Aaron Niequist - The Eternal Current: How a Practice-Based Faith Can Save Us from Drowning

The Eternal Current is an impassioned call to move beyond spiritual observation into divine participation. Jesus didnt invite us to simply believe about the River of God; he invited us to swim! By learning from the perennial wisdom of the wide Christian community, Aaron has written a book that will launch you in your practice from the transcendent to the particular, and it will draw you in your faith perspective from the particular to the transcendent.

F R. R ICHARD R OHR, founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation and author of Falling Upward

The Eternal Current is a gift, challenge, cure for what ails, and blessing. Rather than simply pointing to the problem, Aaron has put in the time and energy to craft a new way forward, not only for you as an individual but also for your faith community. This book will cause you to reimagine a life-giving, hopeful, centered, embodied, and living path to follow Jesus.

S ARAH B ESSEY, author of Out of Sorts and Jesus Feminist

Aaron Niequist has written the defining account of a generation of evangelicals who are disenchanted with the often shallow wells of evangelical spirituality and who are looking for a deeper, more robust, transformational expression of their faith. What sets his story apart, however, is that he stayed within his native tribe to contend for a different kind of space. The Eternal Current is the new construction on the other side of the deconstruction, written not by a theorist but by a practitioner.

J ONATHAN M ARTIN, author of How to Survive a Shipwreck and Prototype

You hold in your hand a brilliant exploration of those ancient but evergreen practices the church must recover to remain a vital and prophetic presence in the world. This field-tested and practical guide will equip and empower you to live in and lead others into the life-giving waters of a practice-based faith.

I AN M ORGAN C RON, author of The Road Back to You

I am inspired by Aaron Niequists bold vision of a church that is open to learning from all the branches of our Judeo-Christian tradition. Aaron has documented one of the most refreshing approaches to practice-based discipleship that I have ever encountered.

F R. J . M ICHAEL S PAROUGH, SJ , Bellarmine Jesuit Retreat House

For far too long we have wrongly equated depth of knowledge with depth of life when it comes to our discipleship. Im so grateful Aaron Niequist has presented a creative vision for us to reimagine life with God. Our churches and we as individuals desperately need to swim with this Eternal Current of practice-based faith.

R ICH V ILLODAS, lead pastor of New Life Fellowship, New York

I value this book because of Aarons winsome way of inviting us to swim in the Eternal Current of Gods kingdom by engaging in the life-giving practices spiritual seekers have used through the ages to open themselves to God. And what a clear and compelling invitation it is, emerging from his own life and witness! I share Aarons vision for practice-based communities that learn together how to swim in the deep end of the pool for the sake of others, and I am glad we have taken the deep dive together.

R UTH H ALEY B ARTON, author of Sacred Rhythms

This book is for all of us who want to discover how to grow deeper roots in loving God and our neighbor in the radical way Jesus described in the Gospelsthrough the rhythms of grace found in practices of public worship.

D AVID M . B AILEY, coauthor of Race, Class, and the Kingdom of God study series

A great and mighty River flows throughout history toward the healing and restoration of all things. If you have read the Bible, you know how the story ends: love conquers death, a new heaven and earth are established, and the God of love and justice finally puts all things to rights. Our Creator is carrying every corner of creation into a beautiful future.

Jesus Christ referred to this River as the kingdom of God, a realm where the things that God wants to happen happen on earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:10). Jesus explained it as good news to the poorfreedom for the prisonersrecovery of sight for the blind, freedom for the oppressed, and Gods favor on earth (Luke 4:1819). Or as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. taught, The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.

You and I have been invited to swim with this Eternal Current for the sake of the world. Jesus didnt merely invite us to believe about the River. He didnt say, Here is the truth. Believe me. He declared, I am the truth. Follow me. Beliefs are important, but theyre not nearly enough. The invitation is to wade into the River and swim.

This really is good news. Swimming with Christ is the way to embrace the truth of the abundant life that Jesus taught about. And the Eternal Current will carry us into the joy of getting swept up in Gods work of redeeming and restoring all things.

Yet so many of us miss the invitation. We concentrate on perfecting our beliefs but never step into the water. Or we decide to swim but get stuck in the comfort and safety of the shallows.