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Review: Going Deep: Becoming a Person of Influence by Gordon MacDonald

Review: Going Deep: Becoming a Person of Influence
Gordon MacDonald
Thomas Nelson
2011

A quiet, well told account of the shift to depth from program by MacDonald. I really think the book would be better suited for a pastoral audience than a general readership. Having said that, I do not mean that the general reader will not benefit from this book. For them, this book is so illustrative of a pastor’s heart and his challenge to follow God’s leading in his life and how it affects the congregation’s lives. Want to help your pastor? Read this book.

For the pastoral ministry group, this book shows how one pastor worked through a challenge put before him. The account is fictionalized, but still contains so much wisdom. Younger leaders need to have a mentor like this author portrays in this book. And the best part is that it so readable. Loved the presentation MacDonald chose for this. His characters are believable as well.

The down side is that there needs to be a sequel to show how the group fared as they “graduated” from their training. Getting the training is the easy part, I’ve found. So, the reader is left hanging as to whether the members did in fact continue the deepening experience. The impression is left is that all is well and there are already several more people desiring to be part of the next group. We can hope it is that clean in the nonfiction world.

Overall, I recommend this book. I do think the publishers have not done the author any favors with the way the book is presented through the cover or the blurb on the back cover. Please do not let that deter you. The book is engaging and worth the read.

This book was provided to me by Thomas Nelson, through BookSneeze, for review.

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