The Hardest Book I’ve Read in a Long Time

Over the weekend I finally finished “The Hole in Our Gospel: What does God expect of Us? The Answer that Changed my Life and Might Just Change the World” by Richard Stearns. I can honestly say that this is the most difficult book I have read in a long, long time. The book itself is an easy read and Stearns is a talented author. It was the subject matter that continually made me read a little and then have to set the book down to process what I’d just been confronted with.

I’ve talked about my reading pace before - I basically set out to read a minimum of 16 books a year. That means I allot an average of 6 weeks per book. Some I finish much faster. Others, like this one, take me much longer. I began The Hole in Our Gospel back in June, which means that it took me nearly double that allotment to get through it.

Before going any farther, I feel a disclaimer is in order: I cannot possibly do justice to the impact of this book. I could easily struggle to paint a fair picture of how good this book is, but it would likely take me nearly as long as it did to read it.

That being said, I’d have to say that The Hole in Our Gospel is on my ‘top books’ list and one that I would highly recommend to anyone.

Stearns is the president of World Vision U.S., a social justice organization dedicated to tackling the global juggernauts of poverty and injustice. His story, woven throughout the book, is worth the read by itself. Following a sense of God’s calling on his life, he resigned a lucrative position as CEO of Lenox to take his current role with World Vision.

His experience with that shift in his life, and the subsequent confrontation with ‘the least of these’ through the work of World Vision is what birthed this call to action. Everything he writes finds its origin in Stearns’ self-proclaimed “hole in my gospel” and carries through to completion in his call to the Church to do what God has called us to do.

There is a huge void in the Church today. The more I read Scripture, the more I cannot understand how we are not stepping up to the plate and seeking to eradicate things like hunger, homelessness, and the like. This is especially in our country, where most of us live in the top percentile of wealth in the world, and where we experience an open freedom to practice our faith on a daily basis.

As Stearns challenges…

What if? What if all followers of Jesus looked beyond the walls of their churches and worked together in reclaiming the world for Christ’s kingdom? What if we actually demonstrated God’s love for the world instead of just talking about it? What if we embraced the whole gospel of loving God and loving our neighbors?

The Hole in Our Gospel not only paints an accurate picture of the crisis many in our world are facing, it also shines the light on the Church as the answer to these problems and helps each of us see what our part can and should be.

I picked up this book in large part on a recommendation from Michael Hyatt, CEO of Thomas Nelson, the largest Christian publishing house in the world. Check out this quick video review he did on the book and you’ll see why:

I feel that this book needs to be on the reading list of everyone who calls themselves a Christ follower. It is that important of a topic and one with a glaring hole in most Sunday morning churches today.

• If you’re wondering what all the ‘hype’ of social justice talk within the Church is these days, you need to read this book.
• If you want to know how you can make a difference in the midst of what seems like insurmountable odds, you need to read this book.
• If you have the desire to live out the gospel, the full gospel, you need to read this book.

Once you have, let me know. I’d love to sit down over a virtual cup of coffee and discuss how it impacted you as well.

Posted 09.10.2009

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