Free - by Mark Scandrette (Paperback)

About the Book

Mark Scandrette joins his wife Lisa to share the secrets of how they bought a home and raised a family debt-free in the most expensive city in the United States. Packed with helpful exercises for getting a handle on your money story, Freegives you a path to financial freedom and spiritual flourishing.

Book Synopsis

If you already own a copy of Free, use the password found on page 223 in the Group Learning Guide to access eight supplementary videos.Why does chasing the good life make us feel so bad? We dream big and spend our money and time chasing our dreams--only to find ourselves exhausted, deeply in debt and spiritually empty. Mark and Lisa Scandrette realized at the beginning of their lives together that what they want, what they need and what they were being told to want didn't sync up. In Free Mark (with a little help from Lisa) shares the secrets of how they bought a home and raised a family debt-free in the most expensive city in the United States--and how they've enjoyed good relationships, good adventuresand good food along the way. Packed with helpful exercises for getting a handle on your money story, and designed for healing and generative money conversations with friends, Free gives you a path to financial freedom and spiritual flourishing that awakens your heart and energizes your soul. Includes access to group study guide and 8 video sessions.

Review Quotes

"For Americans, freedom is an entrenched part of our national identity. But many of us have translated this iconic value into a posture of indulgence. We are free to buy what we want, say what we want and do what we want without regard to others or the environment. Mark and Lisa Scandrette have turned that notion of freedom on its head--we are free to embrace limitation, self-denial and simplicity. The good life as defined by 'American dream' usually includes a large home, multiple vehicles and fabulous amounts of disposable income. This book is an invitation toward a new vision of the good life, and it provides the tools necessary to take inventory of how we allocate our resources and apply them toward a better, more biblical and more sustainable vision. Free is detox for the soul. It leads us out of lives that are mired in material and temporal clutter. It is a gift to all of us who find that there is never enough time and money to live well."

"Part anecdotal novel, part workbook, Free illustrates both the mindset and the method by which one can discover a standard of living that allows for generosity, creativity, sustainability, gratitude and trust that 'what we have is enough.'"

"Scandrette and his wife Lisa do more than repeat a compelling story familiar to adherents of the simplicity movement of a family living on astonishingly little money in an expensive city, in their case, San Francisco. Woven closely into this lifenarrative are a series of questionnaires and exercises to help readers find their own location on the scale of consumption, debt, and living according to one's deepest values. Undergirding this interest in probing the finances of simplicity lies theconviction that generous giving is at the heart of Christian living?a generosity at odds with a wider culture that insists that resources are scarce and people can never have enough. . . . The book's strengths include a lack of judgment that allowsit to engage readers wherever they are financially and a willingness to enter into the nitty-gritty of how to achieve a simpler life."

"This book, which addresses readers of some privilege and means, is eminently practical, filled with questionnaires, exercises, and worksheets covering everything from reflection on our deepest values to concrete inventories of our spending and use of time. A hopeful and practical guide for transforming our lives toward real gospel freedom."

About the Author

Richard Rohr, OFM, is a globally recognized ecumenical teacher bearing witness to the universal awakening within Christian mysticism and the perennial tradition. He is a Franciscan priest of the New Mexico Province and founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, New Mexico. His teaching is grounded in the Franciscan alternative orthodoxy--practices of contemplation and self-emptying, expressing itself in radical compassion, particularly for the socially marginalized. Fr.Richard is the author of numerous books, including Everything Belongs, Adam's Return, The Naked Now, Breathing Under Water, Falling Upward, Immortal Diamond, and Eager to Love: The Alternative Way of Francis of Assisi, and The Divine Dance: The Trinity and Your Transformation(with Mike Morrell).

Lisa Scandrette has devoted herself to a life of care, hospitality, and teaching. She regularly facilitates workshops and provides administrative support for ReIMAGINE, a center for integral Christian practice with a mission to help people becomemore fully human through engagement with the life and teachings of Jesus. She makes a life in the Mission District of San Francisco with her husband Mark and their three children, and she is coauthor of FREE: Spending Your Time and Money on WhatMatters Most.

Mark Scandrette is an internationally recognized expert in practical Christian spirituality. He is the founding director of ReIMAGINE: A Center for Integral Christian Practice and he is on the creative team for NINE BEATS collective. A sought after voice for creative, radical, and embodied faith practices, he frequently speaks at universities, churches and conferences nationally and internationally and also serves as adjunct faculty in the doctoral program at Fuller Theological Seminary. Hismost recent books include The Ninefold Path of Jesus, FREE, Practicing the Way of Jesus, and Belonging and Becoming (with Lisa Scandrette). Mark lives with his wife and their three young adult children in an old Victorian in San Francisco's Mission District.