The Hole in Our Gospel by Richard Stearns

“What does God expect of us?” asks Richard Stearns in The Hole in Our Gospel.

There are countless Christian books out there that will “help” you with your faith, or expand your knowledge of the Bible, or even question your beliefs, but so far I’ve only come across one book that challenges Christians to be just that – Christians.

Somewhere along our path, we’ve reduces Christianity, and more importantly the Gospel, to that of a nice personal relationship with God – one that after we’ve committed our life to Christ – should grow and become deeper.

But by doing so, we become “religious” and start to dig a large “hole” in the Gospel – that of loving our neighbor, of helping those who are in need (and not just spiritually), and in essence becoming less selfish.

Richard Stearns, through statistics and more powerfully actual stories from other and his own life, challenges us to fill that “hole” in the Gospel. There are millions of people in the world that could use our help, here at home and abroad. Abroad is where Richard argues that we have dropped the ball.

In America, and most of the western culture, live in vast prosperity. Oh, we hear bad news about our economy, but when you compare it (as Richard does so well) to most other countries in the world – our complaints are well…pathetic.

We have far more than we need. There IS enough food to feed the world – just look at our grocery stores. There IS enough money to help an entire country out – just look at what we spend our money on.

This book is not about more effective prayer, or 5 spiritual disciplines we all must have, or how to truly become happy in Christ.

No this book is deeper than that. This book cuts at the heart of what Jesus taught, truly. Stearns doesn’t put forth new doctrine to challenge our faith, he puts for the call to action that should be because of our faith…yet seems to be lacking.

When it’s all said and done, when Stearns has shined a light on the darkness of “our” Gospel he, in a loving yet disciplined way, puts for the challenge to us: “And when you close this book, what will you do now?”

What will you do now?

(note: I received a free copy of this book for my review through Booksneeze.com. The opinions stated are mine and are freely given. For further information visit www.booksneeze.com)