Review: Great to Good: How Following Jesus Reshapes our Ambitions

Great to Good: How Following Jesus Reshapes our Ambitions

By Jae Hoon Lee (IVP)

Jim Collins’ book Good to Great has influenced business culture considerably. It also has influenced the church. Jae Hoon Lee seeks to correct Collins’ influence on the church by reminding us Jesus and Scripture call us to be good, not great.

In the vein of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Cost of Discipleship—except without the single Scripture passage as the framework—or Thomas à Kempis’ Imitation of Christ, Lee offers 50 devotions divided into five parts. Devotions range in length from two to five pages.

Those who have read Watchman Nee, a Christian teacher and church leader in China during the 20th century, will notice a similarity—an East Asian view of Christianity. Lee is pastor of Onnuri Church in Seoul, South Korea, and wrote from the perspective of the church there. Onnuri, meaning “All Nations,” has sent more than 870 missionaries to more than 70 countries.

Lee’s thoughts are challenging. For one, the phrasing of the English translation conveys the feel of a Korean perspective on theology and Scripture. This is not a criticism. Rather, it’s an important reason to read Great to Good. English readers familiar with devotional writing will need to pay more attention, read slower or re-read sections.

Lee’s thoughts are also personally and spiritually challenging. He drives the reader into thorough self-examination, but in a much more succinct fashion than the 19th-century Danish philosopher-theologian Søren Kierkegaard. Here again is a reason to read Great to Good, because English readers are familiar with European and North American devotional literature. Not so much Christian writing from East Asia. But we should be.

Great to Good is expected to release July 23. It has the potential to influence followers of Christ as much as Bonhoeffer, à Kempis, Nee and Kierkegaard.

Eric Black, executive director/publisher/editor
Baptist Standard