Just Getting Started: Stepping With Courage Into God’s Call For The Next Stage Of Life, by Wendy Peter

[Note: This book was provided free of charge by Chosen Books in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.]

One of the unfortunate truths of reading so many books from certain authors as I do is the realization that they write books not because there is need for such books to be written, or because they have special expertise in the subject, but because they need to make sense of and explain the changes of their own life and have people more than willing to sell their reflections and observations about themselves to other people. This book contains a lot of self-justification about the author’s own path as a Christian leader and a lot of discussion about her own life and the institution she leads and its own twists and turns, and quite frankly I did not find that sort of material to be of interest at all, seeing as I do not know the author nor do I care for the efforts of people I do not know to justify themselves in the face of what may very well turn out to be reasonable and fair criticism. If I knew her and her work beyond this book, I might feel differently, as you might yourself in reading this if the ministry of Women On The Frontlines Global is appealing to you.

This book is a short one of less than 200 pages and it is divided into ten chapters. The author begins with a foreword, then acknowledgements and an introduction. After that come chapters that discuss going from hidden to visible (1), looking at one’s destined place (2), as well the experience of moments of lift (3). This is followed by a call to define one’s dream (4), stage one’s comeback (5), and how to break free from the past and shine brightly (6). The book then ends with chapters about being positioned to shine (7), finding one’s people (8), taking off the limits (9), and not forgetting what matters most (10), after which there are endnotes. Throughout the book the author seeks to use her own personal experience, and her interpretation of that experience, as a general pattern that other people can use to seek lift and glory in their own life.