Living Beyond the Sanctuary
Discipleship in the Real World
Glenn McDonald

With a pastor's heart, a storyteller's tongue and a pilgrim's spirit, Glenn McDonald has offered the church an invaluable tool for growth. Living Beyond the Sanctuary is a realistic roadmap for integrating what happens on Sunday morning to the daily grind of the Christian's week. Filled with practical suggestions that are doable for the seasoned servant as well as the new believer....
— Jill M. Hudson, Governing Body Relations Coordinator, Presbyterian Church (USA) and author of When Better Isn't Enough: Evaluation Tools for the 21st Century Church

The spiritual life is an actual life, not just a series of every-now-and-then religious experiences. Living Beyond The Sanctuary describes the trail that God has set before us--a comprehensive way of existence that includes clear benchmarks for what it means to become like Jesus--whether we're stuck in traffic, closing a business deal, peeling potatoes, or tucking our children into bed. Following Jesus through all of life's ordinary moments means shaping our hearts and minds around his two greatest commands: Loving God (through Godward practices) and loving others (by means of "Outward" practices).

Living Beyond The Sanctuary is an invitation to become lifelong learners of Jesus, not just casual observers sitting along the sidelines of life. It is a call to give up a life you cannot keep in order to gain a life you cannot lose.

Glenn McDonald is senior pastor of Zionsville Presbyterian Church in suburban Indianapolis, a congregation he helped organize in 1983. The church has been named one of the 300 Excellent Protestant Congregations in America (Westminster/John Knox Press, 2001). He is co-author with Ben C. Johnson of Imagining a Church in the Spirit (William B. Eerdmans, 1999) and a consultant for the Presbyterian Church (USA). He holds a Master of Divinity degree from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Deerfield, IL.