Just Walk across the Room by Bill Hybels Book Review.

This book was easy to read but then I am always more partial to a book that is written from the experience of the Author. To start with it had me a little perplexed; on the surface you could be forgiven for thinking that Bill is telling us that preaching and sermons are now obsolete in order to win others for Christ. Now this man is a Pastor of Willow Creek Community Church so he must preach sometimes.

As I turned this over in my head and with my limited knowledge of Church history, I know there have been times when the preaching by Christians has won many souls for the Kingdom of God. Peter, John, Paul, Spurgeon, Wesley Brothers and Billy Graham were effective preachers. So why, why has it been that sometimes preaching worked and at other times it didn’t? My feeling was that when the preaching worked when the preachers lived what they preached.

This is where this book is very clever in its approach to witnessing for Jesus. As you unpack the layers in this book you realise that it’s not saying, don’t preach. What it is saying that in order to be an effective witnesses for Christ we must first be doers of the word and then speakers. There is no point witnessing for Christ, if our lives do not match what we say. James 1:22 says it very simply “But don't just listen to God's word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.” (New Living Translation). What Bill is telling us all that if we do not “do” we may fool ourselves but we will never fools those that are watching.

In my view this book is a very necessary read for all those who would like to preach the word of God, a helpful resource for those who feel they the lack skills to witness and a very encouraging read for those trying their best to witness for Christ.