Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Once upon a time there existed a version of our faith worth living and dying for, something the world found irresistible. Men and women pursued it at the risk of persecution, job loss, and eviction from their homes, temples, and society.
What if we actually followed their lead? Perhaps it would change how we read the Bible? Perhaps it would help us understand our own faith and what we believe? Perhaps we would change the world again?
In Irresistible Faith, pastor and author Andy Stanley shows how distortions of the gospel have left us with an anemic version of Christianity that undermines our credibility and our evangelistic effectiveness. He takes readers on a fascinating journey back in time to recover a faith so rich, so dynamic, so disruptive, that it could not be ignored, marginalized, or eradicated.
Rather than working harder to make Christianity more interesting, we need to recover what once made faith in Jesus irresistible to the world.
Synopsis
A fresh look at the earliest Christian movement reveals what made the new faith so compelling...and what we need to change today to make it so again.
Once upon a time there was a version of the Christian faith that was practically irresistible. After all, what could be more so than the gospel that Jesus ushered in? Why, then, isn't it the same with Christianity today?
Author and pastor Andy Stanley is deeply concerned with the present-day church and its future. He believes that many of the solutions to our issues can be found by investigating our roots. In Irresistible, Andy chronicles what made the early Jesus Movement so compelling, resilient, and irresistible by answering these questions:
- What did first-century Christians know that we don't--about God's Word, about their lives, about love?
- What did they do that we're not doing?
- What makes Christianity so resistible in today's culture?
- What needs to change in order to repeat the growth our faith had at its beginning?
Many people who leave or disparage the faith cite reasons that have less to do with Jesus than with the conduct of his followers. It's time to hit pause and consider the faith modeled by our first-century brothers and sisters who had no official Bible, no status, and little chance of survival. It's time to embrace the version of faith that initiated--against all human odds--a chain of events resulting in the most significant and extensive cultural transformation the world has ever seen.
This is a version of Christianity we must remember and re-embrace if we want to be salt and light in an increasingly savorless and dark world.