Lenten Adventure

David Rhodes is a former journalist who now works as an Anglican priest in inner city Leeds. His life is spent helping Christians engage with social justice issues and poverty. He has also worked for a time in South Africa. Rhodes blends all his experience into an excellent Lenten resource.

Lent is a time of penitence and reflection on the hardships and suffering of life, so Rhodes' experience in the inner city and South Africa gives him a rich mine for his daily meditations. Each reading begins with a story from real life and some of them move on to a reflection on the Scriptures for the day. The stories are often tough, amusing and moving--like the account of the former prostitute and drug abuser who is now training to be a vicar. Through Rhodes' skilful storytelling the suffering and triumph of real people connects with the challenges in Jesus' own ministry. While Lenten Adventure has a cutting edge and makes the reader confront some tough issues, it always does so with a sense of grace, wonder and humour. It is difficult not to be "churchy" in a Lent book, and Rhodes sometimes lapses into "church-speak", but on the whole his daily meditations are punchy, moving and motivating. Just when you thought the established church is dying from the slow stranglehold of Pharisaism and irrelevance, someone like Rhodes comes along to remind you that there are an awful lot of Christians at the coal face keeping Christianity alive and fresh. --Dwight Longenecker