Books

Missional, Merciful, Worshipful Christians and their Churches

The tenth chapter of Luke’s Gospel features three scenes. Each one unique to the good doctor’s biography of Jesus’ life and teaching: the mission trip of the seventy, the parable of the Good Samaritan, and the account of Mary of Bethany sitting at Jesus’ feet listening to his words. Like a three-legged stool, each one contributes to and depends upon the other two for balance and stability.

As you might expect, most people and many churches lean toward one or another of these. Some major on sharing Christ everywhere they go, healing the sick, and confronting spiritual powers. Others aren’t as proficient at or compelled to good news sharing, yet they’re passionate about good news showing by serving poor and overlooked people. They’re drawn to social justice in the same way that others are attracted to evangelism. And still others possess a singular passion to cultivate a deeper intimacy with God through contemplative prayer, meditation, and worship, while mission and mercy are less of a focus in their spiritual tribe.

Each person, church, or spiritual movement has a particular stream in which they’re most comfortable swimming. But when we swim exclusively in our own preferred stream, we’re apt to lack appreciation for other waters, not to mention miss out on possessing and presenting to the world a more comprehensive revelation of Jesus. This book presents all three of these essentials of the Christian life, and when practiced in tandem will aid the reader’s journey in the direction of a fully-orbed life in Jesus.

All the profits from your purchase of this book go to YWAM (Youth with a Mission) in San Francisco. Their facilities are located in the center of the City’s most difficult, if not most dangerous neighborhood called the “Tenderloin.” They serve about 1000 people a month with a food pantry, life skills training, neighborhood discipleship, showers, recovery programs, street evangelism, block parties, street cleaning, and more. When you purchase the book (and encourage others to do the same), you’ll be helping people help others in a place that desperately needs it!

WHAT ON EARTH? Considering the Social Implications of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount

In his most famous Sermon, Jesus announces a Kingdom so counterintuitive that it appears upside down in contrast to conventional wisdom. By prescribing both a revolutionary personal piety and a radical social possibility he teaches us how to become better people who in turn make the world better. His vision for a countercultural Kingdom challenges our engagement with contemporary culture morally, socially, and even politically.

The impact of this Kingdom “on the earth as it is in heaven,” with a view to partnering with Jesus in his venture to nudge the world toward its intended design is the focus of this compelling treatment of the Sermon. By a lifestyle of holy nonconformity shaped by the “Blessed Attitudes” (Beatitudes), Jesus commissions his prophetic community to embody a social alternative that the world cannot imagine on its own and to foment a humble and loving cultural shift where the privileged and powerless flourish together in peace and justice. As previews of the coming attractions when Christ will return and reign as King over a new heaven and earth, Kingdom citizens work toward initiating such a world on earth as it is in heaven today.

What Readers Are Saying About WHAT ON EARTH?

“The richness of Barney’s latest book is not only in the abundance of quotes and sources but from the divine forging in his life through pain and suffering. Barney shows how each beatitude builds spiritual depth and takes the believer into a life that resembles the character of a gracious and loving God. This is a book written by a modern-day saint whose hardships have formed him into a weeping prophet.” Timothy Paul Svoboda, Coordinator, YWAM San Francisco Bay Area

“Barney Wiget’s writing crackles with the urgency of a voice crying out in the wilderness. With prophetic vision, he imagines a world guided by love and liberated from the tyranny of individualistic materialism. I trust Barney’s words, because he courageously seeks to live out the radical vision of God’s reign found in these pages. If you dare to read this book, it will challenge and inspire you.” Mark Scandrette, author of Practicing the Way of Jesus

“This has become my new go-to book for the Sermon on the Mount. It’s a provocative call to both holiness and justice. An invitation to disrupt the dysfunctional and build a better world.” Craig Greenfield, Founder, Alongsiders International

WHAT ON EARTH speaks as uncomfortably to us today as Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount spoke to those gathered on the hillside long, long ago. Barney Wiget translates ‘the greatest sermon ever preached’ in practical, “I-can-see-that” ways that pull the Beatitudes from the realm of lofty platitudes into a Believer’s everyday life. He reminds us how easily the Church can unintentionally push those truths back into wispy, violin-accompanied ‘sayings’ rather than adhering to them as life-changing ‘doings.’

Touching on lifestyle, politics, attitudes and a host of other rubber-meets-road challenges for what it means to be a Follower of Jesus’ words, Barney challenges us to rethink ourselves, and reimagine the Church on earth, as it is in heaven. He names us “Spirit-saturated insurgents who lovingly disrupt the world at its foundations and show our neighbors a better way.” Dr. Daniel Brown (Church Planter, Pastor, Author of Embracing Grace: Settling the Guilt That Unsettles You)

Nowhere is the Lord’s desire and strategy for mending broken lives through those who bear his name more clearly on display than in the Sermon on the Mount. So, as you read Barney’s skillfully presented exploration of that keystone passage of Scripture in his latest book, What on Earth, don’t be surprised when you find yourself annoyed and disturbed in a way that ignites a profound longing to live and love more like Jesus. Randy Bolt (Pastor, Author: The John Project: A Devotional Commentary – Volumes One and Two)

My friend Barney Wiget is a deep thinker, who, in his book on the Sermon on the Mount, defends brilliantly the simplicity we have in Christ (2 Corinthians 11:3).  I found myself writing down his quotes every few pages while reading the book. As he confronts prevalent teachings in the contemporary church, I found myself examining my own teaching over the past almost 50 years as a pastor. I’m convinced more than ever my “only hope to live out the teachings of the Sermon of the Mount is,” as Barney says, “in the power of the Savior of the Mount.”  Loren Houltberg: Doctor of Ministry Fuller Seminary, Planter/Pastor Salina Kansas (1980-2020), currently Regional Pastor for the Central District of Foursquare Churches

Reaching Rahab: Joining God in His Quest for Friends

Barney suggests that our efforts to influence people toward Jesus should be as natural as inviting them into a cool river on a sweltering summer day.

His is a grace-filled, friendship-making approach to “gospeling” that distills down to the friends of God joining him on his quest for more friends. “Ours is the matchmaker’s mantra: ‘I’ve got a Friend I’d like you to meet…’”

Barney concedes that the story of Rahab’s rescue in the book of Joshua is not exactly your stock story from which to draw inspiration for sharing faith with not-yet-believers. He points out that the well-known miracle of crumbling walls and the conquest of Jericho, though remarkable, is only part of the story. The greater story is that of a pagan prostitute and her family’s rescue, redemption, and eventual inclusion in Jesus’ family line.

“Rahabs,” Barney writes, “are broken women and men in our own spheres of influence who may or may not make their living from other people’s brokenness, and yet they have something inside that points them in the general direction of the Repairer of the Broken.” He makes a novel connection between this narrative and what he calls “God’s passionate pursuit of people,” and then submits that we are all invited to join him in the pursuit.

His inquiry into Rahab’s “conversion” provides us with a fresh notion of shattered souls and a keen expectation of bringing them into friendship with their Maker.

The Personal Reflection, Group Discussion, and Taking Action section in the back of the book suggests a number of accessible on-ramps to the adventure of reaching many Rahabs with and for Jesus.

What Readers Are Saying About Reaching Rahab 

“Barney’s evangelism flows out of a brokenness that helps him to relate to people as a friend, a fellow learner and one who can relate with empathy in people’s personal journey… All the chapters in this book are practical and down to earth on how we as God’s people can be lovers of people leading them to love God with us.” Tim Svoboda, YWAM San Francisco Bay Area Coordinator

“This book is a keeper! It should be placed in the hands of every believer and taught as a course in every local church, because it has the power to not only deeply inform new believers about the simplicity of sharing their faith but to ignite the hearts of “older brothers and sisters” who have lost the spark of their early days of re-birth.” Ron Pinkston, longtime pastor and Supervisor of Central Pacific District of Foursquare Churches

“With his characteristically accessible style, solid scholarship, and deeply spiritual insights, he welcomes us to trade our heavy-handed, guilt-polluted approaches for the adventure of ‘Joining God in His Quest for Friends.’ He shows us how to lead a much more natural and powerful way of living in this world as bearers of the Good News.”  Randy Boldt, veteran church planter and pastor

“Guilt–free, refreshing, captivating, and real! Barney lovingly and insightfully provides a pathway of Jesus-style and substance evangelism.”  Rick Wulfestieg, founding Executive Director of Foursquare Media

“Rahab is the story, Barney the interpreter, and a lifetime of personal experiences are the inspiration to find freedom in life’s journey to find your own unique path in fulfilling our one great purpose: to love God and to love people toward him.” Randy Finkbeiner, missionary to KwaMhlanga, South Africa

“Is there a way for us to help our friends understand the good news in a fresh and inspiring way? The answer is “yes” and Barney does just that in this book. He provides a new way of seeing how God is already at work and how we can participate with Him as they come into a fuller relationship with Him. Reading this book, you will be inspired again to stir up the good-news gift in your own heart. Get ready to start sharing again!” Stuart Nice, Pastor and Private School Principal

Half of the profits from this book are donated to the San Francisco Youth With A Mission building fund.

The Other End of the Dark: A Memoir About Divorce, Cancer, and Things God Does Anyway

In one two-month period, Barney Wiget lost his marriage, pastoral ministry, income, and health to bone marrow cancer. In The Other End of the Dark he describes, in both heartrending and humorous tones, his grief process and emergence into a season of fulfilling and fruitful service.

You won’t find an “I-have-more-faith-than-you-do” brand of Christianity here, but a candid description of a God-trust in progress. He proposes no “mind over matter” approach to faith, but shows how God can take excruciating circumstances and weave them into his excellent plan.

Barney’s “small place in God’s big plan” continues to unfold today into a “simple single life of service” in San Francisco’s most destitute neighborhoods. He shares stories of mentoring young spiritual leaders, befriending homeless hippie travellers, and preaching on urine-soaked downtown street corners.

What Readers are Saying About The Other End of the Dark

“Barney writes with a combination of wry humor and honesty that is both enduring and passionate. His memoir leaves you feeling you have walked the journey with him, to The Other End of the Dark.”

“I found this autobiography to be so deeply moving, refreshingly devoid of superficiality, naturally humorous, solidly biblical, and well written that I am simply compelled to invite others to experience it.”

“I love how it is the perfect combination of humor, heartache, and hope.”

“This is a well written, concise, and engaging real life story of a man who was dealt a Job-like season of tragic events.”

“An honest account about walking through darkness and coming through it to help others walking through it.”

“I recommend this sensitive book to anyone trying to find compassion and understanding in the face of pain and loss. It is an excellent gift for someone who is hurting.”