Book Review: UNFINISHED
Book Review: Unfinished: Believing Is Only the Beginning by Richard Stearns
Richard Sterns throws down the gauntlet in Unfinished. Believing is not enough. It is not OK to become a believer and then live the rest of our lives focused on ourselves. If Jesus meant all that stuff He said that we see in red ink in the New Testament, then becoming a believer and then devising our early retirement in the Bahamas is probably not what He is calling us to do. We are called to be the hands and feet of Jesus. We were commanded to complete the work He started when He walked the earth. Did we somehow miss that part? Many believers wonder when He will return. Sterns suggests that He has not returned because He is waiting for us to complete the work we were tasked to do when He left.
Over the last two years working in a nonprofit working to help eliminate hunger in our community, I regularly wonder why so many churches and so many believers seem so unconcerned with the suffering in their own communities. I wonder why so many believers are not busy serving in some shape, form, or fashion. As I read this book, it dawned on me. The unengaged believers somehow believe that they have done what is required. They believe they have checked the box. Job done. But as Sterns so clearly points out, believing is just the beginning and there is so much more.
If you are a believer and you do not read another book this year, I strongly suggest I urge you I DARE you to read this book. And then get the six series DVD set and use it for a small group setting.