Phil Needham

Following Rabbi Jesus is a surprising exposure of who the Jesus we find in the Gospels really is, what he teaches those who dare to follow him, and how he models what it means to live God's radical-kingdom way. The reader of the book will discover in this exploration a very different Jesus from the celebrity or hero of much popular church culture, the tame, ineffective Jesus of compromised Christianity, and the inaccessible, conceptual Christ of much academic theology. The reader who takes the chance of honestly engaging the Jesus we meet in the Gospel stories may find an engaging and liberating contrast to the life he is now living. He may even want to make a turn or two, and start over. Philip Dennis Needham is a writer and speaker who has shared a partnership ministry with his wife Keitha for the past fifty years. His passion is to see the church realize its calling as the missional people of God who cross boundaries of exclusion to embody the compassion of Christ. He and his wife are retired Salvation Army officers residing in the Atlanta area.

Following Rabbi Jesus is a surprising exposure of who the Jesus we find in the Gospels really is, what he teaches those who dare to follow him, and how he models what it means to live God's radical-kingdom way. The reader of the book will discover in this exploration a very different Jesus from the celebrity or hero of much popular church culture, the tame, ineffective Jesus of compromised Christianity, and the inaccessible, conceptual Christ of much academic theology. The reader who takes the chance of honestly engaging the Jesus we meet in the Gospel stories may find an engaging and liberating contrast to the life he is now living. He may even want to make a turn or two, and start over. Philip Dennis Needham is a writer and speaker who has shared a partnership ministry with his wife Keitha for the past fifty years. His passion is to see the church realize its calling as the missional people of God who cross boundaries of exclusion to embody the compassion of Christ. He and his wife are retired Salvation Army officers residing in the Atlanta area.

Following Rabbi Jesus is a surprising exposure of who the Jesus we find in the Gospels really is, what he teaches those who dare to follow him, and how he models what it means to live God's radical-kingdom way. The reader of the book will discover in this exploration a very different Jesus from the celebrity or hero of much popular church culture, the tame, ineffective Jesus of compromised Christianity, and the inaccessible, conceptual Christ of much academic theology. The reader who takes the chance of honestly engaging the Jesus we meet in the Gospel stories may find an engaging and liberating contrast to the life he is now living. He may even want to make a turn or two, and start over. ""For too long we have concentrated on the death of Jesus, neglecting his life; we have focused on his divinity, losing sight of his humanity; we have emphasized doctrine, forgetting his call to discipleship. The church and the world are the poorer for that. Phil Needham's excellent book is part of a movement of the spirit to redress the balance. Read it carefully and prayerfully. It will inform your thinking and inspire your living."" --Chick Yuill, Speaker and Author, United Kingdom ""Phil Needham has written a wondrous book, with wisdom and compassion, insight and thoughtfulness. His book is a classic and will be a long standing, major contribution for the Christian movement. His book will encourage you and yours. The integrity of his thought, the clarity of his writing, and the hope of his spirit will bless you and countless persons in the years to come."" --Kennon L. Callahan, Author, Researcher, Theologian, Pastor Philip Dennis Needham is a writer and speaker who has shared a partnership ministry with his wife Keitha for the past fifty years. His passion is to see the church realize its calling as the missional people of God who cross boundaries of exclusion to embody the compassion of Christ. He and his wife are retired Salvation Army officers residing in the Atlanta area.

Following Rabbi Jesus is a surprising exposure of who the Jesus we find in the Gospels really is, what he teaches those who dare to follow him, and how he models what it means to live God's radical-kingdom way. The reader of the book will discover in this exploration a very different Jesus from the celebrity or hero of much popular church culture, the tame, ineffective Jesus of compromised Christianity, and the inaccessible, conceptual Christ of much academic theology. The reader who takes the chance of honestly engaging the Jesus we meet in the Gospel stories may find an engaging and liberating contrast to the life he is now living. He may even want to make a turn or two, and start over. ""For too long we have concentrated on the death of Jesus, neglecting his life; we have focused on his divinity, losing sight of his humanity; we have emphasized doctrine, forgetting his call to discipleship. The church and the world are the poorer for that. Phil Needham's excellent book is part of a movement of the spirit to redress the balance. Read it carefully and prayerfully. It will inform your thinking and inspire your living."" --Chick Yuill, Speaker and Author, United Kingdom ""Phil Needham has written a wondrous book, with wisdom and compassion, insight and thoughtfulness. His book is a classic and will be a long standing, major contribution for the Christian movement. His book will encourage you and yours. The integrity of his thought, the clarity of his writing, and the hope of his spirit will bless you and countless persons in the years to come."" --Kennon L. Callahan, Author, Researcher, Theologian, Pastor Philip Dennis Needham is a writer and speaker who has shared a partnership ministry with his wife Keitha for the past fifty years. His passion is to see the church realize its calling as the missional people of God who cross boundaries of exclusion to embody the compassion of Christ. He and his wife are retired Salvation Army officers residing in the Atlanta area.

Deep inside each one of us is a deep empty space. We work and strive with great energy toward ideals and objectives that, in the quiet of the night, when we are alone with our thoughts, we know will never fill that space. This human chafing point is universal and although we become quite accomplished at hiding it, it never leaves us. It is always there, under the surface, this struggle to figure out who we are supposed to be as humans, with each other and with God. It is this most basic human struggle that author Phil Needham addresses in When God Becomes Small. This beautiful, profound book looks with clarity and compassion at our human misconceptions of God and of ourselves. We seem naturally obsessed with more, bigger, and we despise what is small, or less. We make God out to be something God is not, we misunderstand the greatness of God, and see God as gigantic, distant, remote. At the same time, we make ourselves out to be smaller than we are, and our lives less significant than they are. We let ourselves off the hook, so that we can downgrade our self-expectations. But Phil Needham does not leave us there. As the book unfolds we see how God saves us from these misconceptions. And we learn how we might follow God to the freedom of becoming small.