Bryan Loritts - A Cross-Shaped Gospel: Reconciling Heaven and Earth

Bryan Loritts reminds us that Jesus Christ didnt come to take sides, He came to take over. He didnt come to just redeem us, but transform us. A Cross-Shaped Gospel is a thoughtful book that will challenge your creed and conduct.

Dr. Dennis Rainey
host, FamilyLife Today

I have had the privilege of doing life and leadership with Bryan Loritts for the past eight years. I can promise you that the words on these pages of A Cross-Shaped Gospel are not merely wishful thoughts or untested ideals. They are the learned lessons of daily blood, sweat, and tears coupled with occasional smiles and celebrations. As Bryan has led us toward a cross-shaped church, we have been blessed to have front row seats to watch evidences of Gods grace as we have labored to bring God glory, show off Jesus, and live out the gospel in Memphis and beyond vertically and horizontally!

Dr. John W. Bryson
Fellowship Memphis

Bryan is a great thinker and wise leader, and has become a leader of leaders. I always come away encouraged and thinking in new categories after hearing what he has to say. Above all he loves Christ and Gods people. Id encourage you to listen to Him if you want to love Christ more and lead His people well.

Dr. Rick McKinley

lead pastor of Imago Dei Community and author of A Kingdom Called Desire

Bryan is my son. He has ministered to me in deep profound ways I say this not because I am a proud father (I am!), but because of Bryans love and passion for the gospel and his faithfulness to the Word of God. Bryans heart and passion is given to us in A Cross-Shaped Gospel. As you read this book, your heart and mind will be moved in fresh ways by the power of the cross!

Dr. Crawford W. Loritts Jr.

author, speaker, radio host senior pastor, Fellowship Bible Church Roswell, Georgia

In the four years I have come to know Bryan Loritts, he has helped me think more deeply, love more widely, submit to the gospel more humbly, live more passionately, share Jesus more freely, and engage the world more missionally. One of the churchs rising young leaders, Bryan is the real deal, more interested in living for a cause than building a pedestal. We need more Christian leaders like him.

I am convinced that when you read A Cross-Shaped Gospel, you will be peeking into the heart of a man whose love for God radiates to the thousands who hear him speak and to those who call him friend. This is a rare combination.

Barry Corey
president of Biola University

Bryan Loritts passionately lives what he writes about in A Cross-Shaped Gospel. Moving to Memphis, Bryan determined to dynamically work out both the theology and praxis of loving God and loving our neighbor in a context of real world, civil rights tensions.

Dave Gibbons

author of XEALOTS: Defying the Gravity of Normality

Bryan Loritts is an unusually anointed pastor/exegete/preacher/present-day prophet sent by God for such a time as this. He has a unique gift of spiritual discernment that comes forth with practical and powerful applications that God uses to confront, challenge, and change lives. His communication style is driven by a passion for biblical truth, a discipline of exegetical investigation, and a love for his Lord that is more often reserved and displayed in men of God with far more time on this spiritual journey called life. Prepare to be blessed by the refreshing revelation of eternal truths that God releases through Bryan Loritts.

Dr. Kenneth C. Ulmer

president, The Kings University
senior pastor, Faithful Central Bible Church
Los Angeles, CA

Bryan has provided us with a rare jewel helpful for every believer to understand the centrality of the gospel in our everyday lives. Bryans work is a invaluable for every believer to gain a fresh appreciation for reclaiming the gospel for our everyday lives. We too often allow our own biases to distort the power of the cross but this work reminds us that only through the cross can we gain the power to love God and others. Bryan is an amazingly fresh and clear voice that the world desperately needs to hear. His writings are biblical, relevant, engaging, and insightful. Bryans life work is to be a transformational bridge builder, and this work is a testament to his ability to bring the church together to remember whats most importantthe cross and the gospel. A long overdue work to challenge all of us to live out the true meaning of the cross both horizontally and vertically

Bryan L. Carter

senior pastor, Concord Church
Dallas, TX

a
CROSS-SHAPED
Gospel

Reconciling Heaven and Earth

BRYAN LORITTS

M OODY P UBLISHERS
CHICAGO

2011 by
B RYAN L ORITTS

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright 2000, 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked AMP are taken from The Amplified Bible, copyright 1965, 1987 by The Zondervan Corporation. The Amplified New Testament copyright 1958, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Edited by Jim Vincent
Interior design: Ragont Design
Cover design: Thinkpen Design

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Loritts, Bryan C.
A cross-shaped Gospel : reconciling Heaven and earth / Bryan Loritts.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-0-8024-0065-9
1. Christian sociology. 2. LoveReligious aspectsChristianity. I. Title.
BT738.L615 2011
241.4dc23

2011023244

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To Ricky Jenkins and Albert Tate,
my sons in the ministry, and on the cusp of greatness.
May your ministry be marked by
living and preaching the cross-shaped gospel.

No other symbol in the history of humanity has become as iconic as the cross. Instantly recognized by millions of people, the cross has inspired hope and courage, and brought new life to untold numbers of people since the scandalous, but necessary, death of Jesus Christ. To Holman Hunt, the cross, the emblem of suffering and shame, was not just a historical event, or even symbolic of a future hope, but a living reality.

When Jesus instructed His followers to take up their cross and follow Him (Matthew 16:24), He envisioned a whole new way of living. In one of many paradoxical statements, Jesus said that true life could come only through death, the death of the cross. To His disciples Jesus said, And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it (Matthew 10:3839). Jesus drew a parallel between the cross and lifea life that doesnt just begin when Im buried, but a life that begins in the present, the moment I give my life to Jesus and cling to the old rugged cross.