Interrupted: An Adventure in Relearning the Essentials of Faith

by Jen Hatmaker

Interrupted is about freedom from consumer-driven Christianity and getting back to the true faith, real life, real justice, real religion.

Genres: Christian

128 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2009

About the author

JEN HATMAKER is the New York Times bestselling author of For the Love and Fierce, Free, and Full of Fire, along with twelve other books. She hosts the award-winning For the Love podcast, is the delighted curator of the Jen Hatmaker Book Club, and leader of a tightly knit online community where she reaches millions of people each week. Jen is a co-founder of Legacy Collective, a giving organization that grants millions of dollars toward sustainable projects around the world. She is a mom to five kids and lives happily just outside Austin, Texas.

To learn more about Jen, visit www.jenhatmaker.com.

Reviews

[Molly Grimmius · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yeah so this was great. Mess with your mind and probably brings to front a lot of feelings you have about the church and our role as Christ's followers. It is Jen's story of how their family's life got interrupted and changed in everything they do especially how the share Jesus' love. Read it and then come talk to me please.

[Michelle Vandepol · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliantly lighted path to living out authentic faith that fits in with the engaged socially responsible way you want to live. Jen Hatmaker raises the bar on what this looks like but also gets the reader excited to pursue it.

[Jackie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, this was an excellent book! Inspiring to say the least. If you are able to take yourself out of the box and get a little uncomfortable in your faith journey, I highly recommend this. I actually highly recommend it anyway especially if you feel God nudging you to read it.

[Karissa Boger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing and very thought provoking. I had read "7" and enjoyed it. "Interrupted" takes things to a whole new level. Jen Hatmaker explains how God called her husband and her to simply go love their neighborhood in the name of Jesus and how their lives were transformed when they started Austin New Church. A compelling read about the love of God and His desire for his followers to share that with the world we are part of.

[Kristin Allen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Undoubtedly a good writer and communicator, Jen Hatmaker tells the story of her waking up to the reality that she is living a comfortable Christian life that serves comfortable Christians which is not the point of the gospel. I read this book hoping to get answers on how to address the deep needs of our world today. That was a tall order for anyone and I don't believe there is an easy answer. She gets around to the point which is that WE need to be the answer. Inconveniently, she and hubby decide to leave their cushy lives and move to the South side of town (which doesn't seem like a huge, dramatic change) in order to be with this other community, live with them, serve them with the ultimate goal of converting them to Christ and to their church.
I was with her one minute, and irritated with her the next. I certainly appreciated the message that we need to follow Christ and do his good works and in doing so, we fall more in love with who Jesus is, cultivate a deeper faith and live a more satisfying life. She says all this and writes a chapter on how living the life of Christ automatically creates followers. I'm with you there, Jen.
And then, the ultimate goal is to get them into her church. It's as though she is grappling with her own spirituality right before our eyes. She one minute argues that the point is not the church, and then ultimately, the point is to get them all to church. She argues that we become servants to them by living alongside them gaining their trust and confidence so that (drum roll please) they eventually come to the church.
I think it's enlightening to see a self processed wealthy, white American realize how her position in life has afforded her luxuries that others are not, ignorance being one of those luxuries, and then she peels away at the skin of it to see the juice beneath, the place where the real life of everything is harvested. She admits her faults and rallies against them so that others can too. And then she comes right back around to an entire chapter that basically boils down to a new form of marketing with a demographic pie chart leading the way to "the new way." Like all good Christian writers, she sites a passage from the Bible, "To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews." (1 Corinthians 9:20)
Ultimately, while I appreciate the story, her personal struggle, her families brave decision to step outside their comfort zone, I am put off by the final message of recruitment. I find it sort of horrifyingly typical of the Christian movement that we must see others profess to not just loving Jesus, but showing it by participating in the church (even though the church is not the answer). The final message, I hoped, would have a pie chart of how many people were fed, how many were sheltered, etc. That is, I believe, the point. Not how many people are recruited to what we know and define as christianity.

[Christina P · Rating 5 out of 5]

I listened to the audio and the lady who reads her book drive me nuts with her “A”’s but besides that! I loved this book! Enough to buy the actual book to go back thru and highlight.

Jen identifies what’s wrong with the modern church and how we’ve forgotten how to be the hands and feet of Jesus in our community. People have built up a resistance to the Gospel and the deliverers of the good news aren’t getting it across! Our neighbors aren’t going to go to church with someone who doesn’t know their last name! The disciples didn’t stay together in a group of twelve, they went their own ways making disciples not by telling them what they were doing wrong but by loving them and being in their community. Jen takes us on her journey from being surrounded by other Christians and living comfortably to being called to more! To starting a church that isn’t about the numbers and the worship on Sunday but what their members are doing in their own communities everyday. Loved this book!

Pick up a actual copy because Jen gives you the names of other authors and books that influenced her at then of each segment.

[Jennifer Cretu · Rating 4 out of 5]

While the title made me not pick it up for a long time...because, let's face it, I didn't want to be convicted into change. I wanted to laugh like I do with most of Jen's other books. But, the book kept calling to me...and I did indeed crack it open one day. While it is NOT like Jen's other books, I am so glad I read it. The words and stories have stayed with me and from that day forward I have been listening to sermons from the church formed in this book. I was lead to so many great things, so many great sermons and many great conversations with the Lord and reflections, when this book..."interrupted" my sleep. I am changed because of this book, so even if it wasn't a lot of "fun" as growth usually isn't much fun... I will forever be glad I read this. I want to be a part of the "barefoot church", so thank you Jen and Brandon for sharing your journey and hearts.

[Kimberly Patton · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good book on the different approach to church planting and mission life. It felt more informational than story driven, but I am still glad I read it. I am definitely in need of any encouragement toward grace living, so this book was helpful.

[Jackie Kropp · Rating 4 out of 5]

Profound, I know I'll have to read this again to get the full benefit.

[Braylon Freeland · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hits hard!!! What an awesome hit in the face :)

[Greta Byers · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the way this book is organized and how Brandon, Jen’s husband comments at the end of each part. Wonderful explanation of how their family was interrupted with no plan and had to trust.

[Sarah Roberts Lundy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Anxiety! Awful! Not recommended

[Britah Neuman · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were very good sections at the beginning but the rest of it just felt drawn out. 5 stars for the first half, 2 for the second.

[Jen Alward · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wake-up call to rethinking what and why we do things...just because we have, or because Jesus asks us to??? This is worth a read and hard to surmise in a few sentences...

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Refreshing message with tons of takeaways; I underlined a good part of the book!

[Chesleigh Burns · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great points about loving people where they are here in America. Hatmaker encourages to rethink our Christianity and piety so that we can live out the great commission radically.

[Marsha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting to read about what led to the author and her husband planting a church in Austin. Had some good points about living “on mission” for Jesus

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jen has a great, conversational way of writing. I recently moved churches to one that lines up with this ideology and this book really just honed in and out words to my thoughts.

[tiffany faith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really insightful read on how to live on mission in the everyday. We must meet people where they are at! That is to live as Christ.

[JoAnn Bastien · Rating 4 out of 5]

An introduction to the excess in America vs. The rest of the world. It will challenge your generosity.

[Kaylenn Gomez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Get ready to feel interrupted, literally.

[Nicole White · Rating 5 out of 5]

So. Many. Underlines.

[Xyz · Rating 3 out of 5]

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