Unfettered: Imagining a Childlike Faith beyond the Baggage of Western Culture

"Smith's sage advice will aid Christians in recognizing the simple joys of practicing their faith."--Publishers WeeklyWestern culture is in a tailspin, and Christian faith is entangled in it: we do kingdom things in empire ways. Western approaches to faith leave us feeling depressed, doubting, anxious, and burned out. We know something is wrong with the way we do faith and church in the West, but we're so steeped in it that we don't know where to begin to break old habits.Popular pastor and speaker Mandy Smith invites us to be unfettered from the deeply ingrained habits of Western culture so we can do kingdom things in kingdom ways again. She explores how we can be transformed by new postures and habits that help us see God already at work in and around us. The way forward isn't more ideas, programs, and problem-solving but in Jesus's surprising invitation to the kingdom through childlikeness. Ultimately, rediscovering childlike habits is a way for us to remember how to be human.Unfettered helps us reimagine how to follow God with our whole selves again and join with God's mission in the world. Foreword by Walter Brueggemann.From the Back CoverWestern culture is in a tailspin, and Christian faith is entangled in it: we do kingdom things in empire ways.Author, pastor, and speaker Mandy Smith invites us to be unfettered from the deeply ingrained habits of Western culture and embrace Jesus's surprising invitation to the kingdom through childlikeness.Unfettered will help you rediscover childlike habits, reimagine how to follow God with your whole self again, and join with God's mission in the world."Mandy Smith is one of the great pastoral voices of our time. If you are untangling and reconstructing how you engage with God, you simply must read this book."--Tim Soerens, author of Everywhere You Look: Discovering the Church Right Where You Are"Even Christian ministry has been fettered by modern Western ideals and presumptions: control, success, calculative thinking, and--fundamentally--reality-dismissing acedia. What is a passionate, caring, supposedly sophisticated pastor to do? Follow Smith's journeying in search of God and reality, away from this 'adultishness' to become like a child. And don't just read it; undertake such a journey yourself."--Esther Lightcap Meek, professor, Geneva College; author of Longing to Know, Loving to Know,and A Little Manual for Knowing"It is past time to unfetter the church from the grip of Western culture. Smith reminds us where to start: with Jesus's call to childlikeness. That call (and this book) is an invitation to more exploration, more adventure, more trust, a deeper relationship with God, and a more profound witness to the watching world. For the sake of the church--and the West--let's say yes."--John Pattison, coauthor of Slow Church: Cultivating Community in the Patient Way of Jesus"Do not, dear reader, take up this book unless you intend to be changed, because this book concerns emancipatory transformation. . . . [It] is a powerfully compelling good word to the church in our society--evangelical and liberal--that has largely exhausted its old endowments."--Walter Brueggemann (from the foreword)About the AuthorMandy Smith is a speaker and the pastor of St. Lucia Uniting Church in Brisbane, Australia. Her book The Vulnerable Pastor was named a best book of the year by Missio Alliance, Leadership Journal, Englewood Review of Books, and Hearts and Minds Bookstore. Smith directed Missio Alliance's SheLeads Summit for two years, has been the keynote speaker at many national gatherings, and teaches at Fuller Theological Seminary and Western Seminary's Eugene Peterson Center for Christian Imagination. She is also a regular contributor to Missio Alliance and Christianity Today.