Salvation Army Book Shortlisted for Award

A BOOK published by The Salvation Army and written by a Salvation Army officer (minister) has been shortlisted for Christianity magazine's prestigious Book of the Year award. Major Howard Webber's book Meeting Jesus: Inspiring Stories of Modern-Day Evangelism, is down to the final five, with the winner to be announced on Monday 13 June at the Christian Resources Together conference.

Reviewer Steve Morris says Major Webber's book 'is perhaps the most extraordinary one I’ve reviewed since writing for Christianity. It is a series of stories of evangelism on the hard side of life. It is painfully honest and lists as many failures as successes, as many deaths as new lives. Documenting Webber’s spiritual battles too, it is possibly the most moving set of accounts I’ve ever read, and the most hopeful.

'It is all too easy to see the role of being God’s ambassadors as reduced to preaching, or set among those who we love and are safe. But this book challenges us to be where Jesus would be, with the down-and-outs, with the hopeless and the broken. It looks the cost of such ministry square in the eye and carries on just the same. Please buy this book.'

Major Webber has been a frequent contributor to Salvation Army periodicals including Salvationist and The Officer but Meeting Jesus is the first book he has had published by The Salvation Army. It was released in October 2010 under the UK Territory's Shield Books label.

The major says he believes this nomination is unique for a Salvation Army book in the UK. He adds: 'My prayer is that it might result in a wider readership of the book and, more importantly, that people will be motivated and souls saved.'

His book is up against strong competition, with others in the shortlist written by Alister McGrath, Francis Chan with Danae Yankoski, Mark Greene, and Gregory Boyd.

Information about all the books – together with an opportunity to vote for the winner – can be found on Christianity magazine's website.

Published monthly in the UK by Christian Communications Partnership (CCP) Ltd, Christianity is an evangelical Christian magazine with a readership of about 30,000 people. It aims to provide news and articles for Christians and those interested in the Christian faith from across the denominational spectrum.