Peppermint Filled Pinatas: Breaking Through Tolerance and Embracing Love

Eric Michael Bryant challenges our views about tolerance for others. Tolerance was not what Jesus taught or practiced. He loved those he encountered, and demonstrated that love in tangible ways. Bryant's two-fold message is, first, that people matter most, and, second, that love is the true apologetic. This is a book filled with stories from Bryant's own experiences in the neighborhoods of Los Angeles, where his church, Mosaic, ministers.

How can we move our churches to become relevant, responsive, and reflective of the global community? That’s the question that Eric Michael Bryant poses in Peppermint-Filled Pinatas. With stories, observations, and thought-provoking suggestions, this book maps the way beyond ethnic, racial, and cultural barriers to the communities that Jesus wants us to have.

Relationship evangelism is the message of this book from Bryant, "the bald white guy" on staff at the 80-nationalities multicultural Christian community Mosaic in Los Angeles. "Love is the new apologetic," writes Bryant. For too long, he argues, the world has been made aware of what Christians hate rather than whom they love; what they are against rather than what they support. Christians, he says, "have created an environment where we are seen as judgmental, irrelevant, mean, and hypocritical." Mixing scripture, humor and personal anecdotes (including a great one about a filling station clerk), Bryant invites Christians to develop a "party theology": invite others to share in your life, and accept invitations to participate in other people's lives, especially if they are different from you in some way. The content is familiar: look to connect through a common cause, hobby or passion. Learn conflict resolution and practice it. Break stereotypes, whether they are ethnic, economic, sexual, religious or political. Apart from one confusing anecdote about a schizophrenic who seems to get well through Christian service, this is a solid book for Christians who have "head knowledge" about relationship evangelism, but need encouragement rather than how-to steps to put that knowledge into action. Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.

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