Jonathan Merritt - Jesus Is Better than You Imagined

Jonathan paints a picture of a God who loves a good surprise and meets us in ways we may not have considered. So read this book expectantly. It will shatter your misconceptions and help you encounter a God more wonderful than you ever conceived.

Mark Batterson, New York Times bestselling author of The Circle Maker

With his usual word-magic, Jonathan Merritt reminds us that Jesus has survived all the embarrassing things that we Christians have done in His name. He shows you the Jesus who challenges the chosen, includes the excluded, assaults closed minds, opens hard hearts, and defies all the boxes, categories, and camps the One who left the comfort of heaven to join the struggle on earth to show us who God is and what love looks like with skin on. It is an invitation to fall in lovemaybe again, or maybe for the first timewith love-made-flesh, and Hes better than you could ever imagine.

Shane Claiborne, activist and bestselling author of The Irresistible Revolution and Becoming the Answer to Our Prayers

Jonathan speaks to the human heart, with words poured from his own. This book is one of the bravest works Ive had the privilege to read. May his strength inspire ours.

Rebekah Lyons, author of Freefall to Fly and cofounder of Q Ideas

Theology divorced from autobiography is like making love out of a love manual. With JESUS IS BETTER THAN YOU IMAGINED, Jonathan Merritt gives us a theological gem based on his own life story. This book got me so excited about Jesus that it almost left me winded. If you have ever despaired of the church, or departed from the faith, or know someone who has, there is no better book on the market to illuminate the darkness with lightning strikes of divine presence and power.

Leonard Sweet, bestselling author, professor (Drew University/George Fox University), and chief contributor to Sermons.com

Jonathan Merritt is fast becoming one of the most influential Christian writers today. He has a pulse on culture and a gift for communicating. JESUS IS BETTER THAN YOU IMAGINED is a practical and poetic book that leads readers into the arms of a sometimes startling God. In a time when young people are growing disenchanted with religion, this book comes not a moment too soon to remind us that Jesus is all we need.

Brad Lomenick, president of Catalyst and author of The Catalyst Leader

Jonathan Merritt is an incisive, winsome writer and one of the best storytellers I know. In JESUS IS BETTER THAN YOU IMAGINED, he invites us to move beyond legalism, beyond cynicism, and beyond fear to the feet of Jesus, where love always prevails. This book is both brutally honest and stubbornly hopeful. Grace permeates every page.

Rachel Held Evans, New York Times bestselling author of A Year of Biblical Womanhood and Evolving in Monkey Town

Well-written, bold, and honest this book by my friend Jonathan will no doubt introduce many seekers, skeptics, strugglers, and saints to the Jesus theyve never known but longed to meetOne who gives grace to broken and burned-out people without disclaimers, qualifications, or asterisks. A true celebration of one-way love.

Tullian Tchividjian, pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church and author of One Way Love: Inexhaustible Grace for an Exhausted World

True to the genre of the younger evangelical leader memoirs, there is an honesty and an integrity in Jonathan Merritts JESUS IS BETTER THAN YOU IMAGINED. But what drives Jonathans story is a recurring emptiness on the part of a believer who probes spiritual disciplines, creation, struggles with sin, and ultimately God in the face of Jesus. That probing overshadowed everything in this book for me, a probing I found both honest and encouraging, a probing that does not pretend doubt and dryness are gone once one is a Christian. Jonathans story will be encouraging to young and old alike.