Going Deep

Gordon McDonald's new book, Going Deep, tells the inspiring story of a pastor and congregation that made cultivating deep people their highest priority.

This mission was sparked by the following quote from Richard Foster:  "The desperate need today is not for a greater number of intelligent people, or gifted people, but for deep people."

This fascinating tale chronicles the birth and development of a new approach to ministry.  Making significant schedule adjustments, senior pastor (Gordon) and his wife, (Gail), invested a full year in nurturing, mentoring and training young, emerging leaders -- developing them into deep people.

The significant (and most neglected) step in "deep people development" is training -- and the book outlines, through narrative, what an effective, relational training strategy could look like.

I became more excited as I turned the pages.  (It captured me so completely, I read all 400 in three days.)  This is exactly what our church needs to do!  Finally, someone has given us a proven model for growing young believers and training them in godliness.

Then, came the big disappointment.  Somehow, I glossed over the preface, and missed an important piece of information.  I didn't know until I finished the book and glanced at the back cover. . .

This book is a piece of fiction!  It didn't happen!  Gordon and his wife are real enough, but all the other characters and events were purely a figment of the author's imagination!

Now, I still think the idea has merit -- and is worthy of investigation, but  but now that I know it is still an unproven idea, I'm not quite so eager to jump off the cliff.

(A complimentary copy was provided for review by the publisher.)