Chad Bird: Upside-Down Spirituality

Upside-Down Spirituality
(Baker, 2019)

WHO: Chad Bird, assistant professor of Hebrew and exegetical theology at Concordia Theological Seminary.

THE BOOK: Upside-Down Spirituality: The 9 Essential Failures of a Faithful Life (Baker Publishing Group/Baker Books, 2019)

HE SAYS: “What we need is blessed failure. Failure to believe in ourselves. Failure to make a name for ourselves. Failure to be supermoms and superdads. In these ‘failures’ is the success of the Spirit in our lives. He turns our world upside down so that we rediscover in Christ a life right side up with God.”

THE BIG IDEA: In our personal lives, our relationships and in our life as a church, our hearts are easily duped by the world’s version of success. We can discover in our “failures” the God who will never fail us.

WHY CHURCH LEADERS SHOULD READ IT: Upside-Down Spirituality provides a practical, biblically based approach to communicating the countercultural message to the church. We are inundated with how-to and self-help books, all of which direct us back to ourselves. This book points us to Christ.

WHY CONGREGANTS SHOULD READ IT: If we are faithful and Christ-centered we will always be failures in the eyes of the world—and that’s a great place to be. For it means we are in Jesus, suffused with his grace.

QUOTABLE: “In Jesus our worlds are turned upside down. But we find, to our utter amazement, that upside down in him is actually right side up.”

Order this book from Amazon.com »
Read an excerpt from this book »

Chad Bird
Chad Bird

Chad Bird has served as a pastor in the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, as assistant professor of Hebrew and exegetical theology at Concordia Theological Seminary in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, and as a guest lecturer at Lutheran Theological Seminary in Novosibirsk, Siberia.

Alive Church: Keeping Your Focus on the Power of God

During Sunday worship services, the church makes a point to celebrate how many people have been led to Christ.

Ready to Talk: Are Christians Speaking Truth to Our Culture?

It is easy to say our goal is to tell others about Jesus, but we often skip the step of asking God to make this possible.

Can We Be Unified Even When We Disagree?

As important as unity is for the people of God today, it is also elusive. Especially as the culture divides around us, it is easier to articulate our differences than our similarities.