"Stories That Feed Your Soul" by Tony Campolo

-


Tony Campolo, Stories That Feed Your Soul. Regal, 2010. 224 pgs. 

Yes, this books is exactly what the title claims: a collection of stories meant to 'feed your soul' (what a strange image once you think about it). 117 stories from Tony Campolo; funny, interesting, inspiring, boring, very short, short, and shorter these stories cover a huge gamut. 

Campolo divides these stories according to eight themes he finds in Romans 8: Freedom from Condemnation, The New Life in Christ, Intimacy with God, The Call to Rescue Creation, Living with Hope, Praying in the Spirit, God's Plan for Us, and The Assurance We Need.  Campolo choose to organize them this way because he has found Romans 8 to be a rich and fruitful chapter in his own life, and reflecting on the themes therein is something he wants others to do as well. 


As a whole, this book was enjoyable. Campolo has done a decent job selecting stories and he is not bad at drawing lessons from them. Of course, some of the lessons are corny; but what preacher isn't guilty of that? (says a fellow preacher). Some of the stories are better than others, naturally, and personally I found it a bit of an odd read, but not bad. 

Still, it is hard to rate a book like this.  It is not really 'a book', per se, not even in the sense that a collection of short stories might be called a book. Most of these stories fit on a page; perfect for sermon illustrations (I will probably use a couple), or a quick read in the bathroom, but not something you really want to sit down and read. 

Conclusion: 3.5 Stars. Conditionally recommended. I am not sure how to say this; if it sounds interesting, read it. If not, don't worry about it. I think that about sums it up. 


This book was provided by TheOoze for review. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Forgiveness: A Hard Word From Luther

-
"Those who follow Christ grieve more over the sin of their offenders than over the loss or offense to themselves. And they do this that they may recall those offenders from their sin rather than avenge the wrongs they themselves have suffered. Therefore they put off the form of their own righteousness and put on the form of those others, praying for their persecutors, blessing those who curse, doing good to the evil-doers, preparing to pay the penalty and make satisfaction for their very enemies that they may be saved. This is the gospel and the example of Christ." - Martin Luther (Quoted by Miroslav Volf, Free of Charge, pg. 161-162)
Read more

A Good Tree Bears Good Fruit....

-
Image
"Every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit." - Matthew 7:17-18 "One of the most powerful ways to influence the behavior of a system is through its purpose or goal. That's because the goal is the direction-setter of the system, the definer of discrepancies that require action, the indicator of compliance, failure, or success toward which balancing feedback loops work. If the goal is defined badly, if it doesn't measure what it's supposed to measure, if it doesn't reflect the real welfare of the system, then the system can't possibly produce a desirable result. Systems, like the three wishes in the traditional fairy tale, have a terrible tendency to produce exactly and only what you ask them to produce. Be careful what you ask them to produce." - Donella H. Meadows, Thinking in Systems. 
Read more

A Gracious Reading of Rob Bell

-
The Journey So Far The controversy rages on over Rob Bell's upcoming new book. No matter what happens now, this controversy has effectively guaranteed that 'everyone who is anyone' will need to read this book. Either to find out what is wrong and bash it, or because someone we generally disagree with also disagrees with the book so it has to be good stuff! Then, because 'everyone' is reading it, people like me will 'have to' read it to. After all, I am a pastor, and if many of my people are reading and being influenced by a book, don't I need to know what is going on as well?  Or so the reasoning will go... and perhaps I will read it, who knows. In the meantime, none of this will stop me from continuing to join this fray which I probably ought to have stayed out of in the first place. Onwards, Christian... :) The Latest Salvo The latest salvo has been fired by DeYoung  claiming that not only do we not need to talk with Bell but, more importantly, it...
Read more