Irresistible: Reclaiming the New that Jesus Unleashed for the World

Andy Stanley

Sep 2018 · Zondervan · Narrated by Andy Stanley

About this audiobook

A fresh look at the earliest Christian movement reveals what made the new faith so compelling...and what we need to change today to make it so again.

Once upon a time there was a version of the Christian faith that was practically irresistible. After all, what could be more so than the gospel that Jesus ushered in? Why, then, isn't it the same with Christianity today?

Author and pastor Andy Stanley is deeply concerned with the present-day church and its future. He believes that many of the solutions to our issues can be found by investigating our roots. In Irresistible, Andy chronicles what made the early Jesus Movement so compelling, resilient, and irresistible by answering these questions:

• What did first-century Christians know that we don't—about God's Word, about their lives, about love?
• What did they do that we're not doing?
• What makes Christianity so resistible in today's culture?
• What needs to change in order to repeat the growth our faith had at its beginning?

Many people who leave or disparage the faith cite reasons that have less to do with Jesus than with the conduct of his followers. It's time to hit pause and consider the faith modeled by our first-century brothers and sisters who had no official Bible, no status, and little chance of survival. It's time to embrace the version of faith that initiated—against all human odds—a chain of events resulting in the most significant and extensive cultural transformation the world has ever seen.

This is a version of Christianity we must remember and re-embrace if we want to be salt and light in an increasingly savorless and dark world.

Ratings and reviews

If you are familiar with Pastor Andy Stanley and even if you are not, this is a great book to read. You will learn more about what our faith, in many cases has become, an anemic version of Christianity. Due to distortions of the gospel that undermines our credibility and our evangelistic effectiveness. I love watching Andy Stanley each week on TV. Although sometimes, I may miss something since he goes so fast. Reading his book Irresistible was very beneficial. I could go back and reread a portion that I wasn't quit sure I understood. Andy starts in the Old Testament, explaining the old covenant God gave Abraham, Moses and the Israelites. God's plan was to create in them a new nation, set apart and different from all others. But using one example, they wanted a king, everyone else had a king so they wanted one too. God was their king, He wanted them to look to him. God through the profit warned them, but He finally gave them what they wanted and most of the kings, were not good men. Another thing, God never asked them to build a Tabernacle , that was man's idea. When Jesus came, He didn't improve on the old covenant. Jesus was introducing something new. What he said was scandalous and blasphemous. On more than one occasion the religious leaders were so upset they wanted to stone Jesus. Quote from the introduction tells the story best, “Andy takes readers on a fascinating journey back in time to recover a faith so rich, so dynamic, so disruptive, that it could not be ignored, marginalized, or eradicated.” Andy clears up many things we may have wondered about. He educates us on things we may not have know. He helps us to see making our faith more interesting is not the answer to reaching others. Understanding and discovering or recovering a faith so rich and dynamic, it can not be ignored, it is Irresistible. I, like those of old want a faith worth living and dying for.

About the author

Communicator, author, and pastor Andy Stanley founded Atlanta-based North Point Ministries (NPM) in 1995. Today, NPM consists of eight churches in the Atlanta area and a network of 180 churches around the globe that collectively serve over 200,000 people weekly. As host of Your Move with Andy Stanley, which delivers over 10.5 million messages each month through television, digital platforms, and podcasts, and author of more than 20 books, including Irresistible; Better Decisions, Fewer Regrets; and Deep & Wide, Andy is considered one of the most influential pastors in America.