11.14.09
Review: The Hole in Our Gospel
You get a hint of where Richard Stearns is taking you from the question and answer posed on the jacket of the book. Stearns asks “What does God expect of us?” and says the book contains “the answer that changed my life and might just change the world”.
I seldom run across a book that I cannot read straight through, often in a matter of hours after getting it. This was one of those books. I started easily enough as Stearns took us through his early life, corporate achievement and the challenge to his faith that came through recruitment as the new President of World Vision. As he began talking about his early experiences with World Vision and how it changed his outlook, I found myself being convicted about how I have failed to care sufficiently for “the least of these”. Reading the rest of the book was slower going and it made me evaluate my calling in the church. If Stearns goal was to make us grow in our faith and faithfulness, he certainly did so in me.
The hole he describes in our gospel is often seen in our single mindedness as to how we go about fulfilling the Great Commission. We are called to go and make disciples, but we often have differing ideas about what that means. It is more than bringing people to saving faith. It is also helping to meet their immediate needs and teaching them so they can meet their own needs and those of others in the future. The whole gospel as advocated by Stearns saves lives materially in this world and eternally in the next.
The Hole in Our Gospel by Richard Stearns is published by Thomas Nelson and is available from a number of sources, including Christian Book Distributors.