The Gift of the Outsider Celebrates the Blessings of Unbelonging
“My friends on the margin preach a whole sermon with their lives. May God use Alicia’s wisdom, experience, and words to reveal his heart for the outsider to you.”
—Jen Oshman, Author of Cultural Counterfeits and Speaker
EUGENE, OR — In her second book, The Gift of the Outsider: What Living in the Margins Teaches Us About Faith, author Alicia J. Akins takes readers on a journey of what it means to be an outsider. Opening with a compelling foreword from author Jen Oshman, Akins herself leaves no stone unturned as she details the outsider experience, poignantly weaving in her own story along the way. The Gift of the Outsider celebrates the blessings found in unbelonging—and encourages Christians of all backgrounds to love and listen to their community’s outcasts.
In The Gift of the Outsider, Akins looks at four categories of gifts—sight, dependence, freedom, and suffering—that encapsulate the outsider’s experiences. Readers will find themselves understanding more clearly what it means to be discarded in the margins, and how Jesus calls us to grow in both understanding and help. As much as The Gift of the Outsider is a balm to those who are unseen and misunderstood, it is a blessed revelation to those who are squarely on the inside—heartening readers to truly see and embrace the outsiders in their midst, not as other, but as fellow brothers and sisters uniquely equipped by God.
Compassionate and biblically grounded, The Gift of the Outsider encourages and enriches broader conversations and is sure to challenge outsiders and insiders alike. Akins ends each chapter with Reflection Questions that help readers process what they have read. Perfect for individual study or small group study, The Gift of the Outsider will broaden perspectives, while exploring the Biblical truths so needed in our diverse world today.
The Gift of the Outsider
Harvest House Publishers
ISBN13: 978-0736984232
September 2023 , Softcover
224 pages, $17.99
Alicia J. Akins is an author who finds herself at home both nowhere and anywhere. Her interest in how differences can be our strengths has taken her across the globe and after living and working in Asia for five years, she considers it a second home. She is a master’s student at Reformed Theological Seminary, Washington D.C., and has previously published Invitations to Abundance, also with Harvest House. You can find more of her writing at FeetCryMercy.com and follow her on Twitter @FeetCryMercy.
Harvest House, a Christian publishing company based in Eugene, Oregon, publishes more than 100 books per year and carries a strong backlist offering more than 1,500 titles. Over 145 million Harvest House books have been sold worldwide through diverse distribution channels, and additional millions have sold in over 75 different languages.
Media Contact: Jeane Wynn,918-630-9695, Jeane@wynnwynnmedia.com
