Toongabbie Anglican Church Blog

Review

Introducing God – the book

Monday 25 September, 2006 · Posted by Neil Atwood

Introducing God - the course is a tried and proven evangelistic resource. Now there is the book, designed as either an adjunct to the full course or as a stand alone evangelistic tool. Read on for a short review…

Introducing God

It’s always good to see new and fresh resources for sharing the gospel with people. ‘Introducing God’ – the hospitality based evangelism course is not new, but the book ‘Introducing God’ is.
‘Introducing God – meeting the God who loves us’ is a compact, 137 page book. It would appear to be written as a primer for the full, 10 week I.G. course, but I found it to be very useful as a standalone resource.

The 8 chapters of the book follow the pattern of the full course, which in turn, is built like that other highly regarded evangelistic tool, ‘Two Ways To Live’. The book is very readable and quite engaging in style. I’m not sure exactly what target group that Dominic Steele and Melinda Chiew had in mind - it does seem to be pitched at people with fairly short attention spans, although probably not at a blue collar audience.  Whether we like it or not, many people from a wide range of sociological backgrounds struggle with reading a lot in one go, and so a writing style that recognises that is set to reach a broader audience. I must say though that I did find the seemingly endless stream of illustrations and stories (where does Dominic get them all?!) did sometimes break up the flow of the writing.

Repetition is another literary tool used heavily. The re-stating of many points in slightly different ways is again a strength and an occasional distraction to this reader.
One feature I did enjoy and that will probably go down well with readers coming from a post-modern context is the frequent personal testimonies. There are ten such stories (including Dominic’s own), and while one or two are perhaps a tad too long, they are overall a powerful and sometimes poignant part of introducing God to unbelievers.

Despite it’s small size, ‘Introducing God’ is pretty intense, and to simply give a copy of an unbelieving friend and leave them to it is probably not the best strategy. Far better would be to give it to such a friend, and plan to meet with them once a week to talk about one chapter at a time and answer any questions.
Speaking of questions, there is an appendix appropriately titled ‘Frequently Asked Questions’. With eleven questions answered in ten pages, they are not a long and thorough treatment of common apologetic-type issues, but again are perhaps best seen as discussion starters over a cup of fine coffee.
‘Introducing God’ is another excellent addition to every Christian’s evangelistic toolbox.

It’s available at most Christian bookshops around Sydney and beyond, or through the Introducing God online store.

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