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Alive with Passion and Purpose
The best way to learn the redemptive gifts is through seeing them in action. This book profiles 21 people who lived out their redemptive gift dramatically. As you read their stories, you will recognize many of your friends through the way these people responded to the circumstances around them. By the time we get to be adults, we are a complex blend of many influences. We have our redemptive gift, the influence of our family line, the impact of the academic and social cultures we were in, and our personal collection of bumps and bruises. In the course of a day, each of these things from our past can influence our choices and affect our world view. How do we determine what is original software and what is a learned response? The seven redemptive gifts provide the template for the way we see God, ourselves and other people. When we understand what that looks like for us, we can treat everything else as an add-on. For the beginners, this book is designed to show you the gifts in action. We have taken individuals who lived their gift in an exaggerated fashion so you can feel what each gift acts like. Sandy Landry has done a simply astounding job of capturing the inner workings of each gifts thought processes, as well as showing what it looks like for them to live life on Monday morning. As you read her stories, the sound and tone and feel of each person s experiences with life will leave you easily recognizing yourself and others around you. This is the single most effective way we have found for learning how to understand and recognize the gifts by feel, not by a list. For those who are already adept at recognizing the gifts in people, this book provides the added resource of highlighting the critical choices which can release the power of the gift and the choices that can reduce a life to shallow existence. For each gift, Sandy profiled a Biblical person, then someone historical who walked out their gift well, and someone who absolutely perverted their gift. While the book is presented in a narrative fashion and is not a textbook or workbook, those who are insightful will come away with great treasures of understanding regarding what makes each redemptive gift thrive or become toxic to the individual. And even if you had no interest at all in the science of design or the art of living big, Sandy is a wonderful wordsmith and the book is a joy to read. Her skill at crafting characters is immense and the flow of events is spiced with one-liners that crackle with life and intensity.
316 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 9, 2009
I recommend reading this after having listened to Plumbline's teachings on the 7 Redemptive Gifts out of Romans 12. It's not required to make sense of the book, but it will be very helpful.
It wasn't clear to me from the Intro/Preface how the book would be formatted. So there is a "cheat sheet" at the end of the book that tells you what Redemptive Gift each particular character has. So you can read the chapter and try to guess at what they are, or you can look at the cheat sheet first and then read that chapter.
I really enjoyed the stories since I was familiar with the Redemptive Gifts. She does a good job of selecting a Biblical character, an historical character, along with one other character to give you three views of each particular Redemptive Gift. Quite a few of the stories were extreme examples, which is not my favorite teaching style. At the same time, it painted a picture that was helpful. Overall, the whole topic of Redemptive Gifts is so powerful that the book was an easy success from that perspective.
It wasn't clear to me from the Intro/Preface how the book would be formatted. So there is a "cheat sheet" at the end of the book that tells you what Redemptive Gift each particular character has. So you can read the chapter and try to guess at what they are, or you can look at the cheat sheet first and then read that chapter.
I really enjoyed the stories since I was familiar with the Redemptive Gifts. She does a good job of selecting a Biblical character, an historical character, along with one other character to give you three views of each particular Redemptive Gift. Quite a few of the stories were extreme examples, which is not my favorite teaching style. At the same time, it painted a picture that was helpful. Overall, the whole topic of Redemptive Gifts is so powerful that the book was an easy success from that perspective.
December 10, 2010
Only partially helpful in understanding the redemptive gifts.
December 8, 2014
I was reading this book at the same time I was listening to Aurthur Burke's 8-CD set on the redemptive gifts.I didn't find this book to be very useful in comparison.
The Author is subjective, not objective, and she doesn't appear to have a discerning or industrious/scholarly mind.
If you bear with me, I will use only one example from her book. She uses John Calvin (a traditional whipping boy for some sections of the Christian faith) as a failure of a teacher. When I listened to Burke's CD's, it seemed Calvin was a Prophet personality rather than a Teacher personality (as Landry claims) - obviously, that makes a big difference in grading success or failure of a personality type.
For instance, Calvin is justly known as the pillar of the reformation. Just as Luther is the primary reformer for the Lutherans, Calvin is for the for the next round of Protestantism development (Reformed, Presbyterian, Baptist: see the Confessions of the 17th century).
His role is also more of a prophet, as like a prophet, he set in order NEW, Reformed doctrine from the error of worldly Catholicism of the age. Calvin's goal in life was Purification of himself and the church and government - again, this is Prophet like. This was a time of city-states in government, and Calvin again set in order NEW concepts for government under the conditions of the time. He was also of use by God in the first order by establishing the NEW work of God with a firm foundation. John Knox took it back to Scotland with him, and from Scotland (and England) it colonized North America.
She criticizes Calvin for a lack of love (maybe, maybe not, we weren't there) - that criticism would be true of a Teacher, but untrue of a Prophet. Prophets, according to Burke, put principles above most relationships as a natural part of their personality. It's not optimum due to sin in each person, but God designs people that way intentionally to keep the church pure in thought and practice.
I really think the issue Landry has with Calvin is she hates the concept of Predestination. See the final entries of Calvin's chapter where her words are pretty obvious. She feels so strongly, that she feels she must make Calvin an example of failure. She mentions Calvin is asked to leave Geneva only to be asked to return a few years later. She says it is uncertain to her why. It isn't uncertain, if you read Theordore Beza's (Calvin's successor) biography of Calvin, it is easy to find that Calvin was forced out of Geneva by persons later convicted of civil crimes and at least one of them was executed for their crimes. He was then asked to return when the city repented.
If the author is this causal in her dealings with people's lives, usefulness to God, and reputations as she is with Calvin, the book is practically useless. Certainly it is biased, and definitely not scholarly.
I would not buy or use this book.
The Author is subjective, not objective, and she doesn't appear to have a discerning or industrious/scholarly mind.
If you bear with me, I will use only one example from her book. She uses John Calvin (a traditional whipping boy for some sections of the Christian faith) as a failure of a teacher. When I listened to Burke's CD's, it seemed Calvin was a Prophet personality rather than a Teacher personality (as Landry claims) - obviously, that makes a big difference in grading success or failure of a personality type.
For instance, Calvin is justly known as the pillar of the reformation. Just as Luther is the primary reformer for the Lutherans, Calvin is for the for the next round of Protestantism development (Reformed, Presbyterian, Baptist: see the Confessions of the 17th century).
His role is also more of a prophet, as like a prophet, he set in order NEW, Reformed doctrine from the error of worldly Catholicism of the age. Calvin's goal in life was Purification of himself and the church and government - again, this is Prophet like. This was a time of city-states in government, and Calvin again set in order NEW concepts for government under the conditions of the time. He was also of use by God in the first order by establishing the NEW work of God with a firm foundation. John Knox took it back to Scotland with him, and from Scotland (and England) it colonized North America.
She criticizes Calvin for a lack of love (maybe, maybe not, we weren't there) - that criticism would be true of a Teacher, but untrue of a Prophet. Prophets, according to Burke, put principles above most relationships as a natural part of their personality. It's not optimum due to sin in each person, but God designs people that way intentionally to keep the church pure in thought and practice.
I really think the issue Landry has with Calvin is she hates the concept of Predestination. See the final entries of Calvin's chapter where her words are pretty obvious. She feels so strongly, that she feels she must make Calvin an example of failure. She mentions Calvin is asked to leave Geneva only to be asked to return a few years later. She says it is uncertain to her why. It isn't uncertain, if you read Theordore Beza's (Calvin's successor) biography of Calvin, it is easy to find that Calvin was forced out of Geneva by persons later convicted of civil crimes and at least one of them was executed for their crimes. He was then asked to return when the city repented.
If the author is this causal in her dealings with people's lives, usefulness to God, and reputations as she is with Calvin, the book is practically useless. Certainly it is biased, and definitely not scholarly.
I would not buy or use this book.
July 19, 2009
You have to really like it, because it's about the redemptive gifts. That said, it wasn't exactly what I expected. But overall a very useful addition to the arsenal.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews