AUDIOBOOK REVIEW: “I Will” by Thom Rainer

For the thousands of passive, nominal church-goers in America, I Will by Thom Rainer is a timely manifesto of initiative; a passionate call for pew-sitters to roll up their sleeves and be the change they want to see in their church. Continuing in the same vein as his 2013 book, I Am a Church Member, Rainer offers a practical resource for church leaders, intended to help them mobilize their greatest assets: the people they lead.

I had trouble approaching this short book and struggled through the first quarter or so. I think my trouble was understanding exactly who this book was written for. The story that opens the book and sets the stage, fictional or not, seemed contrived to me. However, after I reached the second of nine “traits of the outwardly focused Christian,” I was hooked in by Rainer’s simple, direct writing style. Once again, this is a call to action.

Each chapter focuses on one of the nine traits, and each chapter title begins with “I Will…” The chapters entitled “I Will Grow Together With Others” (focused on small group involvement) and “I Will Give Generously” (focused on giving of resources) stood out to me as particularly good. However, the chapter entitled “I Will Avoid the Traps of Churchianity” takes the cake as the most potentially helpful, because it offers true insight into the challenges of devoting your life to serving in the church. Every church goer should read this chapter if not this entire book.

This book would be great to hand out to an entire congregation or at least to key volunteer leaders in order to equip them with common talking points. If even a portion of the people in a particular church would grasp on to the principles in this book, that church would be unleashed for tremendous impact. This is a great resource.

The narration of the audiobook version is handled very well by George W. Sarris.

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.  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.