What's So Amazing About Grace - Philip Yancey

This was my next book for the Lay Worship Leader course that I am taking - and an elective this time.  It is also a book borrowed from my church's library, as I had volunteered to do a book review for an upcoming newsletter.  And it is a book that has been on my radar as one that I might want to read for some time.  Am I allowed to list 3 reasons why I read it?

For the course, I was looking for a book that wouldn't challenge me too much (unlike a book read a month ago for the same course).  Life has been somewhat busy and stressful recently and since I knew I had to finish this book, I wanted to pick one up that I knew that I would finish.

So what is so amazing about grace?  I'm sure that everyone reading this blog, Christian or not, is familiar with the song Amazing Grace.  And yet what is grace?  The author pins it down to love/acceptance/forgiveness which is not earned or deserved, but given freely.  So many structures in our world are built on ungrace - earning your rewards - so the fact that we don't have to earn God's love really is quite amazing.

The book was easy to read and follow, and as I suspected, it didn't push me or challenge me too much.  I did get a bit frustrated at the big section of it dealing with American politics (I'm Canadian, eh - we have our own politics to worry about, so I tend not to follow our neighbours to the south too closely) and actually the overall feel of the book was quite American.  And the viewpoint tended to be that of an Evangelical Christian - fair enough since that is the perspective that the author is coming from - and as a Liberal Christian, I felt that my own perspective was not necessarily voiced always.

But overall, I'm glad that I picked this book to read.  I've submitted my formal response for the course - now I just have to write my book review for the newsletter!