Book Review | Normal, Imperfect Heroes by James Grier with Liz Grier

Normal, Imperfect Heroes: The ‘failures’ God used to teach us about leadership

by James Grier with Liz Grier

Reviewer: Alan Irvin

This book sets out to show readers that God has used very ordinary, imperfect people, who have at times been unfaithful and disobedient, to lead his people at different times and that just like them we don’t need to be perfect to be used by God in leadership roles within the church. The author, James Grier, does this through the retelling of the stories of biblical leaders with chapters dedicated to Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Saul, David, the twelve disciples and Mary the mother of Jesus. The characters and their imperfections will be familiar to many and have been used in many sermons. 

 For the old testament characters the retelling closely follows the biblical narrative with each story retold in detail. For the disciples and Mary the author pulls together references from different passages to create a single character profile. Each story or profile is presented in a casual voice with the occasional injection of humour, and when they arise the failures are highlighted, modern anecdotes given, many from Grier’s own experience in ministry, and we are reminded that God never gives up on us! In his conclusion Grier points the reader to Jesus as the ultimate reminder that God doesn’t measure success, significance or failure as the world does. 

 The book is a nice antidote to those written about heroes of the faith that can so often leave us feeling inadequate. It would offer a good introduction to these stories for people who are relatively new to Scripture and it could be used as the basis for a preaching series or for a house group or Lenten study series.  
 
Anyone seeking to follow Jesus and worried about failure will find the book encouraging. A sentence in the conclusion nicely sums up the main idea behind the book that ‘God is less worried about what you do with him than that you have a relationship with him’.

Reviewer:

Alan Irvin is a Methodist Lay Preacher in the North East of England