Zealous Love: A Practical Guide to Social Justice

by Mike and Danae Yankoski, Eugene Peterson (Foreword by)

Overview

“I Want to Help. But the World’s Problems Seem So Big. What Can One Person Do?”If you’re passionate about helping others—but aren’t sure where or how to focus your energy—Zealous Love offers information and ideas to help you integrate social justice into your life. The hope woven into every word of Zealous Love is this: God will move and direct you to act on your desire to love your neighbors in need, both globally and locally. Zealous Love introduces you to eight of the world’s most pressing challenges: hunger, unclean water, HIV/AIDS, creation degradation, lack of education, economic inequality, refugees, and human trafficking. But it does more than educate. It provides real, practical, do-able steps anyone can take to help make a difference.Each of the engaging chapters features first-person contributions from people like Dave Batstone (Not for Sale), Scott Todd (Compassion International), Sean Litton (International Justice Mission), Debbie Diederich (World Vision), Shane Claiborne (The Simple Way), Wendell Berry, Marva Dawn, and many others. Each contributor saw a need and decided to do something about it. They aren’t “Super Christians.” They’re just everyday people, like you, who wanted their faith to be more than just good intentions.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780310290766
Publisher:	Zondervan
Publication date:	12/29/2009
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Mike and Danae Yankoski live in the Pacific Northwest with their dog, Elliott. Their passions include backpacking, hiking, running, tea, growing veggies, good books, and substantive conversation. Mike is the author of Under the Overpass and Danae is the co-author with Francis Chan of Crazy Love and The Forgotten God.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

This is a book about love … not the sentimental love of fairy tales and romance novels. This is a book about the love that keeps us up at night—restless with poverty, groaning with a wounded creation, raging over the madness of militarism. It is an invitation to feel, and ache, and cry over the broken world that God so loves … and it is an invitation to reimagine it. — Shane Claiborne

A winsome book about injustice? That is what Mike and Danae Yankoski have managed to do with Zealous Love. It disarms and captivates the reader with great stories about and by people on the front lines, solid data and information about the struggle, and scores of helpful things we can all do right now to side with the poor—God’s favorite people group. — Ben Patterson

The two greatest commandments of God speak about love—love of God and love for our neighbors. But love that is not demonstrated is no love at all. “For God so loved the world ... that He acted … He did something … He sent His Son, Jesus, to be our salvation. And Jesus has now sent us to love the same world that He died for. Read this book and feel the pain in our world—then do something, because that’s what Zealous Love is all about. — Richard Stearns

Every Christian in America needs to read Zealous Love. It’s just what we need to open our eyes to the hurting people around the world that are crying out for our attention. I have people ask me all the time for practical ways to get involved in caring for “the least of these.” This book will not only be a powerful resource in their hands; it will lead us all back to the heartbeat of God. — Francis Chan

Timely. Accessible. Comprehensive. Zealous Love explores the world’s most challenging issues and calls us to a radical biblical pursuit of love and justice in accordance with God’s will. — Ken Wytsma

Zealous Love engages our imaginations and practices with stories of people who know the breadth and depth of God’s love for the world and the odd blessing of being misfits in the world for the sake of faithfulness to the way of Jesus Christ. It invites us to the full life of discipleship to Jesus Christ that joyfully grows beyond a concern for my own salvation and peace of mind to embrace God’s redeeming work throughout creation. Read it. Live it. Know the abundant joy of God’s zealous love for the world. — Jonathan R. Wilson

While terms like “prophetic” and “social justice” are too often paired with edgy, angry individuals guilt-tripping others to share their ideology, Mike and Danae offer us helpful information alongside invitational and riveting stories. In so doing, they are able to provide true hope, genuine inspiration, and a concrete path for action. — Dr. Rod Wilson

This compelling book invites readers into an honest and timely conversation that retrieves the ancient meaning of that word—to walk with. The stories gathered here invite us not only to hear and reflect on the lives of those who suffer, but to participate, in entirely possible and practical ways, in the great work of healing. No one will emerge from these readings unchanged or unchallenged, or uncertain about what to do. Many hands are extended here to clasp ours and lead us to those whose needs may teach us how to walk humbly, in love. — Marilyn Mc Entyre

As the voices of the next generation of North American evangelical Christianity, Mike and Danae Yankoski are impressive in both their passion and their pragmatism. They combine clarity of thought and excellent organization of material with personal candor and passion in this book which will not merely stir the reader, but move her to act—and to that end, give her some basic information and first steps. As one of the contributors to this volume puts it, “We must overcome the noise of our affluence” in order to hear and respond to Christ’s call in the cries of our neighbors. In Zealous Love, Mike and Danae present the church with a “hearing aid” to help us with that process. — Maxine Hancock, Ph.D

Editorial Reviews

Mike Yankoski (Under the Overpass) and Danae Yankoski (The Forgotten God) marshall dozens of first-person testimonies and advice on eight issues about which they feel the conscientious Christian might take action: hunger, clean water, HIV/AIDS, environmental degradation, education, economic inequality, refugees, and human trafficking. The volume is richly illustrated and attractively formatted with inset reflections, contributors' biographies, and opportunities for reader reflection. VERDICT This is not likely to persuade every Christian to leap from the sofa; it's best for young and socially aware Christians looking for ways and places in the world to focus their energy.

Library Journal