ILLUMINATION BOOK AWARDS, 2018 Silver Medal Winner – Christian Living

John Armstrong knows from personal experience how easy it is to put too much emphasis on correct teaching in our experience of church–and how easily we lose sight of the love on which Christ built his church when we do so. In Costly Love, Armstrong acknowledges the importance of doctrine and theological discussion in the church, but he urges Christians to focus first on whether we are following Jesus’ new commandment: to love as he loved. Our actions of love will begin to bring us closer to unity with one another and with God. Good books make you think, great books provoke you to change. John Armstrong has given us a great book that has the potential to transform churches and leaders. Costly Love presents a vision of life that is biblically faithful and consistently congruent with reality. This is as timely a work on this subject as any I have read. This is surely a book we all need for our divided times.
Rev. Tyler Johnson, Lead Pastor, Redemption Church - Phoenix, Arizona John Armstrong has discovered the transforming power of love. His heart beats to its rhythms. In this new book, he invites us all to discover and practice love without limits toward both God and our neighbors, regardless of the personal price. Costly Love gives a thoroughly biblical examination of love and each page is chock-full of wisdom. This book can change your life!
R. Alan Streett, PhD , Senior Research Professor of Biblical Theology - Criswell College, Callas, Texas Never has a book strummed so many resonant strings in my own heart than John Armstrong’s Costly Love. It is as if he has walked through the chambers of my own habitation in Christ and captured, in enviably readable prose, my deepest convictions of the supreme need of the body of Christ in this hour. Costly Love is as timely a book as I have ever read. At the risk of premature hyperbole, Costly Love has the potential to become a timeless Christian classic. Saying you must read this book is to me inadequate understatement–but what else can I say?
Stephen R. Crosby, D. Min., Stephanos Ministries In his latest book, John Armstrong challenges all Christians with a simple and demanding insight–unity has its origin in God’s nature as love. The insight is also a prescription for what truly ails Christianity. For Christian churches to express faithfulness to Jesus’ prayer in John 17, they must dwell with each other in the unity of God-Love.
The Very Rev. Thomas A. Baima, Vicar for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs - Archdiocese of Chicago, IL