Nudge

Leonard Sweet | David C. Cook

Theologian and trend spotter Leonard Sweet challenges the notion that evangelism is simply persuading people to accept propositions about sin and salvation, in Nudge: Awakening Each Other to the God Who’s Already There. He sees evangelism as “nudging people to pay attention to the mission of God in their lives and to the necessity of responding to that initiative in ways that birth new realities and the new birth.”

Sweet explains that Christianity is a mix of signs, images, rituals and stories, contending that evangelists are called to read “the signs of the times,” scanning the cultural landscape for divine activity. Sweet structures his work in two parts, “Shining,” helping us see the manifestations in real life, and “Sensing,” focusing on how we experience God through our senses.

This paradigm-shifting book is a rich and fascinating read. Well rounded and well read, Sweet quotes from a diversity of sources, among them poets (William Blake), apologists (C.S. Lewis), writers (D.H. Lawrence), psychiatrists (Gerald May) and philosophers (Soren Kierkegaard). Pastors, church staffers, ministry teams and lay people will benefit from Nudge; in sum, they’ll agree with the apostle Paul, awakening to the understanding that God is not far from us.

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