From Willow Creek to Sacred Heart is a reversion story by Chris Haw. I am a sucker for conversion/reversion stories. I love hearing how people turned to the faith and their reasons for conversion. The stories vary so widely that it is both educational and entertaining at the same time! But then again, I am a book freak, so just about any book I pick up is going to have some kind of entertainment value to it.
Haw's book is different from any of the other conversion stories that I have read. My favorites are Rome Sweet Home by Kimberly and Scott Hahn and My Life on the Rock by Jeff Cavin. Hahn and Cavin tell their stories almost like a first-person novel, describing the feelings and intellectual developments that they are going through. Haw's book is different. It is almost split up into parts. The first part is the journey and the second part is why the journey took place.
Haw led an interesting life as an activist throughout his high school and college years. When he and his mom fell away from Catholicism, they started to attend Willow Creek, a non-denominational church that had a very attractive youth group. This led Haw and his companions to volunteer and help with the poor with a passion that makes me embarrassed at the little I've done to help the needy in my own community (and I fully admit that). When Haw and his family and companions move to a small economically depressed town in New Jersey, where gun fights were rampant, he was doing so much work with the local Catholic church that he and his wife reverted back to the faith.
I'll admit, this book was a pretty difficult read. A little choppy and the story doesn't flow as well as I would like, however I would still recommend it because there is great theological explanation in a clear concise manner that will make you learn more about the Catholic faith. If you're looking for a conversion story that is different from all of the rest, this is it.
This book is set for publication on October 8th, 2012.
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