Into the Fray

How Jesus's Followers Turn the World Upside Down

by: Matt Mikalatos

• Format

  E-Book

  ISBN

  9781441227058

  Pub. Date

  Jul 2015

  SRP

  $14.99

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About

Rediscover the wonder of sharing the story

In the earliest days of the Christian church, the gospel spread out from Jerusalem in a burst of incredible stories--about a man who calmed a stormy sea with a word, healed the lame and the blind, enraged the religious leaders, and even raised people from the dead. Compare this organic, even entertaining, method of spreading the good news with how we are often encouraged to evangelize today, with clever arguments and our defenses up.

Somewhere along the way, we've lost the plot to the greatest story ever told.

Matt Mikalatos invites us into God's story, both to find our place in it and to rediscover the wonder that the apostles and their listeners experienced. As you lose yourself in these modern retellings of the events of the book of Acts, you'll find that sharing the story is easier and more rewarding than you ever imagined.


"This book achieves the heroic by making millennia-old Scriptures feel fresh. Read this book and see Jesus again for the first time!"--Jonathan Merritt, author of Jesus Is Better Than You Imagined and senior columnist for Religion News Service

"Mikalatos breathes new life into the ancient, holy stories you thought you knew."--Drew Dyck, managing editor of Leadership Journal and author of Yawning at Tigers



Matt Mikalatos is the author of The First Time We Saw Him, My Imaginary Jesus, and Night of the Living Dead Christian and has been on staff with Cru (formerly Campus Crusade for Christ) for fifteen years. He has a master's degree in biblical theology from Western Seminary. Matt and his family reside near Portland, Oregon. Learn more at www.mikalatos.com.

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Endorsements

"Some people talk about the Bible. Other people know the Bible and show you their photos of the Bible. Then, there are those rare few who get a van and take you on a road trip through the Bible. This is one of those books. Mikalatos hits the nail on the biblical head--simply breathtaking. Put on your seat belts, roll down the windows, and bring some snacks. The trip is worth it."

A. J. Swoboda, pastor, professor, and author of A Glorious Dark

"I imagine that, not too long ago, a heap of superb storytelling and a pile of gospel-infused passion collided, with a peacock tail of sparks, and the result was Matt Mikalatos's Into the Fray. This book achieves the heroic by making millennia-old Scriptures feel fresh and distilling spiritual wisdom without being heavy handed. Read this book and see Jesus again for the first time!"

Jonathan Merritt, author of Jesus Is Better Than You Imagined and senior columnist for Religion News Service

"Christian truth doesn't change, but the way we express it does. It falls to believers in every generation to retell the Jesus story for their context. That's precisely what Matt Mikalatos has done in Into the Fray. With stirring images and buoyant prose, he reimagines the book of Acts in a way that is both faithful and fresh. Mikalatos breathes new life into the ancient, holy stories you thought you knew."

Drew Dyck, managing editor of Leadership Journal and author of Yawning at Tigers: You Can't Tame God, So Stop Trying

"The good news of the gospel doesn't change, but the settings for its telling are never static. Matt Mikalatos seems to understand that better than just about anyone. As he demonstrates with Into the Fray, Matt is a master storyteller and Jesus sharer with an uncanny gift for casting Jesus in a contemporary light and demonstrating his enduring relevance for this (or any) time."

Tom Krattenmaker, USA Today contributing columnist and author of The Evangelicals You Don't Know

"The greatest spell an author can cast is to tell a story that everyone knows, but make them hear it for the first time. With Into the Fray, Matt reminds us that the earliest days of the Christian community were days much like ours--fiery and rough, full of friendships and hanging trees and impossible odds, full of the wild, the mundane, the sweet, the bitter. Full, in a word, of the things God does to make himself known to the whole world. Into the Fray is relentlessly imaginative, unquestionably interesting, full of fun and play and well-made prose. Matt has written a rare treasure for readers: a theological page turner with heart."

Paul J. Pastor, author of The Face of the Deep: Living into the Life of the Spirit

"Matt has a gift for making the cloudy clear, for giving life to stale words on the page, for pulling readers into the fray. He once again brings the first century to us, and we find in this book an exciting call to be transformed and a reminder that the world will change for the better as we are changed by the Spirit of a living God."

Clay Morgan, author of Undead: Revived, Resuscitated, Reborn

"Most churches today claim to emulate the early church, but they lack the bold, fearless vision of our first fathers and mothers. With Into the Fray, Matt Mikalatos challenges us to see the early church with fresh eyes, to discern how the Holy Spirit drove them far past the boundaries of good religion to a resurrected life that can only be called revolutionary. Matt provokes us to dream that the Spirit isn't done with us, that God is still making a way in this world and calling the church to follow."

JR. Forasteros, teaching pastor of Catalyst Community Church

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