Randy Harris - Daring Faith: Meeting Jesus in the Book of John

I would like to acknowledge my four writers, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

Bishop Fulton J. Steen (18951979)

THE PURPOSE OF THIS BOOK IS TO INSPIRE YOU TO daring faith by meeting Jesus in thebook of John.

We do this by entering into stories and teachings of Jesus, as well as events ofhis crucifixion and resurrection, then issuing you a series of dares. We recommendyou read the book and watch the companion videos with others, including those whobelieve, those who doubt, and those who do not believe in Jesus.

In the book you will find us writing in the plural we, with a few exceptions suchas sidebars that we sign with Randy or Greg. This is the second video and book weveproduced together in which Randy talks and Greg writes. Our overall goal is to bringresources for Christian churches that help make disciples who grow deeper in lovewith Jesus and get serious about living his teachings.

A man walked into a library to return a book. The librarian asked if the book hadbeen good. Definitely not the best book Ive ever read on the subject, said theman. So, youve read a lot on the subject? asked the librarian. No, this bookis the first.

Better books on the Gospel of John already exist. And this may be your first bookto read on John. Still, we make no assumptions that this will be the best youveread on the subject. Our aim is to help inspire daring faith in Jesus. If we succeedin our aim, please pass the word along to friends, family, and enemies.

We believe this book is going to inspire you, but not like typical Christian inspirationalbooks. We are teachers and preachers, so our book is not just a good read to motivateyou to live your dreams. Instead, were interested in all of us learning how to readthe Bible to discover Gods dreams for the world. So we want to see you increaseyour skills in reading the Bible with sound logic, imagination, joy, and obedience.

Yes, you can find more comprehensive books on John, and this is not a commentaryor an exhaustive book that details every verse of John. If you want that, then getRaymond Browns two-volume Anchor commentary on the Gospel of John. Its so exhaustivethat it will also double as a booster chair for your three-year-old at the table.Raymond Brown died in 1998, but his monumental work has influenced nearly everyonewho teaches on the Gospel of John. One of our favorite books by Brown is a more compactand humorous A Retreat with John the Evangelist.

Wed like this to be the most practical book youve ever read on the Gospel of John.So we are approaching John as we did the Sermon on the Mount in our previous bookand DVD set, Living Jesus. The companion video, also titled Daring Faith, is a dozenshort segments you can watch in a group, church, with your family, or alone withsome popcorn. The chapters in the book match the segments of the video, but you willfind extra content in the book.

Have you ever played the childhood game, Truth or Dare? With each story or teachingsegment, we offer you a series of activities in the form of truths and dares. Similarto the game, well ask some questions to draw out truths from each of the chapterswe cover in John and dare you to live them. We wont dare you to do anything we wouldntdo. We take the Bible and the teachings of Jesus seriously, but we try not to takeourselves too seriously. As clich as that sounds, we challenge you to do the same:take the Bible seriously and yourself less seriously. The questions in the Truthand Dare section of each chapter come from the Discovery Bible Study method, a basicinductive Bible study method that emphasizes prayer, reading the text and askinggood questions in community, obeying, and sharing with others what youve experienced.One good resource for Discovery Bible Study is Kevin King and http://nycinternationalproject.org/.

The best way to understand a book of the Bible is not to read our book. The bestway to understand the Gospel of John is to read the Gospel of John. So, our introductorydare is for you to read the Gospel of John.

Many of us try to understand bits and pieces of the Bible, a teaching here, a sermonthere, a book like this, and we often neglect to read the Bible texts well. We dareyou to read the entire Gospel of John. First, skim all twenty-one chapters of Johnbriskly, and do not get bogged down or distracted. Get a feel for the way the storyis structured, the order, teachings, and action.

If this book does what its supposed to do, you will read the Gospel of John morethan our book, and well do our best to guide you in further readings of particularstories. These readings will help you enter the stories of men and women who meetJesus in the book of John.

This book is about daring faith in the God who became one of us. The goal of thisbook will be fulfilled when you risk your life in daring faith in the person of JesusChrist as he has been revealed in the Gospel of John.