Book review: God on the Beach
Book name: God on the beach
Author: Michael Volland
From back cover: Newquay: the UK’s infamous summer party capital.
The town was heaving with young clubbers and surfers, each one desperate to live life to the full, eager for experience, ready to rid e the waves and hit the heights.
Into this chaotic carnival dropped Michael Volland; DJ, surfer and team member in a beach mission 21st-century style. There was just one problem: Michael was not at all convinced that God would turn up.
The events that followed blew his mind.
Basic synopsis of plot/content: A group of young Christians travel to Newquay during the height of the summer to take part in a beach mission.
At first glance, God on the beach is not a deep book. Young Christians walking around in hoodies and flip flops handing out leaflets and playing beach volley ball isn’t the stuff of legend.
Newquay is famous for surfing, and during the summer months, thousands of people flock to its beaches. Michael Volland was no different; surfing was what drew him there, rather than the ‘mission’ part of the trip.
Almost straight away, God started challenging him. Michael struggled with ‘Christian guilt;’ the thought that he wasn’t doing enough, he wasn’t good enough, that he wasn’t spiritual at all. As soon as he got to Newquay (after surfing) he started second guessing himself, thinking he’d made a mistake and shouldn’t’ be there. Over the following week that conviction was thoroughly turned on its head.
Over the course of the book, we hear about how the team used games of beach volleyball as a way to get to know people. How a random encounter with a stranger asking them for drugs turned into a two hour conversation about God. We hear about a conversation with a white witch who had been casting spells against them ended with her praying with one of the team.
Books like this are what inspire me; ordinary people, people who cringe at the idea of praying out loud, never mind with anyone else, who have no idea how to tell people about Jesus, and who would rather hide in the background. People like that, who make a tiny step of faith. God loves thing like this, and when people make that tiny step, He comes and does amazing things, surprising, interesting, amusing things. And inspires us to do things we wouldn’t normally do. OR, in this case, things we used to do…but now we do them for Him. The group hosts an evening at a local nightclub, complete with DJ and a breakdancing competition. It’s an important reminder that life with God isn’t about NOT having fun and only following rules, but living life to the full, real life, that we can only find in Him. I think the idea of life being fun is something that appeals to me. God having a sense of humour is mentioned several times over the course of the book.
