People of the Second Chance (Review)

People of the Second Chance, written by Mike Foster, is not for everyone. The self-proclaimed "chief chance officer" seems to be trying to tread the line between cool guy you can talk to and knowledgeable, even wise spiritual leader. While he doesn't say he wants to be either (although the title "chief chance officer" may be telling), the frequent quips and joking remarks, which removed me each time from his point coupled with the definitive language surrounding his interpretation of the scriptures made this a sluggish read.

Foster makes liking him difficult from the beginning. He shares an experience which, if I guess correctly, is designed to make us identify with him, inform us of his credentials in the School of Life, and have us accept that we could find ourselves in a terrible situation with the law accidentally, just as he did. I found that tactic to be a bit off-putting simply because I don't like being led around by the nose. What he probably intended as a bombshell revelation, I was simply annoyed by because not enough facts were given about his personal experience and we are different people (I assume).

The most frustrating aspect of the book People of the Second Chance was the narrow interpretation of scripture. I found that I put the book down for a few days after reading his take on the story of the prodigal son. He essentially indicated that the party thrown for the prodigal son was an exclusive event that his brother wasn't invited to because he wasn't "dead" culturally speaking. This ignores the lesson for those who see a sinner on the road to repentance and judge them unworthy of a second chance. It was a total missed opportunity to make the message truly accessible.

I do not recommend People of the Second Chance. I appreciated the opportunity to read it. For this review I received this book, which I picked, from  Blogging for Books for this review.