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Centering Jesus: How the Lamb of God Transforms Our Communities, Ethics, and Spiritual Lives
What happens when Jesus becomes obscured from our point of view?
With all the hostility boiling just under the surface of our world, we need a renewed vision of Jesus as the Lamb of God who can lead us in the peaceable ways of the Kingdom. When we fail to keep Jesus at the center of our lives, we lean into the desires of our hearts more than the desires God has for us. As a result, our entire spirituality becomes driven by the self and for the self. We need renewed practices of centering Jesus in our hearts and minds.
In Centering Jesus , Derek Vreeland invites you to imagine what it looks like to keep Jesus as the Lamb of God at the center of three key areas of our lives―our spiritual formation, our moral lives, and our common life together. With the deep divide in American culture and the polarization that continues to grow, we need a renewed focus on the Lamb so that we might blaze a path forward into civility and kindness.
Learn how to
With all the hostility boiling just under the surface of our world, we need a renewed vision of Jesus as the Lamb of God who can lead us in the peaceable ways of the Kingdom. When we fail to keep Jesus at the center of our lives, we lean into the desires of our hearts more than the desires God has for us. As a result, our entire spirituality becomes driven by the self and for the self. We need renewed practices of centering Jesus in our hearts and minds.
In Centering Jesus , Derek Vreeland invites you to imagine what it looks like to keep Jesus as the Lamb of God at the center of three key areas of our lives―our spiritual formation, our moral lives, and our common life together. With the deep divide in American culture and the polarization that continues to grow, we need a renewed focus on the Lamb so that we might blaze a path forward into civility and kindness.
Learn how to
- GenresChristian Non Fiction
224 pages, Paperback
Published August 22, 2023
10 people are currently reading
562 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
September 12, 2023
In this book, Vreeland has provided a grounded and safe resource for a very significant and difficult conversation today. Evangelicals have often found a way to compartmentalize our faith among the many cabinets of life’s ideologies, hobbies, and other allegiances. We’ve allowed cultural dialogue to shape our lives of worship.
But Vreeland plants his feet on a faith and allegiance to the Lamb and calls us to recenter Jesus as the center of gravity that he should have always been for his followers. One of the most enjoyable parts of this read is the gracious and compassionate tone Derek writes with while sternly challenging us to make the right decision.
The other thing I deeply appreciated about this book is how I shared so much in common with Vreeland’s conclusions and call, while he got there using reasoning that is different than my own. He went through doors that I avoid and made cases that I’ve constructed quite differently, but we were certainly engaging in the same work. And that’s how it should be. If we are following Jesus where he is going, we will need to be able to explain it and see it in a variety of ways.
Derek provided some great tools along the way: speaking of the “four sides of faith,” giving a practical toolbox of loving our neighbors well, and also expressing the Christian calendar in one of the simplest and most helpful ways I’ve encountered.
This is a resource I would recommend as we head into yet another election cycle that threatens to test our allegiance as believers, once again. It will not patronize you or burn you with prophetic fire, but it will challenge you and call you to take inventory of your worship.
But Vreeland plants his feet on a faith and allegiance to the Lamb and calls us to recenter Jesus as the center of gravity that he should have always been for his followers. One of the most enjoyable parts of this read is the gracious and compassionate tone Derek writes with while sternly challenging us to make the right decision.
The other thing I deeply appreciated about this book is how I shared so much in common with Vreeland’s conclusions and call, while he got there using reasoning that is different than my own. He went through doors that I avoid and made cases that I’ve constructed quite differently, but we were certainly engaging in the same work. And that’s how it should be. If we are following Jesus where he is going, we will need to be able to explain it and see it in a variety of ways.
Derek provided some great tools along the way: speaking of the “four sides of faith,” giving a practical toolbox of loving our neighbors well, and also expressing the Christian calendar in one of the simplest and most helpful ways I’ve encountered.
This is a resource I would recommend as we head into yet another election cycle that threatens to test our allegiance as believers, once again. It will not patronize you or burn you with prophetic fire, but it will challenge you and call you to take inventory of your worship.
May 25, 2024
This book was lovely. The author is an evangelical pastor who has fallen in love with liturgical expressions of prayer and worship and who has a deep love of creedal Christianity. This book was also inspired by the author reading Revelation and contemplating what it looks like to follow in its pattern of contemplation our Lord as the Lamb. This gives the book a very Anabaptist feel. This book wasn’t anything new for me since I feel like I share much of the authors loves and presuppositions. But it’s a good book if you are new to “God as Lamb” theology.
I also recommend it as a good example of evangelicals meeting the early church in very positive ways. I see a lot of discourse of hyper traditional Christians using the early church to justify their sexist theocratic ideologies in ways that make me wish the Early church writings were never translated into English. But this book reminds me that there is still hope in engaging in historic Christianity in healthy ways.
I also recommend it as a good example of evangelicals meeting the early church in very positive ways. I see a lot of discourse of hyper traditional Christians using the early church to justify their sexist theocratic ideologies in ways that make me wish the Early church writings were never translated into English. But this book reminds me that there is still hope in engaging in historic Christianity in healthy ways.
September 18, 2023
Eines der besten Bücher zum Thema Nachfolge, die ich bis jetzt so gelesen habe. Es ist eine Antwort auf einige Probleme der Evangelikalen in Amerika. Jesus wieder in die Mitte rücken als das gewaltlose und sich hingebende Lamm. Dabei bringt so viele Inhalte zusammen, die mir die letzten Jahre wichtig und zentral geworden sind. Vom Jesus Gebet bis zum Nachfolgeethos. Von einer Reich Gottes Perspektive a la NT Wright bis zum Glaubensverständnis eines Matthew Bates und vielem mehr.
(Eine ausführlichere Rezi wird noch folgen)
(Eine ausführlichere Rezi wird noch folgen)
July 7, 2024
Learn to walk in the way of Rabbi Jesus, a humble servant. It's different than showing up for a Sunday service. I appreciated the wide spectrum of examples and church traditions offered in this book.
November 26, 2023
I won this on goodreads! Can’t wait to dive in! Thank you good reads giveaways!
February 23, 2023
Thank you NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review! 3.5 stars. First, the pros about this book: It's a lovely treatise for Western American (one could argue probably cis male and not typically marginalized) readers to begin to wrestle with polarizing community topics. It actively attempts to bring in a more collectivist community view that can be hard to find in other books of a similar nature. I particularly enjoyed the section on utilizing the Jesus Prayer to practice the presence of G-d. I also found the assumptions surrounding Christian spirituality needing Jesus at the center and is a lived experience of the Holy Spirit conducive to good discussion and growth.
This is definitely the sort of book one has to take their time on, meditating on not only the words written, but the assumptions underlying them. There's so much built on assumptions and unperceived biases the audience will /of course/ naturally agree with. Yet the person of Jesus stayed its redeeming factor, drawing me back in.
It's one of those books where with the words on the surface, I keep oscilating back and forth between agreement and disagreement between lesser theologies (some definitely not considered lesser by other Christians willing to die on those hills, but I digress) but the ultimate Lamb-centered theology of returning to center Jesus just keeps on making up for the 2 main assumptions: That the fellowship of readers also have to agree with a "PSA all the way with a hint of more Orthodox Christus Victor" theory of atonement and a Christocentric /only/ reading of scripture (and coming to this viewpoint by quoting a scholar whose work has been on a Christotelic reading of scripture???). There's quite a bit of proof-texting because of this (and it seems proof texting of other scholars' work), but also ways in which scripture is creatively interpreted in light of understanding Jesus as the church's desire and focal point to worship and emulate.
As a collective fellowship we need variety and humility to admit we don't fully understand the mysteries surrounding things Vreeland believes, or at least writes, with assurance and perceived absolutism. However, I hope that this book may still instill some humility on it's readers; it certainly did for me every time I reached a point of permanently setting it aside in deep frustration and the Spirit prodded me to return, to re-extend intellectual charity, and to keep finding Jesus at the center.
This is definitely the sort of book one has to take their time on, meditating on not only the words written, but the assumptions underlying them. There's so much built on assumptions and unperceived biases the audience will /of course/ naturally agree with. Yet the person of Jesus stayed its redeeming factor, drawing me back in.
It's one of those books where with the words on the surface, I keep oscilating back and forth between agreement and disagreement between lesser theologies (some definitely not considered lesser by other Christians willing to die on those hills, but I digress) but the ultimate Lamb-centered theology of returning to center Jesus just keeps on making up for the 2 main assumptions: That the fellowship of readers also have to agree with a "PSA all the way with a hint of more Orthodox Christus Victor" theory of atonement and a Christocentric /only/ reading of scripture (and coming to this viewpoint by quoting a scholar whose work has been on a Christotelic reading of scripture???). There's quite a bit of proof-texting because of this (and it seems proof texting of other scholars' work), but also ways in which scripture is creatively interpreted in light of understanding Jesus as the church's desire and focal point to worship and emulate.
As a collective fellowship we need variety and humility to admit we don't fully understand the mysteries surrounding things Vreeland believes, or at least writes, with assurance and perceived absolutism. However, I hope that this book may still instill some humility on it's readers; it certainly did for me every time I reached a point of permanently setting it aside in deep frustration and the Spirit prodded me to return, to re-extend intellectual charity, and to keep finding Jesus at the center.
January 20, 2024
What a powerful book, examining all of life through the lens of Jesus. Vreeland paints a beautiful and thoroughly biblical invitation that examines the Christ-centered life from a diversity of practical applications. His chapter on politics is a much needed primer for the days we find ourselves. Highly recommended!
March 5, 2023
Centering Jesus is about Christians focusing on the Lamb of God, Jesus, as the center of all aspects of our lives. I absolutely agree the Jesus sets the example for us on how to live. I also believe we need to see the full Trinity at work in our reading of scripture.
This book has a western audience in view and challenges how we view our culture and relationships with God and others in light of what Jesus has accomplished. I found a lot of this book to be a helpful reminder to follow and focus on the Lamb of God.
This book has a western audience in view and challenges how we view our culture and relationships with God and others in light of what Jesus has accomplished. I found a lot of this book to be a helpful reminder to follow and focus on the Lamb of God.
September 12, 2023
5 STARS: One of the Best Books of 2023
I have read many books on Christian spirituality, but few have inspired me as much as Centering Jesus by Derek Vreeland. This book reminds us of the importance of Jesus as the Lamb of God who transforms our lives and world. Vreeland explores how keeping Jesus at the center of our spiritual formation, our moral lives (Christian Virtue), and our common life together can help us follow the Lamb in the way of peace, love, and justice. He uses biblical, theological, and historical sources to present a compelling vision of a Jesus-centered Christianity that is relevant and authentic. Vreeland also offers practical suggestions and examples of how to cultivate a Christ-centered spirituality in our daily lives and in our churches. This book is not only informative, but also inspiring and transformative. It has challenged me to reexamine my own relationship with Jesus and to seek to center him more in every aspect of my life. As a pastor, I have found this to be an excellent resource for equipping our congregation to be a Jesus-centered church. I highly recommend this book to all followers of Jesus, pastors, and anyone curious about what a life centered on Jesus looks like.
I have read many books on Christian spirituality, but few have inspired me as much as Centering Jesus by Derek Vreeland. This book reminds us of the importance of Jesus as the Lamb of God who transforms our lives and world. Vreeland explores how keeping Jesus at the center of our spiritual formation, our moral lives (Christian Virtue), and our common life together can help us follow the Lamb in the way of peace, love, and justice. He uses biblical, theological, and historical sources to present a compelling vision of a Jesus-centered Christianity that is relevant and authentic. Vreeland also offers practical suggestions and examples of how to cultivate a Christ-centered spirituality in our daily lives and in our churches. This book is not only informative, but also inspiring and transformative. It has challenged me to reexamine my own relationship with Jesus and to seek to center him more in every aspect of my life. As a pastor, I have found this to be an excellent resource for equipping our congregation to be a Jesus-centered church. I highly recommend this book to all followers of Jesus, pastors, and anyone curious about what a life centered on Jesus looks like.
August 25, 2023
That which is at the center of your life is that which is in control of your life. In this timely and much-needed book, Centering Jesus, author and pastor Derek Vreeland passionately guides the reader toward Christ Jesus. Full of wisdom and insight, Vreeland doesn't just dump out a bunch of head knowledge but rather equips the reader with transformative skills and practices to help realign one's life in the ways of the Kingdom. Jesus must become the center of our spiritual formation, moral virtues, and common life together; this book serves as a path toward that journey. Centering Jesus is an accessible, thoughtful, and engaging read that I cannot recommend enough.
October 13, 2023
I finished reading Centering Jesus over a month ago...and I'm still thinking about it. I love it when an easy-to-read book lingers like that.
Centering Jesus seems like such a simple concept, but the imagery makes it incredibly rich. It's the picture of Jesus as the Lamb of God taking center stage in the book of Revelation. John is looking for a Lion (which Jesus also is), but when he turns to look, he sees a Lamb. And this Lamb is leading us into what Derek Vreeland describes as "the peaceable ways of the Kingdom." As Derek so wonderfully explores, being led by a tenacious Lamb puts all of life in a different focus.
Centering Jesus seems like such a simple concept, but the imagery makes it incredibly rich. It's the picture of Jesus as the Lamb of God taking center stage in the book of Revelation. John is looking for a Lion (which Jesus also is), but when he turns to look, he sees a Lamb. And this Lamb is leading us into what Derek Vreeland describes as "the peaceable ways of the Kingdom." As Derek so wonderfully explores, being led by a tenacious Lamb puts all of life in a different focus.
August 29, 2023
Is Jesus the center of everything you do, say and think? If not, why not? Pastor Derek Vreeland digs deep into this thinking and shares how we can move Him back to where He belongs, even though the world is trying to push Him out. Each chapter ends with several questions for self reflection and that was probably my favorite part. Whether you are a new believer or someone who has walked the Christian walk for many years, you will want to pick this book up soon.
September 28, 2023
This book is well written and has a conversational style. It covers many different aspects of how to make Jesus the center of life. The author uses multiple scriptural references as well as references from other theologians through the ages. The author includes discussion questions at the end of each chapter to use on your own or with a small group. Overall, this was a good read and I would recommend to anyone with an interest in Christian life and/or Christian theology.
February 28, 2024
This book covers everything I had been thinking and expressed it so well. There wasn't too much new to me, but it could be very radical for a number of people. If you are familiar with N.T. Wright or Scot McKnight this will feel in the same vein. I would suggest reading it and wrestling with the ideas.
October 12, 2024
Beautiful call to resist the American urge to center ourselves and instead to center the Lamb who has conquered the world
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews