Owen Strachan - The Colson Way: Loving Your Neighbor and Living with Faith in a Hostile World

PRAISE FOR THE COLSON WAY

Owen Strachan has given us a compelling account of Chuck Colsons joyful and determined life of Christian witness and service. Those of us who knew him well and worked alongside him in promoting Christianity as a worldview, and not merely a religion of private piety, recognize him in the discursive portrait Strachan provides. The Colson Way is a praiseworthy intellectual achievement and a gift to the Christian community.

Robert P. George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence, Princeton University

Chuck Colson was a valued mentor and trusted friend. He possessed a rare combination of hardheaded political smarts with a heart that had truly been transformed by Jesus. I regularly sought his guidance and counsel over the years, and never was found wanting. His courageous, winsome public witness and prophetic voice are sorely missed in the troubled times in which we live. This is precisely why The Colson Way needed to be written, and ought to be required reading for any Christian seeking to engage in the public square.

Frank Wolf, Senior Distinguished Fellow, 21st Century Wilberforce Initiative

I was privileged to know and work with Chuck Colson in several respects. He was a man of character and conviction who understood that believers find themselves in two cities, as Augustine wrote. As a member of the city of God, I have dedicated my life to strengthening the city of man. I am so thankful to see Owen Strachans The Colson Way celebrate this kind of vision. I commend it highly and urge pastors and churches to buy this bookand to share this vision with their people.

Mike Huckabee, former Arkansas governor and host of Fox TVs Huckabee, and bestselling author of numerous booksmost recently God, Guns, Grits, and Gravy

The Colson Way is an honest, enjoyable, and eye-opening look at one of the most significant Christian leaders of the twentieth century. Strachan not only captures the story of Chuck Colson, he offers invaluable insights along the way. I hope this book is widely read by Christians of all ages, but especially young Christians who will be both equipped and inspired by Colsons life.

Sean McDowell, Ph.D., Professor at Biola University, international speaker, and author of The Fate of the Apostles

A precious gift to the rising generation of evangelical leaders! In an era where cultural compromise is the trend, The Colson Way introduces a fearless advocate for the faith, family, and freedom, whose story of accountability and unwavering conviction is one every young Christian should know.

Chelsen Vicari, author and Evangelical Action Director at the Institute on Religion and Democracy

Owen Strachan has very capably applied his considerable intellect and writing skills to interpreting the life and accomplishments of one of the most important Evangelical leaders of the last half century. Its impossible to understand the recent history of Christianity in America without knowing Chuck Colsons story. God raised him up for special purposes, and Colson leaves no clear successor as a collator of ministry, activism, and intellectual life. Hopefully this book will help inspire future Chuck Colsons.

Mark Tooley, President, Institute on Religion and Democracy; author of The Peace That Almost Was

This book introduces Charles W. Colson to a new, younger generation that knew not Chuck. In a time of retrenchment and retreat, the Colson way calls us to fidelity, resolve, and hope. Chuck pursued this path with courage and love, and so must we.

Timothy George, founding dean of Beeson Divinity School of Samford University, featured writer for First Things

Owen Strachans new biography of Chuck Colson is timely, engaging, and insightful. Even more important, its needed. For a generation of evangelicals who came of age without many positive examples of cultural engagement, Strachans profile of Colson is a challenging reminder that we canand mustventure into the public square for the glory of God and the good of our neighbor. I believe Chuck would be deeply honored by this tribute to his legacy of faith and service.

Jim Liske, President and CEO, Prison Fellowship Ministries

As someone who was for four years Charles Colsons first research assistant when he returned from prison, I thought I knew everything there was to know about Chuck. Not so. Strachan introduces present-day evangelicals (and others) to one of the most unique, and surprising, social reformers in the broader Christian world of the past fifty years. He communicates with a clear and engaging writing style and paints a moving portrait of a true American, Christian original. No wonder, when his whole life is seen in full, that he won warm admiration and respect from so many of his former critics. This vivid, lucid, and informative biography offers a ringing endorsement as to why this is so.

Michael Cromartie, Vice President, Ethics and Public Policy Center, Washington DC

Im often asked what it was like to work with Chuck Colson. I havent yet figured out how to answer. All I know is that I am different because of him, and so are many, many others. In The Colson Way, Strachan artfully describes what I struggle to communicate about this great man. And, I am convinced that those who read this book, like this person who encountered Chucks life, will be inspired to live culturally redemptive lives, loving God and people.

John Stonestreet, Speaker and Fellow, the Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview; Senior Content Advisor, Summit Ministries

Congratulations are due to Owen Strachan for producing this highly readable and thoughtfully presented book on the life and work of Chuck Colson. This volume offers illuminating insights into the motivation and manner of the Colson way as it developed from the early days of his post-conversion ministry to Colsons more mature role as evangelical statesman, leader, and mentor. Admirers of Colson will find their appreciation of Colson enriched, even as they are encouraged to extend Colsons culture-renewing vision to the next generation. Those unfamiliar with Colsons life and work will be challenged to follow Christ with renewed courage and faithfulness.

David S. Dockery, President, Trinity International University

We live in a disillusioned culture hungering for authentic heroes. History will record that Chuck Colson was a prophetic voice and a truly transformational leader. As his pastor and close friend, I knew and loved him. Unlike a mountain which is majestic in the distance and craggy up close, the better I knew Chuck, the more I respected him. Owen Strachans marvelously insightful book is a lively read that inspires us in the Colson Way. Overcome evil with good (Romans 12:21). May a whole new generation be born again and renew the good fight.

Dr. Hayes Wicker, Senior Pastor, First Baptist Church Naples (Chuck Colsons pastor)

In this accessible biography of a spiritual giant, Owen Strachan has laid the foundation to retrieve the timelessness of Chuck Colsons public witness. What Strachan shows is that Chuck Colson put first things firstgospel first, public life second. It was never as though public life was less important. It was all where the accent rests; and as Strachan writes of Colson, the accent rests first upon gospel, and secondly, on its transforming effects on society. I cant calculate the degree to which Colsons heroism and legacy towers. But in the The Colson Way, Strachan explains the how and the why of one of Americas most important religious and political figures.

Andrew Walker, Director of Policy Studies, The Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission; author of Marriage Is

Chuck Colson was one of the most important figures in American Evangelicalism in the last half of the 20th century. He was a complex man who was deeply concerned for the Christian worldview and at the same time participated in some of the most significant events and controversies of the Evangelical movement in the last several decades. But, more than anything else, Chuck Colson was a man who had come to know the Lord Jesus Christ as savior and his testimony of conversion to Christdemonstrated through long decades of Christian leadershipis an important part of that story. Owen Strachan offers us invaluable insight into the life of Chuck Colson and the trajectory of 20th-century Evangelicalism.