It has been rare that I have not finished a book, though admittedly my reading has slowed this past year. But as much hype I heard/read and as high as my anticipation of reading The Hole In Our Gospel by Richard Stearns, I couldn't finish it. Truly Stearns' faith story is compelling, but I could not move through the book as I wanted. The flow was burdened by a wordiness that betrays its marketed quote of St. Francis of Assisi of "preach the gospel always. Use words if necessary." I think the biggest difficulty for me was wrapping my mind around his thesis; I couldn't tell if he was indicting the Church as failing or individuals? Maybe that is as much my issue of doubting whether Christian faith really is solely individual rather than entirely communal.

I gave this a number of good tries, but it never held my attention. Regardless of my support for third-world NGOs, I can''t give this book a higher endorsement than 2 out of 5 stars.