BOOK REVIEW: Judah Smith’s new book is an indulgence in personal story-telling …

Judah Smith is a mega church “rock star” pastor. I didn’t hold that against him when getting his latest book for review.

In fact, I greatly enjoy being able to highly recommend a book to my readers. I love reading! And I love good books!

But I just can’t recommend this one.

The book I’m referring to is, “How’s Your Soul?” (published by Nelson Books). My interest in reviewing the book was initially piqued after watching Smith in an early morning TV interview about the book. His latest book is all about a single question: “How’s Your Soul?” Smith’s on-air time was spent explaining that’s a better question to ask someone than, “How are you?”

He’s right.

His point is that we’ve become so used to the second question that we tend to gloss over any sincerity in answering it and claim we’re “fine,” whether or not we are. But it’s harder to dance around the question, “How’s your soul?”

Liking the premise, I was hoping to like the book.

I tried, but I couldn’t, and here’s why:

1. Smith takes a promising, interesting premise and attempts to stretch it into a book. If it’s a book, it’s not the one Smith wrote. The entire premise of the book can be well-argued in a single blog post or a Sunday sermon. Trying to turn it into 10 (yes, ten!) chapters of a book was too much. I almost always read my review books cover-to-cover, every single word. I almost did the same for this one … I got to chapter 10 and finally gave up.

2. Have you ever hung out with a group of people where there was one person who was trying way too hard to be funny? That’s Smith’s writing style. Some people will love that, after a while I found it annoying.

3. In my opinion (and of course, it’s only my opinion), Smith is occasionally sloppy with his theology. That’s not to say he doesn’t make some very good points from scripture in this book — he does. He’s also occasionally sloppy with his theology.

4. To get through the book, the reader has to endure a great deal of the author rambling through personal story after personal story … after personal story … after yet another personal story. The teaching throughout the book is heavily illustrated … nearly entirely from personal stories from the author’s own life. I was beginning to wonder if this book was really an autobiography.

I have no doubt that, in spite of these weaknesses in the book, some people will still enjoy reading it. They will either connect with the quirky self-indulgence of the writer, or just drink the kool-aid of reading a book from a trendy mega church “rock star” pastor. I couldn’t do that, and I can’t recommend it, either.

Scotty

I received this book free from the publisher in exchange for this review. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”