Book Review: Becoming a Contagious Christian, by Bill Hybels & Mark Mittelberg

The following book review was written by a member of our congregation. The views presented here are solely those of the reviewer and may or may not align with the views of other members.

Reviewer
Richard Jones
Summary

In Matthew 5:13, Jesus said, "You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men." (NASB).

In this book, the authors analyze the methods that Jesus used to spread His message and tell modern day Christians how we can each use similar methods to be the "salt of the earth" and to spread the Gospel to win souls to Christ.

Some chapter headings will help to show what the book is about:

  • People Matter to God
  • The Prerequisite of High Potency (I.e.salt that hasn’t lost its taste)
  • The Potential of Close Proximity
  • Rubbing Shoulders with the Irreligious
  • Starting Spiritual Conversations
  • Crossing the line of Faith

This book is a very good resource for those considering evangelism. It provides the rationale for why it is important for those who are in Christ, it provides some good simple illustrations for explaining the gospel message, and provides examples from the Bible to show that evangelism is most effective with those with whom we have a close relationship.

The authors do a great job of explaining how to lead a non-christian to belief in Jesus Christ but since they don’t believe that immersion is necessary for salvation they recommend that the new believer say some version of the Sinner’s Prayer.

The authors also believe that evangelism is the church’s primary role and that the gathering for worship on Sunday to observe the Lord’s Supper & shepherding the faithful takes on a secondary role to evangelism.

Recommendation
The reviewer highly recommends this to faithful Christians as long as the need for immersion is also explained to the new believers.