Unless God Builds It
A Proposal to Radically Rethink the Church
5 out of 5 from 15 ratings on Amazon. Paperback, hardcover, Kindle, and audiobook. Or read it free on Edify as it's released chapter by chapter.
Kill the engines. Catch the wind.
What readers say
“If you have read ‘No Longer I’ you might consider this book a sequel. ‘No Longer I’ was an exposition and ‘Unless God Builds It’ an application of what ‘No Longer I’ reveals. They are both excellent.”
“His love, his passion for God and God’s people come through in every sentence.”
“Super helpful framework and practical wisdom for any interested in organic/house church. Also contains much wisdom for the Church at large.”
If we want to get where only God can take us, we need to learn how to rely on God together.
The modern church is busy. There's no question about that. But is all this activity empowered by God, or is it merely the product of human wisdom and anxious toil? What if the methods we've defaulted to for centuries are not just flawed, but actually counterproductive to the life God promises?
In Unless God Builds It, Jacob Hotchkiss proposes a radical shift in how the Body of Christ functions. This isn't just another book on church structure; it's a manual for theological and relational reformation. Whether you are a weary church leader or just a believer longing for more, you will discover a vision for:
- God-driven results. How to move from vain labors to bearing fruit, personally and corporately, while remaining at rest.
- Christ-centered love. A vision for life that both clarifies your calling and intensifies your devotion to God's people.
- Spirit-led order. A framework for the spiritual gifts and mutual submission that replaces religious disorder and authoritarianism with the life and leadership of Christ.
The Church was never meant to be built by our ingenuity. It was designed to be the product of Christ in us, the power of God.From the back cover
It's time to stop settling for a man-made imitation and dare to believe that God will build his Church, if we finally let him.
Written from the inside
Jacob spent years as a preacher and teacher in the institutional church before leaving the system to help start a network of house churches in Springfield, Missouri. The book is the theology and the practice of that experiment: what a Spirit-led gathering actually looks like, how decisions get made without a boss, how discipline works in a family, and why the Church has so many consumers.
Read before you buy
Start at the table of contents on Edify, or jump to Is Your Church a Cruise Ship or a Sailboat?
Read Unless God Builds It free as it's released.
Every chapter of No Longer I is on Edify, free. Unless God Builds It is being released there chapter by chapter. Subscribe and the first thing you'll get is Rewired by Prayer, a five-day devotional on renewing your mind through the Lord's Prayer.