Jesus Is Better Than You Imagined, by Jonathan Merritt

I love the title of this book.  Many Christians would share Jonathan Merritt's experience of emptiness and frustration: "That place within my soul once filled with passion for God was now a foreclosed home with only traces of the family that once lived therein. . . ." God was a "ghost in the distance, blurry and noiseless.  And His church, a place of respite for me nearly all my life, was a painful reminder of the absence I felt."  In Jesus Is Better Than You Imagined, Merritt writes a deeply personal account of his spiritual life as the son of a leading pastor, church leader, and writer, revealing more about himself than about Jesus.

Why is Jesus better than he imagined?  "Because he shatters my strivings for sterility with a radical invitation to live free.  Free from sinful patterns, but also free from moralism, free from legalism, and free from condemnation." Amen to that, brother.  Anyone who grew up in a church that emphasized purity over passion, devotional time over devotion, discipline over discipleship, or law over grace will be able to relate.  Merritt was a Southern Baptist, as was I, but I suspect similar stories could be told from across the theological spectrum.

Merritt is a skilled writer, in the sense that his words are pleasantly and carefully put together.  I agree with him that Jesus is better than we imagine, but I am not sure he really makes a convincing case here. As a memoir, the book gives Merritt an outlet for him to tell the world how he came to believe that Jesus is better than Merritt imagined.  I suspect that writing this book was very therapeutic for him.  Many readers will relate to his experiences and be inspired to move toward a more personal, reflective Christian faith.  Many others will finish the book and think, OK, another self-indulgent Christian writer projecting his experiences onto the rest of us.

I was heartened by Merritt's revelation that his failure to experience and encounter Christ at church was not necessarily and inevitably the fault of church.  Rather, he had to begin to encounter Christ on a personal level before he could experience Jesus in community.  If that resounds with your own experience, pick up Jesus Is Better Than You Imagined.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!