Honest to God?: Becoming an Authentic Christian

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!

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.

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.

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?

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).