Christianity Beyond Belief [Book]

Product Description

Normal Website Price: $18.00
Blowout Price: $11.99
That's $6.01 Off!

Todd Hunter - Former National director of Vineyard Churches USA and Alpha USA

What If You Knew You Were Going to Live Tomorrow? You've prayed the sinner's prayer. You know that if you die tonight, you'll go to heaven. But Todd Hunter believes Christianity is a life, not merely a secure death. Which means that eternal life--abundant life--begins on earth, as soon as we become a follower of Jesus. Drawing from his leadership and ministry experience as president of Alpha USA and from his own study and life experiences as an ordinary Christian, Hunter calls us to reframe our salvation and discipleship to focus on life, instead of just heaven and hell. God's intention, he says, is for us to become God's cooperative friends, seeking to live consistent lives of creative goodness for the sake of others. These pages lead us into this abundant way of living, offering

* the whole scope of God's story and how you fit into that

* guidance on the Holy Spirit's role and power in your life

* creative ways to love, serve and respond to seeking friends

Jesus came that we might have life--not just in heaven, but here on earth where he walked and lived among us. And your friends who are hurting, hopeless or hungry for something real need to see what difference life in Christ makes. This timely, biblical paradigm from Todd Hunter will inspire and equip you to live your days with intention, participating in God's work in the world today. It just might change the way you look at life forever.

About the Author:

Todd D. Hunter (D.Min., George Fox University) is a church planter and a teacher, writer and consultant for his ministry, Society for Kingdom Living, which helps pastors and lay leaders reach a generation that has been disenfranchised from the church. Formerly national director at Vineyard Churches USA and then at Alpha USA, Hunter continues to serve as consultant to Alpha and as part of the Alpha Board of Directors and Executive Committee. He also serves on a number of other ministry boards, including Renovare and Soul Survivor.

Review:

Early in the book, “Christianity Beyond Belief” (author, Todd Hunter), I read something that stuck with me. I’ve paged back to try and find it but I can’t. The essence of what he said (as I recall) is: The only things worth living for are those things worth dying for. That nugget has wedged somewhere in my psyche. I thought: I would die for God and country, family and friends, love and liberty, stuff like that, but not for an uptown brick home or a new SUV with all the gadgets, nor would I die for my job or my church’s doctrine or some morsel of biblical minutiae like where did Cain get his wife that I sometimes spend hours haggling about with colleagues. Yet, ironically, it is those things for which I would not sacrifice a drop of blood to preserve that consumes so much of my energy. So, now, when my blood boils over some mix-up, I find myself wondering if what I believe is worth giving up my life for. If not, maybe I just need to trash it and refocus on those things that are really important. In a way, this is the heart of Hunter’s book, subtitled, “Following Jesus for the Sake of Others.”

In recent years I have noticed that a lot of the forms of Christianity I grew up with are changing, or maybe I should say “emerging,” from entrenched older methods to more savvy styles, most noticeable to me in contemporary approaches to evangelism. Take, for example, the familiar old “Do-I-see-a-hand-yes-God-bless-you-do-I-see-another” approach to mass evangelism. This late-19th-century adaptation to gospel preaching appears to be fading away as Billy Graham retires from public view. Fewer and fewer evangelicals rely anymore on this method of tallying “conversions” realizing that getting people forgiven does not necessarily produce transformed lives. In other words, Christianity is not just about getting people “saved”—it’s not thy kingdom come later, but thy kingdom come now; about living the kingdom today, not just getting heaven later. Hunter argues, “What if we changed the question from ‘Do you know what would happen to you if you died tomorrow?’ to ‘Do you know what would happen to you if you decided to live today?’” The goal of Christianity, he proposes, is spiritual transformation into Christlikeness in the here-and-now. Heaven, for him, is not so much a future hazy destination as it is a practical lifestyle. Maybe, he suggests, we should revise the “Four Spiritual Laws” to read: Becoming a Christian means 1) Being a cooperative friend of Jesus, 2) living in creative goodness 3) for the sake of others, 4) through the power of the Holy Spirit.

To help us grasp this concept, Hunter divides his book into two parts: First, “A New Understanding of What It Means to Be a Christian” in which he carefully lays the foundation and then offers Part 2, “A New Way to Live,” in which he connects the abstract and hypothetical to the concrete and practical by showing how we can live out the kingdom through the revised “spiritual laws.” Finally, he wraps it all up by showing how we can invite others to live out the new life. Hunter’s website in which these principles are implemented is found at 3isenough.org.

Review by Jim Miller, Vineyard Church Nacogdoches TX