There are many great books out there on the subject of changing the world. A couple that come immediately to mind are The Hole In Our Gospel and Too Small To Ignore. While it definitely shares the stage with these outstanding books, Possible by Stephan Bauman is distinctive in a few ways.
First of all, it is distinctive in call to renew our vision for world change. With the daunting task of fighting world poverty before us, many have abandoned the vison for lack of a compelling blueprint for how that vision may be accomplished. This book is about vision renewal by way of offering an intensely practical blueprint for world change. For Stephan Bauman, the president and CEO of World Relief, these aren’t empty, unproven strategies. His organization serves more than 5 million vulnerable people each year through the efforts of over 100,000 volunteers from the local church.
Secondly, this book is distinctive in how much attention it gives to the strategy of empowering the vulnerable. Other authors and leaders may have lead the charge in mobilizing the worldwide local church to empower those in poverty, but this book presents a fully-realized action plan for making this happen. I love Bauman’s focus on re-creation, the power of hope, and the need to see “heroes” instead of “victims” in the impoverished people we are serving. He tells story after story of unlikely heroes making a huge change disproportionate to their social stature.
Third, I love Bauman’s distinctive focus on artists as agents for change. We often think of relief workers, micro-finance gurus, attorneys, pastors, leaders, and the like as those who really make a difference. But Bauman reminds us that artists engage people on a different level altogether, and this is needed if we are truly going to make a change. In short, Bauman sees poets, painters, musicians, and other artists as “mission critical,” and he makes a compelling case for such.
Bauman makes you believe again, his words stoking back to life the rapidly cooling embers of mission and vision. He gives vivid pictures that help the reader imagine change. Then these images morph to become the very tools that we use to “discover and design change.”
Maybe you’ve given up hope or grown frustrated with the daunting task of fighting global poverty. It’s time for us to renew our vision and rethink our strategy. This book is the starting place we need. Grover Gardner brings the whole thing home with a great narration of the audiobook version. Highly recommended.
Please Note: This audiobook was gifted as a part of the Christianaudio Reviewers Program in exchange for my unbiased review of this work. This has in no way influenced my opinion or review of this work. More information can be found about this and other Christian audiobooks at christianaudio.com.