Nudge by Leonard Sweet

Nudge by Leonard Sweet turned out to be a very different book than I thought it was going to be. "Nudge will remind you that for God to do something through us, God must be doing something in us." My premise of the book was that it was going to be techniques on how to do evangelism, but as I kept on reading, that was only part of it. The subtitle of the book is "Awakening Each Other to the God Who's Already There", but the each other can only come once we are aware of what God is doing around us. Sweet talks about how the approach to evangelism is changing. He says it's not so much about speaking anymore as it is experiencing; an experience of the five senses we all have, sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell. To be honest, I'm not completely sure I agree with him. If we as believers are keenly aware of what God is doing around us, and allow that to show through us to others, I believe it can make an impact in non-believers lives. However, I don't believe that that approach by itself will make people followers of Christ. I still feel that we are going to have to talk and ask questions. He bases the book on semiotics, which he defines as reading the signs of God around us and through that evangelism happens. I believe that that is just one part of evangelism. Towards the end of the book, Sweet says this,

"Where hermeneutics is pre-occupied with meaning, semiotics (or the art and science of sign reading) is preoccupied with dancing. Semiotics is the art and science of paying attention. A spiritual semiotics is paying attention to what the Holy Spirit is up to in our world today."

I think being able to sense what the Holy Spirit is up to is important, but I think to sometimes sense what He's up to, we have to know who He is. I think the meaning (hermeneutics) side is just as important as the semiotics side. If we're evangelizing, or thinking we're evangelizing, to others based completely on senses, we may be just leaving people with a "I think I sensed something, but I'm not sure, must have been a cold chill." moment instead of really taking the time to share with them what that means. I don't think we can just focus on senses.

Now at the same time, I think Sweet's chapters on the senses have good things in them for believers. We do need to be aware of what God is doing around us and recognize those "nudges" and be able to respond to them. This is definitely a book that will challenge your thinking and hopefully make each one of use more aware of the God that is around us.

Special thanks to The B & B Media Group, Inc. and David C. Cook for providing this complimentary book to read and review. You can purchase the book here on amazon.com.

Jesus Manifesto by Leonard Sweet & Frank Viola

What a great new book by Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola. I've had the privilege of reading several other of Leonard Sweet's book and this once along with the others did not disappoint. In Jesus Manifesto, he points out that we as Christians today have made the gospel about so many other things and not the one thing that it should be centered on, Christ. I think he's right on. We get so focused on this committee or that committee and this outreach ministry and that outreach ministry, that we forget Who the One is that we're sharing and the One Who has allowed us to share His Good News. I'd heard the word "manifesto" before growing up in history classes, but to be honest, I really didn't remember what it meant. Here is what dictionary.com says,

"a public declaration of intentions, opinions, objectives, or motives, as one issued by a government, sovereign, or organization."

They also give a word origin and history lesson, so here is where the word "manifesto" came from,

"1644, from It. manifesto "public declaration explaining past actions and announcing the motive for forthcoming ones," originally "proof," from L. manifestus

This word accurately represents the message in this book. Leonard is calling us as Christians to make a declaration that we are going to stay focused on the One who is the Gospel. I love the word "intentions" in the definition and the origin, because to me it signifies that a change is being made, and in this case that we are moving from intentions that haven't been the best to intentions that are deliberate and made to move people to a personal relationship in Christ. In the opening pages of the book, Leonard asks a question. It is the same question that Jesus asks His disciples to tell Him what the people in the area call him. Then He makes the question very personal, he asks his disciples, "But who do you say that I am?" This is the question that Leonard says each of us must answer so that we can fully comprehend the message of the book on restoring the supremacy and sovereignty of Jesus Christ.

Special thanks to Thomas Nelson and BookSneeze for providing this complimentary book to read and review.