Risking Church: Creating a Place Where Your Heart Feels at Home [Paperback]

Jim Kallam Jr. (Author), Larry Crabb (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 16, 2003

What would it be like to belong somewhere you could risk being known and still feel accepted?

Imagine belonging–really belonging–to a special family. Imagine living in a safe place where you can risk being known and still feel accepted…where people have a vision for who you can be, and are willing to walk with you to realize that vision.

What if you discovered not only that such a place exists, but also that the power to see this vision become reality is already in your possession? What if you realized that this place is the church?

It can happen. Unfortunately, in our time church has been pushed aside to a shelf marked “unimportant” or “irrelevant.” We may squeeze attending services into our packed schedules, but we never really seem to experience church.

In Risking Church, Jim Kallam–a pastor with a heart for God’s people and a vision for God’s plan–walks with you on a journey of discovery. It’s a journey that will break the stereotypical view of church, release a new way of thinking, and show how you can participate in creating an atmosphere where God’s people can stir each other to love more deeply and live more fully.

Take the risk. And begin experiencing the life-giving, life-sharing, life-revealing community called church.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Risking Church is a bold book at a critical moment. Jim invites us to a Church that we may have never seen before. It’s a place where we are safe to expose our sin to one another while looking ahead to each other’s glory, where more than programs and rhetoric are used to draw us from our hiding, and where there is power sufficient to cause lasting change. And all of this not only in theory but also in practice from a pastor whose own story demonstrates even his need for this type of true community. This is required reading for any churchgoer.”
–Derek Webb, singer and songwriter

“Jim Kallam has a passion and a plan to help us stop playing church and start experiencing the real thing. As he points out, the risks are real–but they’re also well worth it. Risking Church shows what a genuine community of grace and personal growth (rather than just numerical growth) looks, smells, and feels like. And what it takes to get there. May his tribe increase.”
–Larry Osborne, author of The Unity Factor and pastor of North Coast Church in Vista, California

“For many, church has been one of the best places to hide–from our real selves, from others, even from God. But it doesn’t have to be so. In this graciously written, honestly told book, my friend Jim Kallam shows how one pastor and one church learned to live truth in community, to be set free to enjoy ‘the glorious liberty of the children of God.’ Risking Church will help you to take the risks that could change your life–and your church!”
–Leighton Ford, president of Leighton Ford Ministries in Charlotte, North Carolina

“Jim Kallam, with great skill, authenticity, and biblical insight, has given a gift to the church, reminding us who we are and they way we were–and are supposed to be. This book is also a gift to old, cynical preachers like me and to you, even if you are neither old nor cynical. Read it and rejoice!”
–Steve Brown, author and professor at Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, Florida, and the Bible teacher on the syndicated radio program Key Life

“Jim Kallam has masterfully cast a vision for an organism that lives, loves, and struggles together–the Church as it was meant to be. I recommend this book to any whose heart yearns for authentic community, as mine does.”
–Jeremy Thiessen, musician, downhere

“In a society filled with hurting people, God’s people must fulfill the calling to authentically live a life of grace and truth. The church Jim Kallam describes will attract those who need Christ, because it is the church He envisioned. Jim lives that life, and his church models what Christ desires for all churches.”
–William J. Hamel, president, Evangelical Free Church of America

From the Inside Flap

What would it be like to belong somewhere you could risk being known and still feel accepted?

Imagine belonging?really belonging?to a special family. Imagine living in a safe place where you can risk being known and still feel accepted?where people have a vision for who you can be, and are willing to walk with you to realize that vision.

What if you discovered not only that such a place exists, but also that the power to see this vision become reality is already in your possession? What if you realized that this place is the church?

It can happen. Unfortunately, in our time church has been pushed aside to a shelf marked ?unimportant? or ?irrelevant.? We may squeeze attending services into our packed schedules, but we never really seem to experience church.

In Risking Church, Jim Kallam?a pastor with a heart for God?s people and a vision for God?s plan?walks with you on a journey of discovery. It?s a journey that will break the stereotypical view of church, release a new way of thinking, and show how you can participate in creating an atmosphere where God?s people can stir each other to love more deeply and live more fully.

Take the risk. And begin experiencing the life-giving, life-sharing, life-revealing community called church.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: WaterBrook Press; 1 edition (December 16, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1578566517
• ISBN-13: 978-1578566518
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.4 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #443,619 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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