Tony Kriz - Neighbors and Wise Men: Sacred Encounters in a Portland Pub and Other Unexpected Places

PRAISE FOR
NEIGHBORS AND WISE MEN

Neighbors and Wise Men is the red pill for people like us who are trying to make a difference. In a stunning missionary reversal, Tony Krizs testimony offers us a courageous gift that may save our lives. I read it from front-to-back in one sitting. I swallowed the stories, and my eyes were opened to the Spirits movement in my own life through the most unlikely people and places.

Paul Sparks
Co-Director of Parish Collective

Wow. Neighbors and Wise Men manages to capture the magic of sitting face to face with my friend Tony Krizan exceptionally warm, curious, and engaging conversationalist. Many people have speculated about what practicing the way of Jesus might look like in the changing landscape of the 21st century. Instead of theorizing, Tony invites us into his heart, his life, his wounds, and his relationships to help us imagine what is possible. His storytelling is ruthlessly honest and infinitely hopeful.

Mark Scandrette
Author of Soul Graffiti and
Practicing the Way of Jesus

In Neighbors and Wise Men Tony jumps off the page, as real in black and white as he is in life: intense, funny, wicked smart, and somehow equally kind and tender. Tony would tell you hes just another guy asking soul-searching questions (with an ample dose of self-deprecating humor) but I know better. In the church we are becoming and we need more leaders like Tony, and more stories like these of men and women who are willing to lay their failures alongside their triumphs so that we may learn together. Fortunately, he not only lives these questions well, it turns out he can write, too, and thats good for all of us.

Penny Gruener Carothers
Social Justice Editor, Burnside
Writers Collective

These stories and reflections pulse with heart, humility, insight, and inspiration. Neighbors and Wise Men is exactly the book weve been waiting for from the fascinating figure we met in Blue Like Jazz, and who we sensed had so much more to say and share. The wait is over.

Tom Krattenmaker
USA Today Board of Contributors
Author of Onward Christian
Athletes and The Evangelicals You
Dont Know

Books have the power to change the way we see the world around us, and more importantly, the way we live our lives. Tony Krizs Neighbors and Wise Men is just such a book. Disillusioned after years on the mission field, Kriz returned to the States to discover that God could speak to Himand all of usin the most unlikely of places, and through the most unlikely of people. This extraordinary book will inspire you to keep your eyes peeled for Gods presence everywhere you turn.

Joseph Anfuso
Founder and President of Forward
Edge International
Author of Message in a Body and
Serendestiny

This book is a spritz of Windex on the murky lens of life. It invites us to see the presence of God in the glorious mundane. Tonys unconventional journey finds voice in Neighbors and Wise Men, blending honest spirituality with extraordinary skill as a storyteller. I already want to re-read this book.

Dwight J. Friesen
Associate Professor of Practical
Theology, The Seattle School of
Theology & Psychology
Author of Thy Kingdom Connected

Tony Kriz is an authentic prophetic voice among a new generation of loyal radicals. Tony does not write as a romantic idealist, but as one who has been tested by life, and whose faith has deepened and evolved through love and suffering. His book is a gift to those who are in the midst of, or have ever experienced, a crisis of faith. But beware, this is also a dangerous book, one that crosses our usual boundaries of who is in and who is out. Tony turns evangelism inside out, like Jesus did.

Carole Dale Spencer
Associate Professor of Christian
Spirituality, Earlham School of
Religion

Jesus knew that his Father was constantly communicating. This is why Jesus cared about people having ears to hear. He knew everyone had flaps of flesh on the side of their heads. That was not the point. The point is this: most of us do not have ears to hear. We have ears to filter and manage information in order to fit it within our current viewpoints. Or we have ears to win arguments. Tony Kriz teaches us to listen to God by hearing the surprisingly wise people in our everyday, ordinary lives. Learning to be alert to God in this way is central to our spiritual growth and the key to spiritual conversations of all kinds.

Todd Hunter
Bishop, The Anglican Church in
North America
Author of Our Favorite Sins

Neighbors and Wise Men is an outstanding read. From missionary work in Albania to being embedded at highly secular Reed College to hanging out in the neighborhood English pub, again and again Tony has chosen to search for meaningand for Christin some of the most complicated and unlikely intersections available. Because of his ability to honestly observe and articulately reflect on his own experiences and struggles, the reader gets the benefit of the fascinating journey Tony has been on. A wonderful bookthe one Id always hoped Tony Kriz would write.

Dan Merchant
Author of Lord, Save Us From Your
Followers

I love stories, especially ones perceptively toldrevealing human yearning, divine pursuit, and personal change. Those are the kinds I cant put down. My friend Tony Kriz tells his brilliantly. Neighbors and Wise Men is rich with keen, nuanced insight, character growth, and gospel transformation spread throughout like compost tilled into the garden. Whether being scolded by a Muslim grandmother in Albania or confessing doubt to a bartender in a Portland pub, or being preached at by Garrett about living local, Tony sees Gods grace enriching the dirt surrounding every relationship and interaction. His story opened my eyes to see the nourishing soil and beauty of the garden of unexpected wise men and neighbors in my life. As a result, I am seeing more clearly Gods comprehensive pursuit of me, my family, and all people. Thank you Tony!

Clark Blakeman
Executive Director at Second
Stories

Tony Kriz gives the reader a peak into his divine encounters with the other and how these encounters shaped his life. Krizs stories comfort us in our shared broken humanity and challenge us to new understandings of what it means to live an authentically spiritual life. His self-deprecating humor twinned with his narrative panache will keep the reader suspended between a smile and a tear. With his first offering, Neighbors and Wise Men, Kriz exhibits an ease with the pen that poises him to become a prominent storyteller of our time. One ponders what might come next!

Dr. Deborah Koehn Loyd

Socrates said, The unexamined life is not worth living. I say, The examined life is worth sharing. Especially if its as interesting and well told as Tonys.

Mike Hamel
Author of Stumbling Toward
Heaven

I enjoyed walking with Tony through his self-induced failures and reluctant epiphanies. He tells his stories with a charm and grace that foreshadow the outcome. Neighbors and Wise Men challenges me to see God present in and through every relationship today. They remind me to pay attention, die to self, and trust in Gods purpose and direction. They invite an intentionality of faith that is rich, relational, and redemptive; as if we live in a world saturated with the presence of a transcendent Deity who cares deeply to be known by us, and for us to know Him, and each other.

Phil Long
Founder of the Sacrificial Poet
Project
Creator of the Jesus Poetry Slam