Christians need to let their roots go deep.

            If the roots of a plant don't go deep enough, the plant dies; if the roots of a tree don't go deep enough, the tree blows over with the first strong wind. Mature and baby Christian, who don't become rooted face the same sort of challenges. We need to be grounded in God's word, we need to be plugged into a faith community, we need discipleship and accountability. If we do not become rooted, we are so much more susceptible to falling away, to listening to false teachers (read Paul's epistles in the New Testament to see what he thinks about that!) and to living a life which does not demonstrate the Christian life style which we profess to be living. (This sense of rooted means growing in Christ, not planting roots and refusing to move/change/follow God's call on our lives)

                In Rooted: The Hidden Places where God Develops You, by Banning Liebscher (WaterBrook Press, 2016) you can find example after example of the importance of being rooted and letting God work in your life.  Liebscher, the founder and pastor of Jesus Culture, starts with an introduction to why this is so important--for mature, developing, and young Christians.  He writes about how we grow in the midst of God working in and through us, reminds us that we can (and should) trust God in all circumstances. Nothing new there, but then the author takes it a step further, and talks about the joys of walking the walk.

                So far so good, so what next?  You read the Bible, you have accountability and a church, someone is discipling you and you are taking baby steps towards discipling someone else.  Liebscher takes us to the next level by discussing areas of our lives where God is at working developing us.  As it states on the back cover: " You were born to make an impact in this world and you know it. …[but] here's the thing: God is not interested in developing your vision first. He's interested in developing you! So there are sections on intimacy, on community and on serving.

                There is a lot of good information to be absorbed here. Life lessons that the author has learned from intimate relationships with God and others, from serving God and serving others, from being in community. He shares relevant  Scriptures, personal experiences, and multiple things that are happening within the Jesus Culture church community.

                For the most part I enjoyed reading this book, but at times, I got bogged down trying to figure out is something was involved in being rooted, or a commercial for Jesus Culture. I would recommend this book, because it has a lot of important information in it, but  sometimes if felt like instead of writing 2 books, this is a book with excerpts from a book waiting to be written

4/5

          I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my review.