A Christmas Miracle.... {Book Review}

When you are living up to an image or a lack there of, what kinds of pressures do you put on yourself? What expectations do you place on you and those around you? What if you father was one of the most revered pastors in the area and inspired you as the son to achieve the same things? The problem is that you have that image to live up to and you will never be that person. You are you. That won't change.

I get to read a book called, A Christmas Miracle Comes to Holy Nativity by Ken Regan.

First off, as a precursor, I feel the need to say...
I am NOT a religious person. I AM a spiritual person.
That may not mean a huge distinction for you but for me,  it's the world.

As I started reading it, I saw that it was about a new seminary graduate, Bill Saunders, who is struggling to find a church that is willing to accept him as their pastor. I have several friends that becoming a pastor was more than a passion it was a calling for them. I have seen them struggle in these ways. Maybe one reason why this seemed interesting? What could that Christmas miracle be?

As Bill, the main character, and pastor to be,  sits on New Year's Eve, he is worried about being constantly in his father's shadows, who was a pastor everyone loved, and being rejected as a pastor by other churches. New Year Eves are endings and beginnings. He gets sent to another region where no one knows of his father in hopes that it will better his chance to become a pastor in his own right.

This books will walk you through the back door process, so to speak, of what it is to become a pastor. The grueling process that it is not just a recent graduate implant that becomes the pastor of most any church.

He has essentially flunked out of being a pastor and as in the story says, "it was not a good fit" sort of rejection. When he leaves Connecticut to go to Pennsylvania to start his new job, or potential one, he struggles with this church really is run down, very defunct and is almost the laughing stock of the town. He has to try to recover that.

He starts having a right hand so to speak at the church who help him gain power back in the church from a power hungry person who made it very hard for things to get down or for the success of the church. You know, that kind of drama. And it was drama stemming generations.

He learns to be on his feet, to learn first hand without the pressure of letting his natural talent come out. Also, he goes from being a stranger to an innovative person the church who goes on a long journey of being new to the town, being new to pastoral life, and also finding love and life himself.

As a book it is written well. No major spelling, grammar, or more than a couple of jumping mistakes as I call them. Jumping mistakes being where it feels like a page has been ripped out and you can't help but feel you are being left out of part of the story. These are surprisingly common amongst e books and it drives me nuts!

It is an easy read although I think there are points where it drags on and my eye naturally jumps to the next paragraph without feeling lose of any detail. At points in the beginning it feels as it is being dragged on like the fact that the church was on life support but then it has it's rich history and humour that somehow bring it back in and you chuckle at a bad joke or you see something about the church you never realised before.

I actually grew to like the book the more I read it because there is a story of finding yourself, a story of romance, a story of life behind a pastor. Not a book I would normally sit and read past the first few chapters but worth it. You can sit and read this in one sitting if you wanted.

After all, not bad.

* I was given a copy of the E book from Book Look, where I get to review books and e Books. This does not affect my opinion one way or the other, which is all my own!