2000 Gold Medallion Award winner! The Upside Down Church is a must-read for pastors and church lay leaders to help them grasp the principles of biblical church growth. Any church can revolutionize its community for Christ by following a biblical model for local church ministry. Readers will rediscover the first century church priorities of fellowship, evangelism, worship, and discipleship.
A newly Christian friend of mine asked me to recommend a book to help her and her husband get off to a strong start in their new faith. I set out to find the perfect book. To hold their attention, it had to be the literary equivalent of a successful date night movie. It needed romance, humor, suspense, and possibly lucrative product placements. It needed something for him and something for her. But it couldn’t be fluff, it needed to be genuinely helpful. I set out to find such a book. I left no stone unturned. I left no turn stoned. In fact, at no point was I stoned. Rather, my glassy eyes were due to disappointment, as book after book failed to meet my stringent criteria. But I didn’t give up, instead, I started writing the book I was looking for and now you have it in your hot little hands - unless you have cold hands. The temperature of your hands is beside the point. The point is new Christians have long needed a wise and fun mentor to guide their formative first steps as Jesus followers. The three core beliefs and six core practices of the UPSIDEDOWN Life provide the wisdom, I solemnly pledge to bring the fun.
In this completely revised edition of his acclaimed book, Donald B. Kraybill says Jesus calls us to foster an Upside-Down Kingdom favoring those suffering at society's margins. The King is Jesus, who wins by serving and triumphs by losing.
“These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also.” That was the startled cry, circa 50 AD, from a hastily assembled mob in Thessalonica. These men who have turned the world upside: their description of Paul and Silas. Holy vandals on the loose, anointed marauders running amok, men out ransacking Roman cities with the gospel. You’d think they were heralding the arrival of Barbarian hordes, fierce Berserkers descending on poorly fortified villages, not two hungry men with no more than a fire in their bellies and a wildness in their eyes. These were just two ordinary men. But, as Paul says to the Corinthians, he was a man who preached “with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power,” a man whose weapons were not of the world but had “divine power to demolish strongholds.” Two simple, ordinary men, walking in the power of God. A whole town in uproar because of them. It’s been a while since we’ve seen the likes of this. Your Church Is Too Safe is an ebook based on a simple idea: that God meant his church to be both good news and bad news, an aroma and a stench – a disruptive force to whoever or whatever opposes the Kingdom of God, and a healing and liberating power to those who seek it. That the church has not always lived this mandate is well-documented. That the church needs to recover this mandate is much touted. Your Church Is Too Safe is a plea, a celebration, and a manifesto. It’s an attempt to call the church to be the church. It is a tribute to the many churches that seek to be this. And it is a roadmap to become this. Above all, Your Church Is Too Safe is a biblical reflection and exhortation on why we should be this. Its main narrative is rooted in the story of how the early church, for all her failings and heresies and squabbles, managed to turn the world upside down. And its principal claim is that the modern church, for all her failings and heresies and squabbles, has every advantage they had, and maybe more, and faces no more challenges than they did, and maybe fewer.
Many Christians have been preaching the gospel of salvation and attempting to disciple the nations by bringing people into their church congregations, but they have not seen their cities and countries transformed. Jesus, however, preached the Gospel of the Kingdom, and He equipped and empowered His disciples to turn the world upside down in a drastic cultural transformation. In the Bible, mountains usually represent the authority of kingdoms. Learn how you can occupy the seven mountains of authority—family, church, business, government, education, arts/entertainment, and media—and bring Heaven’s influence to earth, transforming your culture and discipling the nations! You will learn: How the Gospel of the Kingdom turns the world upside down. What the seven mountains of authority are. How to take your mountains with the Gospel. To step into your destiny as a world-changer! Maiden writes: “You were predestined for a reason and purpose by God! Your gifts, anointing, personality, and history will all synergize into a dynamic purpose when you find your mountain!” Tackle your mountain today!
Ordinary is not a call to be more radical. If anything, it is a call to the contrary. The kingdom of God isn’t coming with light shows, and shock and awe, but with lowly acts of service. Tony Merida wants to push back against sensationalism and “rock star Christianity,” and help people understand that they can make a powerful impact by practicing ordinary Christianity.
No longer can Acts be seen as a simple apologia that articulates Christianity's harmlessness vis-à-vis Rome. Rather, in its attempt to form communities that witness to God's apocalypse, author Kavin Rowe argues that Luke's second volume is a highly charged and theologically sophisticated political document. Luke aims at nothing less than the construction of a new culture - a total pattern of life - that inherently runs counter to the constitutive aspects of Graeco-Roman society.
In our age when the church can too often seem like a poor copy of the world, Chad Bird challenges us to reclaim the astounding originality of our ancient, backward faith. Where the world stresses the importance of success, Bird invites readers to embrace nine specific failures in the areas of our personal lives, our relationships, and the church. Why? Because what human wisdom deems indispensable is so often an impediment to our spiritual growth, and what it deems insignificant is so often essential to it. With compelling examples from the Bible and today, Bird paints an enticing picture of the counterintuitive, countercultural life that God wants for us. He helps readers delight in all of the ways that Jesus turned the world upside-down, allowing us to experience true freedom, not from our weaknesses but in the midst of them.
