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taneilcasey's review against another edition
2.0
What if we stopped being timid and cowardly about sharing our faith, and actually thought about it long enough to realize that plastering on a Christian t-shirt is more than likely going to turn someone away than bring them closer? What if we became intentional in our desire to bring others to Christ, instead of wearing a Christian t-shirt and hoping that at least one person in the crowd will be changed by something it took you no effort to do?
Branded is about setting aside our complacency and taking steps to share the Gospel message in a way that is effective and relevant. The author takes you through the reasons he wrote Branded, stating the case as he sees it, shares that we don't need to change our mission but merely our tactics, and gives us ideas and practical ways we can start making changes for the better.
Personally, I wasn't terribly impressed by this book. I felt it to be slightly repetitive, and contemporary and modern (not in the positive sense of the word). Several of my issues may seem immaterial or nit-picky, but I felt that they reveal the heart of the matter, in subtle ways.
First off, the author seems to endorse the use of the Message, which I am strongly against. No, the Word of God does not need to be dumbed down, or "made relevant" as people of today say. That is complete and utter bunk, and no, I don't need to say "story" instead of testimony, for people to understand what I'm talking about.
Secondly, on page 111, he is beginning to give some practical ideas on how to get started with marketing the Gospel in love, rather than show, and in suggestion three, he made a remark that really incensed me. He said,
"What if we enrolled our children at a state school, or community college, instead of a Christian University - and then used the money we saved to do something bigger than ourselves? Something God-sized? Something with eternal impact?"
I felt these remarks to be either ill-written, or completely wrong. There are a million other ways we could cut our extravagant lifestyles in order to make an eternal impact on people outside the family, without compromising the integrity of our children's school atmosphere. Is investing wholeheartedly in the lives of our children a waste of our eternal impact? I think not! Are we supposed to be so driven to make disciples of all men that we neglect discipling our own children? I shudder to think so.
Overall, this book is not one that I would recommend to others, simply because I felt that the general idea of the book (showing Christ's love in a non-threatening, relational way) can be found in many other ways. The book "[b:Revolution in World Missions|97785|Revolution in World Missions|K.P. Yohannan|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171403697s/97785.jpg|2078218]" is one that immediately sticks out to me. It does not specifically cover the same topic, but I think you can get all that you are looking for from it, instead.
Branded is about setting aside our complacency and taking steps to share the Gospel message in a way that is effective and relevant. The author takes you through the reasons he wrote Branded, stating the case as he sees it, shares that we don't need to change our mission but merely our tactics, and gives us ideas and practical ways we can start making changes for the better.
Personally, I wasn't terribly impressed by this book. I felt it to be slightly repetitive, and contemporary and modern (not in the positive sense of the word). Several of my issues may seem immaterial or nit-picky, but I felt that they reveal the heart of the matter, in subtle ways.
First off, the author seems to endorse the use of the Message, which I am strongly against. No, the Word of God does not need to be dumbed down, or "made relevant" as people of today say. That is complete and utter bunk, and no, I don't need to say "story" instead of testimony, for people to understand what I'm talking about.
Secondly, on page 111, he is beginning to give some practical ideas on how to get started with marketing the Gospel in love, rather than show, and in suggestion three, he made a remark that really incensed me. He said,
"What if we enrolled our children at a state school, or community college, instead of a Christian University - and then used the money we saved to do something bigger than ourselves? Something God-sized? Something with eternal impact?"
I felt these remarks to be either ill-written, or completely wrong. There are a million other ways we could cut our extravagant lifestyles in order to make an eternal impact on people outside the family, without compromising the integrity of our children's school atmosphere. Is investing wholeheartedly in the lives of our children a waste of our eternal impact? I think not! Are we supposed to be so driven to make disciples of all men that we neglect discipling our own children? I shudder to think so.
Overall, this book is not one that I would recommend to others, simply because I felt that the general idea of the book (showing Christ's love in a non-threatening, relational way) can be found in many other ways. The book "[b:Revolution in World Missions|97785|Revolution in World Missions|K.P. Yohannan|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171403697s/97785.jpg|2078218]" is one that immediately sticks out to me. It does not specifically cover the same topic, but I think you can get all that you are looking for from it, instead.
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