The Ultimate Comeback

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY OCT 30, 2006

Tenney, author of the God Chasers series, which has sold more than two million products, attempts to help people chase away the bad and replace it with good in his newest book. Readers, however, will find themselves chasing their tails trying to catch what he's saying through the book's repetition, digressions and overenthusiastic storytelling. Tenney's message is a worthy one: "God's presence can transform life's greatest failures into our greatest triumphs." He offers numerous examples from the Christian Bible, focusing most clearly on Gehazi, a servant of the Old Testament prophet Elisha. Gehazi fell from grace with Elisha's curse of leprosy, yet seven years later Gehazi was counselor to Israel's king. Tenney's speculative interpretation of the events in between may cause consternation among biblical scholars, but his point is that Gehazi learned from the "gift of failure." "If He can do it for Gehazi, He can do it for anybody including you," stresses Tenney. Tenney's followers will find more of his trademark style here, but newcomers could be confused by the gushing repetitiveness and annoyed at the occasional triteness.