While in Kenya I had the opportunity to read The Hole in our Gospel by World Vision president Richard Stearns. In the book, Stearns claims that many Christians today view their faith as a personal transaction with God for eternal salvation and an internal belief system but have ignored the biblical call to serve orphans, widows, and the poor. The book tells Stearns’ personal journey of faith and goes on to describe the great challenges people in the developing world face and the great opportunity we have today to address these challenges.
Now days thanks to the work of Bono, One, Red, and even American Idol it’s hard to imagine anyone is unaware of the crisis of poverty and AIDS in the developing world. Many Christian churches and Individuals have answered God’s call to help the poor around the world. If you’re one of them, you’ll find the book very affirming and inspiring, and you’ll probably want to buy it or loan it out to your friends. That’s how I felt.
Stearns makes the case that there are still many Christian churches and individuals who have still not gotten in the game because they are either unsympathetic to the plight of those in the developing world because the view the problems as begin self-inflicted or the result of sin. Other Christians have not engaged because they’re too inward focused, putting all their efforts and resources into meeting their own needs. Others find the problems so overwhelming, they don’t know where to start. If this sounds like you, I would definitely recommend the book to you. See if God doesn’t work through it to give you insight and stir your spirit a desire to help those in desperate circumstances and change the world.
I’m going to spend the next few days blogging about some of my take-aways from the book. If you read The Hole in our Gospel, what do you think of it?