"Into a troubled world and to a nation oppressed on all sides, God sent hope in this one solitary life. The Jews had looked for some twenty decades for a king to liberate them from their oppressors. Their prophecies spoke of a great warrior and also of a gentle lamb. The story of the Messiah, or the great Liberating King, is found throughout the Bible. This enthralling story starts with creation and then juxtaposes the prophecies of the Old Testament with the various stories from the Gospels. The Liberating King is the central concept of Scripture that unites it into one grand narrative."
The Three Hardest Words: In The World To Get Right Available on Amazon -- NOW!!
"This book demonstrates that one of the seminal Christian thinkers in the postmodern era can also be a pastor. Leonard Sweet gets us to examine what it takes to live out love in this world, and he does it beautifully."
- Tony Campolo, coauthor of Adventures in Missing the Point, professor of sociology at Eastern University
The working title for this book was “Forget the Vision Thing: It’s All About VOICE.” Beginning in the early 90s, Sweet began talking about the power of “voice,” the need to “hear a vision,” and “vibrational leaders.” Summoned to Lead is the culmination of thoughts that began surfacing in A Cup of Coffee at the Soul Cafe, AquaChurch, and are now circulating in Stephen Covey’s recent “discovery” of a forgotten “8th Habit” that marks the “key to greatness:” the “power of voice.”
While at Amazon, be sure to check out Stephen R. Covey's new book!
The
Church in Emerging Culture: Five Perspectives
What should the church look like today? What
should be the focus of its message? How should
I present that message?
We live in as pivotal and defining an age as the
Great Depression or the Sixties–a period whose
definition, say some cultural observers, includes
a warning of the church’s influence. The result?
A society measurably less religious but decidedly
more spiritual. Less influenced by authority than
by experience. More attuned to images than to
words. How does the church adapt to such a culture?
Or should it, in fact, eschew adapting for maintaining
a course it has followed these last two millennia?
Or something in between?
There is the World According to Normal where
most Christians currently live, and then there
is the World According to NUTS, an acronym for
Never Underestimate The Spirit. Creative author
and speaker Leonard Sweet believes that Christians
should never be considered normal members of society.
For Jordan Cooper's review of Jesus Drives Me
Crazy, click
here..
Postmodern
Pilgrims The
image of the church as a boat and tradition as an
anchor is prevalent in Christian art. If we examine
the biblical view of an anchor we are to cast our
anchor into the future and pull the church forward.
Postmodern pilgrims must strive to keep the past
and the future in perpetual conversation so every
generation will find a fresh expression of the Gospel
that is anchored solidly to "the faith that was
once for all delivered."
A
is for Abductive A
Is for Abductive B is for Body C is for Carpe Manana
D is for Double-Ring E is for EPICtivities F is
for Fractals G is for Grace H is for Holarchy I
is for Icon J is for the J-Factor K is for Kaleidoscopic
Change L is for Loopy M is for Metanarrative N is
for Neurological Pre-Rewirings O is for Open-Endedness
P is for Prayer Q is for Quest-ions R is for Radical
Orthodoxy S is for Systems Theology T is for Tribal
U is for Unknown V is for Voice W is for Wonder
X is for Xenophilia Y is for Yes! Z is for Zending
Leonard Sweet's manifesto on spiritual living
in a changing, postmodern world, insists that
a cutting-edge, future is now philosophy is the
way the church will survive and grow in the 21st
century.
"I
am a better pastor and a better Christian because of
Len's brilliant and stimulating work. Carpe Manana is
a...valuable continuation of the conversation he has
been having with the church in America for many years."
-- Brian McLaren
"Len Sweet
is incapable of a dull sentence. Better than that, he
is passionately devoted to the flourishing of the church."
-- John Ortberg
"I think of
Len Sweet as the icebreaker for the 21st-century-church
- breaking a path through frozen ideas and methods to
the new realities that are shaping the world to come."
-- Bob Buford, Founder of Leadership Network
In his first book conceived and acquired specifically to be delivered electronically, Leonard Sweet contends that the church is blind to the changes that are dragging us into the future. Therefore, it is losing its influence as an agent of change and grace in the world. "There are now some companies who absolutely want to change the world more than the church," writes Sweet. He sees the church at a crossroads. It will either see the future as a new dawn and therefore embrace it as opportunity. Or, it will see the future as dusk and therefore hide from the darkness of the world. Sweet believes that God will be in the future, with or without us, and that an "Acts 27" movement is afoot. This book serves as a "naturalization manual" to help Christians achieve full citizenship in the new, postmodern world. It will teach them how to go from being immigrants to natives. From foreigners in a strange land to people of God, confident and at home in a rapidly changing world.
Amazon -- NOW!!
Soul Tsunami The reviews of SoulTsunami have piled in: "This book sets a new standard by which church leaders will be measured. . . No thinking and feeling person can miss this book. . . I have become a big fan of Leonard Sweet. . . Now that I have read his last two books, I can see what the fuss is about.'" A provocative, prophetic guide to the 21st century world of our 22nd century children.
Aqua Church Bill Easum, President, 21st Century Strategies, Inc. states "Len Sweet offers us a 'learning' manual on self-navigating the 'watery' world of Postmodernism. Instead of describing a one-size-fits-all type of instruction manual on leadership, he shares with us the 'leadership arts' that can help guide us through the turbulent currents of today."
11 Genetic Gateways to Spiritual Awakening 11 Genetic Gateways to Spiritual Awakening explores the genetic endowments of the 18th century evangelical awakening, and how churches today can live "out of their genes" when they engage in postmodern ministry and mission. Sweet actually makes the case that God may have raised up John Wesley more for the 21st century than for the 18th.
The Jesus Prescription for a Healthy Life Sweet's attempt at a postmodern portrayal of Jesus is proving to be one of his most popular books. Filled with insight, humor, and fresh diggings in biblical texts, The Jesus Prescription for a Healthy Life has kept many adult church classes busy for months (in more than one case, over a year).
Health and Medicine in the Evangelical Tradition Health and Medicine in the Evangelical Tradition is a volume in the Park Ridge Center's series of explorations into theological perspectives on pain, suffering, sin, death, aging, sexuality, morality, and healing. Called by one reviewer "a masterpiece."
New Life in the Spirit New Life in the Spirit is published in both English and Chinese editions. This was Len's first attempt at writing a book for a non-scholarly audience. Len kids his Princeton-educated brother John that the Presbyterians had to find a Methodist to write a book on the Holy Spirit.
Communication and Change Communication and Change is a Lilly-funded collection of essays that Len put together and wrote to explore the role of technology in the cultural and religious interplay between continuity and change. Anyone interested in the history of the book, religious publishing, and the impact of technology on the church from colonial times to the present will find themselves immersed in this book some time or another.
A Cup of Coffee at the SoulCafe Brimming with his trademark "Sweet blend" of philosophical inquiry and artistic imagination, A Cup of Coffee at the SoulCafe will help postmoderns lead an out-of-control life where God is in control.
The Evangelical Tradition in America Recently republished in paperback form, The Evangelical Tradition in America is a staple text in many courses on American religious history. Len's introductory 100-page historiographical essay, though in need of updating, is still the best thing out there of its kind.
FaithQuakes Selected as one of the 10 "must read" books of 1994, this was Len's first bestseller. Although SoulTsunami was designed to be its successor, FaithQuakes still sells to a steady clientele year after year. A bread-and-butter book.
Quantum Spirituality: A Postmodern Apologetic Already called "a spirituality classic," Quantum Spirituality: A Postmodern Apologetic is the book that launched what today is called "postmodern publishing" as well as Len's ministry to postmodern culture. A book written in a circle, the reader is invited to begin anywhere, stop anytime, and end wherever. This was Len's "coming out" book as a postmodern disciple after his 1987 knockdown, drag-out Damascus Road encounter with God, who (as he describes it) "knocked me off my high academic horse and said, 'Sweet, are you going to get a mission for the world you wish you had or the world that's actually out there
Strong in the Broken Places Strong in the Broken Places is said to be Len's personal favorite. A "theological reverie" on 1stCorinthians 1 and one man's ministry, this preacher stands for all of us with bruised souls and hoarse spirits. The story of the healing power of Christ to turn weakness into strength, muck into mulch, trash cans into treasure chests will touch the most wounded and well.
The
Lion's Pride In
The Lion's Pride, Leonard I. Sweet focuses
on the sometimes all-too-cozy relationship in America
between religion and war. Sweet takes a close look
at America's "with God on our side" militarism,
examining its historical origins and consequences.
Black
Images of America 1784-1870 Throughout
the nineteenth century most black leaders were convinced
that they had a particular role to play in American
history, especially in testing America's commitment
to freedom and equality. This book examines what
black leaders felt about themselves, about their
identity, about their relationship to America, and
about their involvement in American history.
The
Minister's Wife: Her Role in Nineteenth Century
American Evangelicalism
(Temple University Press, 1983)
Probably the hardest to find of all Len's early
books. A study of women's leadership patterns in
American religious history, using as a template
of analysis the three wives of Charles G. Finney,
the father of mass urban evangelism. In some way,
Finney and Graham are bookends.
