Which None Can Shut

Goode, Reema. Which None Can Shut: Remarkable True Stories of God's Miraculous Work in the Muslim World. Carol Stream, Illinois: Tyndale House, 2010.

With all the news of wars in the Middle East and our post 9-11 national obsession with Islam, I was very excited to find that a book had actually been published about reaching Muslims with the gospel. It's always a wonderful thing when people accept Christ; it's even more amazing, from a human perspective, when a person from a different belief system "converts" and chooses Christ over their religion. Even more wonderful than that is a person doing so from a system that is difficult to leave and that presents some very real-life consequences for the choice of following Christ.

Having said all that, I actually wasn't that impressed with this book. As I started reading, I felt like I was sitting at church listening to a missionary's furlough report. These reports are generally sprinkled with personal stories of real people in the field, presumably to make the congregation feel like they know the people they are supporting. I understand that, and I really enjoy listening to missionaries' stories at church. Their stories add some flavor to their reports of the work on the field and help the congregation to better understand what it is the missionaries are experiencing.

But 164 pages of this is a bit much. I was waiting for the illustrations and stories to lead to principles for meeting Muslims or ways to best reach Muslims or organizations within the United States where interested people can get involved, but this book was one long series of missionary stories from the field. Not a bad thing to read at all, and probably very enjoyable if taken one chapter at a time, but not what I expected at all. I would recommend that churches purchase a copy of this book to keep in the church library, but I see no reason for people to add it to their own personal library.

I received a complimentary copy of this book for the purposes of review.