Michael Youssef is pastor of the Church of the Apostles in Atlanta and is to be seen on his television program Leading the Way which, with his daily radio show, is broadcast in 26 languages across six continents. He was born in Egypt, theologically educated in Sydney, Australia and has a doctorate from Emory University. He began the Church of the Apostles in 1987 after serving in the Haggai Institute. He was also adjunct staff on St. Philip’s Cathedral in Atlanta when I was considered for the position of Dean. After the bishop rejected me for the position because of my evangelical convictions a number of members of the congregation left to form, with Michael, the Church of the Apostles. I invited Michael in 1989 to a Covenant Group of pastors of large churches which met annually to encourage one another. His church has grown to 3,000 worshippers and his ministry has been blessed worldwide. He has authored more than 40 books.

Foley Beach, who was youth minister at St. Philip’s Cathedral, when I was interviewed there, and became a member of staff of the Church of the Apostles, has now become Archbishop of the Anglican Church of North America. He recently sent a copy of Michael’s book, Saving Christianity: The Danger in Undermining Our Faith – and What You Can Do about it, to all the clergy in his denomination.

The book addresses the problem of preachers and churches who change over time and compromise their faith. Churches that were once vibrant and gospel centered have departed from the biblical faith. Once vital churches start to conform to the culture and poison their members from within. His goal is to expose the false teaching that is destroying the effectiveness of the church, to renew confidence in the Bible, in Jesus Christ, in the future of the church and its central role and to present the essential, biblical, nonnegotiable tenets of authentic Christianity.

He tells the stories of once prominent Christian leaders who have departed from their faith and the reasons for it. He relates the stories of churches sold by denominational leaders to Islamic groups rather than allow thriving Christ centered congregations purchase them and leave the liberal denomination. He defends the social ministries of the church down through the ages but criticizes the substitution of progressive social justice action for missional evangelism. The role of the church in helping the deserving poor in Jesus’ name is more effective than in the name of the government. The solution to sin is not to repeal God’s condemnation of sin in the Bible. The solution to sin is to welcome sinners while teaching God’s uncompromised truth about sin. Watering down the truth does not help anyone. “The fact that we believe and preach God’s uncompromised Word does not mean we are haters or bigots or homophobes. It means we respect the authority of Scripture and refuse to allow any secular social or political agenda to take precedence of faithfulness to God’s Word…. How do we live out our uncompromised faith? We live out the truth with grace, and we confidently, unashamedly speak the truth in love.”

This is a book for our time. Easy to read and right to the point.