The Listening Life

Short Review:

“Listening ought to be at the heart of our spirituality, our relationships, our mission as the body of Christ, our relationship to culture and the world. We are invited to approach everything with the goal of listening first. We are called to participate in the listening life.”

I don't usually like using a lot of quotes in my review, but McHugh is so quotable. This is a book about what it means to listen and then how to do it. He starts with learning from how God listens, then talking about about how we listen to God. Then the book moves to how scripture helps to attune us to the things of God so that we can actually hear better.

The book proceeds through several other categories, but the best chapter in the book, or the one I most needed to hear, is on listening to people in pain. That chapter is worth the price of the book. It should be read by all pastors and should be taught to small group leaders. If the mission of the church is anything it is to help those in pain, but often we tend to want to push people out of pain, instead of allowing them to actually heal, because their pain makes us uncomfortable.

My full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/listening-life/