Jesus Manifesto By Sweet & Viola

(review by Julie) (see review by Deanna here)
In Jesus Manifesto: Restoring the Supremacy and Sovereignty of Jesus Christ, Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola aim to bring our Christian focus back to Christ from where we have wandered, looking for our leadership style, our personal talents and our church's mission statements.

Sweet and Viola spend a considerable amount of Chapter 2 in the book of Colossians.  So, it might be a good companion to a more thorough study of that book of the Bible.

While I like the basic concepts of the book, there were a few things I found annoying.  First and foremost, the cute cliches like, "Some preachers need a travel agent to handle all the guilt trips they put on God's people" (p.25) were a distracting contrast to the "ancient devotional tone" (p.xx) the authors sought. They would flip back and forth between talking about inspirational Christians from 1000AD to retorting to a facebook post in such a way that kept me feeling a little off balance.

Also, unfortunately, as the authors seem to admit, a whole book about how we need nothing but Christ, will inevitably get repetitive. The authors might have avoided this by fleshing out more of their metaphors or explaining how their examples relate back to their central theme,

In the end, when I set Jesus Manifesto down, I find myself drawn toward scripture; I feel a greater desire to spend more time with God's word.  So, maybe Sweet and Viola would call their book a success.

--------------------------------
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of a book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”