Jonathan K. Dodson – författare

In The Unbelievable Gospel pastor Jonathan Dodson diagnoses the evangelistic paralysis of the modern church, pinpointing the reasons people don’t share their faith today and offering a desperately needed solution. Showing readers how to utilize the rich gospel metaphors found in Scripture and how to communicate a gospel worth believing—one that speaks to the heart-felt needs of diverse individuals—Dodson connects the gospel to the real issues people face each day by speaking to both the head and the heart.

Filled with stories that reveal the long road of relational evangelism and guidance on how to listen to others well, The Unbelievable Gospel is a much-needed resource that will benefit both individuals and churches.  Included are study questions for training and group discussion.

Did Jesus really beat death? That’s what Christians for hundreds of years have believed, that Jesus Christ returned to life after death and burial in a stone tomb. To the modern mind, “resurrection” is utterly implausible, but it was also doubtful to many first-century Greeks, Jews, and even some Christians. With such an incredible assertion at the heart of the Christian faith, it’s no wonder that some people struggle to believe.

Unlike any other book on the resurrection, Raised? encourages you to doubt in order to believe. Too often Christians look down on doubt, but in Christ, we see a person who welcomes doubt and encourages faith. Jonathan Dodson and Brad Watson don’t shy away from the hard questions or settle for easy answers. They help you to see how the resurrection offers hope for the future and answers for the life and death questions we all face.

“I encourage Christians and non-Christians alike to read this book. . . . provocative, illuminating, and succinct.”

—Eileen Flynn, former religion reporter for Austin American-Statesman and Journalism and religion lecturer at the University of Texas

“Wonderfully demonstrates the plausibility of the resurrection of Jesus and the possibilities for a life of hope.”

—Sean McDonough, professor of New Testament at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and author of Christ as Creator: Origins of a New Testament Doctrine

We live in an age of crisis. Financial crisis, political crisis, environmental crisis―the list goes on. We’re confronted with calamity every time we read the headlines. But behind each of these lurks another kind of crisis, one we find harder to define: a moral crisis—a crisis of goodness. Behind financial crisis is unrestrained greed; behind political crisis is the lust for power.

To properly address the crises that plague our world, we must be formed as people of moral goodness. We must cultivate virtue. But the cultural headwinds are strong: outrage and fragility, persecution and affluence, injustice and impurity.

In this wise and practical book, pastor Jonathan Dodson takes us back to the Beatitudes, the centerpiece of Jesus’ famous Sermon on the Mount. Dodson examines each of the Beatitudes in the context of the new morality that buffets our society today, presenting a compelling portrait of the truly good life, both personal and social.

Jesus’s vision of the good is stunning: heaven meets earth, mercy triumphs over judgment, peace transcends outrage, grace upends self-righteousness. Here is an account, not of dos and don’ts, but of genuine moral flourishing.