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Book Review of Jesus Revolution: How God Transformed an Unlikely Generation and How He Can Do It Again Today

glarnerlad avatar reviewed on + 13 more book reviews


I greatly admire Greg Laurie, his ministry and what he's done to evangelize our nation in local settings and on national radio and television, even films. It is exciting to read about these times in which God's spirit was poured out upon a generation. I was in a Christian college near Kansas City in the early seventies and got to see many of the Christian musical artists who were touring at that time.

But I found this book a bit awkward in its presentation. The co-authors are given equal prominence. It doesn't say âwith Ellen Vaughnâ or have her name in smaller letters. Yet the book is largely written in the third person with Greg as the subject. Nowhere in the text is Ellen mentioned. Given this formula, one wonders how she figures in the story. It seems to me that the text would have flowed better if Greg had written it in the first person. Indeed, much of the book is about Greg's life, but no hint of this content is given in the title or subtitle. A better coordination of the title and content would clarify things for the potential reader.

The second part of the subtitle, âHow He Can Do It Again Today,â is not addressed at all until page 226 of 250 pages, chapter 26 of 28.

On page 109 we are told that âGreg wasn't a huge Rolling Stone fan.â But on page 126 we learn that Greg had âloved the Rolling Stones.â I'm confused about which is correct.

On page 161 is a reference to âthe Puritan looking guy from a Quaker Oats commercial.â I always understood that the company was intending this character to represent William Penn. Do the authors not know their American history, or am I totally imagining things? Well, that's minor, but it stood out to me.

Aside from these improvements I think could have been made, I loved reading about this time period. Some details about the times in general helped to set the stage for what was happening in California.