The Christian life is actually a kind of death. We die to ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Jesus. Dying in Christ, however, is an opportunity—to experience the comforting presence of the Holy Spirit as we spread the Good News of a God who loves us enough to save us and remake us in his image.

Efrem Smith helps us see that Christian discipleship is a counterintuitive life. In a world turned upside down by sin, God carefully and lovingly strips us of worldly values and turns us right-side up as good citizens and ambassadors of his Kingdom.

Table of Contents

1. Living in a Bizarro World
2. The Upside-Down World and the Right-Side-Up Remnant
3. Jesus:  The Right-Side-Up Way, Truth, and Life
4. To Follow Christ You Have to Die
5. A Child Shall Lead Us:  The Paradox of Christian Maturity
6. Love Is Our Only Weapon:  How God Wins
7. Turning the World Right-Side Up

Endorsements

"You can’t get too much Efrem Smith. He has the
voice of a prophet and the heart of a pastor. This
book is nothing short of an invitation to follow the
revolutionary Jesus. It’s a call to live in ways that
don’t compute, to fight with weapons that do not kill,
and to love in a way that confounds the world."
---SHANE CLAIBORNE, Author and activist

"Efrem Smith has got it right. This is an upside-down
world—for Christians as well. We cling to differences
that divide us instead of to Christ, who unites us;
we’re known in the public sphere for what we’re
against rather than what we’re for; and we’re more
likely to pursue the American dream than join Jesus’
revolution of radical love. God can’t use us in this
condition. Killing Us Softly is an eloquent reflection
on what it means to die to self in order to live right
side up as Christ’s ambassadors in a broken world."
---RICHARD STEARNS, President of World Vision US
and author of The Hole in Our Gospel

"We need to stop peddling a convenient and palatable
version of Christianity. To invite people to Christ
without discipleship is an oxymoron. This is
precisely why Killing Us Softly is so important and
timely. This is a powerful, biblical, bold, prophetic,
and yet pastoral reminder of the call of discipleship."
---REV. EUGENE CHO, Pastor, humanitarian, and author of Overrated