I took these all off of the Amazon reviews. Each break is a new review. Read them in full if you want at Amazon.com.
Humbling and I thank God for these…..
carl
Reading this book by Medearis is like sitting around with one of the wise and experienced veterans of ministry. As they talk you realize that you wish you had pen and paper with you so you can write some of this down.
There are so many people I know I wish would read this book.
This book has changed my world. I’m serious. I was the one that was convinced that I had to bring others to my religion. If they disagreed over some point within that religion, I got defensive and forgot the real goal: JESUS.
At times, Medearis takes it to the edge, when it comes to being a “friend of sinners.” But I wonder, where would we find Jesus if he showed up at our town in the flesh?
If you’re tired of defending Christianity, read this book.
Medearis is a refreshing voice, suggesting that we can open doors for discussions by focusing on the person of Jesus.
Definitely one of the best books I’ve read
This book was extremely accessible, and I think a wide audience would get a lot out of this book. It’s funny and his analogies aren’t tired and overused
I would encourage this book for anyone who feels pressure to share or defend religion. The boundaries are released from you and from your friends. Jesus is open and available to be experienced by all.
Every part of the book is clear: The message, mission, and ministry of our faith is about Jesus… only Jesus. How often we forget this… it is the lost message of Christianity.
The most beautiful part of my experience with this book was the experiment I engaged in upon completing it. I have started sharing my journey through the lens of Jesus. In the most recent opportunities I have had to champion my faith, I have shared by retelling lessons and stories of Jesus.
I have never read another book quite like this one, although Medearis does give reference to some (others). Read his book, and invite Jesus into your own heart anew.
He advocates sharing Jesus and avoiding the polemic battles. His way skips apologetics, struggles over polity and practices, and the other baggage that comes with religion and Christian tradition.
Carl’s book is the best I’ve read on this issue!
The concepts are so different from how we as Christians instinctively think, I want to go through the book again, a bit slower with a more critical eye. He asks lots of questions while he talking with non-believers, and these are the kinds of tools I want to re-read and retain to help me in future conversations when speaking of Jesus.
This book is easy to read and hard to put down, and here’s why. Carl helps you to re-orient your thinking about the hope that is in you.
If you often feel intimidated about sharing your faith in a culture that accepts just about any confession except biblical faith, this book will help you to recover your `voice.’ Carl has a knack for stories, as many discover through his blogs and podcasts.
This book is a refreshingly real and honest.
The Gospel is not a what. It is not a how. The gospel is a who. The gospel is literally the good news of Jesus. Jesus is the gospel.
Following Jesus vs. following Christianity.
Medearis prefers a centered-set model verses a bounded set model of evangelism. This helps to avoid the “us vs. them” mentality. No one likes to be approached as someone one the “outside” (even if they are) who needs “converting”.
He has beautiful and compelling stories of people far from Jesus (in our western definition) discovering a Jesus they never knew. These stories will inspire you to do exactly what he is suggesting: Love people and talk about Jesus.
Medearis is issuing a call to Western American Christians to throw out what we know as evangelism and look to Jesus instead
Medearis writes with a wit and in a style that makes it hard to put the book down.
I loved every single page of this book.
I loved his frank honesty and humorous communication style. He cuts right to the heart of Jesus’ message and challenges us to live it and share it everyday.
Some books are just ok, some challenge you, and very very few change you. I can honestly say this book has changed me.
This book is for everyone!
This is one of the most powerful books I’ve read–I have to put it in the top very few of my life. It hit me with the joy, force and power of the reality of what we believe, who we are, in a way I haven’t encountered since I first read CS Lewis or Francis Schaffer.
I wish that all the “evangelism” training I had growing up would have been replaced with training on how to follow Jesus and speak of Him.
‘Speaking of Jesus – the art of NOT evangelism’ frees us to get back to our roots, back to the heart of following a living Person instead of securing ourselves with mental assents to doctrines and soul-ties to a 2,000 year old church with it’s own history often separate from Jesus himself.
I walked away from the text with this simple message: stop evangelizing, just live authentically. Pointing people to Jesus is different than attempting to convert them to your team. I found the book refreshing, freeing, funny, entertaining, thoughtful, and valuable enough to buy for others.
If you don’t know much about Carl, you should really investigate him. He’s probably the person in my life who has taught me the most about Not being stupid about the way I talk about Jesus. He continues to give me permission to talk about Jesus the way I want to talk about him. Normally.
I have since changed my facebook ‘Religion’ status to ‘student of Jesus’. If you read this book, I can see you doing the same.
Simply a phenomenal book
If you are a follower of Jesus and want to share him with people of other faiths or those who have been turned off by “Christianity” this is a must read.
I love the way Carl reminds us that we tend to focus on everything else surrounding Jesus, but never really get to Jesus himself.
This book gives me HOPE for the billions in this world who do not know Jesus, because of our botched attempts at loving them. Great read.
I found it challenging and liberating at the same time. This is a witty, funny, and yet powerful read that chews up nearly every sacred cow we’ve created about “evangelism.”
Speaking of Jesus is a no nonsense, common sense approach to, well…, speaking about Jesus to anyone. I bought ten more copies to share with friends, family and my pastor.
Speaking of Jesus is at once an antidote and a nutritional drink. The book alternates between neutralizing the toxic effect of overdosing on doctrine and religion and repeatedly leading the reader back to the pure well of Jesus himself.
So, for those who are willing to let go of “isms,” and begin simply following Jesus, the book offers some very straight forward signposts. Hang out with your friends and let Jesus naturally enter the conversation at appropriate times, as He would if he were really the center of your life.
Very accessible, often “pot-stirring,” sharply focused, anecdotal, conversational, unpretentious, and potentially transformational.
I just finished reading Carl’s book for the second time. I love the way he reduces complex theories of evangelism to one simple message. To know Jesus is more potent than trying to explain complex doctrine, theology we don’t understand, or even trying to defend “christian” history.
