Vendor
	Mohrbooks Literary Agency Sebastian Ritscher
Original language
English
Categories
Religion & beliefs

SCARRED FAITH

Josh Ross

This is a story about how Honesty, Grief, a Cursing Toddler, Risk-Taking, AIDS, Hope, Brokenness, Doubts, and Memphis Ignited Adventurous Faith

In an original and thought-provoking work, Pastor Josh Ross invites us to enter into the suffering around us—and to embrace our scars and God’s restoring work. Reflective and heartfelt, this contemplation of social justice and the opportunity offered by suffering will change the way many Christians view themselves and their world.

While many books declare God a great liberator, Pastor Josh Ross reminds us that He is also a God who enters into the sufferings of the world, bringing the message of hope that many need in their darkest hours. Scarred Faith meditates on this profound idea, showing how the doubts and pain within us can actually aid deep faith.

Faith can be stirred within the walls of church buildings, but it is formed and nourished in the waiting rooms of hospitals, while holding kids affected by AIDS, and when being forced to venture outside one’s social comforts. Deep faith is scarred faith—the story of scripture depicts a rent world in which God works to repair our brokenness. As Pastor Ross reminds us, often what we need isn’t a God who will deliver us from a pit as much as a God who will get down into a pit with us. In Scarred Faith, he offers an unforgettable message: Grief opens us up to the greater suffering around us, allowing participation in God’s story of restoration. It is this partnership that makes our doubts and pain allies of deep faith, opening our hearts to allow redemption in spite of all the questioning.

Josh Ross is the Lead Minister for the Sycamore View Church in Memphis, Tennessee. In addition to speaking regularly around the country, he has been published in New Wineskins, At Home Tennessee, The Christian Chronicle, and other publications.

Available products
Book Published 2013-05-01 by Howard Books
Book Published 2013-05-01 by Howard Books

Comments

If you prefer a domesticated and sanitized faith, DON'T READ THIS BOOK! Josh asks hard questions, deep questions, the kind that people only ask who care as deeply as they hurt. But if you have been wounded and if the pain of the world breaks your heart, READ THIS BOOK! You will find hope and courage, not to remove your scars, but to redeem them

Josh Ross does not write about suffering as an expert, a theologian, or a pastor—though, in some sense, he is all three. Scarred Faith is an honest and raw description of life with God in the dark moments of pain and loss. This is not a book for those who want a Disney Jesus. This is a book for the rest of us, who, day by day, are learning to allow God to draw close to us in the midst of—not in spite of—our doubts, questions, and anxiety. Josh is a witness to the truth that God allows us to take on the strength of that which we overcome. So, read. And be strong in God.

This book clung to me for days after I read the first draft. Here Josh Ross walks us into places where God makes no sense to us—and where, on the face of things, He appears to be anything but a good God. The writing style is fresh and creative, but the real genius lies in the way Josh draws the reader up close to raw and inexplicable pain and loss—yet also reveals a way to embrace our pain, rather than to run from it. Ross calls us to be ‘scarred with God’ because God is willing to redirect overwhelming grief into enormous positive energy. A really helpful read for those of us who suffer—and for those who care.