All Things Together by Heath Hardesty Book Review

About the Book:

In a world of burnout, shattered attention, digital overwhelm, and spiritual disconnection, many have lost sight of the greater story they were meant to inhabit.

All Things Together is a winsome invitation to rediscover that story through a re-imagined vision of apprenticeship to Jesus—one that brings coherence to the scattered pieces of our lives and cultivates peace in a divided world.

Rooted in a deeply biblical three-part paradigm, Pastor Heath Hardesty shows how in apprenticeship, union with Jesus is the origin, abiding and obeying Him are the essence, and imaging Him is the aim. Weaving scriptural wisdom, pastoral insight, and blue-collar experience, he gently guides readers into vital practices for a reintegrated life and a renewed sense of what it means to be truly human.

Whether you’re a seeker, a seasoned follower of Jesus, or simply longing for something more whole and alive, All Things Together will ignite your imagination and equip you to draw closer to God as He transforms you into a person of greater love, lasting joy, and radiant wholeness.

My Review:

Hardesty is a wordsmith. Consider the following sentences.

“We live in a dis-integrated age, a world cleft and fractured in countless ways. A world of splintered light in which the colors of the spectrum are weaponized against one another.” (Loc 850/3871) That is very creative writing but I have no idea what it means. “Far too often we go about our days gathering a smattering of our preferred pixels rather than delighting in the totality of the wider image.” (Loc 850/3871)

Beautifully written but I have no idea what all those words mean. That was pretty much my thoughts on the first half of the book. He explores what it means to live dis-integrated, at length. We need apprenticeship to Jesus. He tells us that repeatedly. That involves renewed imagination and renovated habits. But before he tells us what that entails, more of dis-integrations, six, in fact. We are shattered and scattered. We need the paradigm of apprenticeship. Abiding with Jesus and obeying Jesus are the renovating practices. He finally gets to what that means in the second half of the book.

One renovating practice is Scripture meditation, listening to God's Word above all other voices. He gives some practical suggestions as how to do that. Another is communion with God, prayer, and again he gives suggestions. More practices include community, being present with God (such as on the liturgical holy days), generosity, compassionate gentleness, and finally being a faithful witness.

I finally began to understand what he was trying to communicate in the second half of the book. Hardesty's degree in literature overshadows his writing. As gifted as he is in creating wonderful sentences, to that degree it seems he cannot clearly communicate practical truth my mind can easily comprehend. Others may love his flowery and colorful sentences. They were an impediment to me. 

My rating: 3/5 stars.

About the Author:

Heath Hardesty serves as the lead pastor of Valley Community Church and is a founder of Inklings Coffee & Tea in the heart of downtown Pleasanton, California. Heath grew up in a blue-­collar home and was a plumber’s apprentice in Colorado before becoming a pastor on the edge of Silicon Valley where he and his family now reside. He holds degrees in literature, leadership, biblical studies, and theology from the University of Colorado Boulder and Western Seminary in Portland.

Multnomah, 288 pages.

I received a complimentary egalley of this book from the publisher. My comments are an independent and honest review.

(My star ratings: 5-I love it, 4-I like it, 3-It's OK, 2-I don't like it, 1-I hate it.)