Roy Moran - Spent Matches: Igniting the Signal Fire for the Spiritually Dissatisfied

ENDORSEMENTS

I recommend Spent Matches not because I consider Roy Moran a friend and mentor, but because in its pages we find the conviction to take honest inventory and the courage to ask ourselves and our churches, If this really is God speaking, what are we willing to do about it, and who are we willing to tell?

Allen Hoskyn
Methodist pastor, community chaplain, FCS Urban Ministries, Lawrenceville, GA

Spent Matches is core, simple, easy to follow, and reproducible, anytimeanywhere. For the gospel to go viral and the Great Commission to be fulfilled will require all different kinds of churches, some just like this book talks about. Read it and apply it!

Bob Roberts Jr.
Author, Bold as Love and senior pastor, Northwood Church, Keller, TX

If theres anything thats needed among todays Christians, its that we all go deeper and really follow through on Jesus command to invest ourselves in other people and make discipleseven with our own children. In this book, Roy will give you a lot to think about in that regard, and will challenge you to live out your faith in ways that are more effective for the kingdom and more satisfying for us as well.

Carey Casey, CEO
National Center for Fathering

Roy is one of the few men who challenges and inspires me virtually every time were together. Spent Matches captures what I have seen to be Roys hearta passion to creatively engage lost people with truth and turn them into communities of disciple-makers. This book will challenge you, trouble you, possibly irritate you, and ultimately inspire you. It is a thought-provoking wake-up call for the church to get back to doing what Jesus told us to do.

Dale Losch
President, Crossworld

If you are thin-skinned, dont read this book! But if you really want to look beyond our ego and natural self-protectionism to really understand where we are today as the American church, Spent Matches may be able to help you get there. After fully deflating any ego that might remain after reading the first section about where we are as a church today, Roy leads us through a thought-provoking process that challenges some of our most basic assumptions (some cherished assumptions) about church and ministry. Fortunately, the book doesnt end there. Roy goes on to offer up reasons to hope for a better church in the future. This hope, he tells us, is rooted in a fresh understanding of the Great Commissions laser focus on making disciples rather than planting churches. As we make disciples who make disciples, more and more churches will emerge in a process of accelerating growth.

Dave Hunt, DMin
Vice President of Disciple-Making Movements in the Americas Cityteam International

Rarely have I read a book that answered my questions, moved me to tears, gave practical insights that I can use immediately in ministry, and reignited passion for the Kingdom of God. Spent Matches by Roy Moran has done all that.

As a missions administrator focused on Disciple-Making Movements in Latin America, I have been asked numerous times if the DMM strategy could bear fruit in the United States. The answer is clear, and the answer is yes. This book explains how. No one who is concerned with finishing the Great Commission should miss this book.

David Parish
President, World Missions and Evangelism, Inc.

Discovering a different future for the church will not come from doing harder, better, or faster than what weve done in the past. In these liminal times weve got to think differently and do differently. Breakthrough ideas often are birthed at the intersection of disparate and conflicting ideas. Roy Moran invites us into that space to help transform what could be to what will be.

Eric Swanson
coauthor, The Externally Focused Church and To Transform a City

Every page of this book will challenge the way you typically think about church and will give you hope that authentic disciple-making disciples communities can really happen on the earth. The thing I like most about my friend, Pastor Roy Moran, is that he is an on-the-ground-practitioner of the principles outlined in this book. He is doing the hard tedious work of living out a new way of doing church and challenging all of us in the process. If you really care about the future of the church and the expansion of the Gospel Spent Matches is a must read... but beware: you will be infected with a disciple-making mentality!

Pastor Gary Schmitz
Executive Director Citywide Prayer Movement, Kansas City

Spent Matches is the kind of book that all followers of Jesus Christ must read. Above all, this book has the ability to make us look inside and see our weaknesses: the kind and the depth of our Christianity. It makes us to see that we have a large and important task as a church to reach those who are far away from Jesus. On the other hand, it challenges us to look outside the box, beyond ourselves, as well as to glimpse a much larger mission: The Missio Dei, which all those who claim to be followers of Jesus, true disciples, should engage, so that the earth will be filled with the knowledge of God, as the waters cover the sea.

Gustavo A. Chofard
SEPAL/ OC International Missionary

Sobering truths but critical insights. This book gives key principles, pointing a way forward for the church to make progress in its mission to make disciples of all nations.

Kevin King
President, NYC International Project

Spent Matches is an important state of the church message thoughtful leaders will want to read. I was sobered as I read the book but also drawn in by Roys engaging conversational style. If you want your church to make a difference in the world, this is essential reading.

Floyd McClung
All Nations Cape Town

Roy Moran is one unorthodox pragmatic leader, for whom Christianity is a faith and a lifestyle, not a religion! In this same manner, comes Spent Matches to reflect the mind-set of the author and lay for us the mission of the church in this world that is changing every day. One of the strengths of this book is that Roy lived and implemented it way before he wrote about it. Its the raw view of the church as Jesus intended it to be! Spent Matches is a must read for all those who passionately want to see a movement of God, founded on the Word of God, intended to love and obey God!

Nadim Costa
Executive Director, Near East Organization, Lebanon, and member of the City Council of Beirut

This book is a valuable guide and introduction to how North American followers of Jesus can be culturally relevant, biblically faithful, and fulfilled in Christ. Many folks feel that there must be another way to do church, but they dont know why they feel this way or where to begin. Roy has helped forge a path to how to remain culturally relevant to traditional notions of church gatherings in North America while also helping to unleash the rest of us to join the mission of God. No more holding back. No more telling people they arent good enough or ready. In Jesus, all his promises are Yes and Amen for all of us messed up, theologically screwed up, sinner saints. If you are one of the least of these, read to see how you can get started right here, right now, right where you are, and just as you are to partner with Jesus in his Great Commission.

Pam Arlund, PhD
Director of Training, All Nations Family Kansas City Hub

Raw and real; provocative and practical. A brave and noble attempt to guide those on the cusp of total disengagement down a path of personal discovery and discipleship.

Pete Burney
Senior Executive, Corporate America

Roy Morans book Spent Matches is an eye-opening book. It will help you to see the church in a bigger picture while looking through the lens of your understanding of kingdom vision and broadening your perspective of how we can win the world to Christ in a shorter period of time. In his book Roy expounds on the Great Commission found in Matthew 28. Roy explains clearly that the commission is for us to make disciples that make disciples. This concept is pure gold and is key to seeing closure to the Great Commission. This book builds beautifully on this principle and allows us to pick up a mirror and make an analysis of the heartfelt efforts that we have committed our lives to and sacrificed so much for. Sometimes the truth hurts us to the core, but only when we are hurting are we willing to change. I am thankful for the loving manner in which Roy wrote this book. It reaches into the heart of the matter while cautiously and carefully touching and challenging our hearts to change. Too many people are dying without Christ each day while we are allowing our methodologies and approaches to stand in the way of Christs kingdom expansion. What will we do about it? Are we willing to change our methods and tactics so that we too will be able to see the Great Commission fulfilled in our lifetime? I recommend this book to all people who are passionate about finishing the task and are intensely awaiting the coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.