Religion Saves: Book Review

After reading no non-fiction aside from child rearing books for nearly a year, I eagerly volunteered to read Mark Driscoll's latest book, Religion Saves and Nine Other Misconceptions. I was intrigued by the title and even more so by the concept behind the book. Based on Corinthians 1 and the series of questions that the Corinthians asked Paul, Driscoll set out to determine the most controversial questions among visitors to his church. To that end, Driscoll took a poll via his Mars Hill Church website and received 893 questions and over 300,000 votes to determine the top 9 questions people have regarding Christianity.

Driscoll gives tons of biblical quotes and lots of personal insights and thoughts on each of the following issues: birth control, humor, predestination, grace, sexual sin, faith and works, dating, the emerging church, and the regulative principle, after a brief introductory chapter debunking the idea that religion is what saves us.

While not the type of book I would probably have ever picked up on my own, it is full of convicting, encouraging, and even shocking information that could possibly be helpful to have around should someone ever come to me with any of these tough questions. Having read through it, I believe I'll eventually go online and watch the sermons that each of the chapters was based on. You can go *here* to read or listen to an excerpt from the book.

About the author from the website:

Mark Driscoll is the founding pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, one of the fastest-growing churches in America. He is president of the Acts 29 Church Planting Network and is the author of several books, including Vintage Jesus.

Pastor Mark preaches on Sunday, trains pastors, and writes curriculum. Mark is married to his high school sweetheart, Grace, and they enjoy raising their three sons and two daughters. More about Mark here!

Driscoll is both biblically sound and culturally relevant.... a difficult balance to manage.

The schedule for the blog tour is available *here* in case you'd like to read what others have to say about this book.