Hi, I’m Frank.
My friends call me Frankie V.
“Viola” is of Italian origin. I’m full-blooded Italian American (like Michael Corleone, only that I’m third generation where Mikey was second. Oh, and he’s a fictional character. So that’s different too … though some people wish it weren’t. Oh yea, just in case anyone was wondering, I’m not part of the Mafia either.)
Putting natural ethnicity aside, I’m part of the new humanity. Or what the early Christians called “the third race.”
Neither Jew nor Gentile, but part of the glorious body of Jesus Christ.
You’re probably wondering, “How in the cat hair did I get on this page?”
Well, it’s probably because you read a book of mine, a blog article, heard a conference message or podcast episode, and the person who is responsible for sending it to – for better or for worse – sent you here.
Or maybe you wrote me and asked something like, “I’d like to learn more about you and your ministry.”
So here’s a quick riff.
I’m a husband, father, own a small dog (which has an IQ that kicks around 150), and I love Italian and Asian food.
I write and speak on radical discipleship and give practical advice on the common struggles that we Christians face today.
My work has been described as provocative, iconoclastic, uncovering “the hidden obvious.”
Some people think I need a brain transplant.
Others say I saved their spiritual lives.
My ministry is called the deeper journey. And it answers the question that began beating in my own heart shortly after I surrendered my life to Jesus.
That question is: There’s GOT TO BE MORE than this! There must be more to the Lord, the church, the Scriptures, etc. … but what is it?
When I was 16, I had a head-on collision with Jesus Christ that wrecked my life. I quickly became a hungry and thirsty Christian who wanted to know my Lord better.
So after traversing the world of institutional Christianity in just about every form, I left the organized church.
I was 23 years old at the time. And it was my fierce pursuit of the Lord Jesus that led me out of institutional Christianity. (Therein lies another tale too long to rehearse here.)
It was during that time that I was thrown into a spontaneous burst of organic church life. This was at a time when few Christians in the United States knew anything about organic church or body life or even “house church.”
When we explained to our friends and family what we were doing and why, they looked at us as if we’d come from Planet 10.
But our pursuit was knowing the Lord Jesus deeply as well as discovering – by experience – what His ekklesia was, the church envisioned in the New Testament.
Long story short. We crammed 16 years into 8 years and experienced both the glory and the gore of body life.
The experience was life-altering, and I’ve never recovered.
After that 8 year-experience of living in body life, the fellowship laid hands on me and sent me out to the work of raising up organic expressions of the church in other locations.
After 20 long years of discovering — by first-hand experience — how to equip a group of Christians to meet under the headship of Christ, how to handle crises of all types, how to have and sustain face-to-face community, how to encounter and express the Lord in countless ways corporately, how to embody the church after God’s own heart, and how to deal with the incredible problems that all organic churches will face, I wrote down a little of what I discovered in my ReChurch series, which is a set of books on the subject of radical church restoration.
They are:
Pagan Christianity: Exploring the Roots of Our Church Practices
Reimagining Church: Pursuing the Dream of Organic Christianity
From Eternity to Here: Rediscovering the Ageless Purpose of God
Finding Organic Church: A Comprehensive Guide to Starting and Sustaining Authentic Christian Communities
Insurgence: Reclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom
I’ve also written books on the glories of Christ and the deeper Christian life.
My vision for crafting a library of books has been to blend together the best of theology, devotional literature, deeper life themes, Jesus studies, historical narrative, and Christian fiction creating a new genre of Christian literature.
This collection of books can be categorized under the headings of “light and shade.” (Most of the books are in audio form as well as print and digital.)
LIGHT: Books that contain the element of the sublime – devotional and inspiring, throwing fresh light on Christ and the Scriptures.
Some examples:
God’s Favorite Place on Earth
The Day I Met Jesus
From Eternity to Here
Jesus Manifesto
Jesus: A Theography
Jesus Speaks
SHADE: Books that contain a prophetic edge, challenging the status quo and blazing new frontiers.
Some examples:
Insurgence
48 Laws of Spiritual Power
Pagan Christianity
Reimagining Church
ReGrace
I also have two podcasts that continue:
Christ is All
The Insurgence Podcast
Finally, in 2015, I formed something called THE DEEPER CHRISTIAN LIFE NETWORK.
This is a Network for those who want more of Christ.
The Network is made up of Christians both in and outside the organized church. We have traditional pastors, missionaries, seminary professors, etc. on it from all over the world. So it’s not focused on ecclesiology, but on knowing the Lord in deeper, higher ways.
Today, I speak in conferences on the deeper Christian life as well as train young leaders on how to receive a deeper revelation of Christ in light of the gospel of the kingdom (the training is called “The Insurgence Experience” – IXP for short).
A Message for the Times
Probably the best way to get familiar with my heart and the burden that drives me is to listen to the conference message EPIC JESUS: THE CHRIST YOU NEVER KNEW.
That talk contains all the threads that show up in all my other work. Namely, the centrality and supremacy of Christ, God’s eternal purpose, the organic expression of the church, the indwelling life of Jesus, the kingdom of God, and the deeper Christian life.
If the message strikes a chord in you, you can check out all the above resources on this blog. Just use the menu at the top.
If you have any questions, feel free to email me at frank@frankviola.com
Your brother in the costly but glorious quest,
fv
Psalm 115:1