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Subversive Jesus: An Adventure in Justice, Mercy, and Faithfulness in a Broken World
When Jesus left the most exclusive gated community in the universe to come live with the people he loved and gave his life for, he turned everything we know and believe about life on its head. Jesus said that he came to bring good news to the poor, but most Western Christians remain disconnected and isolated from the poor and their contexts of injustice. Even our churches echo society's pressure to isolate ourselves from the margins (e.g. by moving to a better suburb) and instead teach us how to be "nice people" who worship a "nice Jesus" and don't disrupt the status quo.
Convinced that Jesus places love for the poor and the pursuit of justice central, Craig Greenfield has sought to follow in Christ's footsteps by living among people at the edges of society for the last fourteen years. His quest to follow this Subversive Jesus has taken Craig and his young family from the slums of Asia to inner city Canada and back again.
This is the story of how Jesus led them to the initiating the Pirates of Justice flash mobs, sharing their home with detoxing crackheads, welcoming homeless panhandlers and prostitutes to the dinner table, and ultimately sparking a movement to reach the world's most vulnerable children.
This book is a strong and potentially controversial critique of the status quo too often found in our churches, but it offers an inspirational and hopeful vision of another way. While readers may not relocate to a slum, they will certainly come to view their lives and ministry through a fresh lens--reconsidering how they are uniquely called by Jesus to subversively love the poor and break down systems of injustice in their sphere of influence.
Convinced that Jesus places love for the poor and the pursuit of justice central, Craig Greenfield has sought to follow in Christ's footsteps by living among people at the edges of society for the last fourteen years. His quest to follow this Subversive Jesus has taken Craig and his young family from the slums of Asia to inner city Canada and back again.
This is the story of how Jesus led them to the initiating the Pirates of Justice flash mobs, sharing their home with detoxing crackheads, welcoming homeless panhandlers and prostitutes to the dinner table, and ultimately sparking a movement to reach the world's most vulnerable children.
This book is a strong and potentially controversial critique of the status quo too often found in our churches, but it offers an inspirational and hopeful vision of another way. While readers may not relocate to a slum, they will certainly come to view their lives and ministry through a fresh lens--reconsidering how they are uniquely called by Jesus to subversively love the poor and break down systems of injustice in their sphere of influence.
172 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 26, 2016
65 people are currently reading
377 people want to read
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January 11, 2022
Teetering on awarding a fifth star. The book is sharpened to a point. He held my attention for as long as he asked for it. When he had that attention, he showed by example radical things God COULD lead into and ways, until then, to exemplify Him right where we are. Got it at the public library, which always encourages that there is still spiritual daylight in which to work. God bless this author's words.
July 29, 2023
The message of this book is comparable to Rosaria Butterfield's 'The Gospel Comes with a House Key', but with more of an emphasis on enabling and equipping.
It wasn't quite what I was expecting, but still an excellent read.
It wasn't quite what I was expecting, but still an excellent read.
April 6, 2016
Jesus didn’t quietly fit into the politically correct culture of his day. He hung out with the people who others looked down upon – poor, children, tax collectors and prostitutes. In Subversive Jesus, Craig Greenfield tries to sort out what kind of life Jesus is calling his followers to lead in present day – a subversive life, a life against the established order.
I was part of the book launch team for this book and received an advanced copy of the ebook to read and review. I had not heard of Greenfield before this, but found his life and calling very interesting and convicting.
Greenfield feels called to live with the poor and has done so both in the slums of Cambodia and in downtown Vancouver – with his wife and children. He believes in coming alongside people and being there for them. They ate what the people ate and lived where the people lived, and in doing so, brought the message of Christianity to the doorstep of the people instead of waiting for them to come to a church building. He influenced people in Cambodia by setting up a mentoring program for the younger children who were often without at least one parent and in Vancouver by helping feed the homeless and give addicts a place to start detoxing before treatment center spots opened up.
I was compelled by how transparent Greenfield was with his joy and his struggles in the book. There is no sense of him trying to tell people they should be doing what he is doing. He definitely creates a case for living with the poor, but makes several key points: you must love your family first before showing love to others, we are each called in different ways and should follow that calling, sometimes you have to take care of yourself to take care of others and no work done for Christ is small.
“If you are seeking the work God has made you to do, search for the deepest inclination of your heart and follow it to where it meets the suffering of the world. Or in the words of Mother Teresa, ‘Find your own Calcutta.’ If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed the one God places in front of you. You must resist the temptation to do nothing because you can do only a little or because you can’t be like someone else who seems more radical. It takes many tiny candles to overcome the darkness.”
I highly recommend this book to any Christian. This, along with 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess by Jen Hatmaker (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...) have challenged me very much in the past few months to look at how I am living my life and how I can help people where I am. Read this book and then let me know if it changed your view of your life’s purpose.
I was part of the book launch team for this book and received an advanced copy of the ebook to read and review. I had not heard of Greenfield before this, but found his life and calling very interesting and convicting.
Greenfield feels called to live with the poor and has done so both in the slums of Cambodia and in downtown Vancouver – with his wife and children. He believes in coming alongside people and being there for them. They ate what the people ate and lived where the people lived, and in doing so, brought the message of Christianity to the doorstep of the people instead of waiting for them to come to a church building. He influenced people in Cambodia by setting up a mentoring program for the younger children who were often without at least one parent and in Vancouver by helping feed the homeless and give addicts a place to start detoxing before treatment center spots opened up.
I was compelled by how transparent Greenfield was with his joy and his struggles in the book. There is no sense of him trying to tell people they should be doing what he is doing. He definitely creates a case for living with the poor, but makes several key points: you must love your family first before showing love to others, we are each called in different ways and should follow that calling, sometimes you have to take care of yourself to take care of others and no work done for Christ is small.
“If you are seeking the work God has made you to do, search for the deepest inclination of your heart and follow it to where it meets the suffering of the world. Or in the words of Mother Teresa, ‘Find your own Calcutta.’ If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed the one God places in front of you. You must resist the temptation to do nothing because you can do only a little or because you can’t be like someone else who seems more radical. It takes many tiny candles to overcome the darkness.”
I highly recommend this book to any Christian. This, along with 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess by Jen Hatmaker (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...) have challenged me very much in the past few months to look at how I am living my life and how I can help people where I am. Read this book and then let me know if it changed your view of your life’s purpose.
May 17, 2016
I was almost immediately turned off by this book when one of the first things I saw was a quote by Shane Claiborne. I pressed on because that's the deal and eventually arrived at page 24-25. What I read on those two pages inspired me to press on further:
From the time of the murder of every young boy after Jesus' birth to the day of his crucifixion, Jesus was opposed by an empire intent on maintaining the status quo. This kingdom labeled Jesus a troublemaker, rabble-rouser, dissident, community organizer, agitator, nonviolent revolutionary, renegade, rebel, and traitor. But none of this was a surprise to God, for God was preparing the world for the coming revolution.
Many of our Sunday schools continue to encourage followers of Jesus to embrace a respectable Jesus, an agreeable teacher with pleasant stories to tell about how to be good. But no one would crucify this Jesus. No one would be threatened by such bland personal morality. Instead, they'd invite this Jesus over for a cup of tea and a chat about the weather. (24-25)
At this point, I was fairly well hooked. I mean, if this was the basis for everything else Greenfield was going to write in the book, then how could it go wrong?
Greefield goes on over the next eleven short chapters to explain to his readers all the various ways that he and his friends believe Jesus is subversive. Jesus is subversive in sharing, parenting, charity, suffering, and vocation among others. And, sure enough, Greenfield and his followers have all managed to flesh these various subversions rather well. It is very compelling the way he and his family have lived out these subversive behaviors that Jesus evidently taught, lived, and advocated. "He came to inaugurate the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven. He came to subvert the world as we know it" (27).
I'm torn, frankly, as to whether or not I like this book. There are times when I was all over it and marking up my pages, underlining sentences, posting quotes on Twitter. When Greenfield talks about money and power and how the birth of Jesus took place in that shadow and then goes on to talk about Jesus preaching an alternative to empire--wow, I was hooting and hollering and jumping up and down on my couch.When he poked the bear and said, "Today, too many of our churches have concocted a dozen ingenious reasons why these stories no longer mean what they say," (78) I was again stunned that someone had the nerve to say it, and mean it.
Then there were other times when I was fairly well convinced that I was reading the party platform of the liberal wing of the American government. There were times when I felt as though Greenfield was loudly condescending towards those reading the book who might take exception with his particular understanding of what kingdom means and how we might go about being subversive. There were times when I deeply disagreed with his particular take on something Jesus said or did (for example, his conclusion that the feeding of the 5,000 was a mere 'beautiful miracle of sharing and abundance', 51.) And there were times when I felt that his activism bordered on the absurd (for example, the Pirate Flash Mob is something I seriously doubt Jesus would participate in precisely because it is absurd. See chapter 9, 'Subversive Citizenship.')
In the end, I came down on the side of liking the book. It seems to me that what I heard him saying is that what really matters is Jesus and love in Jesus' name. We need not be divided by our binary code of political opinions if we are united in our passion for the Lord's heart.
I think there is a lot about this book to commend and I do recommend it to my readers who want their faith to be challenged and who want to start living a more Jesus driven, Kingdom oriented life.
There are parts of this book that people are going to like. There are parts of this book that people are going to hate. As I noted above, I'm not sold on all of his exegetical points and I'm not sold on all his practical applications of said exegesis. At the end of the day, however, this is a book that tells the story of how one family decided to live out their vocation among the poor of the world. I think they do it well and I think it would be great if more people could live in such a way. That's not, necessarily, Greenfield's ambition though: "You must resist the temptation to do nothing because you can do only a little or because you can't like someone else who seems more radical. It takes many candles to overcome the darkness" (164). He goes on, "There is nothing prescriptive about the stories I have shared in this book. The stories are merely demonstrations of how God has worked in my life and the lives of those around me" (164-165).
That is a helpful caveat and helped bring the book to a good close for me. Each of us is called to a place in life and we struggle to live out that life faithfully in the place God has called us. The Lord called Greenfield to live among the poor and enrich their lives. He called me to educate children with special educational needs--many of whom are poor and living in single-parent environments. Others will have their own calling to be faithful to. It's not always easy. Greenfield's book, despite my reservations, is a helpful corrective and a powerfully prophetic word to the church in America that has grown too Conservative, too Binary, and too wealthy to mount any formidable offense against the powers of darkness that prevail in this land. Prophets like this are necessary for the church to wake us up. One only hopes it's not too late.
I love the quote he includes on page 27 from Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador: "A church that doesn't provoke any crisis, a gospel that doesn't unsettle, a word of God that doesn't get under anyone's skin, a word of God that doesn't touch the real sin of the society in which it is proclaimed--what gospel is that?"
Herein is the challenge for Christians--especially American Christians--who live in a sterile environment where faith amounts to a mere tithe on the first day of the week. I think this book is a wonderful example of a radical alternative to the empire of this world, a counter-cultural challenge to be exactly the opposite of what this world expects Christians to be: white, clean, tidy, and full of all the right answers. This book got under my skin, it unsettled me, it challenged my privilege, and my values.
Let's hope that the provocation continues in me and begins in others.
5/5 Stars
Important Book & Author Things
Where to purchase Subversive Jesus (Amazon, $11.40)
Author: Craig Greenfield
On the Web: Alongsiders
On Twitter:
Academic Webpage:
Editor:
Publisher: Zondervan
Pages: 182
Year: 2016
Audience:
Reading Level: High School
Disclaimer: I was provided a free copy of this book via the BookLook bloggers review program in exchange for my fair and unbiased review.
From the time of the murder of every young boy after Jesus' birth to the day of his crucifixion, Jesus was opposed by an empire intent on maintaining the status quo. This kingdom labeled Jesus a troublemaker, rabble-rouser, dissident, community organizer, agitator, nonviolent revolutionary, renegade, rebel, and traitor. But none of this was a surprise to God, for God was preparing the world for the coming revolution.
Many of our Sunday schools continue to encourage followers of Jesus to embrace a respectable Jesus, an agreeable teacher with pleasant stories to tell about how to be good. But no one would crucify this Jesus. No one would be threatened by such bland personal morality. Instead, they'd invite this Jesus over for a cup of tea and a chat about the weather. (24-25)
At this point, I was fairly well hooked. I mean, if this was the basis for everything else Greenfield was going to write in the book, then how could it go wrong?
Greefield goes on over the next eleven short chapters to explain to his readers all the various ways that he and his friends believe Jesus is subversive. Jesus is subversive in sharing, parenting, charity, suffering, and vocation among others. And, sure enough, Greenfield and his followers have all managed to flesh these various subversions rather well. It is very compelling the way he and his family have lived out these subversive behaviors that Jesus evidently taught, lived, and advocated. "He came to inaugurate the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven. He came to subvert the world as we know it" (27).
I'm torn, frankly, as to whether or not I like this book. There are times when I was all over it and marking up my pages, underlining sentences, posting quotes on Twitter. When Greenfield talks about money and power and how the birth of Jesus took place in that shadow and then goes on to talk about Jesus preaching an alternative to empire--wow, I was hooting and hollering and jumping up and down on my couch.When he poked the bear and said, "Today, too many of our churches have concocted a dozen ingenious reasons why these stories no longer mean what they say," (78) I was again stunned that someone had the nerve to say it, and mean it.
Then there were other times when I was fairly well convinced that I was reading the party platform of the liberal wing of the American government. There were times when I felt as though Greenfield was loudly condescending towards those reading the book who might take exception with his particular understanding of what kingdom means and how we might go about being subversive. There were times when I deeply disagreed with his particular take on something Jesus said or did (for example, his conclusion that the feeding of the 5,000 was a mere 'beautiful miracle of sharing and abundance', 51.) And there were times when I felt that his activism bordered on the absurd (for example, the Pirate Flash Mob is something I seriously doubt Jesus would participate in precisely because it is absurd. See chapter 9, 'Subversive Citizenship.')
In the end, I came down on the side of liking the book. It seems to me that what I heard him saying is that what really matters is Jesus and love in Jesus' name. We need not be divided by our binary code of political opinions if we are united in our passion for the Lord's heart.
I think there is a lot about this book to commend and I do recommend it to my readers who want their faith to be challenged and who want to start living a more Jesus driven, Kingdom oriented life.
There are parts of this book that people are going to like. There are parts of this book that people are going to hate. As I noted above, I'm not sold on all of his exegetical points and I'm not sold on all his practical applications of said exegesis. At the end of the day, however, this is a book that tells the story of how one family decided to live out their vocation among the poor of the world. I think they do it well and I think it would be great if more people could live in such a way. That's not, necessarily, Greenfield's ambition though: "You must resist the temptation to do nothing because you can do only a little or because you can't like someone else who seems more radical. It takes many candles to overcome the darkness" (164). He goes on, "There is nothing prescriptive about the stories I have shared in this book. The stories are merely demonstrations of how God has worked in my life and the lives of those around me" (164-165).
That is a helpful caveat and helped bring the book to a good close for me. Each of us is called to a place in life and we struggle to live out that life faithfully in the place God has called us. The Lord called Greenfield to live among the poor and enrich their lives. He called me to educate children with special educational needs--many of whom are poor and living in single-parent environments. Others will have their own calling to be faithful to. It's not always easy. Greenfield's book, despite my reservations, is a helpful corrective and a powerfully prophetic word to the church in America that has grown too Conservative, too Binary, and too wealthy to mount any formidable offense against the powers of darkness that prevail in this land. Prophets like this are necessary for the church to wake us up. One only hopes it's not too late.
I love the quote he includes on page 27 from Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador: "A church that doesn't provoke any crisis, a gospel that doesn't unsettle, a word of God that doesn't get under anyone's skin, a word of God that doesn't touch the real sin of the society in which it is proclaimed--what gospel is that?"
Herein is the challenge for Christians--especially American Christians--who live in a sterile environment where faith amounts to a mere tithe on the first day of the week. I think this book is a wonderful example of a radical alternative to the empire of this world, a counter-cultural challenge to be exactly the opposite of what this world expects Christians to be: white, clean, tidy, and full of all the right answers. This book got under my skin, it unsettled me, it challenged my privilege, and my values.
Let's hope that the provocation continues in me and begins in others.
5/5 Stars
Important Book & Author Things
Where to purchase Subversive Jesus (Amazon, $11.40)
Author: Craig Greenfield
On the Web: Alongsiders
On Twitter:
Academic Webpage:
Editor:
Publisher: Zondervan
Pages: 182
Year: 2016
Audience:
Reading Level: High School
Disclaimer: I was provided a free copy of this book via the BookLook bloggers review program in exchange for my fair and unbiased review.
June 25, 2017
My husband and I read this together and loved it. It provoked much reflection and discussion about how we life our lives out as followers of Christ. At times it made us very uncomfortable and overwhelmed, but also opened our hearts and minds to a new perspective as we prayed our way through this book.
May 5, 2016
Isn’t it amazing how some of the smallest things can trigger changes in a life? Happenstance of a beggar in a ratty T-shirt at the door of a tourist attraction in an Asian capital isn’t news or unusual, but just read this book and see what his presence did for one college kid. That’s the beginning of Greenfield’s journey or adventure borrowing from the title of his book. Well, mostly the beginning. There was stuff before that episode that helped add to the effect.
I ordered this book after stumbling onto his web site (Take a look around it to see what he’s up to the last 20+ years.). Greenfield has told his story in a way that is not only engaging, but convicting. I am glad to see this sort of story being told more frequently. I didn’t like some of the truth he laid out about where most of us live though. Why? Because it hit too close to home to be comfortable. In a lot of ways. I do understand that what he and the rest did is a particular calling, but there’s room for plenty of improvement among most of the rest of us. He makes you want to improve, or at the very least, rethink your Christian lifestyle. Like really rethink it. Get subversive or not? There’s lots of ways to do that and he has recounted some of the ways he found. Maybe we could find more?
I do recommend this book. It will touch your heart, challenge you, and maybe even change you.
I received this book from the publisher in return for a review.
I ordered this book after stumbling onto his web site (Take a look around it to see what he’s up to the last 20+ years.). Greenfield has told his story in a way that is not only engaging, but convicting. I am glad to see this sort of story being told more frequently. I didn’t like some of the truth he laid out about where most of us live though. Why? Because it hit too close to home to be comfortable. In a lot of ways. I do understand that what he and the rest did is a particular calling, but there’s room for plenty of improvement among most of the rest of us. He makes you want to improve, or at the very least, rethink your Christian lifestyle. Like really rethink it. Get subversive or not? There’s lots of ways to do that and he has recounted some of the ways he found. Maybe we could find more?
I do recommend this book. It will touch your heart, challenge you, and maybe even change you.
I received this book from the publisher in return for a review.
July 11, 2019
I've had some encounters with "Subversive Jesus" author Craig Greenfield on Twitter, though for quite some time I was out of the reading rhythm and had never gotten to his book.
In late 2018, I really got into reading again and have continued into 2019. Thus, I've been going after a lot of these authors whom I've encountered via social media or whose writings I've simply heard about and wanted to read.
A relatively short book, "Subversive Jesus" is an immersive experience that takes you inside Greenfield's immersive brand of Christianity that is radically relational, subversive, vulnerable, and aimed at being alongside those whom society, including churches, often forgets and/or ignores.
Greenfield acknowledges having been born into affluence and aiming for the good life as a corporate exec in a successful tech start-up. He was well on his way until an Asian experience led to his feeling called to live his life in a radically different way. He moved with his wife Nay, a former refugee from the Khmer Rouge into a Cambodian slum where the two lived alongside the vulnerable children in the slum. This experience led to the developing of Alongsiders International, an organization that has continued to spread across Cambodia along with a dozen countries across Asia and Africa. After many years in Cambodia, Craig and Nay felt God calling them into what could have been an entirely different type of setting - Vancouver. However, consistent with how they were living their lives the two ended up in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside "a 2km stretch of decaying rooming houses, seedy strip bars and shady pawnshops. In Vancouver, they started an intentional community called Servants Vancouver where they practiced the radical hospitality of Christ with people struggling with drug addiction, homelessness, and prostitution. Easily the poorest section and least safe section of Vancouver, they began encountering fellow radicals who helped them widen their reach and begin such things as the Pirates of Justice flash mobs.
Early in 2013, they returned to Cambodia.
"Subversive Jesus" is filled with Greenfield's raw, vulnerable experiences alongside those most vulnerable everywhere he went. At times, his actions are challenging and at times you're likely going to find yourself shaking your head thinking to yourself "Yep, that's how it should be." Greenfield shares successes and, with great humility, those challenging experiences where lessons are learned and faith is challenged.
While I was definitely convicted at times, I'll also admit there were fleeting moments when I felt like Greenfield was perhaps too easily dismissive of the outreach of others. While I understood his points, and often agreed with them, the tone at times, especially in a chapter on subversive charity, seemed just a tad too harsh.
However, there's simply no denying that Greenfield is convicted to live into a radically subversive faith journey and that he grounds that conviction deep within scripture and within the results he's seen as he lived over the years in these places. He grows obviously tired of charities and churches that fail to build relationships with those they "serve" and isn't hesitant to state that many times this serve is as much, and maybe more, about the church than it is about those being served.
It wold be nearly impossible to not have some convictions, some challenges, and some issues with a book so passionately and honestly written as "Subversive Jesus." However, these things have simply made me more glad to have connected with Greenfield via Twitter and to now learn more about his ministry and Alongsiders International.
While "Subversive Jesus" is a relatively short read, it's far from a breezy read. I was reading the book last night in a local restaurant and someone walking by gave me a thumbs up and said "Great book!"
I agree.
In late 2018, I really got into reading again and have continued into 2019. Thus, I've been going after a lot of these authors whom I've encountered via social media or whose writings I've simply heard about and wanted to read.
A relatively short book, "Subversive Jesus" is an immersive experience that takes you inside Greenfield's immersive brand of Christianity that is radically relational, subversive, vulnerable, and aimed at being alongside those whom society, including churches, often forgets and/or ignores.
Greenfield acknowledges having been born into affluence and aiming for the good life as a corporate exec in a successful tech start-up. He was well on his way until an Asian experience led to his feeling called to live his life in a radically different way. He moved with his wife Nay, a former refugee from the Khmer Rouge into a Cambodian slum where the two lived alongside the vulnerable children in the slum. This experience led to the developing of Alongsiders International, an organization that has continued to spread across Cambodia along with a dozen countries across Asia and Africa. After many years in Cambodia, Craig and Nay felt God calling them into what could have been an entirely different type of setting - Vancouver. However, consistent with how they were living their lives the two ended up in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside "a 2km stretch of decaying rooming houses, seedy strip bars and shady pawnshops. In Vancouver, they started an intentional community called Servants Vancouver where they practiced the radical hospitality of Christ with people struggling with drug addiction, homelessness, and prostitution. Easily the poorest section and least safe section of Vancouver, they began encountering fellow radicals who helped them widen their reach and begin such things as the Pirates of Justice flash mobs.
Early in 2013, they returned to Cambodia.
"Subversive Jesus" is filled with Greenfield's raw, vulnerable experiences alongside those most vulnerable everywhere he went. At times, his actions are challenging and at times you're likely going to find yourself shaking your head thinking to yourself "Yep, that's how it should be." Greenfield shares successes and, with great humility, those challenging experiences where lessons are learned and faith is challenged.
While I was definitely convicted at times, I'll also admit there were fleeting moments when I felt like Greenfield was perhaps too easily dismissive of the outreach of others. While I understood his points, and often agreed with them, the tone at times, especially in a chapter on subversive charity, seemed just a tad too harsh.
However, there's simply no denying that Greenfield is convicted to live into a radically subversive faith journey and that he grounds that conviction deep within scripture and within the results he's seen as he lived over the years in these places. He grows obviously tired of charities and churches that fail to build relationships with those they "serve" and isn't hesitant to state that many times this serve is as much, and maybe more, about the church than it is about those being served.
It wold be nearly impossible to not have some convictions, some challenges, and some issues with a book so passionately and honestly written as "Subversive Jesus." However, these things have simply made me more glad to have connected with Greenfield via Twitter and to now learn more about his ministry and Alongsiders International.
While "Subversive Jesus" is a relatively short read, it's far from a breezy read. I was reading the book last night in a local restaurant and someone walking by gave me a thumbs up and said "Great book!"
I agree.
November 21, 2021
A compelling book that will challenge your outlook, and probably shake your paradigms. This is an uncomfortable read because Craig Greenfield is living a life of such radical obedience to Jesus that it makes most of Christendom look like a poor replica of Kingdom life.
A Kiwi by birth, he responded to the gospel and headed to Cambodia to live in the slums and work amongst the poor. Together with his wife, Nay, they established the 'Alongsiders', encouraging young men and women who knew the transformative power of the gospel, to begin basic discipleship with younger girls, boys and teens by becoming surrogate big brothers and sisters to them. By 'doing life' together, this gospel was truly incarnational.
Some time later Craig and family (now with two sons of their own), headed to Vancouver which, at that time, had the highest standard of living in the world. Following God's call, they were somewhat confused by the enormous difference in social and economic culture. Before long, they realised that this modern, Canadian city must also have it's poor people who needed a demonstration of God's love for them. Some research and time spent in the East Side of the city revealed a conglomerations of addicts, deprived families, and economic strugglers.
The book follows the path the family took in establishing a community in the area, genuinely reaching out to the neglected ones with consistent friendship, patience, grit, open house suppers, and a network of like-minded friends and warriors who together began to see change in and on the streets as the infectious life and grace of Jesus was embraced.
Craig's book is honest – how refreshing to hear of their mistakes and failures as well as the successes and 'glory' times – challenging, and a breath of fresh air to dispel some of the entitled complacency of the western church. It's a call to take seriously the job we've all been commissioned to do but recognises that it won't necessarily look the same as the places and people with whom the Greenfield family work.
Eleven manageable chapters on the subversive theme cover such topics as family, parenting, hospitality, community, vulnerability, suffering and vocation. If you're willing to have your eyes opened to a revolutionary way of life and a new perspective of where and how the Kingdom of God is being lived out, then grab a copy and see what happens.
A Kiwi by birth, he responded to the gospel and headed to Cambodia to live in the slums and work amongst the poor. Together with his wife, Nay, they established the 'Alongsiders', encouraging young men and women who knew the transformative power of the gospel, to begin basic discipleship with younger girls, boys and teens by becoming surrogate big brothers and sisters to them. By 'doing life' together, this gospel was truly incarnational.
Some time later Craig and family (now with two sons of their own), headed to Vancouver which, at that time, had the highest standard of living in the world. Following God's call, they were somewhat confused by the enormous difference in social and economic culture. Before long, they realised that this modern, Canadian city must also have it's poor people who needed a demonstration of God's love for them. Some research and time spent in the East Side of the city revealed a conglomerations of addicts, deprived families, and economic strugglers.
The book follows the path the family took in establishing a community in the area, genuinely reaching out to the neglected ones with consistent friendship, patience, grit, open house suppers, and a network of like-minded friends and warriors who together began to see change in and on the streets as the infectious life and grace of Jesus was embraced.
Craig's book is honest – how refreshing to hear of their mistakes and failures as well as the successes and 'glory' times – challenging, and a breath of fresh air to dispel some of the entitled complacency of the western church. It's a call to take seriously the job we've all been commissioned to do but recognises that it won't necessarily look the same as the places and people with whom the Greenfield family work.
Eleven manageable chapters on the subversive theme cover such topics as family, parenting, hospitality, community, vulnerability, suffering and vocation. If you're willing to have your eyes opened to a revolutionary way of life and a new perspective of where and how the Kingdom of God is being lived out, then grab a copy and see what happens.
January 2, 2019
What actual Christianity looks like.
If you think that you are Christian or if you hate Christians for being hypocritical fakes, then read this book. Challenge yourself.
Many good ideas here and told in an entertaining and accessible manner. No big words in this brief text. He gets straight to the point, but does it all through thoroughly human anecdotes. You feel like you're there even though he doesn't waste any time on huge paragraphs setting the scene. He also shows his own humanity and talks about terrible things that he thought and almost did. At the end of the book there are a handful of resources if you're feeling inspired.
I don't personally care much about Christianity in and of itself. I do care very much about the actual work that is described in this book. Living a life marked by actively growing your love and acceptance for society's outcasts and rejects and rather than giving them superficial charity instead supporting them to accomplish their own goals in their own time and on their own terms.
If you're interested (particularly if you are dealing with some capitalists masquerading as Christians) he does cite chapter and verse for every claim he makes about the subversiveness of Jesus.
If you think that you are Christian or if you hate Christians for being hypocritical fakes, then read this book. Challenge yourself.
Many good ideas here and told in an entertaining and accessible manner. No big words in this brief text. He gets straight to the point, but does it all through thoroughly human anecdotes. You feel like you're there even though he doesn't waste any time on huge paragraphs setting the scene. He also shows his own humanity and talks about terrible things that he thought and almost did. At the end of the book there are a handful of resources if you're feeling inspired.
I don't personally care much about Christianity in and of itself. I do care very much about the actual work that is described in this book. Living a life marked by actively growing your love and acceptance for society's outcasts and rejects and rather than giving them superficial charity instead supporting them to accomplish their own goals in their own time and on their own terms.
If you're interested (particularly if you are dealing with some capitalists masquerading as Christians) he does cite chapter and verse for every claim he makes about the subversiveness of Jesus.
December 11, 2017
Loved this book, and definitely recommend it to anyone seeking Jesus in a real and practical way, beyond culture and current ideas.
“As we were faced with the reality of the poor each day, it was easy to examine our decisions in light of the lives of our impoverished friends, who might even ask us about those decisions, causing some awkward conversations. We could gain perspective simply by looking out the window or stepping through the door, because our well-being became tied to their well-being. We prayed that a local movement of Christians loving their poor neighbors might be raised up. We stumbled on an obscure Cambodian proverb: “It takes a spider to repair its own web.” Using this piece of cultural wisdom as our catchphrase, we began challenging young Cambodian Christians to take on one vulnerable child each. We dubbed the movement Alongsiders.”--Subversive Jesus
So excited about his next book, the Alongsiders Story!
“As we were faced with the reality of the poor each day, it was easy to examine our decisions in light of the lives of our impoverished friends, who might even ask us about those decisions, causing some awkward conversations. We could gain perspective simply by looking out the window or stepping through the door, because our well-being became tied to their well-being. We prayed that a local movement of Christians loving their poor neighbors might be raised up. We stumbled on an obscure Cambodian proverb: “It takes a spider to repair its own web.” Using this piece of cultural wisdom as our catchphrase, we began challenging young Cambodian Christians to take on one vulnerable child each. We dubbed the movement Alongsiders.”--Subversive Jesus
So excited about his next book, the Alongsiders Story!
November 14, 2019
I actually had a few chapters left of this book, but I didn't finish it because...I got the gist of what he was trying to say. The one thing I struggled with was the self-righteous that sometimes oozed from the pages of this book, but I definitely tried to overlook it and keep an open mind! I love social justice, community development, and he had a lot of great points to make that I took away. But sometimes I couldn't shake the feeling that he loved social justice more than he loved God and that Jesus was just an example of a social justice warrior (he's so much more than that!) that he could use to serve the agenda in his book. I would recommend this book to anyone who is resistant to social justice or maybe wants to be challenged on how we can interact and serve people who don't like, think, or believe like we do.
July 19, 2025
This is a book about social justice and how Christianity should address it. It is a compelling and transformative exploration of what it means to follow Jesus in a broken world. Through vivid storytelling and personal anecdotes from his experiences living in slums and inner cities, Greenfield challenges readers to embrace a radical, countercultural faith that prioritizes justice, mercy, and solidarity with the marginalized. The book dismantles comfortable notions of Christianity, urging believers to live out the upside-down kingdom Jesus proclaimed. With humility and humor, Greenfield invites readers to join a revolution of subversive love, offering practical ways to embody Christ’s teachings in everyday life. This book is both a prophetic call and an inspiring guide for those seeking to live authentically as disciples of Jesus.
May 16, 2019
An account of the author's story of living alongside the poor, and seeing God at work in and through him and those he's living alongside as a result. I found the book a bit too short and anecdotal - even though I'm very much coming from the same place as him. The stuff on family and parenting is especially good, and can't be said too often.
June 3, 2018
This is a well-written and extremely challenging book. It flips much of what is taught and practiced in the church today upside down and gives a much clearer picture of Jesus and how He lived on earth and how His followers should live.
August 12, 2018
All children are important 🕊
The value God sees in everyone is paramount,and this author understands this well. He truly believes God can move mountains, then author shows up with shovel in hand🕊
The value God sees in everyone is paramount,and this author understands this well. He truly believes God can move mountains, then author shows up with shovel in hand🕊
September 3, 2019
Important, practical, and full of stories that give real humanity to often over-talked issues. I love this book. Parts of it continue to echo through my head/heart even weeks after giving it a quick read.
May 5, 2020
I love this book!
So easy to read but yet so full of good real honest stuff
I broke my own rule of not writing in a book as I kept seeing things thinking “that’s so good”
Honest and brutal but full of love and heart
Thanks Craig!
Feeling challenged about how I serve the poor!
So easy to read but yet so full of good real honest stuff
I broke my own rule of not writing in a book as I kept seeing things thinking “that’s so good”
Honest and brutal but full of love and heart
Thanks Craig!
Feeling challenged about how I serve the poor!
April 7, 2026
I admire the heart of this book and Craig's faith & service. I appreciated his chapter on vocation, emphasizing that not everyone has the same call nor scale of call. The writing style wasn't my favorite, thus the 3 stars, but a book well worth reading.
February 22, 2018
Fascinating guy. Helpful and accessible about how to care for poor. Hospitality is greater than handouts.
May 28, 2018
mark 10:21
October 13, 2018
This will be one of those books that I will come back to again and again. It challenges you to want to DO more. Take action against the injustices of this broken world 🌎
May 7, 2019
I was a bit scared to read this book as I find the author's blog heading confronting. But it turned out to be enjoyable & fascinating.
February 11, 2020
An insightful book about love and mercy in real life.
June 8, 2022
Helped me fall in love with the person of Jesus
February 13, 2024
So good!! I think it's a must-read for every professing Jesus lover! It will absolutely challenge you!
February 11, 2025
Probably one of the most challenging books I've ever read.
March 5, 2017
Craig Greenfield gives us a good example on how to live as the selfless Christian. Many, if not all, of us need to be reminded of this.
I think if Greenfield and I were to sit down and discuss politics and economics, we would disagree on a lot. His great Satan is Empire. Empire, in my opinion, like most things is not evil in and of itself. It becomes evil when corrupted by sin. And, Jesus did not come to save us from the empire, but from sin. But, I agree with Craig, that salvation from sin is not simply going to heaven when you die – salvation is heaven coming to the earth now. And so, we Christians must fight for justice and we must work with the poor now.
Not all of us are called to live as Craig does of course (and he doesn't say we must either). I too am a Canadian living in Cambodia, and my wife is Cambodian. When we were engaged and looking for a place to live, my wife, who grew up in the slum, suggested buying a house there. There was one for sale for $1200. I considered it and went to look at the place. But, as I stood in the four meter by five meter house, with its tin roof full of holes, concrete floor, and grey brick walls only inches away from the neighbour's walls allowing for every sound to be heard, I knew there was no way I could live there or raise a family there. We bought land on the outskirts of town and built our own house instead. And, we still worked with the same people we would have if living in the slum anyway. "Find your own Calcutta" as Craig writes in the book.
I met Craig briefly a couple of years ago and have followed his work somewhat, so I know that he truly lives what he teaches and is an authentic authority on working with the poor.
Read the book!
I think if Greenfield and I were to sit down and discuss politics and economics, we would disagree on a lot. His great Satan is Empire. Empire, in my opinion, like most things is not evil in and of itself. It becomes evil when corrupted by sin. And, Jesus did not come to save us from the empire, but from sin. But, I agree with Craig, that salvation from sin is not simply going to heaven when you die – salvation is heaven coming to the earth now. And so, we Christians must fight for justice and we must work with the poor now.
Not all of us are called to live as Craig does of course (and he doesn't say we must either). I too am a Canadian living in Cambodia, and my wife is Cambodian. When we were engaged and looking for a place to live, my wife, who grew up in the slum, suggested buying a house there. There was one for sale for $1200. I considered it and went to look at the place. But, as I stood in the four meter by five meter house, with its tin roof full of holes, concrete floor, and grey brick walls only inches away from the neighbour's walls allowing for every sound to be heard, I knew there was no way I could live there or raise a family there. We bought land on the outskirts of town and built our own house instead. And, we still worked with the same people we would have if living in the slum anyway. "Find your own Calcutta" as Craig writes in the book.
I met Craig briefly a couple of years ago and have followed his work somewhat, so I know that he truly lives what he teaches and is an authentic authority on working with the poor.
Read the book!
October 7, 2016
Wow!!
This is the kind of book that can change you. I'm not ready to change to the degree that Craig and Nay have, but it has certainly made me think about it.
This is the kind of book that can change you. I'm not ready to change to the degree that Craig and Nay have, but it has certainly made me think about it.
May 4, 2016
Craig Greenfield grew up with a 'nice' Jesus. The Jesus he learned about as a kid, had blond locks and the perfect beard. He was always kind, always polite. As he grew older, 'nice Jesus' morphed into respectable-good-citizen-Jesus: the Jesus that would save your soul -without challenging the status quo.
T240_360_book-1913-coverhen when he was twenty-two he went to Cambodia where an interaction with a beggar outside a Khmer Rouge genocide museum sent him on a path where he re-thought and re-examined who Jesus really was, why he came and what it means to follow Him. Subversive Jesus tells the story of Greenfield, his Cambodian wife Nay, and their family as they walked the subversive ways of Jesus. Greenfield journey takes him from New Zealand to the slums of Cambodia, to Vancouver's Down-Town Eastside and to Cambodia again. Greenfield shares the insights he gained from other theologian/practitioners, notably folks like Charles Ringma, Dave Diewert, and Dave Andrews; yet this book is primarily about what Greenfield and his family learned as they followed their subversive Jesus by challenging empire, practicing radical hospitality, and loving and advocating for the marginalized.
Greenfield shares about hospitality and community, learning the place his children had in mission, living vulnerably and non-violently in the midst of a violent neighborhood, and sharing with and including neighbors. Their family would have a community meals where participants cooked together and shared life around a table. Greenfield maintained a hospitable and welcoming stance toward neighbors and friends, yet he also recognized the need for proper boundaries to sustain life and ministry. Dave Andrews phrase, "Bizarre Behavior is okay. Abusive Behavior is not okay," became a community rule (56). Greenfield observes that in the culture-at-large, the opposite is usually true (the bizarre are shunned and the abusive are praised for their strength).
Sometimes we may be tempted to think that being a Christian means being a good citizen of our country. Greenfield lives a more robust form of discipleship believing Jesus came to challenge empire and the powers of this age. This has led him to take counter-cultural (subversive) stances and the practice of resistance. Greenfield helps us see away to act faithful to God and governing authorities while resisting laws and aspects of culture that are unjust (submitting to the consequences of our resistance to unjust laws, is still submitting to government authority). For him this includes taking lemonade to drug dealers, organizing flash-mob-protests, starting community gardens, and building relationships among the marginalized.
I like this book a lot and loved hearing Greenfield's story. This is a thoughtful, theologically rich and biblically sound account, but it is also a story of what it means to follow Jesus in broken places and a call or us also to live more courageously as we seek to follow our subversive Jesus.
One episode that was intriguing was the time, Greenfield's community painted a pentagram as an act of worship to God and love for their neighbor. Yeah, It is terrible for me to give you that little detail without describing what actually happened or the events leading up to it. I guess you will just have to read the book yourself. I give this five stars. ★★★★★
Note: I received a copy of this book in exchange for my fair and honest review.
T240_360_book-1913-coverhen when he was twenty-two he went to Cambodia where an interaction with a beggar outside a Khmer Rouge genocide museum sent him on a path where he re-thought and re-examined who Jesus really was, why he came and what it means to follow Him. Subversive Jesus tells the story of Greenfield, his Cambodian wife Nay, and their family as they walked the subversive ways of Jesus. Greenfield journey takes him from New Zealand to the slums of Cambodia, to Vancouver's Down-Town Eastside and to Cambodia again. Greenfield shares the insights he gained from other theologian/practitioners, notably folks like Charles Ringma, Dave Diewert, and Dave Andrews; yet this book is primarily about what Greenfield and his family learned as they followed their subversive Jesus by challenging empire, practicing radical hospitality, and loving and advocating for the marginalized.
Greenfield shares about hospitality and community, learning the place his children had in mission, living vulnerably and non-violently in the midst of a violent neighborhood, and sharing with and including neighbors. Their family would have a community meals where participants cooked together and shared life around a table. Greenfield maintained a hospitable and welcoming stance toward neighbors and friends, yet he also recognized the need for proper boundaries to sustain life and ministry. Dave Andrews phrase, "Bizarre Behavior is okay. Abusive Behavior is not okay," became a community rule (56). Greenfield observes that in the culture-at-large, the opposite is usually true (the bizarre are shunned and the abusive are praised for their strength).
Sometimes we may be tempted to think that being a Christian means being a good citizen of our country. Greenfield lives a more robust form of discipleship believing Jesus came to challenge empire and the powers of this age. This has led him to take counter-cultural (subversive) stances and the practice of resistance. Greenfield helps us see away to act faithful to God and governing authorities while resisting laws and aspects of culture that are unjust (submitting to the consequences of our resistance to unjust laws, is still submitting to government authority). For him this includes taking lemonade to drug dealers, organizing flash-mob-protests, starting community gardens, and building relationships among the marginalized.
I like this book a lot and loved hearing Greenfield's story. This is a thoughtful, theologically rich and biblically sound account, but it is also a story of what it means to follow Jesus in broken places and a call or us also to live more courageously as we seek to follow our subversive Jesus.
One episode that was intriguing was the time, Greenfield's community painted a pentagram as an act of worship to God and love for their neighbor. Yeah, It is terrible for me to give you that little detail without describing what actually happened or the events leading up to it. I guess you will just have to read the book yourself. I give this five stars. ★★★★★
Note: I received a copy of this book in exchange for my fair and honest review.
May 2, 2018
Short, simple and challenging - a provocative practical application of the question What would Jesus *really* do?
I would have loved it if it went into more depth but I guess the point was to get the reader to live it out in more depth rather than experience it vicariously!
I would have loved it if it went into more depth but I guess the point was to get the reader to live it out in more depth rather than experience it vicariously!
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