book review: gracenomics

I received a pre-release PDF copy of gracenomics a couple of weeks ago. It’s written by Mike Foster of People of the Second Chance – what a great name for a community of grace.

gracenomics is an easy read. It’s not a long book. It’s broken up nicely with graphics and lots of white space – it looks great. It’s a get in and get out book that describes what grace might look like in a variety of situations. gracenomics is about living and giving grace. Mike wants each and every person to give grace and live under graceful expectations. Why? Because we live in a vulture culture that seeks to destroy others.

One of the things that I liked about gracenomics is the language. This is a religious language free book – which is hard to do when writing about grace. Grace is a buzzword thrown around in church/religious circles but Mike manages to make gracenomics jargon-free.

Grace is scandalous because it isn’t “normal” in our world and it messes with the normal way of doing life. gracenomics is about how grace has and will change the world.

If you are looking for a theological dissertation on biblical grace – this is not it. There is lots of good stuff in gracenomics. But if there is one area where it is a little weak (if I can say this without being ungracious) is grace could be rooted a little clearer in the biblical framework. But having said that, gracenomics is more of an appeal, a challenge to live out grace daily.

Extending grace has the power to change lives. It brings healing to broken hearts. And Mike invites us to be agents of grace-giving. Gracenomics ends this way:

Grace is scarce. You know it and so do I. So the real question is, "What are we going to do about it?"


Only you, the readers, can move grace off the pages of this book and into your homes, communities and organizations.


Leadership guru Bill Hybels says that people will never drift into better behaviors. We have to be called to it and asked to take our actions up a level.


So with all the boldness that I can muster, I want to invite you to give second chance living a shot. I want you to join the thousands of people who have decided to be GRACENOMIC junkies.

The hardback version of Foster’s Gracenomics releases on October 6th.