“Jeremy is a deep thinker; he’s courageous enough to challenge some popular evangelicals and emergents today. Yet, this is not a screed: Jeremy loves the Church and has a passion for the ostracized, like the homosexual community, and he tells us in this book that grace grinding is the not the way of Jesus and it is not the gospel Jesus preached.”

Scot McKnight
Professor, North Park University
Author, ‘The Jesus Creed’ and ‘The Blue Parakete’

“Jeremy Bouma, wise beyond his years, makes a compelling case that the gospel of Jesus Christ is (un)offensive in these pages. For the gospel is ultimately a testament of God’s love for the world as instantiated in Jesus of Nazareth. Jeremy reminds us of this simple but profound truth, and introduces us to some of his friends who make this truth come to life.”

Tony Jones
National Coordinator, Emergent Village
Author, ‘The New Christians: Dispatches from the Emergent Frontier’

“Jeremy had me at the title—the (un)offensive gospel of Jesus. With deep passion for the Church, a sharp awareness of the prevalent, hot, future-shaping emerging conversation, and the courage to slay a few sacred cows, Jeremy offers a compelling vision of Jesus and the Church’s mission. Jeremy’s debut book informs, disturbs, encourages and challenges. Who is the Jesus we show to the world? What is the Story we tell? These two questions will never be the same for me.”

John W. Frye
Pastor, Fellowship Covenant Church; Grand Rapids, MI
Author, “Jesus the Pastor” and “Out of Print”

“While recognizing our fallen world with failing followers of Jesus, Jeremy paints a brilliant, honest, passionate and redeeming picture of the Christ who heals, speaks with authority and still changes the impossible. As we step back and gaze at this amazing portrait of a liberating magnetic Jesus I find good news, an (un)offensive Jesus, to whom I have too often shamefully been offensive.”

Dr. Doug Fagerstrom
President, Grand Rapids Theological Seminary

“the (un)offensive gospel of Jesus” in 12 seconds on 12seconds.tv

It is a reading of one of my favorite sections from a chapter entitled, “our creation.” In this chapter I contend that the way we tell God’s Story of Rescue begins in entirely the wrong place: we begin either with sin or with heaven. I (and others) believe God’s Story begins at creation and our collective human story doesn’t being with sin but with the reality that we are beings crafted after the Image and Likeness of God. Yes we do rebel and are broken/cracked because of rebellion, but we are not fundamentally sinful. Instead, we are fundamentally Image Bearers of God.

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