No Compromise

Rating:
Summary: A Burning Desire
Review: I didn't know what to expect when I started reading Keith Green's biography, NO COMPROMISE. Looking back over time, I'd realize God had given me a rare moment to actually meet Keith face-to-face. Out of the thousands he ministered to in his short life, I doubt if he would ever remember me. I met him at one of his concerts. I was a die hard 2nd Chapter of Acts fan. I didn't fall in love with Keith's music over night. I'd prefer the gentle wooing of Acts' music. Keith was "all or nothing!" A little too overwhelming for my young Christian mind at the time. Two things I will never forget about meeting him: his eyes and his refusal to sign autographs. I had never seen anyone's eyes so full of the fire of the Holy Spirit. I remember staring into them and thinking, "This is what it means to be totally committed to Christ." Many wanted his autograph, but he politely refused. Simply stating, "No...I want the Lord to get all the glory!"

Until I read NO COMPROMISE, I had no idea the journey Keith had taken from the day he was born until the time we briefly met. I was riveted by the book. I found myself re-reading it over a period of three times! Each time, I captured more and more of God's power in a person who had totally given their life to Christ. Reading about his life gave me a deeper appreciation for his music. Now, I listen with a deeper appreciation, a little sadness (because I miss him)and a maturity I didn't have when I first met him. I miss his fire, his faithfulness, his challenge to the church as a whole. This book is definitely for someone who wants to know, is there anyone totally sold out to Jesus? I can honestly say, "Yes..there was. I met him His name was Keith Green."

Rating:
Summary: This is what a real Christian looks like!
Review: I've been re-reading No Compromise and remembering (painfully) when my relationship with the Lord was intense and tender, as a young preteen girl. Much like Keith, I couldn't care less about "what others might think". As with him, people said that I had an unusual closeness with and love for the Lord. I remember what it was like to hear God's heart as Keith did. Lately this book has rekindled a desire to have that newness in my life again.

It's interesting that Keith went to be with the Lord after 7 years as a Christian. God's timing for taking Keith home was PERFECT. "Seven" is the biblical number of completion. When Keith completed what God sent him out to do, God took him home to receive his eternal reward. What if Keith had lived another forty or fifty years? The impact of his life and testimony likely would have fizzled out with time.

"No Compromise" came out seven years after Keith's death. Again, God's timing was perfect for us to read about the life of Keith. Read and be transformed.

Rating:
Summary: Finding the real man behind the legend
Review: There is no doubt that Keith Green has had a profound ministry. Even more than twenty years after his death, people are still being touched by his music and message. I know that I am a different person because of my exposure to this bold man of God.

"No Compromise: The Life Story of Keith Green" follows Keith from failed teen idol to the tops of the Christian music carts to a fiery plane crash in Texas. We see his early days as a struggling musician whose life was one of constant seeking but never finding until the day that Jesus put an end to the search. Along the way, Melody Green (with David Hazard) paints a picture of the early Jesus Movement of the late Sixties and early Seventies, showing how she and Keith were in the midst of it. Anyone who has been a Christian for a long time will be fascinated by how God put the Greens into the right places at the right time. There is a look at the nascent days of the Vineyard Christian Fellowship; friendships with classic Christian musicians like Randy Stonehill, Larry Norman, Barry McGuire, and Phil Keaggy; radical days of ministry highlighted by long nights ministering to anyone who would listen; and a sense of destiny shared by a small group of people with a common vision. It is almost a textbook-worthy look at a post-hippie Christianity finding its way.

To say that Keith Green is revered in certain circles is an understatement. One of the nicest features of this book is that it demythologizes the man himself. The "shoot first and ask questions later" perspective of Keith that made so many consider him a prophet is examined more closely, revealing feet of clay that some might find surprising. Often the hard-hitting songs that we have taken for granted were written as much for Keith himself to hear as for anyone else, the stinging messages a form of self-discipline for the author as much as his audience. Yet even in the correction of bad eating habits and too much TV, we are shown a prophet who examined his own life and often found it wanting. Finally, we get to see how Keith's self-defining brashness often backfired and how he came to a more gentle place in his ministry shortly before his death.

All these revelations are helpful in understanding the man behind the myth. Still, there are lapses. Very little is said about the recording sessions that led to the amazing albums. They come and go and we learn little. Certain anecdotes don't seem to lead anywhere, either, leaving the reader to merely surmise how or why Keith came to a certain place in his thoughts, actions, and spiritual development. Short excerpts from his journals are included, but more would still have been better. I know that I wanted to probe further into the subtle changes in the spiritual life of the man that led him into the situations outlined here, especially in the last year of his life--a year that zips by in the book. I suppose a wife can only know so much, and for those of us who want to know exactly how everything fell into place, I can only say that this book serves to drive us closer to God in order to ask Him those unanswered questions for our own ministries.

That said, this is still a very good biography of a man that practically packed a whole lifetime of spiritual growth into twenty-eight all too short years. Anyone who loves biographies of the great saints of God would be remiss to skip over this one. It definitely got me thinking and praying.