Thinking Christian

Book Review

As if the Sermon on the Mount and the Prophets weren’t disturbing enough, now I’ve gone and read Richard Stearns’s 2009 book, The Hole in Our Gospel: What Does God Expect of Us? The Answer That Changed My Life and Might Just Change the World.

I don’t know whether to recommend you read it. It will bother you. You’ll find out things like what would happen if every churchgoer in America would tithe. (I know, I know; Stearns apologized for talking about money, too; but it’s really unavoidable.) A true tithe in the church would release $168 billion new dollars to helping the world each year—about four times what the U.S. government spends on foreign assistance. It would take just 40% of that $168 billion, says Stearns, to lift a billion people out of extreme poverty. Another $28 billion would bring universal primary education to all the children of the world, clean water to most of the world’s poor, and basic health and nutrition to just about everyone in the world.

That’s what about half a tithe through the American church could do.

But I don’t know if you’ll want to read this book. You’ll find out about a church in South Africa with a staff of 10 and an annual budget of $300,000—not counting its 147 staff members leading in ministry to AIDS/HIV patients, at $1.2 million per year. It’s called Fish Hoek Church, named for the small seaside town in which it’s situated;, except around Fish Hoek it’s known as “the church that cares.” I don’t know if your church is known around town as “the church that cares.” I don’t know of any churches where I live that have that reputation.

So I don’t know if you’ll want to read this book. If you do, you might want to skip Chapter Twenty-One: “Why We’re Not So Popular Anymore.” It’s not just about sex scandals. It’s about the good we could be doing and haven’t been. It’s about massive numbers of young Americans who aren’t quite sure the church is for real, and (far worse) aren’t sure God is real because of that. The problem with Chapter Twenty-One, if you’re like me, is that it will make you weep.

I suppose there’s not much anyone could do about all this, is there? Except Stearns highlighted a shoeshine man who talked with his customers about world needs, and raised awareness and funds to supply fifteen clean-water machines to the poor in South America. Or take the other extreme: Stearns himself. He was CEO of Lenox, the luxury china company, when God tapped him to lead the mission and humanitarian agency World Vision. The book is his own story, wrapped around the message of what you and I can do about the needs of the poor, and why in God’s name we ought to do it.

I’m not sure I should have read this book. Now I’m going to have to do something about it. I’m working in missions, but there’s a hole in my mission, shaped like a needy person or population God wants me to help.

Which brings me back to Jesus and the Prophets, who said it all (all that really matters) before Stearns did. Here’s the hard part and also the shining, gloriously beautiful part: they spoke truth. Stearns certainly doesn’t regret taking a 75% salary cut to move to World Vision. I’ve never met any believer who regretted giving sacrificially in the Lord’s name. I’ve never met any believer who regretted aligning his or her life to God’s truth.

Maybe it’s not so bad that I read this book after all. It might not be so bad for you to read it, too.

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. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2009. 303 pages with notes. Amazon price (paperback) US$10.11.

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