Showing results by author "Jared C. Wilson" in All Categories

The Bible calls Jesus the friend of sinners, but it's hard to imagine what friendship with Jesus really looks like. We so often don't even know how to do friendship with the people around us, despite all the options we have to connect. So how are we supposed to feel that close to a holy, perfect, and invisible God? How do we see Jesus as the real person he is? And how do we experience true friendship with him when we struggle to maintain true friendship on earth? Join author Jared C. Wilson as he explores what it means to be a friend of Jesus.

When four recent high school graduates return home from a weekend of camping, they expect to go back to life as usual. Instead, the boys discover empty streets, abandoned cars, and utter silence - everyone has disappeared. As the friends attempt to solve the mystery, they stumble upon more questions than answers. Why won’t the electronics work? Where did the wind go? What do the notebooks full of gibberish mean? With each new discovery, they learn that nothing was ever quite what it seemed on Echo Island and that a deep secret is drawing them in - if only they'd surrender to it.

The short book of Philippians is one of the most quoted in the Bible, yet Paul wrote it not for the popular sound bites, but to paint a picture of a mature Christian faith. While many give their lives to Jesus, few then go on to live a life of truly vibrant faith. In this disruptively inspiring book, Chandler offers tangible ways to develop a faith of pursuing, chasing, knowing, and loving Jesus. Because if we clean up our lives but don't get Jesus, we've lost! So let the goal be him.

Author and pastor Jared C. Wilson shows how to lead a culture shift in a church from a focus on numerical success to the metrics of grace. Leading a church culture to shift from numerical success to the metrics of grace can be costly, but leaders who have conviction, courage, and commitment can lead while avoiding some of the land mines that often destroy churches.

In The Story of Everything, Jared Wilson takes listeners on a journey that starts before the creation of the world and ends after everything has been made new. Wilson shows us that the gospel isn't just a ticket to heaven, but God's incredible and unstoppable vision for all of creation. Looking at God's redemptive plan for humanity, this audiobook will help you understand what the gospel means for your life, your home, your pets, your hobbies, and more.

Each of us is the owner of a random collection of theologies, doctrines, and superstitions. It's a junk drawer of religious ideas and influences. It's the witticisms your grandmother tossed around with ease that sounded like they came from a religious text. It's an insight gleaned about God from a half-heard sermon at a friend's church. It's the mental screenshot of a meme shared on social media. It's the empowering idea you underlined in a book and wrote on a Post-it Note now forever affixed to your laptop.

Delight in God’s wonderful gifts of grace with this Advent devotional for Christmas. Just as with opening the doors of an Advent calendar day by day, this Advent devotional will build your anticipation for Christmas so that you can fully absorb and enjoy its central gift—Jesus Christ. Reflecting on a few short verses each day, this devotional examines the wonderful gifts of grace that we receive through the coming of Christ and belief in his gospel.

Not every lie sounds untrue. Some lies are repeated so often they seem to be common sense. That's why lies about God are so dangerous. The Gospel According to Satan examines eight lies the enemy wants us to believe and provides eight lines of counterattack against them. Jared C. Wilson reveals why these lies appeal to us, shows how they harm us, and provides ways to counteract them. We can renounce Satan's counterfeit gospel, but first we must see it for what it is.

How do we keep from drifting away from what makes us who we are? How do we even know we're drifting? In this provocative new book, Jared C. Wilson discusses the potentials and problems with evangelical departures from gospel-centrality. In a variety of ways, on both "the left" and "the right," Wilson outlines these threats from angles sometimes imperceptible at first glance.

Too many discipleship books are written for clean, perfect people who know all the right Sunday school answers. The Imperfect Disciple is for the rest of us - people who screw up, people who are weary, people who are wondering if it's safe to say what they're really thinking. For the believer who is tired of quasi-spiritual lifehacks being passed off as true, down-and-dirty discipleship, here is a discipleship book that isn't afraid to be honest about the mess we call real life.

In The Storied Life, veteran author Jared C. Wilson explores the ins and outs of writers and writing, exploring the myriad ways the craft is more about transformation than simply communication. From decades of experience and with his signature wit, Wilson brings well-earned insight, autobiographical reflections, and meaningful meditations to the topic of writing as a way of life and as a way of worship, showing how the concept of Story—our personal stories and God's grand story of redemption—shapes fiction and non-fiction writers alike.

The Song of Solomon offers strikingly candid - and timeless - insights on romance, dating, marriage, and sex. We need it. Because emotions rise and fall with a single glance, touch, kiss, or word. And we are inundated with songs, movies, and advice that contradicts God's design for love and intimacy. Matt Chandler helps navigate these issues for both singles and marrieds by revealing the process Solomon himself followed: attraction, courtship, marriage...even arguing. The Mingling of Souls will forever change how you view and approach love.

In Gospel-Driven Ministry, Jared Wilson looks at the qualifications for the pastorate, addressing the notion of a call to ministry and how to identify the marks of maturity and affirm a call. In addition, he unpacks the eight core practices of pastoral ministry and offers guidance to prepare pastors for long-term, healthy ministry.

Would it change your life to know that there is a way to live your everyday life supernaturally? Most of us would say yes, and Jared C. Wilson's new book reveals how.

In Unparalleled, Wilson holds up the teachings of the Bible to the clear light of day, revealing how Christianity rises above every other religion and philosophy of the world, and how its unmatched truth answers the deepest longings of every human heart. He provides an overview of Christianity's key claims showing how, from top to bottom, it is distinct from all other competing ideologies, religious and secular.

While pastoring for the past 15 years, Jared Wilson has become known in contemporary evangelicalism for his passionate, gospel-centered writing and teaching. Following Wilson's well-received publication of Gospel Wakefulness, he writes Gospel Deeps as a "next step" to establishing the need for astonishment, which begins by looking at the astonishing things God has done in and through Christ. Wilson holds up the gospel like a diamond and examines it facet by facet.

There may be no more powerful desire in the human heart than to be loved. And not just loved, but loved anyway. In spite of what we've done or left undone, in spite of the ways we have failed or floundered. We long for an unconditional, lavish love that we know intrinsically we don't deserve. If you are tired, sad, yet always longing, best-selling author Jared C. Wilson has incredible news for you: that kind of love actually exists, and it is actually something you can experience - whether or not you're in a romantic relationship.

Walking on water. Multiplying the fish and the loaves. Raising Lazarus from the dead. The miracles of Jesus may be well known, but they are often treated as nothing more than fanciful tales. Written as a companion volume to The Storytelling God: Seeing the Glory of Jesus in His Parables, this book by Jared Wilson argues for the historicity and importance of the miraculous events surrounding Jesus’s life and ministry.

From the beginning of his ministry, Jesus called and equipped individuals who would serve his community of followers. These "shepherds" are called to preach, pray, and care for the needs of God's people. But what does it mean to be a pastor? And what is the nature of this ministry, according to the Bible? In these 10 audio lectures, Jared Wilson begins by looking at the qualifications for the pastorate, addressing the notion of a call to ministry and how an individual—and a church community—can best identify the marks of maturity and affirm a call.

In Go Outside, Jared and Becky Wilson imagine the advice they’d give if they could travel back in time. Like Solomon in Ecclesiastes, as we get older, we lament and regret the desires and behaviors of our youth. But what if you could avoid some of the pitfalls and pain so many people experience?