Tony Crouch wrote Letting God’s Word Speak: Lessons on Deepening Your Faith around one idea he repeats throughout: know what you believe, and know why you believe it. Published by Clay Bridges Press in July 2021.
What kind of book this is
It is a collection of short topical pieces, not a curriculum. Crouch takes a passage or a doctrine, tells a story from his own life alongside it, and works out what it means in practice. The stories are his and he is upfront that the book is partly a record of his own walk with God and what grace has looked like in it.
The subtitle promises lessons and that is roughly accurate, but do not picture a workbook. There are no fill-in blanks, no session numbers, no leader’s guide. A group could read a chapter a week and talk about it, but the book is not built for that and will not do the work of structuring the conversation for you.
A correction to what this page used to say
The previous version of this review quoted a named reader praising the book. We could not verify that person or that quote, so we have removed it. We have also removed the claim that the book is aimed at Christian men specifically. It is not. It is written for a general Christian audience, and there is nothing in it addressed to men as men.
That is not a mark against the book. It is a mark against how this page was originally filed. If you came here from our Brotherhood section expecting a men’s resource, this is a general faith book, and you should decide on that basis.
Strengths
Crouch is a good storyteller and he does not rush. The best chapters take a verse most churchgoers can quote from memory and slow it down until it is unfamiliar again. His instinct to press on the why behind a belief, rather than restating the belief louder, is the right instinct and it is not as common as it should be.
It is also accessible. There is no seminary vocabulary here. A new believer can read it without a dictionary.
Limitations, honestly
Clay Bridges is a small independent press, and this book has a small footprint. There is no wide critical reception to weigh, so you are largely taking a first-time author at his word. Nothing we found in it conflicts with historic Christian orthodoxy, but it has not been through the kind of scrutiny a book from an established publisher gets.
The topical structure also means it wanders. Read straight through, the chapters do not build on one another, and by the end it is hard to say what the argument was. Taken a chapter at a time it works considerably better.
Who should read it
Someone a year or two into faith who has picked up the vocabulary and is starting to wonder what is underneath it. Read a chapter, sit with it, come back.
A reader wanting rigorous doctrinal teaching, or a group wanting a structured study, should look elsewhere.
Letting God’s Word Speak on Amazon