Our old page was titled “The Path of Truth” and credited Zac Poonen alone. Both were wrong. The book is The Path of True Discipleship, part of the SermonIndex Classic Book Series, credited to Zac Poonen and Greg Gordon, independently published in January 2023 (ISBN 979-8-3629994-7-6).
Poonen did not write this as a book
That is the fact worth having. It is a compilation of quotations and articles by Poonen, gathered and arranged by Greg Gordon, who founded SermonIndex. Poonen supplied the material; Gordon assembled it.
So it reads as a collection of short pieces rather than a sustained argument, and there is no chapter-to-chapter development. Some readers like that. If you were expecting a book Poonen sat down and wrote, this is not it, and our old page gave no hint.
Who Zac Poonen is
Poonen has served in India for over fifty years as a Bible teacher and has written more than thirty books, translated into many Indian and other languages. He came out of the Indian Navy into full-time ministry and is associated with Christian Fellowship Church in Bangalore.
His register is worth knowing before you start. Poonen writes with a high view of what ordinary discipleship should look like, and he is severe about compromise, comfort, and nominal Christianity. Readers find him either bracing or crushing, and there is not much middle ground. If you are already prone to scrupulosity, go carefully.
What we removed
The old page quoted the book saying “To follow Christ is to walk with Him daily” and quoted a reader saying Poonen’s insights “stirred something deep within me.” We could not verify either. The invented “Reviewer Reflections” section is gone too.
The old title also carried a spaced hyphen, which WordPress renders as a dash on the live page. That is why the title has changed.
Where we land
Worth reading if you want a serious, uncompromising voice from outside the Western church, and you can take Poonen’s severity as a call rather than a verdict. Know that you are getting an assembled collection, not a written book.
The Path of True Discipleship by Zac Poonen and Greg Gordon on Amazon