The Life: An Outreach Biblezine by Tyndale and Youth for Christ

Description:

A refreshingly unconventional Biblezine for spiritually curious teens. A full-out visual feast, presenting timeless scriptural truth with unique energy and passion. The Life moves teens beyond religion to an introduction to Jesus’ personal story and his Word. Powered by the clear and accessible New Living Translation.

The Life was collaboratively developed in partnership with Youth for Christ, whose mission is to bring the message of Jesus to young people across the world. Youth for Christ has more than 160 chapters impacting thousands of communities.

The New Living Translation breathes life into even the most difficult-to-understand Bible passages, but even more powerful are stories of how people’s lives are changing as the words speak directly to their hearts.

My review:

I have mixed feelings about this book.  I wanted to be really excited about this book that is geared toward teens.  I am a big fan of the New Living Translation because the language is easy to understand and absorb.  I really liked that aspect of the book.  I think the size and the graphics are great for the target audience.  The images are visually compelling and the cover makes a bold statement.

However, there were a few things that I didn’t particularly care for about the book.  I know the publishers wanted intending for it to have a magazine-like feel, so they had the stories skip over pages and inserted different stories in between the pages in a typical magazine format.  Unfortunately, the pages themselves were formatted more like a regular book, so I didn’t quite appreciate the effort.

Ultimately, what I liked the least about this book is that it reminded me of the brochures and booklets that some religious groups pass out as they canvass the neighborhoods on Saturday mornings.  For me, I felt that the similarity to some of those materials cheapened the wonderful Gospel that is included in the pages of this book.

This might be a good way to introduce teens to Jesus and the story of his life, but I think there are other books out there that are better.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Tyndale House Publishers in exchange for my honest review.  All opinions are my own.