Good and Beautiful and Kind - by Rich Villodas

About the Book

"An invitation to love like Jesus and step beyond distraction and division into the joy we long to experience--from the author of The Deeply Formed Life, winner of the Christianity Today Book Award"--

Book Synopsis

ECPA BESTSELLER - An invitation to love like Jesus and step beyond distraction and division into the joy we long to experience--from the author of The Deeply Formed Life, winner of the Christianity Today Book Award

"A stunning book with power to reshape our world . . . if we let it."--Glenn Packiam, pastor and author of Blessed Broken Given

We long for a good life, a beautiful life, a kind life. But clearly that's not the world we live in. We carry the stress of our fractured world in our bodies and relationships. Families that once gathered around tables have converted those tables into walls. Hostility, rage, and offense is the language of our culture.

How did we lose goodness, kindness, and beauty? And more important, how do we get them back into our lives? These are the two questions crying out in our streets, homes, churches, and from deep within our souls.

Pastor and author Rich Villodas is convinced that only Jesus offers a way of being human that is both strong and tender enough to tear down the walls of hostility we experience daily.

In Good and Beautiful and Kind, he reveals how...
- These three essentials are stolen by sin, powers and principalities, and trauma.
- We can get goodness, beauty, and kindness back through contemplative prayer, humility, and the cultivation of calm presence.
- The traits of healthy conflict, forgiveness, and justice lead to wholeness, healing, and a new collective future--when rooted in the ancient way of Jesus.

Filled with fresh energy, classic truth, and practical solutions, this is your road map for stepping beyond distraction and division to love like Jesus. Doing so will change the atmosphere within you...and around you!

Review Quotes

"Good and Beautiful and Kind is a peaceful, gracious, and wise formulation of what it looks like to follow Jesus in a world ripping apart by a lack of love, by systemic powers, and by our own woundedness. Give yourself a retreat to spend time with this beautiful book."--Rev. Canon Dr. Scot McKnight, professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary

"We desperately need resources to heal the brokenness, deception, and deformation that has crept into the church. In this beautiful book, Rich Villodas lays out a vision, theology, framework, and life-giving practices to help us restore our integrity . . ."--Jon Tyson, author of Beautiful Resistance and pastor of Church of the City New York

"This book is a gift to us all! Rich not only identifies the fractures in our world and wounds in our souls, but he also provides a pathway to wholeness. In a broken and disillusioned world, these pages are full of hope and healing. You will discover that the ancient way of Jesus is actually the path to the future."--Christine Caine, founder of A21 and Propel Women

"Reconciliation and justice require new frameworks and practices to reach the next generation. In this book, Rich Villodas has given us a path toward goodness, beauty, and kindness when we are rooted in the way of Jesus."--Latasha Morrison, founder and CEO of Be the Bridge, and the New York Times bestselling author of Be the Bridge: Pursuing God's Heart for Racial Reconciliation, ECPA 2021 Christian Book of the Year

"If the church has any hope of recovering its radiance, it will be the result of the kind of deep work [Villodas] leads us to embrace here. This is a stunning book with significant power to reshape our world...if we let it."--Glenn Packiam, pastor and author of The Resilient Pastor and Blessed Broken Given

"It's not a secret that we are living in difficult and fractured times. Such times can be reasons for not just helplessness but more dangerously, hopelessness. Thankfully, there are servant leaders like Pastor Rich Villodas who don't pretend to have all the answers and yet are not afraid to invite us to walk 'a better way.'"--Rev. Eugene Cho, president and CEO of Bread for the World, and author of Thou Shalt Not Be a Jerk: A Christian's Guide to Engaging Politics

"In Good and Beautiful and Kind, Rich charts, with masterful insight and pastoral clarity, both the root causes of the disease of our time and the spiritual antidotes that can lead to wholeness. For those of us praying, longing, and waiting for wholeness, this is an answered prayer."--Rev. Dr. Gabriel Salguero, pastor of the Gathering Place and president of the National Latino Evangelical Coalition

"This book is for all those who need a reminder that even when times seem dim, there is a path that leads to brightness and abundant life."--Jemar Tisby, PhD, author of The Color of Compromise and How to Fight Racism

About the Author

Rich Villodas is the author of The Deeply Formed Life, winner of the Christianity Today Book Award, and the Brooklyn-born lead pastor of New Life Fellowship, a large, multiracial church with more than seventy-five countries represented in Elmhurst, Queens. He graduated with a bachelor of arts in pastoral ministry and theology from Nyack College and completed his master of divinity from Alliance Theological Seminary. He and his wife, Rosie, have two children, Karis and Nathan.