Holly Roller Review & Giveways

UPDATE WEDNESDAY 6:40 pm:

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Timestamp: 2009-07-15 23:40:38 UTC
Congrats to Liz and TCKK! Email me your addresses ladies, and the book will be on its way to you!

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HOLY ROLLER
by
Julie Lyons
(Random House)

Julie Lyons was working as a crime reporter when she followed a hunch into the South Dallas ghetto. She wasn’t hunting drug dealers, but drug addicts who had been supernaturally healed of their addictions. Was there a church in the most violent part of the city that prayed for addicts and got results?

At The Body of Christ Assembly, a rundown church on an out-of-the-way street, Lyons found the story she was looking for. The minister welcomed criminals, prostitutes, and street people–anyone who needed God. He prayed for the sick, the addicted, and the demon-possessed, and people were supernaturally healed.

Lyons’s story landed on the front page of the Dallas Times Herald. But she got much more than just a great story, she found an unlikely spiritual home. Though the parishioners at The Body of Christ Assembly are black and Pentecostal, and Lyons is white and from a traditional church background, she embraced their spirituality–that of “the Holy Ghost and fire.”

It’s all here in Holy Roller–the stories of people desperate for God’s help. And the actions of a God who doesn’t forget the people who need His power.

AUTHOR BIO:
Julie Lyons is an award-winning writer, editor and investigative reporter who for more than 11 years served as editor-in-chief of the Dallas Observer, an alternative weekly newspaper owned by Village Voice Media. She holds a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University and a B.A. in English from Seattle Pacific University. She and her husband, Larry Lyons Jr., live in Dallas with their son.

MY THOUGHTS:
This is a thought-provoking book. While Ms. Lyons makes some excellent points, I don't agree with everything she wrote. But that is the beauty of grace - God can move in different believers' hearts in different ways. And how He moves may or may not have anything to do with the color of their skin.

I have TWO copies of this book to give away! Just leave a comment on this post by 6:00 p.m. CDT Wednesday (7/15) and I'll choose two winners. Continental US Residents only, please. Be sure to include a way for me to contact you if you don't have a blog.

You can purchase Holy Roller directly from the publisher or here.