Hidden in Plain Sight: The Secret of MoreMark Buchanan’s book, Hidden in Plain Sight, is much more than simply a good read. It is food for the hungry soul searching for more of God.by Wayne HagermanIn recent years, a Baptist minister from Vancouver Island, Mark Buchanan, has in many ways become the Max Lucado of Canada with a twist of Philip Yancey thrown in for flavour.
Buchanan’s style, like Yancey’s, piles dramatic hyperbole upon dramatic hyperbole, almost to the point of losing the reader in the maze of descriptors. It’s a style many people love.
However, Buchanan’s depth and structural detail are like Lucado’s, saturated with a great detail of scriptural exegesis (analysis of texts) and illuminating stories.
This latest book, based on a year spent with the Apostle Peter, is another excellent offering for the Church and the general reader. In a proverbial way Buchanan has walked with Peter, talked with Peter, listened to Peter, understood Peter’s heart, felt Peter’s passion and interpreted Peter’s plea in 2 Peter 1 to add seven distinct virtues to one’s Christina life.
This exercise of growth through the development of particular habits is a continuing quest that Buchanan identifies early on as being “preoccupied with the question, How do I get more of God in my life?”
Interestingly, Buchanan prepares the reader for the examination of these seven virtues with two chapters on the nature of faith and one on the role of the Spirit – a good primer indeed.
There are also 11 complementary sections called the “Petrine Diaries,” which provide a glimpse into Buchanan’s own personal reflections. I enjoyed these almost distracting additions for the personal relevance they added to the good theology of each chapter.
The seven virtues that unfold in successive chapters are not restrictive, narrow, constricting devices meant to conform us to something but rather they are freeing, engaging and powerfully fulfilling.
This book is much more than simply a good read. It is food for the hungry soul searching for more of God.
Dr. R. Wayne Hagerman is the senior pastor of the First Baptist Church, Prince George, British Columbia.
Originally published in Faith Today, November/December 2007.
Used with permission. Copyright © 2008 Christianity.ca.