Jesus Manifesto by Leonard Sweet & Frank Viola

What a great new book by Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola. I've had the privilege of reading several other of Leonard Sweet's book and this once along with the others did not disappoint. In Jesus Manifesto, he points out that we as Christians today have made the gospel about so many other things and not the one thing that it should be centered on, Christ. I think he's right on. We get so focused on this committee or that committee and this outreach ministry and that outreach ministry, that we forget Who the One is that we're sharing and the One Who has allowed us to share His Good News. I'd heard the word "manifesto" before growing up in history classes, but to be honest, I really didn't remember what it meant. Here is what dictionary.com says,

"a public declaration of intentions, opinions, objectives, or motives, as one issued by a government, sovereign, or organization."

They also give a word origin and history lesson, so here is where the word "manifesto" came from,

"1644, from It. manifesto "public declaration explaining past actions and announcing the motive for forthcoming ones," originally "proof," from L. manifestus

This word accurately represents the message in this book. Leonard is calling us as Christians to make a declaration that we are going to stay focused on the One who is the Gospel. I love the word "intentions" in the definition and the origin, because to me it signifies that a change is being made, and in this case that we are moving from intentions that haven't been the best to intentions that are deliberate and made to move people to a personal relationship in Christ. In the opening pages of the book, Leonard asks a question. It is the same question that Jesus asks His disciples to tell Him what the people in the area call him. Then He makes the question very personal, he asks his disciples, "But who do you say that I am?" This is the question that Leonard says each of us must answer so that we can fully comprehend the message of the book on restoring the supremacy and sovereignty of Jesus Christ.

Special thanks to Thomas Nelson and BookSneeze for providing this complimentary book to read and review.