Amy Hollingsworth - Runaway Radical: A Young Mans Reckless Journey to Save the World

PRAISE FOR RUNAWAY RADICAL

I devoured Runaway Radicalits raw and real, a painfully familiar testimony that could save the next wave of young history-makers loads of unnecessary hurt. This mother-and-son page-turner also serves the reader as an important mirror: in it, we see grace and truth simultaneously heal both denial and the profound pain when denial is stripped away.

BRAD JERSAK, SENIOR EDITOR OF CWR MAGAZINE, PROFESSOR AT WESTMINSTER THEOLOGICAL CENTRE, AUTHOR OF A MORE CHRISTLIKE GOD

Runaway Radical is a captivating and embodied warning of what happens when shame-based discipleship twists the mission of God. Yet it is also a beautiful story of Gods limitless grace and redemption that demonstrates the center of all that we believethat God is love. An important and timely book.

JAMIE ARPIN-RICCI, PASTORAL LEADER AT LITTLE FLOWERS COMMUNITY, CODIRECTOR OF YWAM URBAN MINISTRIES, WINNIPEG, AUTHOR OF VULNERABLE FAITH

In Runaway Radical, I see a pattern Ive found often throughout many years of teaching young adults. Youth and idealism go together like cotton candy at a carnival. And too much idealismlike too much cotton candyusually ends in a sickening downward crash. But Runaway Radical offers more than a mere cautionary tale: Jonathans story provides a helpful, healing, and hopeful corrective as he surrenders his radical idealism and exchanges it for the full embrace of grace. This is a book I will recommend again and again to the young, passionate idealists I am privileged to teach.

KAREN SWALLOW PRIOR, PHD, AUTHOR OF BOOKED: LITERATURE IN THE SOUL OF ME AND FIERCE CONVICTIONS: THE EXTRAORDINARY LIFE OF HANNAH MOREPOET, REFORMER, ABOLITIONIST

Runaway Radical is, in its purest form, a story of radical love. It is Jonathan Hollingsworths radical love of God and his fellow man which propels the narrative and his journey to Africa. It is Amy Hollingsworths radical love for her son which propels her to support his effort while likely foreseeing the inevitable fall through the thin ice of idealism. It is their radical love for each other and their shared Heavenly Father that gives them the courage to share this cautionary tale of melding the perfection of Gods call with the imperfection of Gods people. Finally, it is my radical love for the count-it-all-loss-but-for-Christ risk takers that kept me turning the pages and wanting Jonathan to win in the end. And the win? The knowledge that when the eyes of God run to and fro across the earth he finds one who said yes. Well done, son. Well done.

KATHY CHIERO, HOST OF THE SITTING ROOM RADIO PROGRAM

What happens when you give God everything, and he doesnt live up to his end of the bargain? In this page-turning story, Amy and Jonathan show that its not about how radical we are but how great his grace is.

JOSH KELLEY, SPEAKER, AUTHOR OF RADICALLY NORMAL: YOU DONT HAVE TO LIVE CRAZY TO FOLLOW JESUS

Runaway Radical is a heartbreaking, harrowing, but ultimately hopeful story of faith in which twenty-year-old Jonathan Hollingsworth grapples with themes that most people twice or three times his age never ask, or avoid outright. Its a page-turner, too, a who-done-it; one impossible to put down as Jonathans radically ambitious and impossibly thoughtful efforts are undone by others avarice and ego. In the end, Runaway Radical is a coming-of-age story as moving and meaningful as Salinger, Chabon, or Wolff, in which our young author discoversand we are remindedthat saving the world often begins right next door.

BENJAMIN WAGNER, AWARD-WINNING FILMMAKER OF MISTER ROGERS & ME

I was gripped by this young mans story; I recognized my story in his. Jonathan, along with his mother Amy, describes the stress put on our kids to be amazing superheroes before they are simply human beings. In Jonathans case, it was the pressure to be a radical follower of Jesus and sacrificial servant of the church, no matter the cost. This book provides poignant and powerful insights into the pressures on our youth to sacrifice their lives for ideals that arent always ideal.

DAVID HAYWARD, AKA NAKEDPASTOR, FOUNDER OF THE LAST SUPPER ONLINE COMMUNITY AND A POPULAR CARTOONIST AND SOCIAL COMMENTATOR

In Runaway Radical, Amy and Jonathan Hollingsworth chronicle Jonathans journey into the depths of a guilt-ridden, you-can-never-do-enough-for-Jesus Christianity and his struggle to find his way back to a genuine gospel where grace and mercy are an experienced reality rather than merely religious words.

LARRY OSBORNE, AUTHOR AND PASTOR, NORTH COAST CHURCH

With prose that glides like a blade on ice, Amy and Jonathan Hollingsworth have written a film-worthy book that recounts Jonathans unbridled, if not naive, embrace of the New Christian Radicalism and how that commitment almost destroyed him. Runaway Radical is a must-read for anyone who hears the siren song of ministry and mission. However, it is doubly recommended for young adults who have heard the call of Jesus and desire to throw themselves wholeheartedly into following him wherever (they think) he may lead. It is triply recommended for parents who are stunned when the children they raise to follow Jesus actually take them up on it.

JIM STREET, AUTHOR AND PASTOR, NORTH RIVER COMMUNITY CHURCH, LAWRENCEVILLE, GEORGIA

Amy Hollingsworth is a writer as courageous as she is elegant. Now comes her son, Jonathan, who is the same. Together they guide us into the heart of darkness, a place where misguided yearnings of the spirit often lead. The mother and son then lead us back into the light. I am inspired by the book, and much wiser for having read it.

TIM MADIGAN, AWARD-WINNING NEWSPAPER JOURNALIST, AUTHOR OF IM PROUD OF YOU: MY FRIENDSHIP WITH FRED ROGERS

More than anything, authors desire to touch the emotions of their audience, but few accomplish this goal. Amy Hollingsworth and her son, Jonathan, have in Runaway Radical. From the opening chapter of this grippingly well-written story, the reader gets caught up in the world of Jonathan, as he casts aside creature comforts to serve the Lord on the mission field in Cameroon. Soon disillusioned by the legalism he experiences, we live through Jonathans pain vicariously, and its a very familiar feeling. Runaway Radical is real, candid, and painstakingly honesta must-read for anyone who loves the Lord but who has also been wounded by the church.

JACK WATTS, AUTHOR OF RECOVERING FROM RELIGIOUS ABUSE AND BLOGGER AT PUSHING JESUS

Amy and Jonathan Hollingsworth recall a haunting account of the enslavement which comes with a new form of legalismthe popularized radical obedience to a gospel which requires sacrificeto the point of self-harm. With raw and vulnerable honesty, they invite us into their experience with tear-inducing detail and allow us to learn what they have: the cruelest of paradoxesthat a young man can be both called and led astray. This book is a must-read, not just for those involved in activism overseas and abroad, but for anyone involved in Christianity.

MICHAEL J. KIMPAN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, THE MARIN FOUNDATION, AUTHOR OF LOVE NEVER FAILS

Runaway Radical is provocative in the best sense of the word. Its bold, unflinching, and unswervingly honest to the bone. Amy and Jonathan Hollingsworth have written a book refreshingly free of sentimentality, clichs, and propaganda in any direction. Runaway Radical is not only a pull-no-punches critique of the radical Christian rhetoric, but a deeply moving human story. The authors are as honest about their own humanity as they are the dark side of the new culture of radical Christian service. As cultural critique, memoir, and a simply beautiful portrait of a relationship between a mother and son,