The most urgent call upon God's people is to live as followers of Jesus. The most indicting critique against the church is as simple: its failure to do so. As the leader of an evangelical theological seminary that trains men and women as leaders for the church and society, Mark Labberton writes: "People ask many questions about how their lives relate to the world. What are our lives in this world about? What are we to make of being human? Why are we here? Is there a reason we are alive, and, if so, how would we know what that is? These questions are brought on at times by beauty and joy, but also by the daunting facts of our own lives or of the world around us. We look around in doubt, in pain, in suffering. These are human questions asked throughout history by those inside and outside the church." We long to renew our hope for a world broken and hurting. And it is we, God's people living in the power of the Holy Spirit, who are called to become this hope and flourish while in exile. Here is the crisis: we are made and redeemed for this calling, but it slides through our fingers. Here is the promise: living and practicing who and why we are is our Christian vocation whenever and wherever we may be. Will you answer the call?
"Reading Dr. Mark Labberton?s book Called is like taking a glass of cold water after a long, tedious and dreary journey on foot under the tropical African heat. Simply put: it is refreshing. It is re-assuring. It is practical. But it is also troubling . . . because the observations Mark makes are sadly true. There is a crisis of following Jesus today. Most of what we profess, our lives and attitud
David Zac Niringiye, retired assistant bishop of the diocese of Kampala, Church of Uganda
"When I read Mark Labberton's writing I can almost hear Jesus say, 'Well, there it is. That's what I was literally dying to tell you.' This book is a call to free the church from its distractions in order to return to the most profound and basic question-what does it mean to follow Jesus?"
M. Craig Barnes, president, Princeton Seminary
"Much of the most critical wisdom I have gleaned in my own life has come from the mentorship of Mark Labberton. Called brings together so many of the 'aha!' moments that so many have experienced from Mark's leadership, and offers these truly urgent insights in the form of a gift to anyone who opens this book. . . . This book needs to be read far and wide amongst followers of Jesus all over the world, because it clarifies in profound depths what we very most need to remember as we wake to each new day God gives. There is one call, and but One who calls, and the invitation to be answered is 'Follow Me.'"
Bethany Hoang, IJM Institute for Biblical Justice, author of Deepening the Soul for Justic
