BELIEVE: what should I know
By Mike McKinley
Christian Focus. 93 pages. £5.99
ISBN 978 1 527 103 054
This book is in a 9 Marks series of short workbooks on the basics of the Christian life.
It is published in partnership with 20 Schemes. Mike McKinley is a pastor of a Baptist church in Virginia. And what a excellent little book this is – an accessible doctrinal introduction to the Christian life. Covering the key points of Christian doctrine from ‘Who is God?’ in Chapter 1 to ‘Jesus’ Return’ in Chapter 9, each chapter succinctly explains and applies the truth of the gospel. As well as explaining a doctrine, each chapter has sections entitled ‘Samuel’, ‘Illustration’, ‘Stop’ (a reflective pause to help readers assimilate the truth), then ‘Key Verse’, ‘Memory Verse’ and ‘Summary’.
‘Samuel’ is a figurative young male immigrant in the US who, having fled drugs and crime in El Salvador, has become a Christian and is learning how to live as one. The book is aimed at helping someone like him to understand the Bible and live according to it. In the UK context, an adjustment to someone similar (a young man on a housing estate, a Somali refugee) can be made. The content is thoroughly Biblical and its understanding of salvation is evangelical and Calvinistic. The book could be used in a small-group study or in catechising a new Christian. I wholeheartedly recommend it.
