Less of More

Pursuing Spiritual Abundance in a World of Never Enough

by: Chris Nye

• Format

  E-Book

  ISBN

  9781493417643

  Pub. Date

  May 2019

  SRP

  $14.99

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About

"This is one of those rare books that can honestly change your life."--Jefferson Bethke, New York Times bestselling author of Jesus > Religion and It's Not What You Think


For most Americans, the pursuit of happiness really means the pursuit of more--more money, more prestige, more stuff. We've made idols out of innovation, growth, power, and wealth. Far from offering us happiness and satisfaction, this has only left us exhausted, isolated, miserable, and wondering if there is a better way.

There is. Less of More exposes our pursuit of more for what it truly is: an attempt to satisfy our souls with the temporary instead of the eternal. Pastor and writer Chris Nye invites us to consider what a full and abundant life looks like apart from money, status, and power. He exposes the lies inherent in our obsession with growth, fame, and wealth and calls us to a countercultural life marked by connection, obscurity, vulnerability, and generosity.

If you have gained the world but lost your soul, Less of More offers a compelling path toward a life of true, deep, lasting satisfaction with Jesus--not us--at the center of it.


"Chris Nye has written a lucid, wise book on the crisis of American life and the hope of the gospel. His exposé of American pathology is searing and specific. His articulation of a gospel alternative is profoundly compelling. Nye invites us to 'take Jesus at his word' concerning dying with him and being raised to life with him. Such trust would entail nothing less than to 'follow him out of America and into the kingdom of God.' Attention must be paid!"--Walter Brueggemann, Columbia Theological Seminary


Chris Nye is pastor for teaching and leadership development at Awakening Church in the Silicon Valley of California. He is the author of Distant God, and his writing has appeared in the Washington Post, Christianity Today, Relevant magazine, and others. He lives with his wife, Allison, in California. Visit www.chrisnye.co for more.

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Endorsements

"Chris Nye has written a lucid, wise book on the crisis of American life and the hope of the gospel. His exposé of American pathology is searing and specific: 'more,' growth, individualism, isolation, pressure, and wealth, to name some of our lethal addictions. His articulation of a gospel alternative is profoundly compelling. Nye invites us to 'take Jesus at his word' concerning dying with him and being raised to life with him. Such trust would entail nothing less than to 'follow him out of America and into the kingdom of God.' Attention must be paid!"

Walter Brueggemann, Columbia Theological Seminary

"This is one of those rare books that can honestly change your life. Fish don't know they are swimming in water, and we don't usually know what air we are breathing either, because it feels so normal. But in this book Chris brilliantly and poetically shows the enormous blind spots of our culture and our lives while gently taking us back to the One who can give us the true and abundant life we are all looking for--Jesus."

Jefferson Bethke, New York Times bestselling author of Jesus > Religion and It's not What You Think

"Could there be a relationship between the loneliness that grips so many lives today and the desire to have 'more'? In this book, which draws on wisdom honed by ministry, Nye helps us see that just is the case. This is a sobering but much-needed book."

Stanley Hauerwas, Gilbert T. Rowe Professor Emeritus of Divinity and Law, Duke University

"This is a calm book but also an incendiary one; it asks questions that you might rather avoid. But it also provides--or at least hints at --solutions to our deep modern dilemmas. I found it strangely settling in this strangely unsettling time."

Bill McKibben, author of Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out?

"We've been drip-fed the lie, especially in the American church, that our private resources and personal influence should be growing if we're doing things right. Chris Nye masterfully exposes this lie in Less of More. Much like John the Baptist, Nye is a voice in our wilderness of wealth and waste, brazenly pointing the way to true human flourishing: Jesus must become greater. We must become less. Period. I pray you not only read this book but reorient your life around its message."

Evan Wickham, lead pastor, Park Hill Church in San Diego, CA

"Most of the people I serve are perishing from having too much while so many of our sisters and brothers perish from having too little. Pastor Chris Nye shows us the way to untangle ourselves from being caught in our stuff. Chris' book has some fresh things to say about an age-old human dilemma. You'll find this book to be a great resource in thinking like Christians in a world where God's abundance is enough."

Will Willimon, professor of the Practice of Christian Ministry, Duke Divinity School, and United Methodist bishop, retired

"The first word most babies speak is more. That is the fallen, broken, narcissistic human story. Sadly, more is often one of the last words out of our mouth before we die. More is our way, our American way. Enough is not even a framework we entertain. Nye offers us a new way forward, but not a way of progress that gives us more of what we want. Rather, it gives us what we need. Contentment. The power and the joy of saying that we don't actually need any more than we already have. We are already rich in Christ."

Dr. A. J. Swoboda, pastor, author of Subversive Sabbath, and teacher in Portland, Oregon

"I reserve the word brilliant for the rare writer who genuinely brings light to their subject--that gleam of both truth and beauty. Chris Nye earns it. Less of More is a winsome strike against our culture's deep sickness: the runaway consumption that devours our humanity as surely as it deflowers creation and degrades our neighbors. Harsh, honest, yet stridently hopeful, Less of More will disturb you in the best of ways--toward a change of heart that could change our world."

Paul J. Pastor, author of The Face of the Deep: Exploring the Mysterious Person of the Holy Spirit and The Listening Day: Meditations on the Way

"Chris Nye has done us an enormous favor in writing Less of More. He contrasts the American story of more (growth-isolation-fame-power-wealth) with the biblical counter-narrative (pace-community-obscurity-vulnerability-generosity). It is not another 'get off the rat race' book but a biblical theology of mission with the personal insights that help us live that mission. It troubled me as I saw many of my own assumptions while calling me to follow Jesus deeply."

Gerry Breshears, PhD, professor of theology, Western Seminary

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