Zach Hoag - The Light Is Winning: Why Religion Just Might Bring Us Back to Life

By all accounts, Zach Hoag should be a done who has given up on the church and a hard-bitten cynic turning his back on Christianity. But hes not. Surviving a childhood in an apocalyptic cult and the deep disappointment of a failed church as a young adult, Zach Hoag has pressed on to find a mature, authentic, and sustainable faith. Beyond doom and gloom eschatology and overwrought revivalism, there is a place of healthy religion where the light is winning. Zach Hoag is a faithful guide to this better place, and I hope many a wounded and disappointed soul will follow him there.

Brian Zahnd, lead pastor of Word of Life Church in St. Joseph, Missouri, and the author of several books, including Sinners in the Hands of a Loving God, Water to Wine, and A Farewell to Mars

When I survey twenty-first century America, I fight to avoid depression and despair. But in such a moment, Zach Hoag has swept in with a prophetic message bursting with optimism. The darkness is real, he admits, but it is also receding. Hoag refocuses our collective gaze and argues convincingly that America is entering a time of Great Revealing. So sit back and read slowly. The Light Is Winning pulls back the cultural curtain to reveal not a wizard, but a blinding light of hope.

Jonathan Merritt, contributing writer for The Atlantic and author of Learning to Speak God from Scratch

So often authors write about their successes. What I love about Zach is hes given us a rare and precious opportunity to witness his apparent defeat, allowing us to watch as he wrestles with his upbringing in an authoritarian cult and his subsequent journey through denominations and church planting. Zach uses his stories to invite us into some deeper truths about the church today, offering hope during a tumultuous time in American Christianity. And maybe the best part of all of this? He draws inspiration from TV shows, like Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead. When someone tells me we dont want an undead zombie faith, I find myself nodding along.

Melanie Dale, author of Its Not Fair and Women Are Scary

In his hopeful new book, The Light Is Winning, Zach reminds us that while deconstructing our religious faith might be a necessary part of our spiritual journey, its not enough. Zach encourages us to rebuild a proper religious practice, one that demonstrates the power and mystery of Christianity: the resurrection.

Elizabeth Esther, author of Girl at the End of the World

Zach Hoag writes with a deep love for the church and a tender pastors heart. He has known loss and pain, but most importantly, he has turned to the light in the midst of darkness, and the hope he writes about is what we all desperately need today.

Ed Cyzewski, author of A Christian Survival Guide and Coffeehouse Theology

I needed to read this book. As somebody who has long been disillusioned by religion and tempted to give up on the church, The Light Is Winning was a much-needed dose of hope for me. I found my own perspectives being challenged not only by Hoags thoughts and ideas about God and culture but also by his beautiful story and the cheerful and endearing way in which he tells it.

Matthew Paul Turner, author of Churched and When God Made You

Zach Hoags personal and ecclesiastic apocalypse will draw you into his story and perhaps your own moment of revealing. You will cheer when you realize, like him, that the light is indeed winning!

Kelley Nikondeha, codirector, Communities of Hope and author, Adopted: The Sacrament of Belonging in a Fractured World

Only Zach Hoag could bring out the hope in an apocalypse. Leading us toward the light of authentic religion at the end of the post-modern tunnel we call being "spiritual", The Light Is Winning is the kind of book that you will want to keep on your nightstand for months, maybe years. You will want to reach for it each time you begin to lose your way and your faith.

Jerusalem Jackson Greer, author of At Home in this Life

Zach takes the reader on a journey, first acknowledging the presence of these religious wounds, then gently leading us through a hopeful apocalypse to a place of transformation and healing.

Shawn Smucker, author and writer

We live in a world that often seems overcome with darkness and pessimism. Between toxic news cycles, Christian in-fighting, and what feels like a nonstop dose of negativity on all sides, people are left longing for a message of hopeI am left longing for a message of hope. I am grateful for this book, because while I dont pretend to have answers for the darkened world around us, I do know this: the world needs to know that the light is winning.

Benjamin L. Corey, author of Unafraid: Moving Beyond Fear-Based Faith

The Light Is Winning

ZONDERVAN

The Light Is Winning

Copyright 2017 by Zach Hoag

Requests for information should be addressed to:

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

Epub Edition April 2017 ISBN 9780310348214

ISBN 978-0-310-34786-6 (softcover)

ISBN 978-0-310-35052-1 (audio)

ISBN 978-0-310-34821-4 (ebook)

Scripture quotations 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. The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.

Any Internet addresses (websites, blogs, etc.) and telephone numbers in this book are offered as a resource. They are not intended in any way to be or imply an endorsement by Zondervan, nor does Zondervan vouch for the content of these sites and numbers for the life of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any otherexcept for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Published in association with literary agent Jenni Burke of D.C. Jacobson and Associates LLC, an Author Management Company. www.dcjacobson.com

Some of the names and locations in this book have been changed to protect individuals privacy.

Cover design: Curt Diepenhorst

Interior design: Kait Lamphere

First printing April 2017 / Printed in the United States of America

The worst things often begin with the best intentions. Like that time my family moved to a Texas cult.

I had just reached the age of accountability when we loaded up the family sedan and set off from the sweltering concrete suburbs of Miami for the orange clay fields of a little town called Jasper. I had no idea what a cult is, much less that we were moving to one. I just knew we were on a mission from God. We might as well have been leaving Harran for the land of Canaan like Father Abraham, destined for the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

My father was a radical man, drawn to radical men. Thats why he and my mother, along with a faithful remnant from the church they had planted in Miami years earlier, decided to uproot. As the earnest eldest son, my indoctrination was total; I was all in. It wouldnt be the least bit difficult to forget the worldly friends and relatives we were leaving behind. They just didnt get it, and neither did the rest of the lukewarm American church.