Jesus taught that the greatest commandment is to love God with our whole selves (heart, soul, mind, strength) and to love our neighbor as ourselves. However, modern Christianity has too often subdivided these commands: We have the evangelism camp and the mercy camp. Justice requires both truth (loving God) and grace (loving others) to be present in equal portions. In The Greater Good, author Jay Hein challenges Christians with the message that faithfulness requires action. Jesus said that the world will know that we love Him by how we love one another. The “how” is a critical factor. Just as faith without works is dead, compassion (giving, serving) without adhering to God’s truth often does more harm than good. Putting our faith in action with truth and grace on display honors God, blesses others and brings shalom to the world. In this eBook, Hein, former director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, delivers compelling stories of historic and contemporary Christian exemplars who practice vocational stewardship, who live generously, and who seek a good return for their kingdom investments. The Greater Good drives home the message that God’s great mission to restore all things unto Himself requires us to participate.

Key Highlights:

• Compelling insider’s account of a White House initiative that brought together the streams of justice, truth and grace
• Transformative stories of leaders who have learned to discover and deploy their gifts to restore the world
• Summary of the unified gospel narrative: Creation-Fall-Redemption-Restoration
• Thorough exploration of how faithful living requires us to love God first and to love others as a consequence of His love for us
• What love requires to be fruitful (4 paths to righteousness)
• How by saying, “yes” to the Greatest Commandment, we can live lives for the Greater Good.
• A new definition of stewardship encompassing our whole lives for the whole gospel and the whole world
• Three keys to participating in God’s mission to restore all things to Himself
• Historical and modern-day illustrations of vocational stewardship, financial stewardship, stewardship of talents
• Insightful look at Hein’s personal journey toward loving God and loving neighbor
• What it means to live with heaven in mind and how that mindset produces faithful living
• Powerful study of the symbiotic relationship between John 3:16 and 1 John 3:16
• Discussion questions for individual or group study