Brant Hansen: Not a Pastor, Not a Theologian — His Unique Audience
Review: Life is Hard. God is Good. Let’s Dance. by Brant Hansen
The elephant in the room is that I am at an age, and have tracked enough years in Christian life and service where I should be reading and reviewing serious authors, right?
I’ll own that. Looking back over the books I’ve reviewed, which occupy seven shelves of an Ikea bookshelf, there are things that, working in Christian book marketing as I did, seemed so important and relevant then and seem completely frivolous and unimportant now. And there are also places on those bookshelves that I wish were occupied with other more philosophical or analytical authors.
But long after reaching that conclusion, I found myself requesting a review copy of Brant Hansen’s new book, Life is Hard… I think I’m only missing one of his titles on that shelf and I doubt any of them will ever be on the reading list for a seminary course, but I knew that interesting content was guaranteed.
I’m not a fan of the title. Or the cover. It’s pure Brant, but I don’t know how well it will score at the box office, so speak. Especially if they hope to attract new readers. But they say you can’t judge a book by its mirror ball.
What I would normally do here is give you an overview of the book, perhaps even an short excerpt or two. But that wasn’t how I read it. Instead, I found myself thinking over and over about the unique voice that God has given Brant Hansen, and the unique audience to which he gets to speak.
Brant is a Christian radio guy. Not a pastor. Not a theologian. Not a Christian academic. He’s an example of the people God can use, and the fact you “don’t have to be a ______” for God to work through you. But Brant’s not even a normal Christian radio guy. He’s a person on the spectrum who has to constantly remind his podcast and radio listeners to give it time if they find the humor too dry or too quirky.
The ones who make the investment eventually get rewarded. If it’s been more than a week, and I need something to put a smile on my face, I look up the podcast, which consists of liners sent out to radio stations to use between songs. Thought pieces. Stream-of-consciousness rambling with Sherry Lynn, his producer.
That’s right. There isn’t a definitive example of The Brant Hansen Show. In some markets it might be the usual Christian hit fare; in others it might lean more to alternative Christian music; and perhaps there’s a station where it’s a mix of Christian and mainstream music. In most markets local announcers often have to break in for traffic, weather or contests. But nothing I just said really describes The Brant Hansen Show, so take 2 minutes to watch this.
You see? Different. But at some point I need to satisfy Brant’s publisher — Thomas Nelson — that I did in fact read the book they sent. Which I did. Every chapter. So let’s do that.
Life is Hard… continues a now well-established pattern in Brant’s books. He finds spiritual illustrations in the everyday — and the not so commonplace — but also shares a significant number of hope-filled illustrations from his travels around the world on behalf of CURE International, where Brant’s official position is “storyteller.”
And that mirror ball? Brant says that
God has a modus operandi, a style, which He uses all the time. He uses the humble. He uses the little things, the seemingly unimpressive, overlooked things to do the marvelous. He enjoys it. He loves real parties with real hospitality, where outsiders are treated like insiders. So I’m honestly trying, in my own halting fashion, to make his style my style.
Life is Hard… is published by Thomas Nelson in paperback.
• Also, for Brant Hansen fans who enjoyed his book The Men We Need, a student edition, The (Young) Men We Need, aimed at boys 14 and over, goes on sale in March.
A copy of Life is Hard… was provided by HarperCollins Christian Products Canada. Thanks as always to Dave and Mark for keeping me in the loop!
Christian Book Shop Talk 