Megan Westra does an amazing job of calling out the dogma that is being preached by Christian leaders. She calls the reader in to looking at how Jesus lived his life while here on Earth and invites you to examine your own "faith" and question what you have been taught vs what the Bible says and that being Born Again doesn't necessarily mean a one off and your covered in the sense that you can get away with whatever you want to do in the name of Christianity.

I found myself having to put the book down a few times because I had to sit with and think about how I was living my life as a Christian and that being Born Again and Again is that commitment to re examine yourself, your faith and how you are living it out every day. Are you truly living the way Jesus would want or the way the Preacher teaching Prosperity doctrine or Faith by Works or Faith by Guilt is telling you?

It won't necessarily be a comfortable read, if you are truly interested in and committed to examining her concepts. I can tell you it WILL be worthwhile and a book you will probably re read, as I have for a reminder and refresher. Thank you Ms. Westra for your knowledge and insights and for sharing them with all of us readers.

Born Again and Again
The views I don't always hold, but I kept reading thru to learn more about others.

Megan Westra was raised in a strong Christian tradition. Her family and church immersed her in the Christian faith, and she first committed to following Jesus at age four. Given the young age and her lack of memory, she spent a good deal of her childhood doubting her salvation and seeking to be "born again . . . and again." In college, she began having revelations that expanded her view of faith, leading to several moments of feeling like she was truly being born again into new understanding. In her book Born Again and Again: Jesus' Call to Radical Transformation she chronicles her journey and digs into areas of faith and practice in which she has learned and grown.



The strongest theme throughout the book is that we, a church, should be about "connection over consumption." The modern church, especially in the evangelical tradition in which Westra (and I) grew up has placed a strong emphasis on personal salvation and a personal, individualized faith in Jesus. That emphasis misses the greater calling of community and communal life. All Christians can benefit from a reminder that faith is not just about connecting with God, but also about connecting with our neighbor. She uses this filter throughout the book as she discusses politics, race, economics, and gender.



Westra's book is reactive to the white evangelical faith of her upbringing. She finds it wholly inadequate in light of her new-found wokeness. In the areas mentioned above, she provides some historical background in an attempt to discredit American evangelicalism. Like every human expression of faith in every period of history, culture and sin have played a role in shaping the institutions and expressions of the Christian faith, so correctives and reforms are always necessary. But she has little good to say about, specifically, American evangelicalism. Despite its whiteness, American evangelicals led the charge in eradicating slavery, in establishing institutions such as hospitals and schools that continue to serve humanity, planting churches and leading revival movements that brought faith to many across the US, and creating a foreign missions movement for spreading the gospel around the world. To the extent that these positive contributions are mentioned, she is dismissive of them due to racist elements of the movements.



Like many of her ilk, she is critical of capitalism and American democracy. This shouldn't be hard for her to see, but if she truly is interested in addressing poverty, history and experience have shown that this is best done through capitalism and free markets. And it should go without saying that socialism and communism have inevitably led to repression of religious expression everywhere they have been tried. Her recommendations for community action are fully on board with socialistic and anti-capitalistic tendencies which, in the long run, create more poverty and less religious freedom.



As much as I appreciate Westra's commitment to being the presence of Christ in her community, which, as she tells it, is quite diverse racially and economically, and has plenty of needs, her solutions are feel-good but ineffective. I would love to see more people who have her commitment to know the poor not as subjects but as friends and neighbors, but who will offer solutions that lead away from dependency and toward increased participation in the free market system and the free society, toward connection with their communities by providing goods and services in mutual exchange.





Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!

That Megan Westra is smart, caring in a deeply practical way, and loves the Church bleeds through on almost every page of her upcoming book, Born Again and Again: Jesus’ Call to Radical Transformation. Megan challenges the (North American) evangelical church’s focus on individual salvation to the exclusion of nearly all else, demonstrating the variety of ways in which that narrow focus leads to unbiblical neglect of the Christian call to community, interdependence, and practical, embodied love of neighbor. In each chapter, she tackles a different major area of our communal life and examines how we got here, the story we’ve been told, what the Bible says, and what a better, truer way forward can look like. She invites the reader to learn, explore, question, and envision, not from the position of one who has it all worked out and is dogmatically convinced that they’ve found all the answers, but as a fellow traveller, beckoning the reader to join her on this journey. Through all of this, she interweaves her own story and that of others whose perspectives are offered as valuable correctives, revealing blind spots, and enriching the body of Christ. This is an excellent book and one that I’ll be recommending widely.

This is the review I wrote on Goodreads. Our church is very progressive, and while we might not see this as radical, many in our 'reconstructing' demographic will.
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I read this book for two reasons: 1) I was fortunate to be on the book launch team, and 2) I had been following Megan Westra on Twitter and found her to be quite funny and thoughtful at the same time. Not always an easy combo. She didn't disappoint in her first book, either.

As a United Methodist minister, I read this as a possible book discussion for many of our church members who are reconstructing their faith. Deconstructing and reconstructing are words for those whose religious upbringing did not carry over to their adult years. That is, when adults start asking questions like, "Why?" some of the easy answer - "It just is, and do it because you are supposed to" doesn't hold up. So they begin to reconstruct their faith, to ask the questions, to make some sense of believing in God, without some of the more restrictive, judging, and damning God answers.

Megan uses many of her own experiences to share how she has reconstructed some of the more common questions we ask ourselves about God and about Scripture. What are we to understand about race, or gender, or stewardship of the earth, or our relationship with money? Westra deconstructs and reconstructs each of these, and more, in three ways: What does it mean, personally; what does it mean, using stories of people she has encountered; and what does it mean, in our public expression of faith?

I found the book to be thought provoking and well written. Westra utilizes two things well: her satirical wit and her knowledge of Christian doctrine. What's best, though, is that she has made sense, for herself, and for the rest of us to consider, how we can all grow in our faith journey. I'll recommend this book for one of our discussions once it's published.

I followed Megan Westra a while back on Twitter (a platform I don't use as often as I should) and loved the message she brings. When I saw this book, I immediately requested it to learn more about her theology. I did a lot of highlighting. The struggle throughout childhood of wondering about your soul is something I have always internally struggled with.

"I am utterly persuaded that if we claim to have good ideas or beliefs, but don't do anything practical in the world or in our daily lives, then they're not very good ideas or beliefs." YESSSSSSS. I see so many prominent Christians who make a lot of money and seem to be very frivolous with their time/wealth not giving back to the community.

I love the smaller snippets of friends she has walking the walk as well, and how they have overcome or worked out their spiritual lives. This book made me miss and crave fellowship in a time when it isn't feasible to do so. I haven't belonged to a church in years because too many were very non-affirming of people different from themselves. I liked her grappling with her faith in regards to her politics when people fought her on it and how is it loving to NOT be involved with what is hurting your community politically?

And another thing I really appreciated about this book (besides her recognition of her own privilege which too many authors ignore) was the various resources listed in the back to learn more about specific topics.

Westra strides forward with a bold, prophetic voice in Born Again and Again. She details her journey from her mainstream, Evangelical upbringing to her slow conviction that faith is more than attending church and arguing apostates with solid Biblical facts. Her journey looks so much like my own, and I really appreciate her candid memories.

Through the book, Westra offers her personal growth, including her mistakes, and includes stories and testimonies from other believers. I really liked the structure of each chapter, where she presents an issue of modern Christian culture that needs to be addressed, such as racism or sexism, and gives the readers a brief history lesson explaining how this issue because part of the culture. She goes on to offer Biblical scholarship and research to explain how the church could better respond to racial differences (or whichever issue this chapter tackles) and includes testimonies about how her own thinking changed, how others have been hurt by or learned about the issue, then includes real ways we can move forward.

Tying the book together is a critique of consumer culture, in the church and in our nation, that consumes people. Again and again, Westra explains how Jesus calls his followers to treat all humans as precious and worthy, for the mere fact of being a fellow human (and ya know, we need to take care of the Earth because it supports humans, so also respect the Earth and the animals and all). Westra's down to earth voice and willingness to join in the journey to a more wholistic application of faith keep the book from being preachy or self-righteous. I can't wait to buy this book for my friends who struggle with a church that seems to ignore justice-- this book will really encourage those of us who are fed up with surface-level faith. Thank you!

Megan Westra has written a book about a salvation that eclipses the "invite Jesus into your heart" model that white evangelical Americans have majored in over the decades. Her intended audience seems to be those white evangelicals who are trying out more progressive Christian ideas but don't want to lose their biblical grounding. For this group of readers, Born Again and Again will guide them through considering justice issues through a Gospel lens. She knows how to support her theology with scripture and with historical context.

As a former evangelical, I recognize the language and approach Westra uses. But too often, her use of Christian (or American Christian) is clearly signaling a white evangelicalism. Her explicit references to mainline Protestant denominations are few, even though Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Lutherans, and Methodists have been learning to live out faithful Christianity in America, too. Engaging these other denominations, and Roman Catholicism as well, in an explicit way would help white evangelical Americans deepen their understanding of the Church in her diversity. This gap first caught my eye in Chapter 5, when Westra refers to "writer Kelly Brown Douglas." Douglas is not just a writer, she is an Episcopal priest, a womanist theologian, and the Dean of the Episcopal Divinity School at Union Theological Seminary. Almost all other direct quotes include more complete signifiers-- historian, biblical scholar, rabbi, etc. I'm sure this was just an oversight, but it's a problematic one.

Megan Westra covers a lot of ground in this book and provides a helpful list of resources for further reading. In a congregational small group, this book would best be read alongside the many brilliant writers she points to.

This book is coming out in a month at the time of this writing, and the timing could not be more perfect. Megan Westra has written about salvation - in the sense that what we do and how we move through the world affects our spiritual well-being - and how our thoughtful decisions in areas like race, gender, politics, and consumption can help form our souls in important ways. I think this would be a great starting point for a lot of people who are looking at our world and noticing that it's not fair for everyone but who aren't exactly sure what to do about it. It gives practical recommendations not just about actions but about areas where you can examine your choices more thoroughly. I recommend this especially for white Christians who are beginning to ask questions about race, gender, the environment, and other political issues. I think it would be an excellent book for a group like that to study together.

Since our country is talking more about race, I will say that there were a couple of points where I thought Westra could have brought out the history of how the anti-abortion movement is tied so closely to racism and segregationism but that is a minor complaint in an otherwise strong book. For a book on race and the evangelical church, I recommend Jemar Tisby's The Color of Compromise (she also mentions this book, so I think she would agree).

NetGalley provided me with a copy of this to review but my opinions are my own.

Gosh this book is a treasure! I feel challenged and encouraged and uplifted while also having learned so much. Westra is really great at pointing out what is needed without the wagging finger in your face. Scripture, facts, vulnerable and relatable personal experiences fill this book and make it quick to read, but very meaningful. I recognize what needs to change in my life without drowning in the guilt of what I have been wrong about, and then she provides THE CONCRETE WAYS TO CHANGE. I want to know how to lovingly help my neighbor as I mimic Christ but I do need help. This book is that help. The resources are extensive, the truth evident, and the precious care and love flows over every page. I feel so blessed to have read this.

There's little denying that I follow what would be considered a more progressive theology, a fact that likely explains why I didn't necessarily find first-time author Megan K. Westra's "Born Again and Again: Jesus' Call to Radical Transformation" to be that particularly radical.

There will be those who disagree.

There will be those, gratefully, who will read the words of "Born Again and Again" and a light bulb will go off inside and an "Aha!" moment will follow that leads to, one can hope, changes in both beliefs and practices along the faith journey.

For most who've lived into a more progressive theology, however, "Born Again and Again" will likely read like more of the same with one huge and incredibly important exception - Westra takes the time to deeply explore the scriptural basis for this "radical transformation" and puts a good majority of it into historical context.

Bravo for that.

Westra is on the pastoral staff team at Milwaukee's Transformation City Church, a multi-ethnic non-denominational church that began in the fall of 2007 with a basic question - "What can the church be?"

Indeed, that question seems to be at the core of "Born Again and Again," a book that calls us into connection over consumption and challenges Christians to turn off all the things we expect being "saved" to get us - a good job, a spouse, happiness, a life of comfort, some sense of authority - and settle into the idea that all we're supposed to truly "get" is Jesus.

What if Christianity isn't about possessing but about renouncing, Westra asks? What if we are called not to treat salvation as one more thing to acquire but to conform to Christ?

Where "Born Again and Again" excels is in Westra's scriptural and historical explorations of how a religion birthed on the margins of the Roman Empire became functionally the "official" religion of contemporary society's largest military superpower. Christianity has, in essence, gone from the fringes of society to a dominating presence and "Born Again and Again," at its core, questions whether that domination is really what Christ intended for our lives.

Hint. He didn't, at least not if you believe those red letters.

The doctrine that has resulted all too often has led to planet-killing lifestyles, civil religion, domination over the very types of people Jesus spent most of his time with, and the doctrine of discovery.

Jesus gave up everything to come to humanity; humanity, all too often, seeks to acquire everything when coming to Jesus.

Westra's basic argument in this 226-page manifesto of transformation is that conforming to Christ radically reorients our lives, priorities, and faith away from this dominating mode of acquisition and into a pattern of discipleship that sets us free from fear-based consumption of people, places, and things and releases us into radically transforming possibilities for connection and true belonging within a community of God's people.

"Born Again and Again" explores salvation, Westra's own and the cultural understanding of what salvation has been and what it has become over the years. Westra challenges us to expand our view of salvation before transitioning into what is really a series of essays illustrating the ways that Christianity has spiraled into a consumption-oriented faith rather than the connecting, transforming faith it is intended to be. Exploring such topics as politics, finances, abuse/violence, the roles of women, racial justice, and ending toward the sacredness of Communion, "Born Again and Again" is a consistent and structured exploration of each topic along with a brief but pointed exegesis of scripture and exploration of applicability personally and universally.

Westra's work here is most transforming when exploring how salvation has in some ways been hijacked over the years into its acquisition mode that often contradicts its intent. For much of her book, Westra weaves this transforming tapestry into her words and beautifully balances theology and practicality of daily Christian living. At times, however, "Born Again and Again" settles into a talking point comfort zone, most obviously when discussing both financial concerns and social justice concerns, and "Born Again and Again" dances a little close to conflict with its own central tenet.

In other words, on fortunately rare occasions it feels like "radical transformation" becomes yet another theological "thing" to acquire rather than a fluid and natural result of salvation allowing us to deepen our relationship with Christ and with each other.

It should be stressed, however, that this is a minor concern in a book that is both inspiring and educational as Westra, perhaps more than a good majority of Christian authors, doesn't simply call readers into a transforming faith but reinforces through analysis of scripture and historical research why this is what has been intended all along.

An exciting and inspirational author who is already popular as a speaker, Megan K. Westra makes her literary debut with a book that arrives at an opportunity time in America as COVID-19 has transformed the way we do church and passionate cries for social justice are echoing at decibels heard before but not being ignored for the first time in years.

"Born Again and Again: Jesus' Call to Radical Transformation" is scheduled for release on August 11, 2020 by Herald Press.