Last Call- Book Review

I received this ebook from NetGalley to review. It does not mean I have to post a positive review, but do have to notify the reader that I received it for free. Consider yourself notified!

Last Call: From Serving Drinks to Serving Jesus by Jerry Herships is a bit disjointed. The first half to three fourths of the book is about Hership's journey from stand up comic to bartender and then to pastor. He writes mostly about himself and his attempts to get into big time TV. It is an enjoyable narrative, but it made me wonder why so much time was being spent on him within a book published by a Christian company and one that will ultimately be on his ministry in AfterHours.

This is where the disjoint comes into play. When he finally gets into the ministry aspect of his life, what AfterHours means to him, and how the church needs to reshape how it is presenting and doing Jesus, the book becomes really useful. I found his points about pastors and church members being tied too much to serving themselves instead of Jesus great. I loved hearing about his ministry in AfterHours, which is a church in a bar that focuses on feeding the homeless. His points on ministry are insightful and worth the book. The problem is one has to go through the first half to three fourths to get to it. Again, not that it is a bad story or anything like that, but it left me questioning- is this a book about him or church?

I believe some may have difficulty in what he presents too as he focuses solely on AfterHours as a ministry option. There are not general options or thoughts on how to move the church toward a direction of serving rather than doing church. I would have loved to hear his views on how the church can change direction in other ways too, since I think his views on church are right on the head. The book falls into the trap that many successful pastors/churches fall into, which is- this is how I did it, isn't it awesome? It leaves me, the reader, thinking great, but how can I do that too?

Overall, I found the book to be an average read. I enjoyed his parts on ministry, but would have made his front end biography a bit shorter. It focused too much on him and not on ministry. I rated it 3 stars.

Here is the Amazon link- Last Call: From Serving Drinks to Serving Jesus by Jerry Hership