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Changing Who You Are by Loving Where You Are
“If you find yourself asking questions like ‘Why am I here?’ or ‘What is my purpose?’ or ‘Will my life count for anything?,’ then look no further, this book is for you. Deep, theologically sound, thought provoking, yet delightfully readable and persuasively practical, Renovate will change the way you see yourself and the place, the literal place, where you live. This is a clarion call to the church—this is true mission.”
—Michael Fletcher, senior pastor of Manna Church and leader, mPact Churches
“Renovate is a timely disruption in a culture where our attraction to ‘progress’ can undermine our values and sense of community. With sound theology and urban sensibilities, Pastor Léonce calls into question our tendency to remain disconnected for mobility’s sake. Readers will be inspired to view their current surroundings with new eyes, seeing a call for discipleship and renewal where they once saw only dead ends and dilapidation.”
—Justin E. Giboney, founder of Crucifix and Politics
“In a world where limitless mobility encourages many to constantly pursue the most advantageous option, Crump offers refreshing insight to a theology of place. His ministry in Atlanta and conviction to stay there sheds light on the much-needed conviction of permanent presence. Renovate appeals to all ranges of the lived experience, especially in today’s society.”
—Stephen Um, senior minister of Citylife Presbyterian Church of Boston and author of Why Cities Matter
“Jesus teaches that the central paradigm of the Christian life is to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself. Léonce Crump’s Renovate provides a masterful framework for what Jesus’s teaching on love looks like across the boundaries of race and class for the twenty-first century. American Protestantism has needed a book like this for the last fifty years.”
—Anthony B. Bradley, PhD, associate professor of religious studies at the King’s College in New York City
“Few leaders have the theological depth and cultural awareness to speak into the direction of believers in today’s world. Not only does Léonce write with the insights of a sociologist; he draws them from personal experience. His writing isn’t ‘theory for’; it’s tried and true testimony.”
—Lecrae Moore, Grammy Award–winning music artist
“Léonce is such a special gift to the church, and a needed one. I’m thankful for his leadership, teaching, and example!”
—Jefferson Bethke, author of It’s Not What You Think
A Powerful Call to Join the Cultural Renewal Movement
“The Church should be God’s redemptive agent in the world and nothing less.” —Léonce B. Crump Jr.
Once called the “New York of the South,” Atlanta has been a hub of transportation, commerce, education and creativity since its birth in the mid 1800s. Yet, in its recent history, Atlanta’s reputation has also grown as one of the most violent cities in America. It is to this place of deep racial and socioeconomic segregation, that God sent one man with a vision of cultural renewal. In Renovate: Changing Who You Are by Loving Where You Are, pastor and international speaker, Léonce Crump details his incredible journey to the heart of Atlanta’s most broken and discarded neighborhoods.
In this profound study of God’s covenant relationship with mankind, Crump illuminates God’s plan for restoration of the earth and challenges readers to discover a sense of place, to enable them to love their cities with gospel intentionality.
“I hope the answers you find will cause you to wrestle with some long-held ideas,” Crump explains. “Ultimately I hope those answers stretch your eyes and mind and heart to the breaking point and beyond, for only to the extent that we ourselves are broken can the love of God sweep in and fill us with a desperate love for the people who surround us and the towns and cities in which we live.”
Crump’s main objective is to answer the question, “How do you transform a community?” Through a careful examination of Scripture and the trials and errors of his own attempts to plant a vibrant and rooted church in Atlanta’s urban core, Crump reveals how each believer can begin to participate in the renewal of their own communities. Renovate inspires readers to:
• Believe that God delights in the material world He has made.
• Hold fast to God’s promise of restoration and know that He plans to keep it.
• Pray for renewal in our surrounding communities and the entire world.
• Approach each aspect of life, from the magnificent to the mundane, with a biblical worldview.
• Join the cultural renewal movement by committing long term to a place and its people.
Renovate’s message will ignite transformation in the hearts and minds of its readers, as Crump demonstrates that “this world is not an evil place needing to be escaped from, but an infected place needing to be renewed, to be restored, to be renovated.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
LÉONCE B. CRUMP JR., is an author, international speaker, and the founder and lead pastor of Renovation Church in Atlanta. Recently, Crump served as a keynote speaker at the Catalyst Next Conference in Washington, D.C. He has been in ordained ministry for nine years and holds graduate degrees from the University of Tennessee and Resurgence Theological Training Center. He is currently a Master of Divinity student at Reformed Theological Seminary and serves on the Executive Board of the Acts 29 church planting network. He and his wife, Breanna, reside in the heart of downtown Atlanta with their three children. For more information, visit:
Website: http://leoncecrump.com/
Twitter: @LeonceCrump
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LeonceCrumpJr