Everyone Belongs to God: Discovering the Hidden Christ

by Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove (Foreword by), Charles Moore (Compiler)

Overview

A pastor’s frank advice for Christians who want to bring the gospel to their neighbors.

Gold Medal Winner, 2016 Illumination Book Award in ministry/mission, Independent Publishers

How can Christians represent the love of Christ to their neighbors (let alone people in foreign countries) in an age when Christianity has earned a bad name from centuries of intolerance and cultural imperialism? Is it enough to love and serve them? Can you win their trust without becoming one of them? Can you be a missional Christian without a church?

This provocative book, based on a recently uncovered collection of 100-year-old letters from a famous pastor to his nephew, a missionary in China, will upend pretty much everyone’s assumptions about what it means to give witness to Christ.

Blumhardt challenges us to find something of God in every person, to befriend people and lead them to faith without expecting them to become like us, and to discover where Christ is already at work in the world. This is truly good news: No one on the planet is outside the love of God.

At a time when Christian mission has too often been reduced to social work or proselytism, this book invites us to reclaim the heart of Jesus’ great commission, quietly but confidently incarnating the love of Christ and trusting him to do the rest.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780874866469
Publisher:	Plough Publishing House, The
Publication date:	05/01/2015
Pages:	163
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 7.40(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Pastor, politician, and author, Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt (1842–1919) with his unconventional ideas about the kingdom of God, profoundly influenced a whole generation of European seekers. Among the luminaries he influenced were Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Emil Brunner, Oscar Cullman, and Karl Barth. Yet his vision and witness are still waiting to be discovered by most Americans, few of whom have had access to his works. He carried forward the work of his father, Johann Christoph Blumhardt (1805–1880), who is regarded by many as the key figure of German pietism.

Table of Contents

Foreword ix

Introduction xv

1 Keep the Kingdom in View 1

2 Avoid Being Religious 10

3 See How Christ Is Already at Work 38

4 Remain among the People 55

5 Open Wide Your Heart 73

6 Make God's Love Known 91

7 Show the Gospel 101

8 Allow the Spirit to Work 116

9 Always Hope 122

Reflection and Discussion Questions 132

Sources 139

Editorial Reviews

Everyone Belongs to God is one of the best books on mission and the kingdom of God that I have read in years. It's simple and clear enough to be understood by anyone. It's also the kind of book that I could give to my friends who are unbelievers. —Joshua T. Searle, Spurgeon’s College, London

Drawn from a series of 100-year-old letters to his missionary son-in-law serving in China, the wisdom of German pastor Christoph Blumhardt is timeless, not at all erudite but suffused with parental care and rooted in his unwavering devotion to Jesus Christ… This book is a challenging consideration for anyone faithfully attempting to incarnate God’s love in the world. —Liguorian Magazine

From the Publisher

Thought-provoking…Blumhardt’s passionate pleas for Christians to remember that God loves everyone, not just Christians, remain relevant today.

Foreword Reviews

Our gospel has been too small. It is, indeed, too small a thing to think that the hope of the world rests in our ability to recruit others into our religion. Blumhardt calls us to embrace the revolutionary notion that everyone belongs to God. He is a prophet for our time.

Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove

This is ultimately a book about hope, about transformation and about a revolutionary way to live out the gospel of Christ in our daily lives… It’s a book that encourages, challenges and provokes.

Gill Robbins

Everyone Belongs to God is one of the best books on mission and the kingdom of God that I have read in years. It's simple and clear enough to be understood by anyone. It's also the kind of book that I could give to my friends who are unbelievers.

Joshua T. Searle