"Firsthand" by Ryan and Josh Shook

Well, it has been quite a while since I reviewed any books! Since I've had such a long break, I'm not sure whether to write a whole bunch, or to cut to the chase....

This book is targeted to a very specific audience: the young people that evacuate the church sometime after their magic 18th birthday. (We've all heard the statistics...) The theory postulated by the authors (themselves young adults) is that the reason these young people are leaving the church is that they have only managed to procure an "inherited faith" from their parents, Sunday School teachers, etc. Therefore, they are starting on a shaky foundation. Christianity isn't real to them because it is just spoon-fed information that they assume to be true. The authors sort of diagnose this problem (using real life examples from a study survey they did... I was one of the people surveyed! Cool, huh?); then they set about to show young "disillusioned" Christians how to rectify it.

I applaud the authors for attempting to tackle an apparently large problem in the church. Their passion for seeing young people become dedicated Christ-followers is truly commendable. But to be honest, I struggled to read this book. It was downright boring and cliche. The writing style was pretty weak, but the content itself left a lot to be desired.

First and foremost, I felt that the authors failed to make the case that their theory was valid.  Sure, they had lots of testimonies from people about how they never had "their own" faith... But that doesn't prove anything. There was only a small amount of outside research referenced in the beginning of the book. This gave me the feeling that they were fabricating a PROBLEM to fit the SOLUTION they had already decided upon. (I'm not accusing them of dishonesty - I'm just saying that's the feeling I got from reading the book).

Secondly, their remedy for the problem is overly simplistic. Again, not a lot of outside sources referenced... Just a kind of made-up list of stuff from Ryan and Josh Shook that will supposedly help the disillusioned young adults.... I'm seriously not trying to mock them, but why should we take their word for it? They failed to give us any reason to trust them (other than their own experiences). Not only that, but they didn't use very many Scripture references (in my opinion). A book like this should be chock-full of Bible verses.

In spite of the fact that !!!!I myself am quoted in this book!!!! (seriously... at the end of the chapter called "Question Everything."  It says, "John from Spring Lake, North Carolina" - they used one of my survey answers!); the book didn't really speak to me at all.

I'm not trying to be a killjoy - I hope some young people read this book and it makes the difference in their lives between being a "former believer" and a committed Christian. That would be amazing. I'm just saying, the book was disappointing to me. So, I'd have to give it half a star (because they quoted me). :o)