Dinner with a Perfect Stranger, by David Gregory

On the heels of reading The Shack, in which a man struggling with his faith gets a written invitation to meet with God, I picked up David Gregory's Dinner with a Perfect Stranger: An Invitation Worth Considering.  In spite of the similar set-up and theme, these are two very different books.  Gregory's slim volume is less ambitious, but achieves more.

Nick, a workaholic who is distant from his wife and skeptical about church, receives an invitation in the mail to "a dinner with Jesus of Nazareth."  Convinced it's a prank by his buddies, he decides to play along and shows up at the appointed time.  By the time dinner's over, he's convinced that Jesus himself, not some actor, was sitting across the table from him.

Over the course of the evening, Jesus and Nick carry on a wide-ranging discussion about life, God, and salvation.  (I seem to remember another Nick who had a lot of questions for Jesus. . . .)  Gregory skillfully weaves many familiar apologetic arguments and evangelistic messages into their conversation.  Readers familiar with apologetic literature will recognize allusions to C.S. Lewis and others.

For example, they discuss the "many paths to God" as Nick offers what he knows of other world religions.  Jesus flatly states, "There is no path to God."  He elaborates: "A path is something you travel down by your own effort to reach a destination.  But there's no such path to God.  There is nothing you can do to work your way to God."

As you might expect of Jesus, he is warm and engaging, yet probing.  He patiently answers Nick's concerns, eventually winning him over.  You may never get an invitation to dine with Jesus, but Dinner with a Perfect Stranger might leave you longing to spend more time with him.