About the Book

Book: From Comfort Zone to Trust Zone: How Jesus Urges Us to Take Leaps of Faith for His Kingdom

Author: Cecil Taylor

Genre: Christian Living

Release date: March 6, 2024

The innate human longing for comfort is undeniable. However, Jesus challenges us to step beyond the boundaries of our comfort zones and venture into the profound realm of faith, aptly described as trust zones by Cecil Taylor. These are the spaces where we dare to take risks in service of Christ’s Kingdom. In this enlightening exploration of the Bible, Cecil Taylor delves into 12 narratives of Jesus encouraging individuals to forsake their comfort zones in favor of trust zones. Through insightful interpretation, he unveils the valuable lessons these stories impart for contemporary followers of Jesus.

Click here to get your copy!

About the Author

With more than 30 years’ experience as an adult Sunday School teacher and as many in youth ministry, Cecil Taylor has impacted lives in local churches throughout his adult life. He founded Cecil Taylor Ministries to broaden that impact, teaching Christians to live a 7-day practical faith through books, video studies, and speaking engagements. His ministry is cross-denominational, focused on the common struggle Christians face in putting their faith into practice and applying scripture and faith principles to life situations.

From Comfort Zone to Trust Zone has won the 2024 Living Water Award (nonfiction, third place) from the Blue Lake Christian Writer’s Conference. This is the fourth award that Cecil has been presented across his three books.

More from Cecil

Comfort zones can be positive. Not only do we feel good about ourselves, but we also can be effective and efficient. We can find a groove. We may even be able to mentor others and cause a ripple effect of good.

But comfort zones can fool us. Our comfort zones can become invisible. They can limit us and tell us not to take risks. Comfort zones can keep us from going all-in on what Jesus has to offer us.

As I read the Gospels, I see how Jesus frequently pushed people out of comfort zones and into his trust zones, where they would take leaps of faith for the sake of his kingdom. Similarly, Jesus calls us out of comfort zones today, inviting us to take risks while deepening our faith.

A woman who read From Comfort Zone to Trust Zone said one of the most gripping moments in the book is when I shared my own story of going all-in for Jesus. I had grown up in the church as a preacher’s kid. Throughout decades of my adult life, I was a leader in my church, a highly committed volunteer, someone others might think was all-in for Christ.

But I wasn’t all-in, though I fooled myself into thinking I was. In a time when I asked for more comfort zone, Jesus gave me a trust zone: to forget about volunteering so much and to focus on giving my heart to God. I was busted, as I foolishly thought I had hidden from God that I wasn’t fully yielding control of my life. I didn’t know what Jesus would ask of me, so I held him at arm’s length. My prayers zeroed in on what was comfortable for me rather than what the Holy Spirit was beckoning me to do.

Since that moment, my life has changed. I believe your life needs to change, too, if you’re feeling comfortable. It’s time to get uncomfortable, to overcome your desire for certainty, and to inspect the ways in which you have limited the Spirit’s power to work through you. I invite you on a journey to identify subtle comfort zones that you never knew you had and to uncover trust zones that will take your faith to new levels while mightily serving Christ. I invite you to the experience that is From Comfort Zone to Trust Zone: How Jesus Urges Us to Take Leaps of Faith for His Kingdom.

Blog Stops

Blossoms and Blessings, June 15 (Author Interview)

Book Reviews From an Avid Reader, June 16

Artistic Nobody, June 17 (Author Interview)

Mary Hake, June 17

Jodie Wolfe – Stories Where Hope and Quirky Meet, June 18 (Author Interview)

Lots of Helpers, June 18

Beauty in the Binding, June 19 (Author Interview)

Texas Book-aholic, June 20

Guild Master, June 21 (Author Interview)

Locks, Hooks and Books, June 22

A Reader’s Brain, June 23 (Author Interview)

Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, June 24

A Modern Day Fairy Tale, June 25 (Author Interview)

Happily Managing a Household of Boys, June 26

Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy, June 27

Fiction Book Lover, June 28 (Author Interview)

Giveaway

To celebrate his tour, Cecil is giving away the grand prize package of a copy of the book and a $50 Amazon gift card!!

Be sure to comment on the blog stops for nine extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.

https://promosimple.com/ps/2ca3c/from-comfort-zone-to-trust-zone-celebration-tour-giveaway

Interview

What has been your greatest writing achievement to date?

I would say it’s my most recent book, Unison Parenting: The Comprehensive Guide to Navigating Christian Parenthood with One Voice. I didn’t set out to write 280 pages, but the ideas and words kept coming to make it my longest book.

But it’s not solely the length that makes Unison Parenting my greatest writing achievement. I deeply thought about how to take information from teaching parenting classes for fifteen years and translate essential components into a book. It wasn’t a matter of copying as much as deconstructing the material and packaging it in a new way while surrounding it with updated thoughts, analysis, and structure. I’m very pleased with how it came out.

What do you find the hardest part of the writing process?

I would say that the hardest part of the writing process is the final phase that turns it into a real book. Working with editors, artists, and publishers is necessary but taxing. This is the phase where you have looked at the book so much that you start to get sick of it; it’s like trying to get the last weed out of your yard (while my real yard has many weeds because I’m creating a book). Polishing the book is the hardest part.

Give us an insight into your faith in the Lord.

As I wrote in my book, Live Like You’re Loved, I have come to learn that I am already on an eternal journey with the Lord. For so much of my life, I have thought about how I can be a better person – “Maybe when I’m forty, I’ll have my act together.” Then, “Maybe when I’m fifty…”

Instead of despairing further at my apparent lack of improvement, I’ve focused more on my daily walk, listening to the Holy Spirit, allowing the Spirit to mold me. After a while, I realize I’m doing better. But more importantly, my faith in God is increasing, meaning how I trust the Lord every day to join me through all the events of my life.

I also find that my book material and my personal life are intertwined. One informs the other informs the other in a positive spiral. One example of this is a free video lesson I just created for churches, small groups, and individual learners, “The With-God Journey.” I explore a word that the Spirit has been putting on my heart lately: “With.” If anyone would like to access this free video lesson and its leader guide, you can visit https://www.ceciltaylorministries.com/request-with-god-journey.

Do your books revolve around certain themes?

Absolutely. My primary focus is teaching Christians how to live a seven-day practical faith, taking Sunday into the rest of their week and living in holy relationship with Jesus. Whether the message is transmitted by book, video, study guide, blog, reel, devotional, or podcast, I’m always thinking of how to put faith into practice.

My approach is cross-denominational, because I feel regardless of belief flavors, we all share the common problem of how to address daily life with faith.

Share something funny or embarrassing that’s happened to you.

Willie Nelson taught me how to operate an airplane seat.

You see, I grew up in a small town and was pretty much a rural bumpkin, even after four years at the largest university in my state. I was flying from Austin to Houston for a job interview; I had traveled on planes, but never alone.

After selecting the middle seat on an empty row (that shows what I knew!), there was a stir as Willie Nelson and another man boarded the plane and sat in the row behind me. Before takeoff, people kept coming up to Nelson and asking for autographs, usually saying, “It’s for my brother,” seemingly always for some other person.

I stood up and turned to face Willie and said, “I’d like an autograph. It’s for me.” After signing, Nelson was holding on to the paper a little longer, as if he was expecting me to request something else. The “something else” was that he was sitting next to James Coburn, whom I didn’t recognize. Instead of asking for his signature (what a prize that would’ve been!), I thanked Willie and took back the paper.

I probably had the seat way too far back toward Willie’s knees during the flight, not knowing what I was doing. When the call came to return the seat to its original position, I kept grabbing the seat but didn’t know what to do, with no one to ask on my row.

Thinking, “Oh, well, here it goes,” I turned to Willie Nelson and asked how to adjust the seat. Coburn leaned over and barked, “You push the button!” Nelson gently added, “Yes, just push the button on the left.” When I did, the seat actively sprang back quickly, striking my back and knocking me forward. I let out a weak, “Thank you,” and resolved to get off the plane as quickly as I could.

Technically, you could correct my teaser and say that James Coburn taught me how to adjust an airplane seat. It’s just that Willie Nelson added the small detail.