Changing Ourselves

Kent Hodge draws on nearly 30 years' experience in Missions and church growth in this radical new book about how to live like Jesus both in times of persecution and in an indifferent Western world of moral decay. It's radical because it's so simple. We don't belong in camps and we do need to cross bridges. In fact we need to build the bridges between the camps of differing opinion and practice in the church, to search out again the simple truths that Jesus lived before the recorders of the Gospels. Did Jesus really mean what he said in the Sermon on the Mount? How do we do that?

In Northern Nigeria, where the church has suffered bombings, burnings, midnight attacks on the homes of Christians, only a return to the simple gospel has shown us how to respond. The chapters of this book are illustrated with "life stories", the stories and experiences of friends and co-workers living and overcoming in tough times. It's simple and it makes sense, but is incredibly challenging. When you read what Jesus said in the Gospels you don't get the impression that faith is some kind of escape clause to heaven. This book studies anew how the church goes about renewing the world.