We are more than the businesses we have become. Much of Christian ministry has been shaped to operate not according to the witness of the Scriptures, but according to the values of the free market. We adopt metrics of success that have nothing to do with the state of people's souls or the seeding of the earth with the kingdom of God. We have borrowed our paradigms uncritically from the for-profit corporate sector. The mission of the Church is being held back by the business container into which we have placed the gospel. Every year Scott Bessenecker travels the world with thousands of college students, ministering to those in need and learning from the global church about what God is doing in the world. In Overturning Tables he shows, through stories and analysis, that the mission of God reaches well beyond the grasp of the free market, and if we are willing to reach as well, we will see God do amazing things, even as the world sees the gospel in its fullest sense.
"These days everything must bear the weight of productivity, and as Scott Bessenecker points out, that creates a climate of narcissism, materialism and triviality. Overturning Tables does just what it says-it overturns the neatly set table of corporate, white individualism and challenges us to shed egos, acknowledge limitations, embrace cooperation and resolve together to look for authentic signs of the kind of human flourishing Christ came to offer us."
Michael Frost, author, Incarnate
"The author challenges the church to find ways to serve Christ with our neighbors across the barriers of capitalist free markets, Western boomer power and materialistic culture. He identifies global trends and directions, as well as providing creative missional solutions to enable the kingdom of God to truly flourish around our world."
Robert L. Gallagher, Outreach Magazine's Resources of the Year, March/April 2015
