1,000 Days: The Ministry of Christ

Falwell, successor to his father, the late influential Christian pastor Jerry Falwell, at Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Va., makes his publishing debut in this book, which he asserts gives readers the opportunity to “meet Jesus Christ as never before,” a bold claim for a novice author that readers may find arguable. Falwell maps out various integral moments of the “1,000 days” of Jesus’ ministry and interprets for readers how their lives on earth can become similarly transformative. He challenges readers to be “real with God,” asking, for example, if, while we are singing at church, our hearts are “in it.” The strongest challenge of the book occurs when the author asks, “When Jesus looks at me does he see a modern-day Pharisee?” The challenges and questions are porous enough to allow for any number of ways the reader can follow Jesus’ 1,000 days with a thousand of their own, while not looking like him at all. (Mar.)