A Fruitful Life

Discover the Path to Spiritual Growth

Jesus frequently used fruitfulness as a metaphor of growth and vitality in our faith. Just as a plant's fruitfulness reveals its health, there are spiritual characteristics that reveal our own growth and vitality.

But how do we get a life of fruitful obedience when we're exhausted, anxious, and busy? Jesus tells and shows us the way in his most famous sermon, The Sermon on the Mount. Much more than a list of rules–we discover that it's Jesus' vision of a good and fruitful life.

In their new eight-week Bible study A Fruitful Life, Ashley and Bryce Hales help readers dive deep into the Sermon on the Mount, and explore a life spent living and loving as Jesus did.

A Fruitful Life includes:

• Eight sessions for group or individual use that include access to video teaching
• Individual reflections for each day of the week for deeper study and sustained engagement

A Fruitful Life isn't just about reading Scripture; it's about fully engaging with the text and seeing how God's Word can transform our daily lives.

"The Bible is essential for Christian spirituality. Central to the Bible are the teachings of Jesus. Among those teachings, none are more fundamental than the Sermon on the Mount. A Fruitful Life, by Ashley and Bryce Hales, digs deeply into these famous and powerful words, providing readers fresh insights for growing as followers of Jesus. I highly recommend it for church groups of all kinds."

-- Todd Hunter, author of What Jesus Intended

"The twenty-first century brims with peace and prosperity and technology the likes of which no generation has ever known. And yet many people feel dead inside. Maybe you are exhausted by the 'survival of the fittest' culture all around you and the numbness it leaves behind. If so, read this book. Ashley and Bryce Hales reintroduce us to Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, peeling through the familiarity of it to get at the shocking, joyous, life-upending power of it."

-- Russell Moore, editor in chief of Christianity Today

"I am always looking for studies to recommend to small groups that invite people into deeper community and individual time with God or devotionals which are diligent in engaging with the Scriptures and commend ways for us to practice our faith. In A Fruitful Life, Ashley and Bryce Hales give us just such a resource: an exploration of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount that is both invitational and challenging for Christians at any stage of their spiritual journey to live more fruitfully."

-- Bronwyn Lea, pastor and author of Beyond Awkward Side Hugs

"This is a refreshing and illuminating study, drawing out the meaning and significance of the Sermon on the Mount for Jesus followers today. Ashley and Bryce Hales guide readers through Jesus' words with care and conviction. This study is a gift to the church."

-- Kaitlyn Schiess, author of The Ballot and the Bible and The Liturgy of Politics

"The Christian life isn't lived in abstraction. As much as ethical codes, theological principles, and worldviews can be helpful in comprehending our faith, we actually follow Jesus in the gritty reality of day-to-day life—getting ready for school, dealing with tension in the workplace, suffering the frailty of the body, and stretching our budgets to make ends meet. Thankfully, while Christians are often drawn to abstraction, Jesus' teaching has a way of calling us back to the concrete, challenging us with a way of seeing, living, and praying that avoids escapism and roots us in love of God and neighbor. This is good news, and it's the central truth behind this marvelous work by Ashley and Bryce Hales. They invite us to consider Jesus' words in the soil of the everyday, helping us to reconsider the familiar and see our neighbors, friends, and everyday lives in the light of the Sermon on the Mount. It's a refreshing perspective in a moment when the church, now as ever, needs to reimagine what it means to follow Jesus in polarizing times."

-- Mike Cosper, director of podcasts for Christianity Today and author of Land of My Sojourn

"I can think of no portion of the Bible that calls for a companion guide more than Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. There are simply too many treasures to unearth to move through it quickly or haphazardly. What a gift, then, that Ashley and Bryce Hales have put together such a marvelous study guide for this most world- and life-changing of passages. Full of fresh insight, genuine usefulness, and a palpable love for the one who preached, I have no doubt that A Fruitful Life will bear abundant fruit itself."

-- David Zahl, director of Mockingbird Ministries and author of Low Anthropology

Ashley Hales (PhD, University of Edinburgh) is editorial director, print for Christianity Today. She is the author of Finding Holy in the Suburbs and A Spacious Life, and her work focuses on the surprising and renewing work of a Christian imagination. She is a Kirby Laing Centre Academic Fellow, an advisor to the Covenant College board of trustees, and a cofounder of The Willowbrae Institute. Ashley lives on the central coast of California with her husband Bryce and their four children.

Bryce Hales (BTh, University of Glasgow) is the pastor of Trinity Presbyterian Church (PCA) in San Luis Obispo, California. A cofounder of the Willowbrae Institute, he has been a pastor since 2006 and has served in college ministry and church planting in California, Utah, and Colorado. Bryce is completing his DMin at Covenant Theological Seminary, studying secularism and church leadership. He lives on the central coast of California with his wife, Ashley, and their four children.

This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.