Leonard Sweet - Nudge: Awakening Each Other to the God Whos Already There

What people are saying about

NUDGE

This extraordinary book from an extraordinary author deserves an extraordinary recommendation. So here it is. Len Sweet calls us to pay attention, and youd better pay attention while reading this book. Its wrong about a few things, most of them small but some of them big. It sometimes, and maddeningly, oversimplifies and underexplains. But it often startled me with insight and made me think harder about vital issues of evangelism than any other recent book Ive read. Its meant to revolutionize our view of evangelismand I think it just might.

John G. Stackhouse Jr., Sangwoo Youtong Chee professor of theology and culture at Regent College, and author of Humble Apologetics: Defending the Faith Today

After decades of the church teaching that the key to converting culture is to criticize and boycott, Nudge is the corrective that will transform the way we look at evangelism. Leonard Sweet reminds us that to engage culture is a two-way conversation, and it starts with the words of Jesus: Pay attention. Trust me, I did. Leonard Sweet has captured the secret of engaging twenty-first-century culture, and Nudge needs to be on every pastors desk.

Phil Cooke, filmmaker and author of Branding Faith

Three of Len Sweets most obvious gifts are (l) he is the master of metaphor, (2) he is alive to culture, (3) he is not as bound by what is as the way it is to be . What I appreciate is that he uses all of these gifts to address one of the most crucial issues facing the church today: evangelismwhat it is and how we practice it. I cant imagine that anyone interested in evangelism (and all of us should be) will not find help in this book. Thanks, friend.

Dr. Maxie Dunnam, author, evangelist, and chancellor of Asbury Theological Seminary

In this wake-up call, Len Sweet reminds us that literally everything we are and do as Christians is a living and active witness and, in fact, an invitation and nudge to others to meet God and embrace Gods reign. That sobering reality requires a watchfulness and attentiveness that are a far cry from older models of evangelism, which attempt to manage and manipulate our neighbors responses to the good news. This book helps us understand the many ways that we communicate through pattern recognition, and in so doing it helps readers become more competent and joyful nudgers.

Bryan Stone, E. Stanley Jones professor of evangelism at Boston University School of Theology

There is no other book like this on evangelism that Ive ever read. I couldnt put it down. Sweet once again takes us back to the heart of the matter. In an era when everyone wants to redefine church, become missional, and even define the process for making disciples, few are talking about where it all begins and where it all ends. What does that look like in the lives of the people who want to be witnesses to see God at work in people around them and then share in natural ways? What does it mean for evangelism to be more than a presentationbut a life? These are the issues that Sweet helps us wrestle with. What he writes about is real and alive, and it works. Evangelism is Gods activitynot ours. We are merely to recognize him at work and join him.

Bob Roberts, senior pastor of NorthWood Church, global engager, and author of Real-Time Connections

Len did it again! He shifted the Rubiks Cube of my faith to show me a different aspect of God. This is the best book I have read on evangelism and sharing my faith in years. Reading it was a nudge of grace in my life. Thanks, Len.

Dr. David A. Anderson, radio host, author, and senior pastor of Bridgeway Community Church

Much of what is being done today in the name of evangelism hardly resembles how the early apostles announced Jesus as the true Savior and Lord of the world. Len Sweet invites us to rethink our motives and methods and helps us recognize the risen Christ at work in the world today. Though it may startle some and seem too revolutionary to be true, Sweet is drawing on the long-held conviction that God loves his good world, fallen though it is, and has always worked from within it to call attention to himself.

Glenn Packiam, associate pastor at New Life Church and author of Secondhand Jesus

This is one of the best books Ive read in ten years. In Nudge , Len Sweet takes you on a journey of deep spirituality that lingers long after the book is closed. Every page is filled with wonder about how God is working inside of me and in the world. This is a life-changer!

Tom Davis, author of Red Letters: Living a Faith That Bleeds and Priceless: A Novel on the Edge of the World

What people are saying about

SO BEAUTIFUL

Perhaps this says more about my own madness, but I think that this is Len Sweets best book so far. Not only are the content critical and the literary style artful, but it delivers spiritual depth along with unusual insight into the nature and mission of the church. Missional, relational, incarnationalspot-on, Len!

Alan Hirsch, author of The Forgotten Ways , international director of Forge Mission Training Network, and a founder of shapevine.com

So Beautiful may be Leonard Sweets magnum opus. It will explode your mind, open your heart, and guide your hand. The book flows from a beautiful life shaped by fierce followship of Jesus. It will inspire you to become so beautiful as well, so that the world is never the same.

Reggie McNeal, author of The Present Future and Missional Renaissance

In an age of privatized, commercialized, and culturalized Christianity, Leonard Sweet heralds a much-needed call to rediscover the biblical life, power, and purpose of the church. Contesting the if you build it, they will come model so prevalent in the church today, Sweet demonstrates that the future of the American church does not rest on understanding and appropriating the latest trends, techniques, or methodologies but on the recovery of this biblical truth: The church is a community whose faith and witness is authenticated and formed in relationships that incarnate the life and love of Jesus Christ, and whose activity is missionalpurposed and ordered by Gods redemptive mission in the world. In what may be a pivotal moment in the history of the church, this book serves as a potential tipping point in her much-needed reformation and renewal.

S. Michael Craven, president of the Center for Christ & Culture and author of Uncompromised Faith: Overcoming Our Culturalized Christianity

The landscape of todays Christianity is littered with church movements: missional church, house church, megachurch, emerging church, the convergence movement, etc. In So Beautiful , Leonard Sweet explores three aspects of the churchs inherent charactermissional, relational, and incarnational, or MRI as he calls it. Sweet reminds us that these three aspects are not simply passing movements, but they are built into the churchs very DNA. Moreover, they are attributes of divine life. While so much of modern Christianity restrictively thinks in terms of either/or, Sweet exhorts us to lay hold of the both/and of divine truth. Stimulating and creative, every serious follower of Jesus should own a copy of this helpful work.

Frank Viola, author of From Eternity to Here and Reimagining Church

What people are saying about

AQUACHURCH 2.0

AquaChurch remains the best introduction to the art of postmodern leadership on the market. Through a skillful weaving of metaphor, narrative, practice, and current church examples, the book draws us into the engagement of Scripture and our culture. Recognizing that the medium is the message, the book reflects something of what it teaches. It is a must-read for those wrestling with how to live out the gospel in the twenty-first century.

Dr. Donald Goertz , director, MDiv in ministry, assistant professor of church history at Tyndale University College & Seminary, Toronto