A.S.K: Real world questions/Real word answers

A while back at my church David Robertson preach (I was away and haven't listened to it). One of our ministers liked him so the next week bought all the copies of this book for me to hand out to any and all teenagers who attended that service that following week (and that didn't come out of our Youth budget!). I was able to snaffle a copy for myself, but it did sit on my desk for a good while. (I think it was KYCK or another youth event that reminded me of this book as they were plugging it pretty hard.)

In this book, Robertson did a worldwide shout out to teens asking for any and all questions they had about faith and Christian living. He grabbed the top 52 of them and replied to them in this book. Questions range from suffering, the Big Bang, transgender, teen pregnancy, animals in Heaven, Harry Potter, Hitler, porn, worry, prayer, tattoos and alcohol, church and mental illness to just name a few! Some of the questions I had encountered from teens over the last three years so it was helpful to see how Robertson answered them.

With each question, there are about two and a half pages spent on each question, along with some further reading, a Bible verse and a prayer. I was impressed with the suggested reading, as I like people who push teens to read wider and deeper. Authors like J. I. Packer, J. C. Ryle, Tim Keller, R. C. Sproul and John Owen are suggested. (There was also one by Ravi Zachariah which may date now.) I found this interesting as some of these guys are heavy and yet the whole book was more lightweight with only two or so pages spent on an issue.

The answers in this book were alright, and its shortcomings were addressed in the beginning. For some answers, I wanted more, either more detail or more nuance. For some answers I felt like with the limited space, he spent too much time telling a story before getting to the point. However, what was said was good and helpful. There was a basic coverage of the issue that could go deeper in a discussion.

The model set for understanding was also great, as it relied on Scripture to regulate the content of the answer. While some of the answers in the book may be only tangentially or inferred from a passage, the goal was first to establish what the Bible said before Robertson gave his answer. Even if you may disagree with where the author ends up, the model was good, and if you do disagree, to operate with the framework set you would have to bring in more Bible, which I think is a good place to be.

On the whole, this is a good book for teens (and I know one or two of our Youth leaders who also read and benefited from this book). This may also work well in a discussion format, where after reading the short chapter people could discuss and go deeper into the issue. I am glad that my church gave out all the copies our local Koorong had in that one week.