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A New Kind of Living

A NEW KIND OF LIVING
By Stephen McQuoid
Christian Focus. 175 pages
ISBN 1 85792 396 0

This new book by Stephen McQuoid addresses an area in which there is relatively little in print and will doubtless be welcomed by many. It is intended for new or young Christians covering the main areas of basic Christian living and understanding.

The opening chapter is entitled 'The Great Decision' and seeks to help a young Christian understand the nature and implications of becoming a Christian. Subsequent chapters cover issues such as prayer, the gift of the Holy Spirit, personal Bible reading, evangelism, guidance and life within the church. The style is simple and much of the material is helpful.

The material on Spiritual gifts seems to assume their continuation and includes some helpful emphases on their purpose being for the common good and on the sovereignty of the Spirit in the giving of gifts. The section on prophecy seems to assume that prophecy is 'inspired' preaching but beyond this does not engage with the issues.

It was good to see strong sections on giving and on living in a materialistic society. The practical advice on discipline in this area (p.139) was especially helpful and left the impression that the author lives what he teaches in this regard.

The section on baptism would be problematic for those who practise infant baptism and this may limit the usefulness of the book in some settings. In fact, I suspect that many Baptists would also want to question the book's emphasis on baptism as a sign of the individual's faith rather than a sign of the grace of God in the believer's life.

From a stylistic viewpoint, this is not really a book to win the hearts of a young post-modern audience. It is, for example, very unfortunate that throughout the book, general references to Christian people are couched in exclusively male terms. In my judgment, this kind of factor would place significant limits on the usefulness of this book.

John Risbridger