Completing Project Me: How Understanding God's Perspective Changes Yours

Your life is a project. Let God lead it. When failure occurs or tragedy strikes, we struggle to make sense of it. Divine interruptions can sometimes leave us feeling confused. From Genesis to Revelation, God uses conflict as a vehicle for growth. Matthew A. Thomas understands there is more behind every situation than what we can see at first. Completing Project Me is an invitation to understand how God uses challenging experiences to make our lives richer. Learn to: Consider divine interruptions from God's perspective, Cultivate resilience in faith, Deepen your prayer life, and Center yourself on gratitude. God doesn't start something to leave it unfinished. He is doing more in your life than you know. Let Him lead you through your conflict and into a more complete life. Review Completing Project Me is a fresh, honest, and biblical approach to what it means to be a follower of Jesus. Matt is transparent and vulnerable in answering some of the toughest questions that life hurls. He has wrestled with the "easy" answers, and through his journey, he takes the reader to greater depths to find God in new ways. This book is more than the popular transactional relationship with God; it calls the reader to a transforming relationship that will last! - Jo Anne Lyon, ambassador; general superintendent emerita, the Wesleyan Church Whether you're a mature Christian who's looking for something deeper or just starting your spiritual journey, Completing Project Me is the read you've been waiting for. Matt's book is filled with frequently overlooked biblical concepts and coupled with powerfully illustrated stories that flow from a fruitful ministry career. Read it with a commitment to prayerful introspection. The teachings provide a path for growing into a more complete you as one designed by God. - Dr. Stephen Fitch, founder and CEO of Eden Reforestation Projects Bishop Thomas brings to life the promise of God's personal involvement in all circumstances of our lives, empowering us to look beyond our circumstances to the masterpiece God will certainly complete. - Dr. Larry Walkemeyer, lead pastor, author, and national director of Equipping for Exponential Foreword: I teach at a university, and every so often a student says to me, "I want to be a writer." I always appreciate hearing such an aspiration. In the course of the conversation, I always ask what it is they want to write about. Students often don't know how to answer this question. They aren't yet sure about what they care about most deeply and what they consider true and good and beautiful. Matt Thomas is different. Matt is mature and experienced. He is a visionary leader, church planter, and missionary statesman. For the past twelve years, he has served as bishop of the Free Methodist Church and presided during a period of massive growth. I am quite certain Matt never aspired to be a writer when he was a student; he is too much of an entrepreneur. But now nearing retirement, he certainly has something to write about, and in Completing Project Me, he writes it well. Matt moved to Spokane, Washington, to plant a church. Timberview, as it was named, met for worship during its early years in the chapel at Whitworth University, where I serve as a professor. It was only natural for the two of us to bump into each other, which led to an occasional cup of coffee. Eventually, we launched a reading group for ten senior pastors in town. We read mostly classics. In fact, we never read a book that was less than 500 years old! I discovered early on that Matt is smart. He is a reader and a thinker, but he is first and foremost a preacher and a pastor. No group lasts forever, of course. We met monthly for some five years. Then Matt began to tell us about an invitation he had received from the Free Methodist Church to serve as a bishop. He eventually accepted the invitation, which, due to his travel schedule, forced him to withdraw from the group. We maintained communication, and when we met, he would regale me with stories of his travels as bishop. He reported that God is at work around the world, and it was thrilling to learn how. In the fall of 2018, we had our annual cup of coffee. He told me he was writing a book that he had been thinking about for a long time. After reading it, I realized that he had been thinking about it his whole life. Completing Project Me reflects Matt's understanding of what it means to be a follower of Jesus. This book contains deep insights, to be sure, but its primary value is in calling us to Jesus Christ as the way to life and of life. Matt knows, loves, and trusts God. He knows faith does not grow by trying to muster more of itself. Faith grows when it looks away from self to focus on the only One who is worthy of faith. The book is about "completing project me," but the one who does the completing is the One who, beginning a good work in us, promises to bring it to completion. This book is also full of practical and personal wisdom. It is concrete, accessible, and draws on Matt's many years of personal experiences and careful study of the Bible. I learned more about his family, his ministry, and his travels. I learned about the "saints" he has known and worked with around the world and the global church--both her trials and triumphs. This book has an aura of "real life" about it. Matt knows how to write simply and clearly. Certain phrases and images still ring in my ear: " pleroma," "smaller things," "least likely places," "relational prayer," "shining things," "recycling," "look through and beyond." He turns just the right phrase and captures a truth with just the right image. I teach and write about the church fathers and mothers, especially from the early Christian period--people like Basil of Caesarea and Macrina the Younger. The church has benefitted from these great Christians throughout her history. I consider Matt Thomas a church father. He is a man of faith and goodness. He lives well and loves well, not only when in the view of the public but also at home. He is a man of influence, not because of a big personality or an abundance of wealth but because of his walk with Christ. This book is the fruit of a life of discipleship. It will enlarge your vision of God and your view of the Christian life. More than that, it will inspire you to live the Christian life. It certainly inspired me. Gerald L. Sittser, PhD Professor of Theology, Whitworth University Author of A Grace Disguised, The Will of God as a Way of Life, and Water from a Deep Well About the Author MATTHEW A. THOMAS has been an active part of the Free Methodist Church since 1979 and was consecrated as Lead Bishop in 2007. He has served in a variety of roles, including pastor, church planter, missionary, and superintendent. Bishop Thomas has been married to his wife, Marlene, for forty years. Together they have four children and eight grandchildren.