The Hole in Our Gospel by Richard Stearns

Book Jacket

What does God expect of us?  Is our faith just about going to church, studying the Bible and avoiding the most serious sins--or does God expect more?  Have we embraced the whole gospel or a gospel with a hole in it?

Ten years ago, Rich Stearns came face-to-face with that question as he sat in a mud hut in Rakai, Uganda, listening to the heartbreaking story of an orphaned child.  Stearns' journey there took much more than a long flight to Africa.  It took answering God's call on his life, a call that tore him out of his corner office at one of America's most prestigious corporations--to walk with the poorest of the poor in our world.

The Hole in Our Gospel is the compelling true story of a corporate CEO who set aside worldly success for something far more significant, and discovered the full power of the gospel of Jesus Christ to change his own life.  He uses his journey to demonstrate how the gospel--the whole gospel--was always meant to be a world-changing social revolution, a revolution that begins with us.

Review

If you want to pursue the American Dream--saving money, buying bigger houses, retiring with a boat or luxury car--then don't read The Hole in Our Gospel.  Richard Stearns, the current president of World Vision, calls Christians to stop placidly sitting in church pews while half of the world lives in extreme poverty.  Poverty in the form of extreme hunger, a lack of clean water, disease, no education, and a life devoid of hope. 

If we call ourselves followers of Jesus, then...we have to follow Jesus.  He went to the poor and the diseased.  He loved them, and he healed them.  We are to do the same!  Stearns effectively stabbed me in the heart and made me realize that far too often my own gospel, my good news, has a hole.  I too often use only words as my good news, without any actions to support them and give them meaning.

As a result of reading this book, I've sponsored a child in Senegal with monthly donations.  And my fire to commit my future to missions--potentially orphanage work--has been renewed. 

Christ has no body on earth but yours,

no hands but yours,

no feet but yours.

Yours are the eyes through which

Christ's compassion for the world is to look out;

yours are the feet with which He is to go about doing good;

and yours are the hands with which He is to bless us now.

--Saint Teresa of Avila

Five out of five calls to action.

Release Date:  March 2009
Reading Level:  Adult Non-Fiction
Where In Dunlap Public Library's Collection: not yet owned by Dunlap


Don't believe me?  Check out these reviews of The Hole in Our Gospel:

Blessed is the Kingdom
Never a Dull Moment