices. We have provided the charts at the end of this book in order to strengthen and illustrate the insights shared in the text. As a visual thinker and a metaphor creator, it is difficult for me not to visualize truths even as I explain them. When a particular appendix is relevant to a discussion, I will mention it in context. Beyond this, though, I have also included several graphics intended to help you “come to grips” with the truths discussed in the book. Please take ample time to look at each one of them carefully, letting them offer further wisdom and reflection on the importance of these key truths. Remember that this text was written for a gathering of our TUMI alumni and students to challenge them to mobilize themselves for a new aggressive push to fulfill the Great Commission. Read it within that light, and you will see it is a call to arms, all based on our ability to “get our pretense on” (Lewis’s Let’s Pretend ) and to challenge a generation to start acting like we are whom God says we are. I trust that it will have a similar impact upon your heart and life, challenging you to play your part in the greatest Story ever told. Your contribution is critical to our overall and global success. In the end, a Christian is a person who has come to believe God’s claims and affirmations about the nature and meaning of life and the world more than anything else, even her own conclusions and judgments. By no means! Let God be true though every one were a liar, as it is written, “That you may be justified in your