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Life, Death (and Everything in Between)

Attracting young people

LIFE, DEATH (AND EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN)
By Mike Pilavachi
Hodder & Stoughton. 356 pages. £7.99
ISBN 0 340 78592 6

Written by the founder of the annual Soul Survivor event, which has an admirable record of attracting and exciting young people with living for Jesus, this book is a compilation of four previously published books.

The first - Walking with a Stranger - is for the 'not yet Christian'. Short chapters explaining who God is, and what it means to have a personal relationship with him, are interspersed with moving testimonies.

The three books that follow are for those who have already 'signed up with God'. My First Trousers is about growing up with God; Weeping Before an Empty Tomb is about facing life's disappointments and struggling with God; and Afterlife is all about death and what comes after. This is largely familiar evangelical teaching for new Christians, that focuses on the joy of knowing God, but dressed in new clothes, and given a slight charismatic slant.

Using personal anecdotes, teenage humour and slang, he produces teaching that will communicate with the younger generation better than any similar book I know, though just occasionally this middle-aged reviewer felt it bordered on flippancy, and at times it lacked depth. So God is spoken of as our Father but not as our Judge, sin is defined by its consequences ('awayness from God') rather than its character (rebellion against God), and in place of the repentance toward God we are told there is healing for the past through a relationship with God. Not being a charismatic I would prefer the John Dickson books that are aimed at a similar audience ('Stranger than Fiction'; 'Hanging in there' and 'A Sneaking Suspicion'). Nevertheless, as an appetiser this is a really good book, and there was much that I found both helpful and challenging.

Alan Black, Tooting