CHRISTMAS PLAYLIST
Four Songs That Bring You to the Heart of
Christmas
By Alistair Begg
Good Book Company. 62 pages. £2.99
ISBN 978 1 784 981 648
As a pastor of a church that makes significant attempts at Christmas evangelism, I am always on the lookout for punchy, quality books that are suitable as takeaways for unbelievers at carol services – or for church members to slip in with Christmas presents for relatives and friends. That is clearly the ‘market’ for Alistair Begg’s Christmas Playlist, and it achieves its aims pretty well.
Begg’s book introduces the Christian message via short chapters on four inspired songs from the gospels’ infancy narratives – Mary’s, Zechariah’s, the Angels’, and Simeon’s. The content is clear and engaging, the gospel unmiss-able. Begg is a good communicator and a faithful evangelist. Anyone who invests in a pile of these will not be disappointed on that front.
Cultural context
That said, when I put Christmas Playlist alongside other similar festive evangelistic books, it might just miss out on being my top choice for reaching out to pagan Brits for the following reasons: First, Begg’s US context governs some of his vocabulary and illustrations in a way that will create an unfortunate disconnect with some British readers. Second, his prose style is intellectually a bit beyond where some of our local people are going to be at in terms of educational attainment.
Solid book
But apart from those minor caveats (and if you’re ok with a ‘prayer of commitment’ at the end), it’s a solid book that I’m sure would still work well in many UK situations – and I hope it does. I would just recommend a thoughtful read-through, with your local community in your mind’s eye, before you buy it in bulk.
