Introduction

[Wuan]

Greetings everyone. My name is Wuan, and I am very excited to join the Goodreads Christian community. For the past 20+ years, I have served as full-time staff and the youth and young pastor of my church in Baton Rouge, La.

During this time, I have mentored many young people and families through a variety of challenges. I have also counseled marriages, young and old. (I must admit, I often have felt unqualified sitting before couples twice my age, lol.) Nevertheless, the Lord has allowed me to experience a number of situations that have pushed me to grow in my own personal walk with Him.

About seven years ago, I began to sense a deeper call in the Lord. So I began to pursue a Master's in Divinity with a cognate in Church Planting & Evangelism in an effort to prepare for the next level of ministry. During this time, I wrote several papers, as you can imagine, spanning a number of topics concerning church development. One such course was a discipleship class, where I had to construct a program for a mock church seeking to disciple its new members. So I developed a class called "Aspire to Grow." This course was designed to help a new church member develop daily disciplines that would ultimately lead to a mature life in Christ, which would then generate strong believers for service in the local church and the Church at large.

Fortunately, I scored very well on this assignment. (Surely I'm going somewhere with this!) I had no idea the Lord had plans for my matriculation through seminary that I would have never fathomed.

A little over a year ago, I was asked to develop a workshop for adolescents in contact with the juvenile detention system in my city. The goal was to provide a program that would be an alternative to detention solution. Interestingly, the program director desired a Chrisitan component as part of the program (this is not typical!!), and I was asked to be a part. Can you guess what curriculum I used??? Yes, ASPIRE TO GROW, slightly modified for the demographics, but full of the Word of God. And to date, we are seeing great impact in those who are otherwise unchurched.

But that isn't all. An idea came to me (had to be God!) to write further because I could not fit all that I wanted to say into the workshop. So...can you guess what I did??? Let's just say that after 179 pages, and 55,000 words, ASPIRE TO GROW is now an official book and workbook companion, and is available for anyone who is looking for a resource for spiritual growth.

And the timing of such a resource could not be more perfect. Think of the people who are struggling to maintain their spiritual fervor because their normal pattern of church life has been disrupted. People are looking for ways to reconnect to God, family, and friends. And so to me, ASPIRE is a great supplement to give the push someone needs to take steps to find their center again, and bring others along. It's perfect for churches looking for curriculum, for family discussion, and of course, for personal growth in such a critical time, because it re-introduces timeless spiritual disciplines in a contemporary and relative way without compromising the purity of the Biblical text.

In all, who would have thought a season of study in one direction would open a door in another. God is amazing!!

This brings me to the Goodreads Christian Writing community. In searching for ways to market my new resources, I had no idea I would find a community of believers and fellow writers who encourage each other, support one another's endeavors, and pray for each other's success—the Body of Christ! I stumbled across the site, but I am glad I did.

Thus, I am thrilled to enter this group for reasons beyond book exposure and look forward to interacting with the fellowship of the saints outside my normal sphere of life.

So I say greetings to all!!! I pray you are safe, healthy, and that you are prospering even as your soul prospers in the Lord.

Blessings