I absolutely loved your book, John, and I thank you for sharing it with me. The Back Row is a great resource and it is refreshing and encouraging…plus motivating. I was hooked the moment I opened the book and read your comments about building community through relationships; I immediately sat down and began reading your introduction and progressed through Chapter 4. In the next few weeks, I continued to read and be inspired while devoting most of my time to working on building community through relationships. A couple of years ago, I realized that God has given me the gifts of building community and relationships within my church, denomination and with women of other Christian faiths. My best opportunity to meet, enjoy and share Christian fellowship with women outside the PC(USA) is through Church Women United. What is so rewarding about CWU is we are fervent about our love of God and how we wish to express or demonstrate that in our community; do not get side-tracked by church polity or denominational differences.
I am already sharing much of what I learned in The Back Row and I thank you for your knowledge and expertise!
– Best regards, Marilyn
We found this book to be a true “wake-up” call for the Christian community. It shows how easily Christian priorities can be inverted by peer pressure, fame, or wealth, sometimes before we realize what is happening. It’s a great reminder of the time when Jesus, not elected officials, was the head of our home, church, and country. And of a time when “church” was a place of worship, and not entertainment.
– Leallen and Vanessa Lambert
As a pastor involved in the ministry for close to 45 years, I see John’s book as not only his voice, but the voice of the multitude of saints who are growing discontent with church as it is in the early part of the 21st Century. In my educated opinion, the church of this time has lost touch with those within the church. Not even mentioning those who stand from without the church. The leadership in the “Evangelical Church” has lost vision of the main thing: Jesus, which is John’s whole motif of his book. John crys out from page one to the very last page; “Enough of churchianity and more, more about Jesus. As John sees it, the shepherds of today’s flocks have strayed away from the only true source of life for the body of Messiah, the Word of God. I find many of John’s words and thoughts are my words and thoughts.
I would highly recommend this book to be read by those in the back pew and those who stand in the pulpit.
– Milton Resh, Minister
This courageous layman writes what he observes happening to the modern Christian church. John Robbins urges a return to basic church principles and provides thoughtful cautions about inviting the world into the church.
– Patrecia Ross, Marlette, MI
Good book! Good Reading! I usually sit in the back row too…
– Jack McParland, Allen Park, MI
John Robbins’ book, “A View From the Back Row” calls attention to the need for those who refer to themselves as “Christians” to return to the foundation of scripture as their guide for daily living.
– Eugene Snowden, West Bloomfield, MI