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Love Goes First: Reaching Others in an Age of Anxiety and Division
The only way to truly change the world is to truly love it, and the only way to truly love it is to go first and move toward it.
Today, the cultural climate in the West is characterized by increasing amounts of mistrust and even hatred for others. We are fearful of other people, particularly those whose views and votes don't correspond with our own. This won't change any time soon, and the divides won't be bridged easily, but loving our neighbors isn't an option for the Church--it's a command of Jesus. So how do we do this in our chilly spiritual climate? How should the American church move forward from a weakening cultural position?
Andrew Forrest unfolds a simple framework that applies to every single relationship in our lives. Readers will be inspired and prepared to risk and reach out to others, even or especially when they are afraid of those who are different or when they risk being misunderstood. They will learn how--if they choose--to transform those relationships into friendships of mutual respect. More than that, Love Goes First provides profound insights into the love of God, and they will have a new awe and appreciation for the steps God is taking to redeem the world he has made.
Today, the cultural climate in the West is characterized by increasing amounts of mistrust and even hatred for others. We are fearful of other people, particularly those whose views and votes don't correspond with our own. This won't change any time soon, and the divides won't be bridged easily, but loving our neighbors isn't an option for the Church--it's a command of Jesus. So how do we do this in our chilly spiritual climate? How should the American church move forward from a weakening cultural position?
Andrew Forrest unfolds a simple framework that applies to every single relationship in our lives. Readers will be inspired and prepared to risk and reach out to others, even or especially when they are afraid of those who are different or when they risk being misunderstood. They will learn how--if they choose--to transform those relationships into friendships of mutual respect. More than that, Love Goes First provides profound insights into the love of God, and they will have a new awe and appreciation for the steps God is taking to redeem the world he has made.
206 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 7, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
February 19, 2026
Truly one of the biggest pieces of persecution-complex cope I’ve ever read. Forrest spends so much time demonizing and talking down to “the world” that he never takes the time to step back and think that maybe the very mindset he’s proposing is why people find his brand of Christianity distasteful. Rather than proposing supposed unconditional love, he instead views non-evangelicals as projects to be converted by being slightly less rude to them.
He regularly posits moral and cultural absolutes without a single example other than “because I say so”. He also seems to revel in intellectual superiority while also pushing an anti-intellectual agenda.
It’s abundantly clear his balcony story wasn’t the awakening he claims. I fail to see how anyone who’s had a single good faith dialogue with someone they disagree with could write the first 2/3 of this book.
I completely fail to understand why Forrest and his publishers chose to brand this book in such a rug-pulling fashion. Why pretend to be something that’s reaching across the aisle and seeking to build relationships when instead it’s about increasing evangelicals’ self-pity with a feel-good twist. Maybe they’re hoping that illiteracy and lack of critical thinking has risen enough that people won’t notice?
If you want to spend way more time than needed reading a poorly written diatribe refusing to see that the fruit is rotten, I highly recommend this one.
He regularly posits moral and cultural absolutes without a single example other than “because I say so”. He also seems to revel in intellectual superiority while also pushing an anti-intellectual agenda.
It’s abundantly clear his balcony story wasn’t the awakening he claims. I fail to see how anyone who’s had a single good faith dialogue with someone they disagree with could write the first 2/3 of this book.
I completely fail to understand why Forrest and his publishers chose to brand this book in such a rug-pulling fashion. Why pretend to be something that’s reaching across the aisle and seeking to build relationships when instead it’s about increasing evangelicals’ self-pity with a feel-good twist. Maybe they’re hoping that illiteracy and lack of critical thinking has risen enough that people won’t notice?
If you want to spend way more time than needed reading a poorly written diatribe refusing to see that the fruit is rotten, I highly recommend this one.
October 29, 2025
Wow Andrew thank you for bringing the light to my eyes! The Lord clearly had you write this book for me at this time! I highlighted so many spots in the book, but I think my favorite line was “…if you are going to get wounded anyway, you might as well move forward in action.” You also said “You will hurt…because every act of sacrificial love involves a degree of dying to self no matter what.” Your preaching is always spot on and now this book was the same. Thank you for spending your time writing the obvious for hard-headed people like to me to realize.
October 29, 2025
This is an excellent book explaining our current culural environment and the one solution for everyone. It is written by a pastor who is an exclelent speaker and a bible scholar. He clearly details the transition of our county's founding on Christianity evolving to today's post Christianity state. He explains why it is difficult for rational persons who think using facts to sway people who operate on feelings. He ends with expressing why Love needs to go first as a solution. Well done!
November 6, 2025
Excellent read! An encouraging book on stepping out in faith and the changes we can see in our relationships. This book challenged me to dare to initiate repairs in broken relationships, calm anxious hearts or dissipate heated arguments by loving others and taking the first steps forward towards healing. Love Goes First reminds us that Jesus did exactly that for each one of us and, as believers, we desire to live and love as Jesus lived and loves. I highly recommend this book.
February 27, 2026
This book not only inspired me to love others better, but gave practical steps to do it more genuinely and with true passion. Pastor Andrew sees what we feel inherent- that people just want to be loved and God made us with that desire. He connected those dots to say that Christians ought to stick their neck out and make attempts at connection even when there is no invitation and maybe especially when it feels likely to fail. A must read for Christians today!
October 23, 2025
Inspiring and encouraging...a hopeful plan for continuing the Great Commission in American culture.
November 8, 2025
We live in a divided and polarized world with more access to information than ever before but what’s it going to take to move forward? This book reminds us to simply go first in love to everyone!!
December 4, 2025
As with most books I don’t like, I will try to keep this brief. The central thrust, that the best way to spread the love of Christ is to take the initiative and actively spread it, is fine. However, his arguments supporting his claim are nonsensical and often bring up unrelated culture war issues. He also makes several assumptions about how the love of Christ manifests and what Christ calls us to do, to the point that I don’t feel this book is for Christians who subscribe to several other denominations/traditions.
I do not recommend this book.
I do not recommend this book.
March 24, 2026
Andrew's mantra that "love goes first" has been a guiding principle for me since I first heard him say it on a Sunday a few years ago. Unfortunately, it's very difficult to adhere to.
At it's foundation it is a call to "will the good of the other", to move toward others and to see and know them. People desire/need to be seen and known and they are desperate for this kind of love, which Andrew (and I) would say originates from God and has been shown to us.
Our call is to share the love from God that He's shared with us - we love because He first loved us.
This can get a little esoteric - what is love? Am I doing it right?
Andrew kind of summarizes it as your actions should express that "I'm grateful you’re alive and that I get to see you". It's a "committment to another's good, even when it costs."
Just follow through on the little nudges and convictions before the subway doors close. Send the text, say hi to that person you kinda know at the grocery store, be excited to see people, care deeply, listen. Expose your throat, so to speak, and take the risk of being awkward, stuttering, not being remembered, being thought of as weird, being misunderstood.
Keep going first and it'll stack up and there will be something to point to.
Have a bias towards action. Do something!
At it's foundation it is a call to "will the good of the other", to move toward others and to see and know them. People desire/need to be seen and known and they are desperate for this kind of love, which Andrew (and I) would say originates from God and has been shown to us.
Our call is to share the love from God that He's shared with us - we love because He first loved us.
This can get a little esoteric - what is love? Am I doing it right?
Andrew kind of summarizes it as your actions should express that "I'm grateful you’re alive and that I get to see you". It's a "committment to another's good, even when it costs."
Just follow through on the little nudges and convictions before the subway doors close. Send the text, say hi to that person you kinda know at the grocery store, be excited to see people, care deeply, listen. Expose your throat, so to speak, and take the risk of being awkward, stuttering, not being remembered, being thought of as weird, being misunderstood.
Keep going first and it'll stack up and there will be something to point to.
Have a bias towards action. Do something!
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews