Steve Sjogren

An idea book for community outreach. Sjogren calls this 'servant evangelism' and he shares a number of ideas ranging from feeding parking meters to block parties.

Published in 2000 there are several ideas that are dated (floppy disks and phone cards). There are also some editorial lapses in the formatting. Mostly Sjogren points to how to parlay acts of service into evangelism or inviting people to your church.

This is a good book for pulling small groups out of their comfort zone for show more projects, but this is not a book about transforming communities in any substantive way. These are short two-hour-projects rather than tackling issues for the long haul. Got to start somewhere and if you are looking for creative ideas around engaging community, this is a starting point. One book I think does this better is Chris Smith's ebook, Growing Deeper in our Church Communities: 50 ideas for Connection in a Disconnected Age. show less

The title of this book is a bit of a misnomer. The author spends little time discussing his near death experience. Instead, the focus of the book is on the changes he made in his life following his near death experience. I found some of what he wrote to be uplifting, but there isn't anything here that is groundbreaking or inspirational to the point of guiding the reader toward major life changes.

I was a memeber of Vineyard Community Church when Steve was the senior pastor and I remember him saying that before the incident that he was a type A personality and that after he had become a type A turtle. I really didn't have a grasp of what he was meaning till I read this book. On page 47 about 1/2 way down , Steve writes "God's message was loud and clear: He wanted me to decelerate and walk in a more balanced way of life. His words were strong. He said my life had been a lie. Publicly, show more I had the appearance of living in balance, but privately-when all of the trappings were stripped away-I was anything but balanced." Honest words. Good words. And a good way to approach life in general. The book has caused me to evaluate my own life and make some changes. show less

I chose to read this book thinking it was going to discuss the author's near death experience. While it was briefly mentioned, the majority of the book discusses changes he made in his life after this experience. It was okay, but not what I was looking for.