The Narrow Path

Bestselling author of The Deeply Formed Life, Rich Villodas, writes compellingly on The Sermon on the Mount - for readers interested in their own spiritual formation and living out the countercultural way of Jesus.

A book for all those who find the broad way to be exactly what Jesus warned - a path toward death, not life - and those who are interested, intrigued, and deeply drawn to the possibility of Jesus and his narrow way.

This is Rich Villodas at his pastoral best. His writing shimmers with grace, reflecting the radiance of a kingdom vision of the good life. It is obvious that the words of Jesus's most significant sermon have passed through the depths of Rich's own heart. They emerge through his stories and scars to meet us in the realities of our world. Challenging and confronting, these are pastoral reflections for everyone, calling us to the narrow path toward an expansive life.

In The Narrow Path , Rich unpacks what living our best life truly looks like. By challenging some of our most basic assumptions about what it is to walk with Jesus and by inviting us to discover whether we are on the broad or narrow path, Rich inspires us to get on the right path so we can live the abundant life Jesus came to give us. This book is a much-needed heart checkup for every Jesus follower.

The Sermon on the Mount stands on the universal scales as the most world-transforming sermon ever delivered, but it's also the most profound agenda for personal discipleship. What I hadn't quite grasped until I read Rich Villodas's book is that it acts in both of these ways, because this teaching is entirely autobiographical on Jesus's part. Rich is really telling a biography of Jesus - Divine One who not only clears the way, teaches the way, and shows the way - but is the Way. The path is narrow because it is only as wide as the person of Christ. But it is big enough for everyone's unique journey of life because he is the saviour of all. We know it isn't enough to give instruction manuals - people need maps. It's not sufficient to distribute handbooks - we need guides. This biography of the Jesus Way reset me on his way again. I hope and pray it sets and resets you on the Way. But my real hope is that it would become all our autobiographies. This book won't just do you good; it will do the world good.

Rich Villodas is the bestselling author of The Deeply Formed Life (winner of the Christianity Today Book Award) and Good and Beautiful and Kind. He is the lead pastor of New Life Fellowship, a large multiracial church with more than seventy-five countries represented, in Elmhurst, Queens, and Long Island, New York. Rich graduated with a bachelor of arts in pastoral ministry and theology from Nyack College. He went on to complete his master of divinity from Alliance Theological Seminary. He's been married to Rosie since 2006, and they have two beautiful children, Karis and Nathan.