Customer Reviews

Honest to God?

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I love Bill Hybels heart. He is so passionate about being real and Christlike - He has this wonderful bent for doing something useful with what he knows. I find his insights true to life and his suggestions to be field tested and generally useful. It seems he leaves few stones unturned in his quest for authenticity as he relates it to:
*The role of spiritual disciplines
*Womens liberation issues
*Understanding Masculinity
*Truth telling-in relationships
*Parenting
*Work
*Christian service
*Money
*Exercise
The strength of this book, in my estimation, is not in the "knowing" part of Christianity but rather the "doing". His focus is always about becoming something different from what we've learned - I admire and appreciate that so much.

I have found Hybels teaching to be particularly helpful in applying biblical principles to contemporary concerns and daily living that truly impact me.
I find his writing style to be encouraging, clear, theologically sound and generally devoid of "Churchy" language. In particular, I found the chapters in this book on:
"A new dimension in Spirituality",
"Truth-telling: pathway to authentic relationships" and
"Honest emotions",
particularly encouraging and useful in addressing particular needs in my own Christian walk. I believe this is a must read for folks, who like myself, desire a deeper spiritual walk and need help getting "traction" on our part in the maturity process.

I highly recommend this book, I believe it is a text you will come back to time and again.

Was this review helpful to you?

Bill Hybells challenges Christians to put away pretentious Christianity and begin to communicate with each other about who we are and where we are in Christ. The author contends that unless Christians do so, they will never experience the supernatural walk with a personal God. In a mere hundred and ninety-two pages, Hybells addresses over a dozen significant areas of the Christian life ranging from the role of male and female to physical fitness.

I tried not to like this book. Although I have tremendous respect for Mr. Hybells, I am not a big fan of his politics; yet, despite my reservations I was drawn to it. Hybells attempts to cover a significant amount of material in only a few pages. Whereas Honest to God cannot be called scholarly, it does serve its purpose in challenging the reader to live the authentic Christian life.

Since this book is a primer on spiritual authenticity, it lacked depth; and since Hybells wrote it, it was predictable. Like many of his earlier books, it follows the same format- personal stories or illustrations from his ministry, followed by teaching. Every chapter follows the same format, Yawn! One gets the impression the book is pasted together from a sermon series. Some of the chapters were amazingly brief and consequently, amazingly weak. In a mere thirteen pages we are told how to have an authentic marriage, it is an amazing feat. His chapter on the languages of love or not original with him, nor did he document that it was borrowed from another resource.

Although it is rather predictable and superficial, Hybells does convey with utter clarity what authentic Christianity is. Unless the church rediscovers spiritual authenticity, true renewal will remain an elusive goal at best.

In my humble opinion, Hybels has written what is a good introduction on becoming a real Christian. The book consists of about 200 pages and 14 chapters on different areas: marriage, money, evangelism, effective service, parenting, emotions, and other areas.

The book is a good primer for someone who wants a deeper walk with Jesus Christ. However, if you are looking for something with more substance, I recommend reading A.W. Tozer, Charles Spurgeon, Andrew Murray, Watchman Nee, Dwight Moody, Charles Stanley, C.S. Lewis, Charles Swindoll, Henry Blackaby, Ian Thomas, and others.

If the book creates a hunger for you to go deeper with Jesus, then the title has served its purpose. However, I would not recommend that you stay content with this title and instead pursue titles by the authors already mentioned.

One of the things I have been convinced of about Christianity for a long time is that people have strengths primarily in either their intellect, or are action oriented, but few are able to balance their Christian lives in the area of their mind, emotions, and activity for the sake of Christ.

I read this book over twenty years ago, and re-read it again in my forties - and after being a pastor and life-coach for the past twenty plus years - I still think this is the best introduction to living a balanced Christian life available. I think the reason Bill Hybels will finish well (and we can finish well) is because of the responsibility he takes in seriously working out (not "for" - Philippians 2:12-13) his salvation with the help of the Holy Spirit by God's grace. In this book Bill Hybels gives the practical ways that he, and we can balance our lives through various spiritual disciplines.

Bill Hybels gets a lot of flack from a lot of people in the Christian community for a lot of reasons (I think mainly, because a lot of pastors are jealous of him) - but I think he has proven over many years of ministry that he is teachable, and humble, and by God's grace will finish well.

In this book Hybels gives practical ways to balance the head, heart, and hands aspects of living out the Christian life. I think the most helpful chapters are:

Chapter 2 - He talks about how to pray, journal, and evaluate your life in the light of God's Word strategically and intentionally.

Chapter 8 - On how to deal biblically and authentically with the emotions - the heart.

Chapter 13 - In this chapter Hybels writes about the importance of keeping physically fit and how the body is God's temple.

My only regret (at the writing of this review, June 2011) is that this book is out of print. I sure hope and pray that it will be revised in the near future, so other believers can learn how to practically balance their head, heart, and hands for the glory of God.

This book is absolutely wonderful!! Bill Hybels has his finger on the pulse of people. Although this book was written in 1990 it is still every bit as rellevant today as it was then. Any Christian who wants some practical advice in living what you believe should purchase this book.

Bill Hybel does a wonderful job of providing a step-by-step approach to authentic Christian living. I was utterly amazed at how easy it is for Christians to go from "keeping it real" to "real phony" from one moment to the next. We experience it every day, in our churches, in the workplace, and yes, even in our own homes. If you sense God's call to "come closer" and desire to live a life that will allow you the freedom to walk in love with Jesus on a daily basis, this book will provide you with the proper tools for building a solid, loving and HONEST relationship with God, others and yourself!

This book is about learning to see the human sinfull nature, how it behaves and what to do to go against it. It's about being real in a fake world. It's about going against the flow and daring to care enough about yourself and others. It's about facing who you are and growing above your weakness. It's about learning to love unconditionaly. This is a great book by a great man of what much can be learned from(both his good things and his mistakes).

Bill Hybels always manages to reach me where I live, and his practical advice on being honest with yourself, being honest with God, finding time and methods to pray, study God's word and journal has helped me immensely in my daily walk. I only wish that this book had been written and I had been made aware of it when I was a new believer.

Besides an NIV Bible, anything Bill writes, but particularly this book should be required reading for disciples.

Bill Hybels' writing style is easy to read. I made a decision to believe in Jesus many years ago and had never read this book. I started the book months ago, skipped a few chapters, read a little more, and then set the book down for a while. His concept of a "tunnel of chaos" in working through relationship issues still sticks with me. Rather than let a relational wound fester, Hybels' proposes facing it together in a healthy manner. This is not heavy theology but practical workable "Honest to God" Christianity. Much of this book is common sense to someone who has been raised with exceptionally loving healthy relationships, but to the rest of us there is much truth to be learned here.

As with all of Hybels other writings, the concepts are shallow and unchallenging. Hybels fear of "offending" the reader lead him to write how he teaches, a watered down, powerless gospel. It's interesting he recently interviewed Bill Clinton live at his church. Hybels believes Clinton to be a great leader and example for other leaders to follow. This book is not worth the paper it is printed on!