Don Everts - I Once Was Lost: What Postmodern Skeptics Taught Us About Their Path to Jesus

Don Everts is a poet, preacher and writer who has spent a lot of time on college campuses playing hacky sack and eating cheap pizza. His books include Jesus with Dirty Feet, God in the Flesh, Getting Your Feet Dirty and the One Guys Head series of postmodern apologetics.

Doug Schaupp is coordinator for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship's campus ministries in the western cluster. A writer and teacher, he focuses on racial issues, postmodern evangelism and leadership development. He is based in Los Angeles and graduated from Fuller Seminary. He is the coauthor of Being White.

We are not meant to live safe, happy, successful Christian lives. Jesus calls us to something more. Dont settle for a life that will soon be forgotten. Mission is not just something for "them," somewhere over "there." Mission is for us, here and now.

Don Everts invites you to get caught up in Gods mission in this world. He shows what it means to be a missional Christian, to have eyes that see, hands that serve and feet that go. Bringing together personal evangelism, urban witness and global crosscultural mission, Everts shows how you can live your life on missionwhoever you are, whatever you do, wherever you go.

Get a glimpse of the vision. See what Jesus is doing. And go and do likewise.

978-0-8308-6690-8

Most folks think of Jesus as the man who started Christianity.

But it turns out he wasnt just a man, and he didnt just start Christianity.

Most folks think of Jesus as an other-worldly religious leader, a great moral teacher, or maybe they dont think of him at all.

But he had dirty feet, partied, cooked breakfast and got himself killed.

Who was this guy? Why did people hate him so much?

And why should I care?

Whether youve never looked closely at the Christian faith or youve dismissed it as irrelevant, you owe yourself a glance at a Jesus unencumbered by stereotypes. You might be surprised at what you see.

978-0-8308-2206-5

An old man saws through his right ankle.

A smooth-skinned boy lies to his fathers face.

Fetid tombs, harsh slavery, fatal choking... these images come right from the words of Jesus! They are word pictures Jesus asks listeners to imagine.

But why?

Why did Jesus paint such vivid pictures when he talked about sin? And why did he make them so soberingand downright gory at times?

In The Smell of Sin, Don Everts seriously tackles these stark images, coming face to face with Jesus clear, graphic theology of sin. Its a view of sin that might make you uncomforable. But a collision with this hard truth may be just what you need.

978-0-8308-2389-5

What does it mean to be white?

When you encounter people from other races or ethnicities, you may become suddenly aware that being white means something. Those from other backgrounds may respond to you differently or suspiciously. You may feel ambivalence about your identity as a white person. Or you may feel frustrated when a friend of another ethnicity shakes his head and says, "You just dont get it because youre white."

• So, what does it mean to be white?
• How can you overcome the mistakes of the past?
• How can you build authentic relationships with people from other races and ethnicities?

In this groundbreaking book, Paula Harris and Doug Schaupp present a Christian model of what it means to be white. They wrestle through the history of how those in the majority have oppressed minority cultures, but they also show that whites also have a cultural and ethnic identity with its own distinctive traits and contributions. They demonstrate that white people have a key role to play in the work of racial reconciliation and the forging of a more just society.

Filled with real-life stories, life-transforming insights and practical guidance, this book is for you if you are aware of racial inequality but have wondered, So what do I do? Discover here a vision for just communities where whites can partner with and empower those of other ethnicities.

978-0-8308-3247-7

I can remember that afternoon as if it were yesterday. I (Doug) was standing out in the middle of the green grass of the quad on campus, singing as loudly as I could. Twenty of my Christian friends and I were holding guitars and singing to witness to the students who lounged nearby on the sunny patches of grass in the middle of the Cal Berkeley campus. We wanted to show our fellow students our authentic joy and love for Jesus. What better way to witness than with bold worship?

And man, did we grow that day! It was a profound faith experience for all of us who were willing to be fools for Christ. We stood publicly and shamelessly for the gospel. Our faith was tested and affirmed.

But as for those who were trying to catch some rays on the lawnwell, no one was curious about issues of faith after our public spectacle. Instead of being attractive or intriguing witnesses for Christ, we were just one more random thing in their day, it seemed.

Our bold worship had grown our faith, but it made for weak evangelism. Our fatal flaw? We came up with our evangelistic strategy while we were alone in a room together with a bunch of Christians. Not once in our brainstorming and planning did we ask where our non-Christian fellow students were coming from. Not once did we try to find out what they might need to take a step toward Jesus. We were mostly coming up with something we wanted to do, not something that would be actually helpful to those unsuspecting sunbathers in the quad. Ill never forget that afternoon.

Over the past twenty years, we have had many such awkward moments as we slowly learned, helter-skelter, to walk the path of faith with our skeptical and cynical friends. Since that worship-on-the-grass event, God has granted us the humbling privilege of walking the journey of faith with more than two thousand people who were once lost but now are followers of Jesus.

Seeing all these conversions is exhilarating and humbling, because we clearly remember all the inglorious (and even embarrassing) moments that were part of the learning journey. But seeing all these folks coming to faith in Jesus has done something else to us as well: it has taught us about conversion.