A HOUSE BUILT ON LOVE
By Ed Walker with Elizabeth Batha
SPCK. 263 pages. £8.00
ISBN 978 0 281 081 196
When I was younger I was much inspired by those intrepid missionaries who, like Jim Elliott, could say and live out the phrase: ‘He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.’
Biographies of missionaries like James Hudson Taylor and James Fraser and books by Jackie Pullinger and Brother Andrew undermined my complacent way of living. I was challenged to commit my life to Jesus’ mission by examples of these children of God.
It is easy to arrive at middle age and just settle down, leaving behind what could be considered as youthful idealism – that of going full-out for God and living in total dependence on His mercy. And then comes along a book like A House Built on Love (given to me by my local bishop) which shatters complacency and makes one long to live as a radical disciple of Jesus, pleading that He uses little imperfect me to do great things for Him.
Ed Walker worked for a decade overseas with Tearfund, in war-torn countries and drought disaster areas. On returning to the UK he wasn’t content to slip back into Christian complacency, challenged by meeting a prison leaver curled up on a park bench the day after his release.
This book charts the growth of Hope into Action from when Ed and his wife Rachel bought a house for ex-offenders and the homeless in 2010, to the running of 76 similar homes in partnership with 67 churches across England in 2020. It shows time and again how God multiplies our ‘fish and loaves’ to pull off the impossible – humanly speaking (reminding me of Hudson Taylor’s saying: ‘There are three stages to every great work of God; first it is impossible, then it is difficult, then it is done’). How lives are transformed by the gospel of Christ when it is lived out faithfully by His people being obedient to His missionary command and are salt and light amidst the worse cases of human despair in our society.
Ed Walker issues a clarion call for the British church of Christ to invest in the kingdom of God by befriending the marginalised; men and women created in God’s image but corrupted in a fallen world. This wonderful book shows how to be involved in holistic mission on our doorstep by putting our money into houses for the homeless (rather than giving it to the rich to invest) and how as church communities we can build friendships with these tenants, often lacking in relational richness.
It is a book written with lots of self-deprecating humour, short punchy chapters and amazing testimonies that keep you turning the pages. I trust that this book will be widely read and will inspire future generations of youngsters, and not a few oldsters too, to live out Jesus’ great commission right where they are.
