Jen Hatmaker - Interrupted: When Jesus Wrecks Your Comfortable Christianity

Jen Hatmaker is a fantastic storyteller, and this is one of the most important stories I can think of: the story of courage instead of fear, adventure instead of predictability, and intimate connection with God instead of routine religious to-do lists. A beautiful, funny, tender story.

SHAUNA NIEQUIST , author of Bread and Wine and Cold Tangerines

Jen Hatmaker is a good author who writes with disarming charm and unusual honesty to deliver valuable insight into the nature of the missional lifestyle. It is especially significant to have a woman join this conversation usually monopolized by men. A great read.

ALAN HIRSCH , author of The Forgotten Ways; international director, Forge Mission Training Network; founder, shapevine.com

I have a friend who says that every few hundred years, the church needs a rummage sale to get rid of the clutter and sort through the essentials. Jen Hatmaker calls us to that sort of movement, to cling to our Lover Jesus and to Gods dream for the world and to interrupt everything else that gets in the way.

SHANE CLAIBORNE , author, activist, recovering sinner, www.thesimpleway.org

Jen Hatmaker is just crazy enough to actually do things Jesus talks about in the Bible, even though its messing up her middle-class Christian life. Warning: You will never look at your shoes (or the rest of your life) the way you used to.

KAREN LEE-THORP , coauthor of Doing Life Together and Bringing the Bible to Life

To be interrupted by God is a beautiful thing. He grabs ahold of our faces with His tender yet firm hands, demanding that we get our eyes off ourselves and onto Him, off our mission and onto His Mission, off the mundane everyday and onto the most exciting journey of obeying Jesus command Follow Me. This book is one testimony of that beautiful interruption that will challenge the way you view your own interruptions.

MATT CARTER , senior pastor, The Austin Stone Community Church

If you have ever wondered, Where is the more in my life? Interrupted is for you. Jen Hatmakers powerful message could bring the start of that new thing God will do in you.

LAWRENCE W. WILSON , pastor; Bible teacher; author of A Different Kind of Crazy: Living the Way Jesus Lived

NavPress is the publishing ministry of The Navigators, an international Christian organization and leader in personal spiritual development. NavPress is committed to helping people grow spiritually and enjoy lives of meaning and hope through personal and group resources that are biblically rooted, culturally relevant, and highly practical.

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Copyright 2014 by Jennifer Hatmaker. All rights reserved.

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ISBN 978-1-63146-353-2

Cover design by Dean H. Renninger with special thanks to Jacqueline L. Nuez

Published in association with Yates & Yates (www.yates2.com).

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 of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com.

Scripture quotations marked ESV are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (ESV), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Some of the anecdotal illustrations in this book are true to life and are included with the permission of the persons involved. All other illustrations are composites of real situations, and any resemblance to people living or dead is coincidental.

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To the ordinary, extraordinary, brave, humble, generous, Jesus-loving, people-loving folks of Austin New Church. I can think of no group of people Id rather do life with.

Brandon Hatmaker

One of my favorite movies is the 1993 film A Perfect World. In it, Kevin Costner plays Butch Haynes, an escaped convict from a Huntsville prison who takes a young boy hostage while stealing a car. He eventually is hunted down by Texas Ranger Red Garnett, played by Clint Eastwood.

Butch turns out to be a pretty good guy and takes a father-figure role with the boy. In contrast, his prison mate and escape partner, Terry, is a weasel. Theyre like oil and water. At one point as theyre driving down the road, Terry recalls an earlier argument with Butch and mumbles under his breath, If you ever try that... again...

Butch interrupts, What?... You were in the middle of threatening me.

Aint a threat, Terry replies, holding up his gun and cocking it. Its a fact.

Butch tells the boy to take the wheel, leans over, and says, In two seconds, Im gonna break your nose. Thats a threat. He smacks Terry straight in the face, grabs the gun from him, and as blood streams out of Terrys nostrils, Butch says, And thats a fact.

Classic.

Most of us look at change as a threat. And why not? Its foreign and jacks up what we know and like. It makes the consistent inconsistent. It typically removes comfort.

But change is not a threat. Its a fact. If we act as if change just happens upon ussurprise!in a sudden upheaval, we miss its continuing flow and its lessons and the opportunity to keep up with it. Change is a fact of life. Throughout history, weve seen shifts in our culture, our communities, the way we think, and the way we express our faithwhether it comes from a revolution, a movement, or a ripple. Change is a reality, and were living right in the middle of it.

The good news is that God can be found right in the middle of it as well. God does not change, but He uses change to change us. He sends us on journeys that bring us to the end of ourselves. We often feel out of control, yet if we embrace His leading, we may find ourselves on the ride of our lives.

There is a change happening in our generation. Its marked by a shift in thinking, a shift central to the missional church. And it is essential to those seeking to live on mission. This became personal for the Hatmakers in 2007, and it came with some major changes. Missiologist Rick Meigs described missional as a life where the way of Jesus informs and radically transforms our existence... where we adopt a missionary stance in relation to our culture. He went on to reveal that making this shift can be difficult for many... , but to fully appreciate what the missional church is, we must look outside of our traditional understanding of how we do church and realign ourselves with the biblical narrative.

Living on mission goes far beyond the what and how of being sent; it hinges on the who of other people. Its about intentionally living the gospel wherever you are. This comes at great cost, but weve seen this posture become a catalyst for genuine life change.