The Good: Léonce Crump lives in a city that needs help. Radical help. Rather than give up on it – he believes God has called us to do something about the mess our world is in. I love the way he challenges us to see where we live as a gift from God – a gift to bring heaven to earth, to bring change to our cities and our own lives. It’s a new idea to me, this idea of settling down to bring lasting change and reconciliation to our community. In spite of the bad and ugly, I recommend this book!

The Bad: In the chapter The Way Home Leonce makes a point out of Heaven being a temporary place where God currently lives. He shows that our world will be reborn when Jesus returns, and so he believes we should look, strive really, for a universal restoration of all things. I get that theology, but also see other scriptures talking about a later time when our world seems to be blown to cinders. At any rate, it seems like he is making a big deal out of something that’s difficult to prove from Scripture. I also disagreed with the idea from page 25 that Eve after the Fall would somehow long after her husband’s role. In a book with this much theology, that’s not much to disagree on. But, it brings me to the ugly.

The Ugly: I felt at times (like those listed above) that Leonce stretches Scripture to find more support for his thesis of “Changing Who You Are by Loving Where You Are.” That being said, I like the thesis. Sometimes, however, I think you change who you are by learning to accept where you are. But, he loves Atlanta. Yuck. Maybe I’m wrong – if you can love Atlanta, you can love anywhere.

OH – I received this book for free from Multnomah Books for writing a review. Trust me, a free book didn’t change my review. I might can be bought, but not for ten bucks.

dan@danielcooley.com