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The Audio Book and its Topic
Learn to dance the SoulSalsa! Leonard Sweet teaches us how to dance this salsa, by looking at “17 surprising steps for godly living in the 21st century”.
As an avid reader of Christian books, I come across many theories. Theories about how to be a better church, how to evangelize better, what attitude to have to life, and the list goes on. How refreshing to come (stumble?) across an audio book with some very practical advice on how to live a Christian life.
The Zondervan paperback book SoulSalsa (yes, I own that too) starts its summary on the back cover by saying “Getting a Christian worldview is all the rage these days. But how about a Christian worldlife? Got one of those?”
So, what does it say? Do you really want me to spoil your fun, and spill the beans here. I thought not. While not telling you any of the SoulSalsa dance steps, I will share just a few of the aspects addressed by Leonard Sweet.
Len tells you (he calls you a soul artist) among other things how to:
In fact, I am so impressed by these “surprising steps for Godly living” that I am really glad to own the paperback book SoulSalsa (in addition to the audio book). Maybe now I will make a priority of reading it!
The audio version is abridged – one good reason to read the book. Another reason is that you might want to refer back to these practical guidelines without listening to the whole audio book again...
Or you could just make a summary as you listen! What’s that? You’d rather buy the book? I thought so...
So, how does it sound?
I want to write the same thing as I did when I reviewed Leonard Sweet’s only other audio book. But see I do not want to sound like a broken record! What the heck. Here goes...
It sounds good. Like SoulTsunami, it is an abridged audio version of the book. Not that I am complaining. I like short and sweet audio books. What I also like is the addition of some background sound, to make the audio book sound somewhat like a movie... That is present too.
And then there is the issue of the author of the book being the narrator. Once again, the conviction in his voice is evident. It just sounds less fake than some poor bugger reading and trying to sound excited.
What did this audio book mean to me personally?
I need to read and reread and summarise this book. I am absolutely convinced that I will live a better, more fruitful life when learning to dance these seventeen steps of the SoulSalsa. I want to master it.
It is November 2007, and I am attending my first Leonard Sweet Advance in December. It is actually the very first African Advance, arranged by Callie Roos. What a fine fellow! Anyway... I am really excited to go and learn more from Len.
At the same time, I would like to arrive at the Advance (see LeonardSweet.com) having put in some effort to familiarise myself with Len’s teachings and having tried to apply them in practice. There is no use in learning all these things if we are not putting them into practice, right? Right?
I need to go and put what I learned here into practice, and then this audio book will have had an absolutely profound impact on my life.
Len has also convinced me to read the Book of Tobit at my earliest convenience...
Conclusion
Okay, I am going to sound a little like Rob Bell at the end of his NOOMA videos now... Bear with me. As you listen to the SoulSalsa audio book, may you realize how much you need these guidelines for practical Christian living. May you go on to eventually buy the book...
The reason being, that while these guidelines are great to listen to, they are so important to take seriously and adhere to that it would be very helpful to have them written down somewhere. Where better than the book that this audio book is derived from?
Still listen to it though. Just like SoulTsunami, it is an excellent audio book! I hope you come out on the other side with a very visible Christian worldlife... Be honest with yourself – “Got one of those?”
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