

Paperback: 323 pages
Publisher: Multnomah (September 20, 2003)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1590522591
ISBN-13: 978-1590522592
Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 0.8 x 8 inches
Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (120 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #449,386 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #346 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Religious & Inspirational > Mystery #2188 in Books > Christian Books & Bibles > Literature & Fiction > Mystery & Suspense #14956 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Contemporary

Every pastor, elder, and deacon should read this book (if they can handle it). And every person who feels like they are being forced into a church mold rather than a biblical mold should read this book. And those who are living in the freedom of the true Christian life should read this book as an encouragement and for ideas to help others escape the clutches of the unbiblical packaging of God and His Church.God does not fit into our neat LITTLE finite packages in which we require God to dwell. Biblical life does not fit into our legalistic, narrow-minded, self-proclaimed conservative interpretations of scripture. God and the Bible are not servants of our corrupt cultural norms.This and more is the subject of this story. There isn't much I can say about this book except you've just got to read it for yourself. It is rare that I pick up a story book and read it. But this particular one is one of two cases in which I picked it up and couldn't put it down. I am a reader who takes my time, reads slowly and tries to absorb everything in one reading. This 315-page text was read by me in 2 nights. In the first half of the book, I read much about myself and the changes that are now taking place in my life. I believe God put this book in front of me to encourage me to continue in the same direction and to give me ideas and new thought patterns. There was a freedom handed to me through the reading of this book that every believer needs to experience---BECAUSE IT'S BIBLICAL AND NECESSARY.Let me just say this about the story line: The first half of the book emphasizes the issues and consequences of the legalistic and culturalized, "God in a convenient package" church (which, by the way, is a different package for each culture and each denomination; so who's right?).
The protagonist of this book, Pastor Jason Faircloth, was everyone's worst nightmare as a pastor. He fit the caricature of the arrogant, self-absorbed, uncaring, unfeeling fundamentalist pastor that we often hear about. He was one who felt that he knew the Bible well, he knew God's will, he was called by God and as such, he was unassailable. He ruled his church and his family with an iron fist. This worked well in the church - his church was able to grow. The mindless people who followed him accepted and appreciated his demagogery, but this didn't go over too well in his family. I'll stop there so as not to tell the whole story, except to say that he ends up losing his family.This loss of family forces a crisis in his life - he re-examines his faith and nearly abandons it. What he ends up abandoning is his extreme fundamentalism. What he ends up embracing is a faith that is more relational and compassionate, less structured in terms of theology and less denominationally oriented. He completely abandons anything that smacks of tradition in favor of what seems to be a pure biblical faith.This pure biblical faith is lived out in the lives of the pastor and members of a church he joins in Norway. It is there that he is exposed to what he perceives to be true and pure Christianity.The backdrop for his search for an authentic faith is his search for a granddaughter he has never met, and his search for a stunning Norwegian blonde he meets on an airplane while searching for his granddaughter. Along the way he makes stops in London, Cyprus, Norway and New York City. The book has a very poignant ending that is worth waiting for.All in all it is a very enjoyable and fast paced book. It is hard to put down.
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