A_Critical_Book_Review

A Critical Book Review Of Rainer, Thom S. The Unexpected Journey: Conversations with People Who Turned from Other Beliefs to Jesus. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2005. Bibliographical Entry Rainer, Thom S. The Unexpected Journey: Conversations with People Who Turned from Other Beliefs to Jesus. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2005. . Author Information Thom S. Rainer (PhD from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary), Rainer has served in a pastoral capacity for nearly a dozen churches. He founded, and became Dean of the Billy Graham School of Missions, Evangelism, and Church Growth at his Alma Mata. In addition, he serves as the president of Church Central and is the CEO of LifeWay Christian Resources in Nashville, Tennessee. For years, Rainer Group Church Consulting occupied much of Rainer’s time—and provided much of the experiences that appear in his many books— although recently he as reduced his responsibilities in this area, referring most of his business to The Lawless Group. Rainer continues to travel around the world to speak and teach at conferences and seminars. As evident in The Unexpected Journey, he is married with three grown children. Content Summary The Unexpected Journey is Rainer’s attempt to capture the stories, or more correctly, the testimonies of thirteen people who previously were in other systems of faith (or none at all) and have since found and accepted Christ Jesus. Rainer and his wife, Nellie Jo traveled across the country over the period of nearly a year, recording equipment in tow, to question and meet with their interviewees. Occasionally, others tagged along and one interviewee flew to meet the Rainers. Each interview lasted less than a full day and was often conduced in the interviewee’s home, a church, an office building, or in a restaurant. Opening in Sandy, a suburb of Salt Lake City, Rainer meets with two former Mormons. The married couple were “high-level” Mormons, meaning that he was a sixth-generation leader over a large geographic area and she was a translator working in the LDS church headquarters. Through looking into documents of their own system of faith, Rauni began to have doubts (p. 19-20). Eventually, she shared these documents and her concerns with her husband and together they left the Mormon Church. As their story continues, they explain how they connected with a local Christian community and found salvation in Jesus. In what becomes a reoccurring question with a reoccurring answer, Rainer asks the couple how Christians can better evangelize to Mormons. He concludes each chapter with his interviewee’s answers. In the next journey, Rainer and his wife Nellie Jo meet a former Orthodox Jew named Steve Barack who found the messiah at last and learned that through Messianic Judaism he could keep his heritage and still find the freeing and eternal life of Christ and is a shining light of hope in Chicago. Taking a totally different turn, the Rainers meet Dr. Ravi, one time vice president and instructor at the Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (p. 54), a man with polio who went from being a karma burden of his wealthy Hindu parents to a Christian with a burning desire to reach people all around the world who serve the amalgam of Hindu gods and show them the one true God who greatly desires to have a relationship with His children. The persistent traveling Rainers find their way to the Pittsburg, PA suburb of Greensburg to meet Mrs. J, a former atheist who found comfort in harassing Christians in any way possible until the Holy Spirit convicted her. After years of seeking knowledge and absolute truth, Mrs. J finally sees that the truth has always been there and now tries to use her own past as a way to reach those who are far from God. From Pennsylvania to West Virginia, the Rainers then meet Paul and Patricia Blizard, formerly third-generation Jehovah’s Witnesses that – due to the rules of the order about blood transfusions - almost lost their daughter. The powerful and inescapable love of a Christian neighbor mixed with Paul’s own doubts within his faith led his family to Christ at the expense of his parents and old friends but even with the pain of losing the same daughter whose life had changed their lives, their faithful Christian church friends gave them all the family they could ever need (p. 94). Rainer introduces his readers to Mia in South Carolina, a former agnostic who struggled with God’s existence for the high speed reckless drive her life had been from childhood to adulthood until a simple explanation in Sunday school about who God is changed her life. In a similar vein and in a similar place, North Carolina, the author visits with an ex Wiccan named Kathi who struggled with demons so strong that they took her hearing from her but much like Saul on Damascus, God restored her too (p. 122). Further showing the many ways God can change lives, we meet the ex-Buddhist Helena who spent years hoping Buddha would help her reach her goals of earthly joy only to find true joy in the love Jesus has for her. In the last few journeys of Rainer’s work, he covers three religions of complete diversity from the others. Marcia Montenegro, a former New Age astrologer who saw the empty faith of Christians as a reason to join the New Age Movement and now finds her whole purpose to be sowing good Christian seeds unlike the ones she witnessed. Robert Moseley, later known as Mumin Muhammed, rose from slavery in the Deep South to Black Muslim merit and crashed into the love of Christ even though it cost him his wife (p. 180). Evaluation Thom S. Rainer deals sparingly with world "religions", personal evangelism, and loving people to Jesus in his book The Unexpected Journey: Conversations with People Who Turned from Other Beliefs to Jesus. His purpose is clearly stated throughout the book as well as firmly summarized at the end. The hurting world is waiting for Christians to show them the love of Christ, while observing them living out the love that Christ has commanded them to show. The harvest is ripe if Christians are ready and willing. One of the questions in every interview Rainer conducted was, '"Now that you've been converted from your previous 'religion' to Christianity, what can Christians do to reach the people who are still in your former 'religion''"' Every interviewee said something emphasizing Christians loving people to Christ. Anyone can tell people how to be saved or point them to the Bible, but it takes a Christian to show a sinner what a redeemed person looks like. In order to reach the Devil's kingdom, Christians must show his sons and daughters that God's Kingdom is different. When sinners see this truth, they will want what Christians have. Rainer does a great job communicating the fact that souls are available for the taking, and that Christians must respond in active obedience. If there really are people in the world like these, then this possibly means the reader's neighbors, acquaintances, and friends are one invite or random act of kindness away from trusting in the finished work of Christ for his or her salvation. Furthermore, it is good to see that Rainer is humble enough to admit that he is not an expert on world religions (p. 12) but does offer morsels of pertinent information which are embedded inline within the stories but in a style that makes them easily avoided if the reader so chose. This offers both a positive and negative influence on the information presented in that with certain stories these ‘sidebars’ are placed appropriately and will often bring clarity to a particular sentence or paragraph from the actual testimony such as the information over Hinduism’s god structure (p. 50) and Buddhist life principles (p. 130). Rainer’s book is a solid collection of stories that can be useful for anyone who wants to reach and minister to the pluralistic world before them. The warm and inviting story is one that could capture the attention of an evangelist yet still be an easy read for most anyone who chanced to pick it up. Its appendices, resembling a frequently asked questions page on a website as well as the small group question and answer sessions give extra merit to the work as a teaching resource with many applications regardless the Christian denomination from which one hails. At the conclusion of the book, Rainer identifies some things he learned from each interview that generally could be learned from all of the interviews collectively. Lesson 1 is that Christians need to know the Bible. Rainer writers, “Most of the interviewees told us that they were amazed at the biblical ignorance they witnessed when they were not Christians. Several times we heard them say that they knew more about the Bible than Christians did” (p. 199). The second lesson is that witnessing Christians need to know what the other person believes. Lesson 3 is to listen and Lesson 4 is to pray. “Invite them to church” is lesson five. “I have done research in the past,” says Rainer, “that shows that the vast majority of non-Christians will come to church if we invite them” (p. 201). Lesson 6 is about understanding their home lives. Getting them to look closely at their own documents (if their system of faith has documents) is Lesson 7. This is especially true of the Mormons and Jehovah Witnesses. Lesson 8 is to get the non-believer to look at the Bible objectively and Lesson 9 tells us that churches must be ready for a pluralistic world. “The church also must be ready to disciple persons who have become Christians out of other belief systems,” writes Rainer (p. 202). Lesson 10 says that Christians cannot be intimidated by other belief systems. “Share Your Faith Regularly” is Lesson 11 (p. 202). “Live like a Christian” and “Be Willing to Invest Time with Non-Christians” are Lessons 12 and 13, respectively. And the final lesson is that Christians must love people with the unconditional love of Christ.