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Be transformed by the gospel light that gleams among us. When we refer to the gospel only as the death and resurrection of Jesus and what that assures us for the afterlife, we miss out on the full depth of the gracious good news found in the person of Jesus Christ. As a result, most of our actual lives remain untouched by what the man from Galilee said and did during his life as told in the Gospels.
While the gospel is certainly not
less than Jesus' death and resurrection, it is much more than that--and that
more is critical for how we imagine ourselves and the world around us.
A Strange and Gracious Light cracks open the gospel story as the imaginative and prophetic spark of congregational life, modeling what it looks like to "think Jesus" and "speak Jesus" in our daily lives. Amid the meaninglessness of consumerism, mass entertainment, and political ideologies, the strange and gracious story of Jesus has the power to shatter our settled realities and resurrect our lives. Even now, the gospel light is breaking into our world and illuminating how our lives are already and always drawn into the gracious mystery of God.
With vivid imagination and a winsome tone, pastor Andrew Arndt invites readers to engage with what transpires in the life of God's people and creatively rediscover Jesus. Using the movements of the church calendar from Advent to Pentecost, this book points pastors, preachers, and all invested in the church to how the story of Jesus illumines our life together and changes the way we see everything.
About the author
Andrew Arndt is the lead pastor of New Life East, one of seven congregations of New Life Church in Colorado Springs, where he also hosts the Essential Church podcast, a weekly conversation designed to strengthen the thinking of church and ministry leaders. He previously served as lead pastor of Bloom Church, a neo-monastic, charismatic, liturgical, justice-driven network of house churches in Denver. He holds a DMin in the sacred art of writing from Western Theological Seminary (2024) and an MDiv from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (2006). He has written for Missio Alliance, Patheos, The Other Journal, and Mere Orthodoxy. He is the author of Streams in the Wasteland and All Flame. He and Mandi have been married since 2000, and are grateful parents to four kids: Ethan, Gabe, Bella, and Liam.
Arndt was born and raised in the charismatic movement. His ministry is marked by an integration between the unique gifts of his charismatic heritage and the great gifts of historical Christian belief and practice. His speaking and writing combine deep pastoral concern with a desire to locate his hearers inside the wide sweep of the Christian story--all seasoned with personal stories and good humor to challenge the mind and expand the heart.
