For the past several years, Brian Zahnd has been like an abbott to me. Every week, I listen to his sermon podcasts as part of my spiritual rhythm of life. Brianâ??s book Beauty Will Save the World completely changed my life. Brian has been on a journey from what he calls the â??easy cheesy cotton-candy Christianityâ? he originally used to build his evangelical megachurch to a much richer, contemplative, sacramental Christian faith. Brianâ??s new book Water To Wine is a story of salvation from toxic Christianity and a discovery of the deep mysterious beauty of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God.
His title is taken from Jesusâ?? first miracle transforming water into wine at a wedding. Itâ??s an excellent metaphor for the conversion that Brian has experienced over the past 12 years. Brian says that in 2004, after twenty years at the helm of what was at one point â??one of the twenty fastest growing churches in America,â? he found himself restless and dissatisfied with the â??shallow, â??success-in-lifeâ?? chaismatic evangelicalism that had been [his] worldâ? (3). He was thirsty for a deeper gospel, â??something living, that came from the oak barrels of a vintner, not something concoted from the aluminum vats of an industrialistâ? (4).
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