Joyful Outsiders: Six Ways to Live Like Jesus in a Disorienting Culture [Paperback]

Christians in the West are asking themselves what faithfulness looks like in an increasingly hostile world. Patrick Miller and Keith Simon are two pastors who do not merely theorize about this tension but live it out as local church pastors. What you'll find in Joyful Outsiders is a road map for living as Christian exiles who love their community, city, and country. They advocate neither withdrawal nor rage for rage's sake. Instead, the reader is given helpful, scriptural tools for when to fight, when to build bridges, and, most importantly, how to represent Christ well in this moment to which we are called. Pastors and lay leaders will want this book both to better lead the people they serve and to give to those confused by life in America in the twenty-first century.Following and embodying the way of Jesus in our fractured world often feels like a futile, fruitless endeavor. But as Dietrich Bonhoeffer reminded us, 'When Christ bids a man come, he bids him come and die.' How do we do this? Joyful Outsiders offers us a prophetic and pragmatic way forward. Rather than providing a rigid set of to-dos, Miller and Simon remind us that '[Our] exile is creative tension. It is holy improvisation.' This culturally astute and pastorally sensitive book is an important resource for all those who long to live the way of Jesus amid the idolatry of our modern Babylon.How should Christians navigate the uncertain waters of late modern culture? This is one of the most pressing questions facing the church today. Should we critique, or should we cultivate? Should we resist, or should we seek to serve? Enter Patrick Miller and Keith Simon's Joyful Outsiders: a practical, elegant handbook to help everyday Christians chart a course marked by faithfulness, discernment, and joy. Wisely rejecting a one-size-fits-all approach to cultural engagement, Miller and Simon present six complementary models, drawing profound lessons from figures like Esther, Daniel, Fannie Lou Hamer, and Dietrich Bonl&