PreachersNSneakers

Authenticity in an Age of For-Profit Faith and (Wannabe) Celebrities

By: Benjamin Kirby, Joel McHale - introduction

Narrated by: Ben Kirby, Joel McHale, Judah Smith

Founder of the phenomenon social media account PreachersNSneakers tackles how faith, capitalism, consumerism, and (wannabe) celebrity have collided and asks both believers and nonbelievers alike: how much is too much?

What started as a joke account on Instagram has turned into a movement. Through this provocative project, the founder of PreachersNSneakers is helping thousands of Jesus followers wrestle with the inevitable dilemmas created by our Western culture obsessed with image and entertainment.

In PreachersNSneakers: Authenticity in an Age of For-Profit Faith and (Wannabe) Celebrities, Ben Kirby approaches many of the difficult questions plaguing countless Christians’ minds, presenting experiences and input from both sides of difficult questions, such as:

• Should pastors grow wealthy off of religion, and can their churches ever be too large?
• Do we really believe that divine blessings are monetary, or is that just religious wallpaper to hide our own greed?
• Is there space in Christendom for celebrities like Kanye and Bieber to exist without distorting the good news?
• What about this: Is it wrong for someone—even wrong for author Ben Kirby—to call out faith leaders online and leverage “cancel culture” to affect change?

PreachersNSneakers will navigate these challenging questions and many more with humor, wit, candor, and a few never-before-published hijinks. Each chapter will explore the various sides of the debate, holding space for us to make up our own minds. This book is not about finding the perfect, “right” way to do something, but instead learning how to articulate what we believe, why we believe it, and what to do when we want to stand up against cultural norms.

This book will doubtlessly become a staple for church small groups, college ministries, and book clubs, emboldening struggling believers who want to live a more genuine faith. After all, the Lord works in mysterious colorways.

• Includes an audiobook-exclusive conversation with Judah Smith

Honest appraisal of modern Christianity

Ben does a great job highlighting the struggles of modern Christianity.

As someone who hasn't been in a church more than a handful of times since going to college (grew up in the Bible belt like Ben did), I am not a modern Christian.

To be honest, I am positive Jesus and the disciples wouldn't be considered good modern Christians either, maybe Paul would be...

The straightforward and (somewhat) brash approach of calling out American Christians is beautifully accomplished and executed in this book.

If you want the hard truth (or want another reason not to attend church), this book gives you a lot of points to contemplate and topics to quote.

Insightful

Very good listen and was very easy to follow but so much depth and meat in all the topics presented!

Solid Introduction on a Difficult Topic

While I may not agree with every single conclusion the author makes, I will absolutely be buying this book in bulk and giving it to the students in my college ministry who want to know more about the complex and nuanced topic of wealth, culture, and Christianity. Great read!

If you are _ this book is for you.

As Ben puts it if you are a variety of different people who maybe grew up in Christian culture, from secular culture looking at Christian culture, to the person who grew up in secular culture but is now a Christian, this book is for you. Ben lays out the world of high fashion/sneaker head world and how it has now intersected celebrity pastors. But he also points out that greed, materialism, and questionable lifestyles of vocational pastors is not new to the church. This book helped facilate thought provoking questions for myself about what "Master" do I serve (God or Money). Do some of the things I own/desire to own cloud my view of the gospel and my eternal reward in heaven? How do I live in a world of things but faithfully only serve God? How has God blessed me with money/things, and how is he asking me to use those for his good and not my own?

Overall, this book will not only give you some good laughs, but it will make you think, and hopefully convict you to rethink some of the ways you are living or want to live.

Thanks For Sharing, Ben

a well thought-out reflection on the phenomenon that took place on the internet. Ben does a great job sharing his side of the story and asks questions every one of us should think about especially in the world of social media.