While statistics reveal a Christian world increasingly indistinguishable from secularism in America, many of us long for a deeper spirituality. The Gospel of Mark presents the starting point for serious Christian spirituality-extreme discipleship in Jesus Christ. Far from the complacency of mere church membership, Mark demands that we give up our old way of life for the Kingdom of God. Mark challenges our assumptions, our institutions, and our traditions-in short, our entire world view. For those who take it on its own terms, as a sermon calling us to follow Jesus, Mark promises to be the beginning of a rich and transformational spirituality. Extreme Discipleship: Following Jesus from the Gospel of Mark takes readers to the very heart of discipleship by bringing together solid biblical scholarship with repeated applications for following Jesus. The thirteen chapter book combines the form of a commentary with that of an in-depth Bible study guide, and is designed for Bible classes (both church and school), small groups, private study, and general teaching and preaching contexts. The book covers the entire text of Mark, but remains easy to read. Above all, it is provocative, because the Jesus of Mark's Gospel is provocative. David M. Young serves as a senior teaching minister for the North Boulevard Church of Christ in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. He has served churches in Tennessee, Missouri, and Kansas, and has taught Bible at several universities. He received the Ph.D. cum laude in New Testament from Vanderbilt University.
