First NON-FIRST blog tour! Come join us!!

Introducing the new blog alliance devoted to Non~Fiction books, Non~FIRST, a component of Fiction in Rather Short Takes (FIRST). (Join our alliance! Click the button!) This is our very first blog tour. Normally, we will post every 15th day of every month, featuring an author and his/her latest book's FIRST chapter!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Mike Timmis had it all.

How does a kid from working-class Detroit become an international ambassador for Christ? And what motivated an evangelical-based ministry to choose this Catholic as its chairman? Mike Timmis’s inspiring life as a Catholic and evangelical leader reveals how our unity in Christ transcends the two worlds’ differences. From him, we learn how Catholics and evangelicals can go into an alienated world together as ministers of reconciliation and witnesses to God’s salvation and love.

Mike Timmis is a chairman of both Prison Fellowship in America and Prison Fellowship International. He was also a practicing lawyer and businessman. A Roman Catholic, Mike is deeply involved in ministry in his hometown of Detroit as well as projects in Africa and Central and South America. He and his wife, Nancey, are parents of two and grandparents of four.

MY REVIEW:

This book tells the real story of how God worked in one man’s life. God saved Mike Timmis’ soul when he was in his mid-forties along with his wife, and they made some terrific and positive life changes. The couple experienced some heart-breaking trials – the capstone and defining event being the loss of their teen-age daughter. Yet God reached through all of that and continued to grow them as a family, bringing their oldest child and only son to salvation after many years in rebellion. These events are real, life-changing and show God’s grace and mercy in its truest form.

However, as moving as Timmis’ personal testimony is, I found the last half of this book to be a reaffirmation of many things believer’s already know about the Catholic church. The Catholic’s theology of the universal church doesn’t preach the gospel, doesn’t teach members about personal relationship with Christ and as a result many members – including the author’s own father – live most of their life unsaved resting solely in the ritual of the church with no hope of eternal security. His own archbishop admits to different “camps” within the Catholic church calling the born-again members “renewed” then drawing them back to a works-based, serve-the-poor mentality. (we should reach out to those in need but it doesn’t have anything to do with securing our salvation) The author’s own recitation of his daily prayers, rosaries, mass attendance and confession is wearisome, and the idea of a priest “acting in the person of Christ – as His surrogate” is not based on any scripture found in the Bible.

The last 70-75 pages came across to me as a blatant, name-dropping advertisement for the ecumenical movement, overlooking much of Scripture in their effort to get along. The Bible warns us about the days where everyone cries “Peace, Peace”, and I personally think this is a dangerous movement.

As I said in the beginning, I don’t doubt God saved this man’s soul or those of his family, but I find a lot of his “religious” practices highly questionable – most of it based on Catholic writing and not on the Bible. This book may be authored by a saved man, but I feel he is very misguided and I find his theology dangerous and misleading. I am NOT recommending this book.

Make your own decision: Read the first chapter here.