Rob Peabody urges readers to exchange mediocre faith for Kingdom-minded living
Rejecting
“status-quo” Christianity
Rob
Peabody urges readers to exchange mediocre faith for radical, Kingdom-minded
living
When living what you believe to be a good Christian life still leaves
you feeling empty, you might begin to wonder: Do I really know what it means to
follow Christ? It’s a question Rob Peabody, author of Citizen:
Your Role in the Alternative Kingdom (Monarch Books/July 29, 2014/ISBN: 978-0857215420/$14.99),
asked himself at the age of 26, shortly after landing his dream job as the lead
campus pastor of a burgeoning new campus of a Texas mega-church. “The church
exploded with excitement. People were being baptized and saved, and true growth
was occurring,” Peabody says. “It was all going to plan . . . and then it hit
me. I couldn’t go on this way any longer.”
Peabody
realized his faith had little connection with the world around him. He had
inherited a westernized view of Christianity that too often glorifies personal
success, comfort and individualism to the detriment of the lifestyle to which
Jesus calls his followers. He realized Jesus was calling him — and all of us —
to an all-or-nothing lifestyle, not a pick-and-choose faith salad bar. Something
had to change.
He began by redirecting his church
toward the poor on their doorstep. “Jesus did not just save us from something (hell and eternal
separation from Him), but He saved us for
something.” Peabody explains. The church adopted local schools and created
mentoring programs to teach the less-fortunate important life skills. In Citizen,
Peabody defines the kingdom-centered identity given to followers of Jesus
and uses his personal story to reveal fundamental problems in the Christian
culture. He shows how each problem — the model of competition, the idol of the
autonomous self, the desire to create God in our own image and conflicting allegiances
— can be resolved by appealing to our loyalties and duties as citizens of God’s
kingdom.
Citizen is also a wake-up
call to the church in the West. Peabody’s spiritual journey has now taken him
from America’s Bible belt to the United Kingdom, where he is dedicated to
reaching the young adults walking London’s streets. Only 2% of the city’s
residents identify as evangelicals, giving Peabody a unique view of life as a
Christian in the U.S. “When you live in a city as a part of the tiny religious minority,
your faith either falls away or becomes very real,” Peabody reveals. “I think
the church in America could use some of this shock to wake them up from
operating as ‘business as usual’ before it is too late.”
In Citizen, readers will learn salvation is so much more than just a
get-out-of-jail-free card; it’s an invitation to change the way they live completely
and transform a culture in the process.
Advance Praise
“Rob brings clear
perspectives on what it means to follow Jesus, take risks and live with a
unique identity as a citizen of the everlasting Kingdom.”
“If you are satisfied and
comfortable with your current state of life and faith, then I suggest you put
this book down and continue shopping.”
“A splendidly vivid
account of what it means to follow Jesus today.”
About the Author
Rob
Peabody
left his position as lead campus pastor of a mega-church in Texas in 2011 and
moved with his wife, Medea, and their two sons to the U.K. He is now the co-founder
and director of Awaken, a non-profit organization that exists to provide
resources and creativity to the church and reach Londoners in their 20s and 30s
with the Gospel. This work is commissioned by the International Mission Board
of the Southern Baptist Convention and in partnership with the Church of
England.
Peabody also currently serves as a
missional consultant for multiple church networks. He appears regularly at the
Spring Harvest conferences in Great Britain and will be leading a new upcoming
national U.K. conference for young adults called The Pursuit.
In addition, Peabody has written a
small-group film series entitled Kingdom
Rise, which was released in March of 2013.
For more information about Rob Peabody, visit his online home at awakenmovement.com, become a fan on Facebook (awakenmovement) or follow him on Twitter (@AwakenRob and @awakenmovement).
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