Book Review: Stories That Feed Your Soul by Tony Campolo

In short, I was underwhelmed by Stories That Feed Your Soul by Tony Campolo. The last Tony Campolo book I read was Letters to a Young Evangelical, which was a great, thought provoking book that really made me take a hard look at what Jesus would do (or what Paul would write) in today’s society. Unfortunately, I found “Stories That Feed Your Soul” simplistic and very watered-down, even if it did hold a couple of gems.

This book is a compilation of anecdotes and short stories collected by Campolo during his years of ministry. The section headings were intriging, with titles like: Freedom from Condemnation, A New Life in Christ, The Call to Rescue Creation, and God’s Plan For Us. All topics that I believed in and piqued my interest. The stories/thoughts themselves are generally shorter than a page, with some as short as 5-6 sentences and some as long as 2 pages. However, the stories were simply… nice. Not really what I was expecting from Tony Campolo.

It may have just been a case of the wrong expectations… I was hoping for something a little more like meat and I got milk.

That being said, if this book is being marketed to non-Christians or new Christians… that would make more sense. In his defense, Tony Campolo does say in his conclusion that the stories are intended as simple parables to help share the gospel… maybe it just wasn’t for me.

Note: I received this book free from TheOOZE by participating in their ViralBloggers program. Other than a free book, I get nothing from them as compensation for a “good book review.” Either way, a free book isn’t going to make me compromise my integrity by lying on a book review

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