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  1. Derek
    3 Stars Out Of 5
    A faith journey that begins where common sense end
    May 21, 2014
    Derek
    Quality: 3
    Value: 5
    Meets Expectations: 1
    Kevin Adams; The Extravagant Fool: A Faith Journey that Begins Where Common Sense Ends. Paperback: 224 pages; Publisher: Zondervan (May 6, 2014).

    I've heard it said that you can tell the faith of a believer by how he handles suffering, trials and tribulations. Sadly, many times those who do not believe tend to handle it better than those of the faith. At the height of what many of us would reflect as prosperity, the author loses it all, literally. How he and his family responds is the content of this work.

    I agreed to review this work because I need more hope in my life. I think as you walk out gospel fluency, you must surround yourself with reminder 'resources' and I thought this was going to be one of those. I was not particularly challenged, actually more perplexed at times and had to re-read sections wondering how I had lost context. At the same time feeling 'bad' that what should be a celebratory read, positive toward the author, because of the suffering and hope propaganda (blurbs, endorsements, comments from other characters) because it seemed parts disjointed and made me wonder about this work. It also did not really inspire me to 'have faith' or 'meditate on scripture' or 'spend time in fellowship with' an accountability partner (no not Job's friends — wink), or contain down-to-earth messy suffering with a crescendo of biblical hope. I did not find the hope I was looking for or expected.

    Journal entries were interspersed through out the work and those too, caused me to scratch my head from time to time. Kevin Adams really had me thinking from time-to-time if I had missed a chapter or if pages stuck together that skipped me forward to other parts. Regrettably for me, the information was not presented in a cohesive, or appealing manner. Without interviewing or reading more of Kevin's work, his theology appeared to me promoting experiential theology that danced up to the line of moral relativistic apologetic engagements. Roughly translated, because he experienced it, therefore that defines who, what, where, when, and how God is. I am uncomfortable with that, because I felt I was without more data or context. Maybe quoting another who definitely has better discernment than I on these matters might help?

    "On the one hand, we are seeing a waning confidence in the message of the gospel. Even the evangelical church shows signs of losing confidence in the convincing and converting power of the gospel message. That is why increasing numbers of churches prefer sermons on family life and psychological health. We are being overtaken by what Os Guinness calls the managerial and therapeutic revolutions.

    The winning message, it seems, is the one that helps people to solve their temporal problems, improves their self-esteem and makes them feel good about themselves. In such a cultural climate, preaching on the law, sin and repentance, and the cross has all but disappeared, even in evangelical churches. The church has become "user friendly," "consumer oriented," and as a result evangelical churches are being inundated with "cheap grace" (Bonheoffer).

    Today's "gospel" is all too often a gospel without cost, without repentance, without commitment, without discipleship, and thus "another gospel" and accordingly no gospel at all, all traceable to the fact that this is how too many people today have come to believe that the church must be grown...What is the answer? A restored confidence in the Reformed doctrine of the sovereignty of God in salvation!" – Robert L. Reymond, in A New Systematic Theology of the Christian Faith

    I am thankful for the opportunity to review this work, it is also not time wasted that I can never get back, but I am uncomfortable recommending it.

    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson/Zondervan, as part of its BookLook Bloggers Program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."a
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