Product Description

Chris Heuertz believes that any true path to spiritual sight ought to be simple.

While he's not a contemplative and hardly a mystic, Chris has found, in the Bible and in his work with impoverished people, evidence of a simple spirituality.

This way of humility, community, simplicity, submission and brokenness will help you see--no matter how dark things get.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #129983 in Books
• Published on: 2008-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 159 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780830836215
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Review
"Chris Heuertz's ability to weave real-life stories with scriptural and theological reflection makes this a very engaging and refreshing book. At a time when the gap between the poor and rich continues to grow, Chris reminds us that what the gospel commands us to do is not so much to do things for the poor, but to become friends, indeed sit at the same table, with the poor. What makes such a duty possible, even delightful, are such gifts as humility, community, simplicity, submission and brokenness--simple spirituality, he calls it!" -- Emmanuel Katongole, Associate Research Professor of Theology and World Christianity, and co-director of the Center for Reconciliation, Duke Divinity School

"Chris Heuertz's book Simple Spirituality brings together three critical transforming themes-- simplicity, spirituality and a broken world--and captures the profoundness of them through very simple real-life narratives. The book not only meets a critical need in the mission world but raises critical questions for those working among the poor and the oppressed to grapple with. Chris and his wife, Phileena, have been a blessing--people of passion and simplicity. I am sure readers would be blessed." -- Jayakumar Christian, National Director, World Vision India

"For those of us in the affluent West, spirituality has become muddled by materialism and complicated by our frenetic pace of life. Chris Heuertz helps to unwind the suffocating insulation that cocoons us and stunts our spiritual growth. From his amazing array of experiences among the poor, Chris has been educated in the seminary of the slums. In this deep but accessible work, he draws us alongside the prostitutes, the dying, the disabled and the beggars to help us learn what he has learned--that sitting so close to the heart of God, the poor have the proximity and perspective to teach us the art of simple spirituality." -- Scott A. Bessenecker, director, InterVarsity Global Projects

"Heuertz has written a thoughtful, compelling invitation to think, trust, and act more deeply in faith. He is aware of the enormous challenges we face and of the thickness of anxiety that can undermine faith. In the midst of that, he keeps his head clear, his heart focussed, and his words accessible. This book will be a source of strength and encouragement among those who are serious about 'following'." -- Walter Brueggemann, Columbia Theological Seminary

"There's no doubt about it: Chris Heuertz has found Jesus among the poorest of the poor--a Jesus who calls us to humility, community, simplicity, submission and brokenness. Throughout Simple Spirituality, as he shares his experiences from around the globe, he challenges and inspires us all to seek Jesus and follow him with renewed passion and integrity. Read it and be transformed." -- Stephen A. Seamands, professor of Christian doctrine, Asbury Theological Seminary

"This is a challenging and appealing book. It reveals the part of love to Jesus and of Jesus--presence to the poor, the broken and the vulnerable..." -- Jean Vanier, founder of the communities of L'Arche

From the Author
Why did you write Simple Spirituality?
"The book is a reflection of my own spiritual journey. I wrote it to remember the simple touch points that have helped cultivate my faith. It's a confession that I have not arrived at but am still working towards. It's a prayer for courage to not lose hope and give up, especially in a world where there's reason for such hopelessness. It's also a testament to the central role that community has played in my spiritual formation as it's been lived out vocationally. And it's the story of God opening my eyes to the surprising gifts among pain and suffering in some of the most unlikely places in the world."

How is simplicity a spiritual discipline?
"Rather than trying to fit our spirituality into complex religious practices, we can look to Christ. He kept it simple. He taught lessons even children could understand. And He used everyday illustrations to explain the mysteries and secrets of the kingdom of God--which we tend to complicate and reserve for the religiously astute."

What can this book say to the church?
This book laments how trendy Christianity has insulated and isolated itself far from those who are poor. This book offers an alternative expression of Christian formation, one that is drawn from Scripture and lessons God has enlivened for me through many friendships around the world."

What is the one thing you'd want readers to come away with?
"My hope is that the reader would feel like spirituality is something accessible to everybody. You don't have to be a mystic or an aesthetic to be spiritual. But that you could find, in the everyday, ways to practice your faith."

About the Author
Christopher L. Heuertz is the international director of Word Made Flesh, an organization that exists to serve Jesus among the poorest of the world's poor. Teaching, writing, speaking and pastoring, Christopher's responsibilities have taken him to nearly seventy countries. He has also lived in Israel, India and Peru.

Customer Reviews

Compelled to act
Humility. Community. Simplicity. Submission. Brokenness.
Five stones with which we can stand as David did, ready to battle our own giants.

Humility to slay the giant of pride and arrogance.
Community to slay the giant of individualism and independence.
Simplicity to slay the giant of intemperance and excess.
Submission to slay the giant of power and control.
Brokenness to slay the giant of triumphalism, defiance and resistance.

Chris Heuertz looks at these "stones" with eyes that have been refreshed by encounters with Scripture, Bob Marley, Mother Teresa, Henri Nouwen, and suffering friends.

What touched me most were the stories Heuertz shares. He captivates me with his personal encounters with friends who are very poor, who always seem to reveal mysterious truths about the heart of God. Heuertz humbly, honestly tells us ways he has been confronted by the God of the vulnerable. And as he draws closer to truth, he can't help but challenge us to find it for ourselves too--and he demands that the church respond to the voice of Christ. I am inspired and compelled to act on what I've read in this book.

Here's what you'll walk away with:
-Powerful stories etched into your mind
-A reading list, because Heuertz points you to incredible writers (theological, missional, devotional, etc.)
-A heart heavy for the poor
-Questions
-Ideas

A needed challenge to the church.
Chris's book is a needed voice in the church today. It calls us to remember the poor as we find what it means to live a genuine Christian life. And he doesn't let himself or the church off the hook easily. He is honest with himself and invites the reader to be honest with themselves as well. It's challenging, causing the reader to rethink what the Christian life really can look like and pushes the reader to know who Jesus really is. It's one of those books that can be read again and again because it's lessons that we all struggle with and can continually grow in.

Heuertz makes simple sense of profound ideas...
For some (probably complex) reason, serving Jesus among those who are poor (or, as Heuertz' better phrases it, "[people] who happen to be poor") has been somewhat of a distant cousin of Christian spirituality; less a profoundly beautiful mode of worship and more something one feels they must do, despite the clear posture of worship Jesus himself embodied in bringing the good news to the poor. Thankfully, Heuertz's thoughtful examination of service among those who are poor defines the paradigm shift that must occur in our spirituality - a shift marked by a drastically broadened expression and experience of Christian spirituality in the midst of a suffering world - a shift which prophetically urges us away from our common, limited perspective of serving the poor fortified in obligation, toward a new, life-giving reality rich in relationship and much fuller in form as the body of Christ.

Through an array of craftfully woven together reflections surrounding his experiences among his international community, Heuertz remarkably helps us make simple sense of this necessary shift. He shows us that "it is in our intimate relationships with... our friends who happen to be poor, that our tainted views of God are transformed." Mysteriously, it is within this context of being "exposed to the suffering of neighbors who are poor [that] our own poverty comes more clearly into view", and where we come in closer contact with the indispensable gifts of humility, community, simplicity, submission, and brokenness. Heuertz's voice is a gift given to remind us of one of God's simple truths: it is among those who are poor that not only can He be served, but found.