A Call to Follow Jesus When He Challenges Our Traditions There are many challenges to adequately representing Jesus to the majority world, and often Western Christian traditions create unnecessary hindrances to people accepting His truth. This book grew out of many interviews with Indian Jesus-followers-both Christians and Yesu bhaktas-who identified painful stumbling blocks to receiving and sharing the gospel. While Hindus often have a high view of Jesus, they struggle with the conventions, practices, and labels around "church." Christian Barriers to Jesus uniquely challenges readers to examine nine barrier-producing Christian traditions, exploring:   - The assumptions Christians may hold about the value, origin, or necessity of their customs - The concerns Hindus commonly raise about traditions that confuse, offend, or alienate them - Teachings from Jesus in Scripture that often question the same ideas or practices Pennington suggests that by not asking deep enough questions about what is essential for following Jesus and what is a non-essential human invention, the church is unnecessarily alienating millions of people from Him. As a body, it is time to honestly address these concerns, developing new patterns of discipleship that reveal Jesus's heart for breaking down barriers instead of creating them. The analysis presented in this book will empower readers to critically examine their personally cherished traditions and the purity of the gospel they present, with insights that are relevant in all contexts. While Christian Barriers to Jesus is clearly rooted in the Hindu context of India, it speaks of principles with much broader applicability. The ideas presented in the book deeply resonated with me based on my decades of living and working in China, engaged both with mainstream secular culture and Muslim ethnic minority communities. Now living back in the US, I see how similar issues are at play in diverse settings here. The beauty of the book is actually more than just an articulation of principles though; its greatest strength is in expanding the range of questions we are willing to ask as we try to follow Jesus and better experience together his offer of abundant life. - Charly Pine , Inspired Leadership Initiative Fellow, University of Notre Dame The prayashchitta (atoning, reconciling offering) done by Paul Pennington will put the healing balm on the wounds of every Hindu Yesu bhakta and will encourage them to press forward, without minding what others say or think about them, to live with their birthright, to be a Hindu and a bhakta of the Nara-Hari Bhagavan Muktinath (the Man-God, the Blessed One, Jesus). - Dayanand Bharati , Yesu Bhakta in India The religious world of the Hindu and its labyrinth of unreached peoples has long presented the Christian movement with inscrutable barriers. But any radical incarnational witness to reduce these barriers will be sure to threaten the more conventional church life in India. Paul Pennington has chosen to journey alongside these churches and dialogue with them on their Christian responsibility for these barriers. The biblically reasoned curricula that has emerged, so long overdue, promises to free the log jam of misunderstanding surrounding incarnational witness among Hindus today. - Brad Gill , Editor, International Journal of Frontier Missiology (IJFM) J. Paul Pennington (MDiv, leadership concentration; EdD in instructional technology) has served in various contexts in leadership training, cultural coaching, and dependency reduction for forty years. A decade ago, he began to explore, with Indian colleagues, Christian traditions that seem to alienate Hindus from Jesus. Today he challenges believers everywhere to examine and wrestle with these issues and also advocates for "incarnational believers" who follow Jesus within their own sociocultural communities. Paul enjoys spending time with his family, especially playing and exploring nature with his seven adorable grandkids.