Rebuilding Your Broken World/With Study Guide

by Gordon MacDonald

Many men and women are apparently dropping off the edges of our horizons because of deep personal tragedy or even dramatic failure. they sink into a quiet personal despair, robotic lifestyle where each day becomes aimless and survival-oriented. Sometimes silently, sometimes loudly, they cry for help, and theyre not heard in or out of the church. So, bewildered and confused, tey wander off to the side, and we ignore them-deliberately. We dont notice theyre not around any longer until its too late. The sadness is compounded because the Bible, along with Gods people living out biblical principles, offers a remarkable promise of rebuilding and renewal from which no one is ever exempt.

Genres: Christian, Christian Living, Personal Development, Counselling, Spirituality, Church, Discipleship

235 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Gordon MacDonald has been a pastor and author for over forty years. For many years he pastored Grace Chapel in Lexington, Massacusetts and continues to serve as Pastor Emertius. He has also provided leadership to influential ministries such as Intervarsity Christian Fellowship, which he served as President for three years, and World Relief, which he currently serves as Chairman. Gordon’s best-selling books include Ordering Your Private World, Mid-Course Correction and, most recently, A Resilient Life. He also writes and serves as Editor-at-Large for Christianity Today’s Leadership Journal. When not writing, leading or speaking at conferences, Gordon and his wife Gail can be found hiking the trails of New England.

Reviews

[Tom Long · Rating 4 out of 5]

If only more pastoral books were written with this honest practicality. Helpful to everyone, because we have all been through our broken world experiences.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I appreciated this book so much. Yes, at some level it's written for Christians who have committed sins that are of the nature that they blow up your life. At the same time, there's also a lot here about what factors can result in those kinds of decisions and the need to watch out in your own life - and the challenge to have the humility to recognize that it could also be you. Beyond that it also serves as a counsel for how to be a person who can care well for a Christian who has had their 'world break' and needs grace, hope, and a process of restoration. So really it's a book with a lot to offer to any believer.

[Janet Woodrow · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book about the fall from grace of a pastor and the biblical search for the way back for himself and his wife.
An understanding of the sinful nature of man and the walk to understanding the true meaning of God's grace.

[Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rebuilding Your Broken World (updated edition) by Gordon MacDonald was recommended to me, along with other books by the same author, by a friend. It was a good and helpful recommendation.

The book arose out of a personal moral failure on the behalf of the author, which he acknowledges upfront, but does not seek to diminish or explain away. Rather he draws upon the whys and wherefores to provide some absolutely important insights and advice to those of us who along with him, although not for the same reasons, are inhabiting 'broken worlds.'

MacDonald develops a number of useful lists, the most prominent one being the 'Bottom Line' list with which he commences each chapter. These several lists are in themselves worthy of extraction and placing as aide memoires before all of us.

But perhaps the part of the book that most spoke to my inner struggle with the 'broken world' were the two chapters dealing with the time he and his wife secluded themselves in their New Hampshire 'simple home', Peace Ledge. In these chapters MacDonald develops another of his lists, The Peace Ledge Principles, and the principle which most spoke to me was principle number 4 - Assume the ministry of the interior. MacDonald writes, 'Sometimes the most stunning reality to hit the broken-world person can be the loss of primary function. What value do I have to anyone any longer? one might ask. What can I do? These were burning questions to me, ones that I probably asked God several times each day.' I can well identify with this passage! In answer the author recounts something that he and his wife read at that time, from Oswald Chambers's My Utmost for His Highest ...

'Enter into the ministry of the interior. The Lord turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends. The real business of your life as a saved soul is intercessory prayer. Wherever God puts you in circumstances, pray immediately, pray that His atonement may be realised in other lives, as it has been in yours. Pray for your friends now; pray for those with whom you come in contact now.'

This is a book which to the thoughtful reader will offer much, but to a casual one perhaps little. As a thoughtful reader I benefited from the openness and honesty of the writer who allows us to see into his 'broken world' so that we may prevent our own world from being broken, but that if it is broken that we may know that it can be healed.

I read the 2004 reprinting by Highland Books and was not impressed by the layout or presentation of some of the text.

A 4-star read. I recommend it to all.

[Kalimorgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

It has a great heart. It was so wordy I think it could have been half as long. I also easily tire of sports and military metaphors. Still pulled out some good stuff.

[Chad King · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gordon MacDonald knows what it's like to have a broken world. In 1987 his world shattered into a billion pieces when news emerged that he was involved in an illicit affair. Not only did this deeply affect his closest relationships, but since he was a prominent author and minister of a large Christian church it also sent shockwaves through his congregation, his readers, and the clergy of his denomination.

In Rebuilding Your Broken World, MacDonald begins with the thesis that everyone is broken in some way or another. He looks at the Bible and sees that every main character (other than Christ) is broken in some way and is able to become spiritually stronger after they recover. Adam and Eve were broken when they saw one son kill another, Moses was broken when he left Egypt, Jonah was broken when he refused his calling, Peter was broken when he denied Christ, Paul was broken when he killed Christians, and the list goes on.

MacDonald offers comfort to those who are broken (that would be all of us) and discusses ways to avoid further breaks. He also speaks to those who are dealing with broken people (that would also be all of us) and shares ways to provide understanding, comfort, and support. He speaks not only from his experience as a minister who has comforted thousands of people, but also from the perspective of one who needed (and still needs) comfort and understanding from those he has offended.

4.5 out of 5 stars.

My only complaint (and the reason for removing a half star) is that he sometimes wanders into speculations regarding what people might have been thinking in different situations (e.g., after Peter denied Christ for the last time he was probably saying to himself . . .). This is fine for one or two examples, but I felt like he overused it.

[Jennie Bak · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid content about rebuilding a broken world. I think those who are broken-world people would feel heard and deeply understood reading this. It is really relevant to my life and helped me understand a lot of what I went through. I think that it is outdated though in the way the author’s broken world experience was responded to. Our culture is so far from responding with grace, instead they respond with ghosting. I wish this is the way we responded to broken people but it just isn’t in my experience. So that part felt a bit fictional in the context of my experience, but lots of really good content. I think this should be a must read for anyone going into ministry to learn how to respond to situations like this.

[Liz · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title is a bit of a misnomer in that the book focuses mainly on accepting that your world is broken and recognizing how you got there. There's less on the rebuilding process itself, which focuses primarily on repentance, inner work, facing the situation head on, and living in mercy.

It's clear from MacDonald's writing that he grew tremendously from his own personal failure; this book is the fruit of his rebuilding process.

[Lisa Harding · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Rebuilding to us meant a spirit of unconditional repentance, continuous forgiveness, a choice to live in grace, and a joint decision to make all things new.” Sums it up for me. This book meant nothing to me when it first came out several decades ago. Now with more living under my belt, so life giving. Thank you Gordon MacDonald and to the MacDonald family.

[Melanie Sherman · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful practical study on real world application of repentance, forgiveness, and grace. Thank you Lord for Your work in Gordon and Gail, for faithful elders who lived out restoration and love for the saints, and for the biblical example given to heal anyone who sins.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a humble and honest look at brokenness, which can happen to anyone. It discusses what to do and where to go, and that it isnt over when it's all over. Hopeful and eye opening. A must read for anyone in ministry or Christians wanting to grow past their old ghosts.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really wonderful book. Written from the heart, with a sharp mind and a well troden life of experience. A totemic element is the referencing of books that Gordon McDonald had read on the Peace Ledge.

Thanks to the Hatfield Book Rescue for such a wonderful book.

[Keith Slade]

And some who are the most gifted in the things of God will stumble in those days and fall, but this will only refine and cleanse them and make them pure until the final end of all their trials, at God's appointed time (Dan 11 v 35 TLB)