BOOK: Living Mission (Miriam Swaffield/Rich Wilson, 2013)

For most of the 2010s, authors Miriam Swaffield and Rich Wilson were the faces of Fusion, a Christian charity that supports student ministry, in particular providing help and resources, and they wrote Living Mission as a tool to help Christian freshers live as disciples on campus.

• Having done prayer walks and outreach discussions with Miriam Swaffield in 2014 (my final year at the University of Portsmouth), I can honestly say that her passion for student ministry and outreach comes through in the sections of prose that she writes.
• The book clearly conveys the importance for Christian students to live what they preach and in doing so provides a striking challenge, and also provides a striking reminder that (statistically) all Christian students will have multiple peers who had never met a Christian before.
• The prose does include multiple testimonies to the fruit of student ministry, rightly emphasising that such ministry can have fruit and has a proven record of changing people’s lives.
• Approximately half the book is taken up by testimonies and, as much as they are encouraging, they do not include any much, if any, clear practical advice that could be beneficial to Christian students, particularly those fairly new to the faith.
• There is a lack of focus on Scripture, in no small part due to the previous point, and for Christians at any stage in their faith it would be beneficial for Scripture to be dissected and applied to the types of situations that students are likely to encounter at university.

VERDICT: MEH

BOOK: Risk is Right (John Piper, 2013)

In the little Christian book Risk is Right, John Piper explores what it means to take a risk for the Gospel, and looks to the historical example of the Apostle Paul and the risks to his safety and wellbeing that he took in order to write a large percentage of the New Testament. As suggested by the book’s tagline “Better to Lose Your Life Than to Waste It”, Piper looks at why suffering and even dying for the Gospel is a worthwhile endeavour for Christians.

• Piper reminds us of just how much the Apostle Paul suffered for the Gospel’s advancement without wavering at all in his faith, and in doing so challenges the Christian who reads this book to think about how much they would be willing to risk and/or give up for the sake of Gospel ministry.
• A personal book as Piper has clearly been challenged by Paul’s example, plus he also draws upon his own extensive experience in Gospel ministry to discuss the do’s and don’ts of taking a risk for the Gospel.
• Looking to the historical example of Paul, Piper passionately describes how taking a risk for the Gospel can and will benefit others, in doing so encouraging the reader.
• At only 51 pages, this (admittedly challenging and encouraging) book is too concise and short, and one cannot read it without being convicted that a theologian of Piper’s calibre could easily have fleshed out the themes and contents into a great book of at least four times longer.

VERDICT: MUST