Mike Foster Provides a Guide to Bringing Life-Saving Love to the World with His New Book

By Timothy Yap Oct 09, 2016 06:56 AM EDT

Mike Foster desperately needed a second chance. At 19, he nearly killed another man in a horrific boating accident on the Colorado River. "My actions on the water that day physically destroyed someone's body. It was a horrific accident and I couldn't take back what I had done. In my mind, my mistake was irreversible," he says. After the accident he built a cage of shame and guilt around his life and cut himself off from the possibility of accessing God's grace and love.

In People of the Second Chance: A Guide to Bringing Life-Saving Love to the World (9/20/16, WaterBrook), Foster, founder of the People of the Second Chance ministry, shares his own life journey with fearless vulnerability to "expose the shame virus" and show others that they, too, can find redemption in their own stories.

"For me, living as second chance people means living with hope and embracing beautiful possibilities for our stories," he notes. "It is about living with courage and bravery, and to stop being such a critic of your life."

With great compassion and clarity, he leads readers out of their own cages of shame, regrets, self-hatred, fear, addictions and religious baggage. Foster freshly illuminates powerful truths from the parable of the prodigal son, helping people see themselves as Father God sees them: extravagantly loved sons and daughters of God who are loved because of who they are, not because of what they do or what they have done. He also expertly exposes numerous lies they may believe, such as "I am defined by my worst moment," "I'm just a slave, not a true son" or "my life no longer matters."

In today's society as well as the church, people naturally hide their weaknesses and the broken pieces of their lives. What makes Foster's message so noteworthy is that he encourages people to celebrate their brokenness. He wants to help each person bring their unique stories (scars and all) into the light so they can bring life-saving love to others.

Foster likes parties because he sees God as the life of the party. "I see God as someone who loves to play, dream and create," he says. "As a friend who smiles and laughs and likes chocolate-covered cupcakes." In light of this, one of Foster's goals is to host parties for prodigals and empower others to do the same.

In the book, he shares several hopeful stories of second chancers such as Heavy, a former prison inmate. He and his fellow second chancers surrounded him with those who believed in him and prayed for him in the midst of barbecue chicken and balloons. Heavy shared his dream to be a writer and help other men not make the same mistakes he made. This grace and hope-filled experience has empowered Heavy to move forward courageously and embrace his second chance. Foster is teaming with other second chancers to see more of these "prodigal parties" develop across the country. His goal is to see second chancers become second party planners.

He sees God's redemptive thread of love woven in the lives of those he is trying to help. "God has appointed the outsider, the misfit, the other as the primary mechanism for expanding the love inside our hearts. Loving the other is how we get more of him."

People of the Second Chance will help prodigals and imperfectionists become hopesters who can use their true story to bring their God-given life-saving love to the world.

For more information, visit www.secondchance.org.

Praise for People of the Second Chance:
"Mike is this generation's Brennan Manning. His passion for helping us live as God's beloved is awe inspiring, and this manifesto for second-chance living is exactly what our world needs right now."
-Gabe Lyons, author of Good Faith and founder of Q

"Mike's words are soaked in a special blend of grace, compassion, and clarity for living in God's love. Absolutely beautiful."
-Mark Batterson, New York Times best-selling author and pastor of National Community Church in Washington, DC

"Each page of this book was designed to remind us of our incredible stories. It's the voice of a man I trust whispering over our shoulders that our weirdness is wonderful and our quirks are among our most endearing qualities."
-Bob Goff, Chief Balloon Inflator and New York Times best-selling author of Love Does

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mike Foster is the Founder and Chief Chance Officer at People of the Second Chance, an organization dedicated to helping people relaunch their lives with a sense of hope and purpose. As a spiritual entrepreneur, Foster has created movements, ministries and organizations that has helped millions. Foster's Freeway curriculum has been used by more than 100,000 small groups. He regularly speaks at events around the country such as Catalyst and Q. He has been interviewed on Good Morning America, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, The 700 Club, and The New York Times and is a regular guest on FOX 5 San Diego. He lives with his family near San Diego. Learn more at secondchance.org.

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