To be a Christian is, literally, to be of Christ. But as every longtime Christian knows, our lives are not automatically oriented around Jesus, particularly in a culture, like ours, obsessed with self, dismissive of virtue, and liable to forget God entirely. Derek Vreeland’s Centering Jesus is a timely and cogent call to refocus our eyes on Christ as the Lamb of God who calls us to witness to his peaceable Kingdom in faith, hope, and love. “Life is hard and humanity continues to invent new ways to compound the difficulties,” Vreeland writes, “but I remain hopeful.” In Centering Jesus, he ably invites readers to share in that hope.

The world is noisy and chaotic. It provokes competition instead of collaboration and hoarding rather than sharing. We constantly need help so that we can love God and others well. Derek Vreeland offers some assistance for living and loving as he weaves together theological ideas, biblical and historical lessons, and personal experiences, all with an astute awareness of contemporary culture, to put a spotlight on Jesus, the Lamb of God. Vreeland’s wise, accessible, and thoughtful work gives readers practical guidance for living with Jesus as the center of all of life. Centering Jesus decreases the world’s background noise and points out ways that we can establish some order from chaos.

Derek Vreeland has named an important truth: Jesus has not been centered in the church’s witness. Consequently, the credibility of the church has been severely compromised. But Vreeland doesn’t just name this reality. He offers a way forward to help us recapture the beauty of life in Christ. The three-layered framework of spiritual formation, ethics, and our shared life together is a clear and compelling vision to help us recapture our call to center Jesus in all things. I highly recommend this book.

I’ve seen Jesus paraded through political arenas like a warhorse. I’ve watched his name sparkle and fade on screens when celebrities take center stage and peddle his principles. But I’ve rarely seen Jesus like this—centered, unadorned, except with the glory that is due to the Lamb who sits on the throne. Vreeland cuts through the clutter and helps us catch a glimpse of the Jesus for whom we truly long—the Jesus who can center our lives in grace and peace.

In this politically charged moment marked by hostility, outrage, and division, the church often presents little more than an echo chamber of society. Derek helps the body of Christ retrieve a deeper and more centered allegiance—not in the shape of donkeys or elephants, but with a lamb at the center. He is a guide who has discovered life from the past and is passing it on to better our futures.

When society finally bottoms out on self-defeating polarization and escalating violence, perhaps it will stop dismissing the reign of a lamb enthroned on a cross as naive and impracticable. Derek Vreeland believes some hearts have had enough and been plowed so deeply as to receive at last the one who sows peace for a harvest of justice. Counterintuitive, yes—but we’ve tried every alternative to death (literally). Where donkeys, elephants, and eagles inevitably fail, Derek offers us the Lamb who is the Light and Life of the world.

Who would worship a lamb? Understandably, we prefer stronger symbols to represent and shape our destinies: strength, power, and victory, not weakness, vulnerability, and sacrifice. Yet in Centering Jesus, Derek Vreeland reminds us that the Christian faith envisions a lamb at the center of the throne. Will we follow a God who comes to us not as a fighter but as a lamb? Vreeland writes winsomely, drawing from Scripture, theology, and church tradition to show us how we can behold and bow before the Lamb of God.

Living an authentic Christian life within the milieu of consumerism, militarism, and individualism so characteristic of Western culture is among the greatest spiritual challenges of modernity. It’s not entirely unlike the challenge faced by the first Christians living in the context of the Roman Empire. Though the challenge is real, the Christian life should always be understood as the thrilling alternative to the world that it is. And this is what makes Derek Vreeland’s new book so exciting and timely. Centering Jesus provides a series of trail markers for Christian pilgrims who seek to follow the Lamb in the way of life. This book will be an enormous help to all who are yearning for genuine spiritual transformation.