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Killing Us Softly: Reborn in the Upside-Down Image of God
The Christian life is actually a kind of death. We die to ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Jesus. Dying in Christ, however, is an opportunity―to experience the comforting presence of the Holy Spirit as we spread the Good News of a God who loves us enough to save us and remake us in his image.
Efrem Smith helps us see that Christian discipleship is a counterintuitive life. In a world turned upside down by sin, God carefully and lovingly strips us of worldly values and turns us right-side up as good citizens and ambassadors of his Kingdom.
Efrem Smith helps us see that Christian discipleship is a counterintuitive life. In a world turned upside down by sin, God carefully and lovingly strips us of worldly values and turns us right-side up as good citizens and ambassadors of his Kingdom.
- GenresNonfictionDiscipleship
192 pages, Paperback
Published February 1, 2017
4 people are currently reading
191 people want to read
About the author
Efrem Smith
16 books5 followersEfrem Smith is an American pastor who is the co-pastor of Midtown Church and co-owner of Influential LLC. Smith has spoken on the subjects of leadership, multi-ethnic issues and development of the Christian community. Smith is considered to be an advocate for urban ministry and reaching out to the marginalized.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
July 2, 2020
I’m giving this book four stars because some of the topics in this book could have been explored more and expanded on.
The main idea I took away from this book, and something that I have been thinking about for a while, is why does the “World” teach us to hate what is already perfect in God’s eyes?
View this book as a challenge to do better and what you can do to assist others to achieve their better.
The main idea I took away from this book, and something that I have been thinking about for a while, is why does the “World” teach us to hate what is already perfect in God’s eyes?
View this book as a challenge to do better and what you can do to assist others to achieve their better.
February 6, 2017
This book was not what I was expecting. Smith says the book is about spiritual death and embracing it as “a way of understanding a key element of Christian formation.” “This book is an invitation,” he writes, “to enter into this journey of being killed softly by God's steadfast love and grace.” I expected this book to be about spiritual death, how we experience it and work it out in our Christian lives.
I found the book to be more about advancing the kingdom of God in the world. He writes about how the world is up-side-down to us and that Christians have the right-side-up remedy, establishing the kingdom of God. He explores how Jesus demonstrated the counter cultural nature of the kingdom.
Smith centers most of his writing around racial injustice. Twice he voices his concern that the church is “still one of the most racially segregated institutions in the nation.” Many of his stories and illustrations revolve around actions advancing racial equality. He argues that if Jesus were on earth in the United States today, He “ be considered an ethnic minority, a person of color.”
Smith is very encouraging for us “to go deeper in our intimacy with God, to experience in new ways our identity in Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.” He never helps us understand how we move into those realities. He has added some questions for reflection and discussion at the end of each chapter but there is never a strategy offered to help us decrease and see God increase.
He gives us lots illustrations and many stories from his own life. The book is more about his own thoughts on his experiences and advancing God's kingdom than it is an exploration of what it means to die to self. There is plenty of encouragement to go and advance the kingdom of God in the world. If that's what you are looking for, you'll like this book. If you are looking for a greater understanding of what it means to die to self, you may be disappointed.
Food for thought: “To follow Christ is to follow him into the declaration and demonstration of the Kingdom of God.”
I received a complimentary egalley of this book from the publisher. My comments are an independent and honest review.
I found the book to be more about advancing the kingdom of God in the world. He writes about how the world is up-side-down to us and that Christians have the right-side-up remedy, establishing the kingdom of God. He explores how Jesus demonstrated the counter cultural nature of the kingdom.
Smith centers most of his writing around racial injustice. Twice he voices his concern that the church is “still one of the most racially segregated institutions in the nation.” Many of his stories and illustrations revolve around actions advancing racial equality. He argues that if Jesus were on earth in the United States today, He “ be considered an ethnic minority, a person of color.”
Smith is very encouraging for us “to go deeper in our intimacy with God, to experience in new ways our identity in Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.” He never helps us understand how we move into those realities. He has added some questions for reflection and discussion at the end of each chapter but there is never a strategy offered to help us decrease and see God increase.
He gives us lots illustrations and many stories from his own life. The book is more about his own thoughts on his experiences and advancing God's kingdom than it is an exploration of what it means to die to self. There is plenty of encouragement to go and advance the kingdom of God in the world. If that's what you are looking for, you'll like this book. If you are looking for a greater understanding of what it means to die to self, you may be disappointed.
Food for thought: “To follow Christ is to follow him into the declaration and demonstration of the Kingdom of God.”
I received a complimentary egalley of this book from the publisher. My comments are an independent and honest review.
February 12, 2017
Efrem Smith was a sought after voice in the denomination I've served as pastor in (Evangelical Covenant Church). He planted Sanctuary, a multicultural/multiethnic church in Minnesota. Later he was a conference superintendent for the Pacific Southwest. These days he's the teaching pastor at Bayside Midtown Church in Sacramento, California, and the president of World Impact, an urban-missions program which trains the urban poor in mission and helps them to launch indigenous church plants. He is also the author of several books
Smith's new book, Killing Us Softly describes what it means to die to ourselves and live for God's kingdom. How are we killed? God kills us (our egos and selfish desires) softly with his steadfast love and grace. In his introduction Smith opens up about his own experience of this sort of spiritual death, "I am allowing God to do surgery on my soul—to kill me, certainly, but to do it softly, lovingly—so that I might die to the upside-down world we find ourselves in, and be empowered to live as a right-side-up child of God. I am living in the messiness of God removing things in me that are not of him so that I might reflect him more each day" (xiv).
The first chapter of the book describe our upside-down-ness of our bizarro world. Things in our culture are not the way God intended because of the reality of sin. Smith observes that sin is both an individual and systemic reality (8). We live the upside-down life of idolatry—"our hearts and worship turned away from God toward other things" (10) The result is fragmentation. We are broken in our relationships to others (i.e. racism, tribalism, sexism) and our institutions are also broken (government systems, schools, economic systems, corporations, etc).
In the chapters that follow, Smith describes the church as the right-side-up remnant(chapter 2); Christ as the 'right side up way, truth and life'(chapter 3); what in us needs to die to set our hearts right (chapter 4); the paradox of Christian maturity (or what it means to have a child like faith, chapter 5); how we advance God's kingdom through love (chapter six) and what it means to join in God's mission to set the world right side up (chapter seven).
In this short book Smith gives us a broad overview of the life of discipleship—what it means to deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Jesus. He discusses the upside-down-ness of our world, and because he includes a category for systemic sin, he is able to speak directly to fallen institutions and systemic problems (like the incarceration and wrongly death of black people at the hands of police, and deaths of police officers). He challenges Christians to share the love of Jesus with the world, and to see justice as part of our mission to welcome the kingdom and set the world to rights.
Smith tells stories from ministry, initiatives he's been a part of to love neighbors and restore communities. He offers an inspiring and pastoral vision of what it means to join our life with Christ and become part of his mission. It is compelling. I also appreciate that Smith places 'dying to yourself' motif under the rubric of God's gracious work in us. This helps me understand it as something healthier and more fruitful than mere self-loathing. It is about submitting to God's work in our heart. I give this book four stars.
Note: I received this book from Tyndale in exchange for my honest review
Smith's new book, Killing Us Softly describes what it means to die to ourselves and live for God's kingdom. How are we killed? God kills us (our egos and selfish desires) softly with his steadfast love and grace. In his introduction Smith opens up about his own experience of this sort of spiritual death, "I am allowing God to do surgery on my soul—to kill me, certainly, but to do it softly, lovingly—so that I might die to the upside-down world we find ourselves in, and be empowered to live as a right-side-up child of God. I am living in the messiness of God removing things in me that are not of him so that I might reflect him more each day" (xiv).
The first chapter of the book describe our upside-down-ness of our bizarro world. Things in our culture are not the way God intended because of the reality of sin. Smith observes that sin is both an individual and systemic reality (8). We live the upside-down life of idolatry—"our hearts and worship turned away from God toward other things" (10) The result is fragmentation. We are broken in our relationships to others (i.e. racism, tribalism, sexism) and our institutions are also broken (government systems, schools, economic systems, corporations, etc).
In the chapters that follow, Smith describes the church as the right-side-up remnant(chapter 2); Christ as the 'right side up way, truth and life'(chapter 3); what in us needs to die to set our hearts right (chapter 4); the paradox of Christian maturity (or what it means to have a child like faith, chapter 5); how we advance God's kingdom through love (chapter six) and what it means to join in God's mission to set the world right side up (chapter seven).
In this short book Smith gives us a broad overview of the life of discipleship—what it means to deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Jesus. He discusses the upside-down-ness of our world, and because he includes a category for systemic sin, he is able to speak directly to fallen institutions and systemic problems (like the incarceration and wrongly death of black people at the hands of police, and deaths of police officers). He challenges Christians to share the love of Jesus with the world, and to see justice as part of our mission to welcome the kingdom and set the world to rights.
Smith tells stories from ministry, initiatives he's been a part of to love neighbors and restore communities. He offers an inspiring and pastoral vision of what it means to join our life with Christ and become part of his mission. It is compelling. I also appreciate that Smith places 'dying to yourself' motif under the rubric of God's gracious work in us. This helps me understand it as something healthier and more fruitful than mere self-loathing. It is about submitting to God's work in our heart. I give this book four stars.
Note: I received this book from Tyndale in exchange for my honest review
February 6, 2017
This book is an outstanding book on Christian living, the title enough was enough to draw me in and it certainly did not disappoint. I loved how the author didn't mince words and was willing to draw on biblical truths and call readers to a deeper walk with the Lord.
I loved how the author talked of those who have walked closer to the Lord and died to the things of this world, both examples in the Bible and from contemporary people as well, it helped illustrate his points and drive the message home.
I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
I loved how the author talked of those who have walked closer to the Lord and died to the things of this world, both examples in the Bible and from contemporary people as well, it helped illustrate his points and drive the message home.
I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
May 22, 2017
Efrem Smith leads us to personal transformation by the work of the Holy Spirit.
February 27, 2017
I really liked the simplicity of the concept that we live in an upside down world and as He by love kills us softly from our own upside down ways, we truly live lives for Him in right side up and therefore can influence others as well.
I have a direct connect to the author, Ephrem Smith and look forward to talking with him more about the book as well as talking to others how we best apply the challenges.
I have a direct connect to the author, Ephrem Smith and look forward to talking with him more about the book as well as talking to others how we best apply the challenges.
February 16, 2017
First off let me say the book cover is so beautiful and the fill of the book fills really soft and smooth. The book is not to long so you can finish the book really fast. This book keep me entertained it was a really good read the book draws you in. This book is a must read to all Christians, The author does a great job explaining the scripture in a great way to make you want to continue to read.
Efrem Smith helps us see that Christian discipleship is a absurd life. In a world turned upside down by sin, God carefully and lovingly strips us of worldly values and turns us right-side up as good citizens and ambassadors of his Kingdom.
Efrem Smith helps us see that Christian discipleship is a absurd life. In a world turned upside down by sin, God carefully and lovingly strips us of worldly values and turns us right-side up as good citizens and ambassadors of his Kingdom.
February 3, 2017
Killing Us Softly by Efrem Smith addresses this upside-down world that we are currently living in. Smith begins his book with the premise that God is killing us. Sure, we all will die eventually. But it is more than that. It is about how God is killing the worldly views inside of us and making us more into his image.
As I began this book, I wasn't entirely sure of what I was going to get. I had read previous books that Smith had written, and have enjoyed listening to him speak. After I saw the title was available for review, I sat on it for a few days. But my heart kept coming back to this book. I'm so glad that it did.
Smith asserts that there is so much wrong with this world that it is completely upside-down. God turns the world right-side-up for us. And we have to embrace the childlikeness God requires of his followers in order to help turn the world right-side-up again. He brings Christian perspectives to the racial tensions that are occurring, and encourage believers to step out and love our communities. To embrace multiculturalism, denounce racialism, and be the love of God.
Killing Us Softly is a book that calls us to remember that the work isn't easy. But we are called to do the hard work of Christ here in our lives.
I received a copy of this book from the Tyndale Blog Network. This review is my honest opinion.
As I began this book, I wasn't entirely sure of what I was going to get. I had read previous books that Smith had written, and have enjoyed listening to him speak. After I saw the title was available for review, I sat on it for a few days. But my heart kept coming back to this book. I'm so glad that it did.
Smith asserts that there is so much wrong with this world that it is completely upside-down. God turns the world right-side-up for us. And we have to embrace the childlikeness God requires of his followers in order to help turn the world right-side-up again. He brings Christian perspectives to the racial tensions that are occurring, and encourage believers to step out and love our communities. To embrace multiculturalism, denounce racialism, and be the love of God.
Killing Us Softly is a book that calls us to remember that the work isn't easy. But we are called to do the hard work of Christ here in our lives.
I received a copy of this book from the Tyndale Blog Network. This review is my honest opinion.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews