Nish Weiseth - Speak: How Your Story Can Change the World

Praise for Speak

It is a special voice that can lead the next generation of believers from within. One who understands every struggle and disappointment, one who has walked away and come back, one who is both prophetic and compassionate. Nish Weiseth is unquestionably one of those leaders. Speak is just impossibly hopeful. It tells of a better way, better community, better grace, better story. You nod, you cry, you shout, and ultimately you go quiet and whisper, Lord, here is my life; may it speak of You.

JEN HATMAKER, author of Interrupted and 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess

Speak is a powerful, honest, bridge-building book that is at once inspiring and practical, brave and wise. With the skill of a master storyteller and the presence of a friend, Nish Weiseth guides us through the holy ground of one anothers stories and invites us to take off our shoes. This is a must-read for anyone who longs to move beyond the division, vitriol, and platitudes that characterize so much of modern dialogue and instead engage in the joy and hard work of loving one another well.

RACHEL HELD EVANS, author of Faith Unraveled and the New York Times bestseller A Year of Biblical Womanhood

Speak is a much-needed antidote to the evangelical hero complex. If youve ever felt like your story isnt enough not cool enough, not interesting enough, not fascinating enough, not doing enough you need to read this book. Your story matters in fact, it just might change the world.

SARAH BESSEY, author of Jesus Feminist

The trouble with Speak is that I couldnt decide whether to keep reading or go tell my story to anyone who would listen. I did both. I read Speak all the way through, and then I immediately sat down to write my heart out. This book will inspire you to get on with it already. Nish gives us permission to believe we are worthy of the space we occupy, courage to accept that our struggles and stories matter, and hope that all we must to do to free ourselves and others is to SPEAK our hearts.

GLENNON DOYLE MELTON, New York Times bestselling author of Carry On, Warrior: The Power of Embracing Your Messy, Beautiful Life and founder of Momastery.com

Speak is a sane and needed call for a new kind of dialogue one that leans on the human story as a place for finding common ground. Nish pushes us to consider the value of vulnerability and the power of the personal in our everyday interactions and our most impassioned debates, making the case that our story can be the key to bridge building and understanding. The book weaves in compelling stories of other writers whose own stories have changed the dialogue on many difficult issues. Full of nuance and wisdom, Speak sets the stage for a better way of relating to others.

KRISTEN HOWERTON, author of Rage Against the Minivan

Speak is a remarkably well-crafted exploration of how individual and communal experiences together shape and inform the kingdom of God. Nish Weiseths strong and compelling prose both tasks and equips readers to be bestowers of grace and receivers of one anothers stories. Convicting, authentic, and profoundly kind this is a must-read.

PRESTON YANCEY, author of Tables in the Wilderness: A Memoir of God Found, Lost, and Found Again

Speak boldly calls readers to share their stories of conversion in our clashing, ever-debating culture. From personal experience of sharing my biggest fear, I wholeheartedly recommend reading Speak to experience the freedom of storytelling.

REBEKAH LYONS, author of Freefall to Fly

In a world that so often chooses to see people as statistics, Nish Weiseth challenges us to see something better: stories. In these pages, she offers a way past that which is alienating and divisive and leads into the heart of relationship.

ADDIE ZIERMAN, author of When We Were on Fire: A Memoir of Consuming Faith, Tangled Love, and Starting Over

Speak is a book about the humble power of storytelling, and Nish Weiseth spares none of us each story a softening blow to stony hearts, a gathering of confidence, a sense of shared experience, a realization of how interwoven I am into a transformative narrative. Nish brings out the simple and the honest. If you need to get rid of the fear of revealing your true self, read Speak and evoke within yourself a great love for others right where they are.

AMBER C. HAINES, writer at TheRunaMuck.com and upcoming author with Revell

Speak invites readers to reconnect with the time-honored tradition of truth-telling through story. By telling stories we find that the truth is deeper, wider, and far more complex than we could ever imagine, but well also discover the raw materials we need to change the world. If youre weary of sermons with three-point outlines and tidy application points, this book will direct you to the liberating craft of storytelling.

ED CYZEWSKI, author of A Christian Survival Guide: A Lifeline to Faith and Growth and Coffeehouse Theology

What Nish has done here is remarkable. This is not just a book you read; it is a book you feel and a book that changes how you live. I will tell more stories because of it. I know you will too. Bravo.

ANNIE F. DOWNS, author of Lets All Be Brave

Nish Weiseth is a gifted storyteller, but the paramount gift of Speak is her invitation to tell our own stories: around the hearth, over cups of coffee, and along the path as we walk together in the ways of Jesus. Im newly convinced that sharing our lives will truly change our lives and the world.

KATHERINE WILLIS PERSHEY, author of Any Day a Beautiful Change

Nish Weiseth is a grand storyteller, a kind whose prose makes you feel like youve known her your entire life. In Speak, Weiseth uses that gift of narrative to remind us of the power and importance of telling our stories, engaging other peoples stories, and embracing life and faith through the affecting lens of narrative, myth, and truth. Full of wisdom, passion, and insight, Speak is one of those books youll return to for renewal again and again.

MATTHEW PAUL TURNER, author of Churched and Our Great Big American God

Heartfelt, honest, and full of grace, Speak unpacks the transformative power of sharing our experiences rather than our opinions. Nish Weiseth beautifully reminds us that while rhetoric often creates division and builds walls, vulnerability opens the door to true relationship.

ALECE RONZINO, founder of OneWord365 and blogger at GritAndGlory.com

ZONDERVAN

Speak

Copyright 2014 by Nish Weiseth

ePub Edition May 2014: ISBN 978-0-310-33819-2

Requests for information should be addressed to:

Zondervan, 3900 Sparks Dr. SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Weiseth, Nish, 1983

Speak : how your story can change the world / Nish Weiseth. 1st [edition].

pages cm

ISBN 978-0-310-33817-8 (softcover)

1. Storytelling Religious aspects Christianity. 2. Witness bearing (Christianity) 3. Postmodernism Religious aspects Christianity.

I. Title.

BT83.78.W45 2014

248'.5 dc23

2014008436

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture quotations marked MSG are taken from The Message. Copyright 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.