Good Guestwork

Jesus walks the edges. Wherever centers form, the calling of Jesus becomes clearer: find me at the margins. For Christians and Muslims caught up in the struggle for control - political power, cultural superiority, numbers - this book is an invitation to a better path.

And the key is simple: become guests of one another. Good guestwork teaches us to be better peacemakers. It frees us from the traps of violence, rigid identities, and competition. It delivers us from false and half gospels. It gives us fresh courage and creativity to witness to our faith. Good guestwork also makes us into better hosts. We come to the Scriptures with new eyes, and find both our neighbors and ourselves on its pages.

Most important of all, becoming strangers allows us to witness genuine miracles: relationships between Muslims and Christians transformed from hostility to love. The author draws from personal experiences of pain and joy as a guest in Somaliland, Zanzibar, Chad, Iran, and more. Peacemakers in Kenya, Burkina Faso, and Indonesia give insight into the power of good guestwork.

Ideologies of separation and security are captivating religious communities. Finding Jesus at the edges is not just an optional path for his followers - it is the only way. The opportunities are waiting for us - to leave the comfort of the center and find Jesus as the guest of the religious other. Good guestwork is a liberation that is sorely needed: a missiology of peacemaking, of evangelism, of welcoming and becoming strangers.