Customer Reviews

The Gutter: Where Life is Meant to be Lived

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Craig Gross powerfully answers this question in this new book. We must meet others in the "gutter" to truly love and serve them. Jesus went into the gutters of this world to find people in need - sinners, prostitutes, lepers, and tax collectors, to name a few. Craig argues we should do the same. Where is the gutter? Any place in this world where darkness reigns. Meet people in their world and show them Christ's love, mercy and forgiveness. Craig shows us how to be a light in the dark places of this world. Meet people where they are broken and hurt, serve them and bring them out of the gutter. Love your neighbor. Get in the gutter!!

Before I even picked up this book to read, I was a tad skeptical as to what this book could tell me that I haven't already heard, read or seen. I've sat through hundreds of lectures, church services, discussions about how we are supposed to "live our lives" and how we need to give every spare minute we have to feeding the homeless and the less-fortunate. So, having already been exposed to that like radiation, what new and insightful could this book tell me. It had to be just another run-of-the-mill book with a cool cover, right?
I couldn't have been more wrong. From the minute I flipped past the index page, I had a hard time putting this book down. This isn't just your average "live your life extraordinarily" book. It is gritty, real, and downright dirty - and it challenges me to be the same. Craig Gross is a master at relating the concepts of living our lives in the gutter around US, the gutter that we all experience every day (whether it's the homeless, indigent, middle-class, or rich beyond connectivity). It's truly how Jesus lived - and it's what the crux of Christianity is all about. It's who we're meant to be. It's how we're meant to live. It's damn relevant.
I highly recommend this book for all believers who truly want to make a difference in the world around them and not just be "run of the mill" Christians like Pastor Bible mentioned in the book.

{My thanks to Relevant Books for the special offer on this book}

Aaron Alexander
aaron@student-impact.com

I don't consider serving the homeless or going into places where people don't know Christ as the gutter, BUT I do love the heart and passion and authenticity of both this author and the book. We are called to live outside the church pew. We do find real relationships and real outreach when we hang with people who are perhaps asking tough questions about faith and life in general. There were times as I read this book that I paused, wanting to make sure that those who have diverse ministries in the body of Christ aren't discounted because they aren't in the "gutter", but I also underlined and highlighted passages that were right on target.

As an author, speaker, and minister to teens and families, but mostly as a fellow believer, I applaud the courage it took to write this book. It's a great resource and one that every believer and every leader in the body of Christ should read.

The Gutter is as provocative as it is refreshing. The book's well-crafted, easy-to-absorb prose provides an enjoyable read. More importantly, it issues a rousing challenge: if we are serious about being disciples of Jesus, we must follow him into the dirty, ragged, ugly places, and offer his strong and tender love to the people we encounter there.

No doubt, the book will receive knee-jerk criticism from Christians who feel uncomfortable venturing beyond the confines of traditional ministries.

More thoughtful readers may also offer some critique. At times, the tenor can seem strongly judgmental of those who are judgmental. The book's case for taking on a spirit of grace and mercy would be harder to resist if it remained uncompromisingly gracious toward even the irritating, dogmatic legalist.

Some readers may also feel that the author could be more receptive to criticism. Clearly, he's received a lot of flack from people who care more about appearances of rectitude than sharing the love of Christ. To persevere, he's had to let criticism "roll off his back." But still, readers with lingering reservations about the author's approach would likely be more receptive if the book more openly acknowledged legitimate concerns, rather than quickly dismissing most criticism.

But any who would voice these critiques, including myself, must beware. Craig Gross has sought to pour himself into serving in the gutter--not seeking out the healthy, but the outcast and ill. And he makes the inescapable case that Christ asks his followers to do the same. If we refuse to answer this call, all armchair theologizing or nitpicking criticism rings despicably hollow.

Ultimately, the challenge offered by The Gutter is nothing other than the challenge offered by Jesus Christ. I don't imagine God will ever ask us whether we agreed with everything contained in this book. But we will almost certainly have to answer as to whether or not we responded by venturing out to serve in a gutter of our own.

--Jedd Medefind
Co-Author of THE REVOLUTIONARY COMMUNICATOR and FOUR SOULS

This book is very good, and full of many excellent ideas and quotes. I often read with a highlighter in hand, and my copy is full of yellow. However, the amount of pushing the author gives to the idea of "The Gutter" gets a little old, and I found myself thinking "Ok, I get the idea, you don't have to say it again."

I also found it difficult to pinpoint exactly what the author identified as "The Gutter" that he was talking about. In the beginning of the book he writes out a list of what the gutter is, and the explanations he gives all seem to be different from each other. Throughout the book, I was left asking "Which gutter is he talking about now? The physical place? The spiritual? The emotional?"

It is easier to be critical than to praise, so I will leave it at those few issues I have with the book. I would recommend it to others, but warn them to try not get too bored with the seemingly forced theme.

THE GUTTER (WHERE LIFE IS MEAANT TO BE LIVED) BY CRAIG GROSS admonishes Christians to stop judging and realize everyone needs love and the help and no sin is more sinful than another. He encourages everyone to help the worst down and out of society, just as Jesus did.

When I first read this book, I felt as if a weight had been lifter off of my shoulders. The fear of not having taken enough Evangelism courses at church or memorizing enough scripture in order for me to have an impact faded immediately. Get up and get out there and visit the Gutter!

If this book doesn't inspire you to reach our world with love, then perhaps you should read it again! I knew I was born to serve others and spread the word of love from our Lord, but after reading this book I realize I haven't even gotten close to the gutter. Thanks for inspiring me to stretch and reach and yes, get in the gutter; I don't just want to go to the gutter, I want to wallow in it! Great job on a book much needed in the Christian society we live in and have become complacent in. Hope to see many of you in the gutter with me!!!!!

This was a awesome book by the guy who started the XXXChurch.This book shakes up chirstians and pleads with them to go back into to the highways and byways to minister to people that would never come to a church.
Highly recommended, along with Shane Claibornes book Irresistable Reveloution

Awesome book! We all need to reach into the gutter around us and as he says it's not always skidrow. To be like Jesus we will.