The Visit

by Adrian Plass

Best-selling Adrian Plass brings you this beautifully illustrated gift book. This moving story about a long-awaited visitor to a present-day church is illustrated in full colour by Ben Ecclestone, and is a wonderful reminder of the purpose of Christ's visit 2000 years ago. The visit doesn't go at all as expected -- for a start, the visitor takes the church to the pub and gives away his clothes to the down and out. The man chosen to organise the visit finds it more than In fact the visitor's reluctance to go with the respectable way of doing things brings him almost to a breakdown. What does this man expect from him? Our organiser has much to learn; or maybe it's us who have more to learn than we'd care to admit?

Genres: Christian, Fiction

80 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Adrian Plass is a writer and speaker who has produced over thirty books in the last twenty years. The best known of these is probably The Sacred Diary of Adrian Plass, a gentle satire on the modern church, which has sold hundreds of thousands of copies worldwide. This and other books have travelled to other countries and are translated into a number of foreign languages. Other books include biography, novels, short stories, a fictionalised account of the author's experiences as a residential child care worker, and collections of poems and sketches. A bemused Anglican, Adrian lives with his wife and daughter in a small market town near the Sussex South Downs.

Adrian has been in demand as a speaker in venues as varied as prisons, schools, churches, festivals, literary dinners and theatrical settings. His work also includes contribution to national and local radio and television. Live presentations combine humour, poetry, and story telling, largely revolving around his own inadequacies and struggles as a Christian and a human being.

In recent years Adrian has been joined by his wife Bridget in presenting a more varied and dramatic style of performance. Adrian and Bridget met at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and have found particular satisfaction in being allowed to ‘do a bit of acting’. They have also been privileged to work alongside World Vision on several occasions, visiting Bangladesh and Zambia, writing two books and touring both in the UK and abroad with the aim of encouraging people to take up child sponsorship

Their work now takes them as far away as Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Africa, while trips to Europe have introduced the added dimension of speaking through interpreters. Not easy when you're trying to be funny!

Adrian's latest books include ‘Jesus Safe Tender and Extreme‘, published by Zondervan, ‘Blind Spots in the Bible’, published by BRF, and most recent of all ‘Bacon Sandwiches and Salvation’ published by Authentic Media. He and Bridget have also collaborated with friends in Canada to produce a CD of his favourite sketches from the last 20 years called ‘Preaching to the Converted’ while ‘A Touch of Plass’, CTA’s documentary video, is now out on DVD.

2008 began with a visit to Bolivia for Bridget and Adrian in collaboration with the charity Toybox to look at projects involving street children. Later on there will be a DVD, a book and a number of presentations promoting their work.

Adrian's central motivation continues to be his love for Jesus, although some may feel he expresses it rather eccentrically. His passion is to communicate the need for reality in faith, and a truth that he learned during a difficult stage in his life: "God is nice and he likes me..." Some have described his work as being ‘one long confessional’. They may well be right!

Reviews

[Indy Hollway · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a beautiful book about the reality of Jesus and how he can not be fitted into the boxes we create for him. The illustrations are a lovely addition to the story, and the story is well told.

This story really starts to make you question your own relationship with God and whether you might need to let go of some of your micromanaging tendencies. This is the kind of book that should be read multiple times and different seasons of life to remind us that we are not God, God is! However, I do think that the book provides a very specific perspective of how people behave with God, as opposed to being a text that works for everyone.

[Bill Forgeard · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good reminder to (among other things) be devoted to loving people the way Jesus loved instead of being devoted to ideas, plans and programs.

[Norah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this up in the care home where my husband is, and it is an amazing book, beautifully written. Plan to buy a copy to share with others.