The Upside Down Kingdom

Translated into six languages, and with over 100,000 copies sold, The Upside-Down Kingdom continues to change people’s lives. In addition to a new cover, this edition includes three essays by people whose lives have been inspired by the book. Donald B. Kraybill shows how the kingdom of God announced by Jesus appeared upside-down in first-century Palestine. Jesus wins by serving and triumphs by losing. Today, God’s way still looks upside-down as it breaks into diverse cultures around the world. According to Kraybill, worldly authorities seek power and prestige, but Jesus’ counter-cultural message is a clear call to turn the social ladder upside-down. Jesus demonstrates radical opposition to the dominant culture by making friends with social outcasts and rebelling against authorities. This message calls Christians from many cultures to actively participate in God’s upside-down kingdom. Winner of the 1979 National Religious Book Award.

The Upside-Down Kingdom calls readers to imagine and embody the reign of God on earth as it is in heaven. Since its publication in 1978, The Upside-Down Kingdom won the National Religious Book Award and has become the most trusted resource on radical Christian discipleship. In this completely updated anniversary edition, author Donald B. Kraybill asks: What does it mean to follow the Christ who traded victory and power for hanging out with the poor and forgiving his enemies? How did a man in first-century Palestine threaten the established order, and what does that mean for us today? Jesus turned expectations upside down. The kingdom of God is still full of surprises. Are you ready? Free downloadable study guide available here.

In The Kingdom that Turned the World Upside Down, David Bercot takes the reader back to Jesus' teachings of the kingdomteachings that have too often been forgotten. Bercot describes the radically new laws of the kingdom and its upside-down values. There's no room in Christ's kingdom for superficial Christianity, for this is a kingdom that has historically turned the world upside down.

Amy Ashe had arrived in Washington, D.C. straight from college in 2000, responsible, mild-mannered, and wry-humored. Two years later, she left her writing position at an influential lobby firm, and just walked out, mid-shift, on her trendy restaurant job in Dupont Circle. During those two years, her ideals betrayed her. Strangers embraced her. And the city itself threatened to break her spirit even as it encouraged her to stretch her wings. These, all, have delivered her to this moment. This is the story of how she found the readiness to leave it all behind

What if the path to a life of abundance and blessing isn't what we expected? What if the way forward begins with going backward? In our constant search for a life filled with blessing and abundance, we often follow our human instinct and then wonder why we come up short. But it doesn't have to be that way. Join pastor and author Alex Seeley as she teaches us that God always has a better idea -- we just have to move in a new direction. In?The Opposite Life, Seeley explains that the secret to living a powerful and abundant life lies in the upside-down kingdom of God. Each chapter of The Opposite Life explores the opposite-life principles that can start to shift our mindset for the better, diving deeper into the natural contradictions between: death and life fear and faith hate and love worry and worship impossible and possible Along the way, she offers encouraging and simple challenges to help us align our lives with God's subversive plan. As we learn to exchange our default instincts for the surprising teachings of Jesus -- our pioneer of the unlikely -- we discover a life of transformational power, abundance, and more blessing than we ever thought possible. Praise for The Opposite Life: "Our broken earth longs for just this type of unveiling. It is time for us to remember who we are and respond as sons and daughters of the Most High God. There is a desperate longing for His goodness in the face of overwhelming anger, pain, and confusion. The Opposite Life is a drink of living water in a dry and arid land." --Lisa Bevere, New York Times bestselling author of Without Rival and Girls with Swords

A newly Christian friend of mine asked me to recommend a book to help her and her husband get off to a strong start in their new faith. I set out to find the perfect book. To hold their attention, it had to be the literary equivalent of a successful date night movie. It needed romance, humor, suspense, and possibly lucrative product placements. It needed something for him and something for her. But it couldn’t be fluff, it needed to be genuinely helpful. I set out to find such a book. I left no stone unturned. I left no turn stoned. In fact, at no point was I stoned. Rather, my glassy eyes were due to disappointment, as book after book failed to meet my stringent criteria. But I didn’t give up, instead, I started writing the book I was looking for and now you have it in your hot little hands - unless you have cold hands. The temperature of your hands is beside the point. The point is new Christians have long needed a wise and fun mentor to guide their formative first steps as Jesus followers. The three core beliefs and six core practices of the UPSIDEDOWN Life provide the wisdom, I solemnly pledge to bring the fun.

When you talk to God, do you ever wonder if He really hears? Do your prayers start to feel rote or routine? Do you sometimes feel you don’t even know how to pray? Jesus is known for turning situations upside down . . . and He can do the same in your prayer life. Your perspective on prayer and faith may never be the same again when you read artist and designer Kelly O’Dell Stanley’s delightfully accessible, innovative new book Praying Upside Down. Stanley uses imagery, simple techniques, and artwork to help you see God like never before and move your prayer life away from the preconceived and expected to a new level of intimacy. Praying Upside Down offers a fresh chance to learn something new, hear an answer you didn’t anticipate, and experience God in a more real, tangible way.

No longer can Acts be seen as a simple apologia that articulates Christianity's harmlessness vis-à-vis Rome. Rather, in its attempt to form communities that witness to God's apocalypse, author Kavin Rowe argues that Luke's second volume is a highly charged and theologically sophisticated political document. Luke aims at nothing less than the construction of a new culture - a total pattern of life - that inherently runs counter to the constitutive aspects of Graeco-Roman society.