©2012 Thomas Nelson,
In a society that is filled with preachers who are trying to
re-invent church in order to appeal to a new generation, Mark Driscoll seems to
have found a voice—at least in his home of Seattle where he leads one of the faster
growing churches in one of the most un-churched areas of our country. The
popular trend today is for some of these pastors to publish books based on
their teaching concerning sex and marriage. So Mark and his wife Grace have
teamed up to present their take on answering some of the formerly unaskable
questions.
Quite frankly, the book does a good job of sticking with
Scriptural basis for finding the answers to these questions. But also quite
frankly, the authors sometimes deal a little more frankly than polite society
would like for this topic to be dealt with. I think that there is an audience
for this book, although it may not be the audience that the authors and the
publisher thought of when producing and marketing this book.
It is not for the general public at large. I know that this
is the way that it has been approached, but I believe that this book, along
with others like it, will serve best as reference books in the hands of
ministry leaders, Christian counselors and the like.
Even having said this, the advice they give concerning
coming to grips with one’s physical past is sound, though sometimes
over-generalized. At times the authors assume that every person inside and
outside the church has some deep dark hidden sexual secret that must be
exposed. The method of exposure advised is a “rip the bandaid off” approach
that can lead to more scars than healing. Does such hidden past need to be
brought out into the open? In most cases, yes. But this should be done with
great care so as not to destroy the relationship that you are trying to heal.
Would I recommend this book? Cautiously. Do I think it could
be helpful in certain situations? Probably. Do we need to use a “group study
guide” to include this in our on-going church curriculum? I would advise
against it. Therefore, I give this book 3.5 reading glasses out of five.
—Benjamin Potter, July 12, 2012
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