Approximately two months ago, my friend and mentor, Tony Miano, provided me with a copy of his book, “Cross Encounters: A Decade of Gospel Conversations.” I promised Tony a thorough read and a review for our followers. Unfortunately, I was a bit slow on the read part. Life as a law enforcement officer, a husband and father, a podcast host, and the fact I simply cannot read with noise around me, caused me to take longer than should have been warranted. I wish to extend an apology to Tony and those who awaited my review. I will work to serve all of you better in the future.
For purposes of transparency, I worked with Tony for nearly three years as co-host and chat room manager of Cross Encounters Radio. It was Tony who recruited and mentored me for that program. We went through many adventures during that time, some good, and some bad. But, not one day do I regret serving along side him in that capacity. Thus, some may feel that my positive review of this book is influenced by that relationship. I hope to assure you that simply is not the case. Tony himself will tell you that we did not always agree on matters and I had no qualms discussing those things, privately. Thus, my view on this book is it is worth the time to read because it is an excellent book.
Tony documents in “Cross Encounters” a plethora of one to one gospel conversations he has had on the street in his years of evangelism. His stated goal in this book is to encourage believers to be obedient to the command of Scripture to make disciples of every nation. I believe this book accomplishes that goal.
Rather than being an instructional manual, a “how to” guide on being an evangelist, “Cross Encounters” puts you in the shoes of a Christian desiring to see God glorified and lost souls saved. Each encounter is transcribed from audio or video recordings made by Tony as he witnessed to people. This gives the reader the feeling of being directly in the conversation and seeing the gospel message work in the hearts of unbelievers. More than being just scripts of two people talking, however, Tony includes his motivations and thoughts that occurred during the conversation. Not only do you hear the words spoken, but you see the mind of an evangelist at work. This is an important piece because it allows us to understand where our hearts and minds need to be when we share the gospel ourselves.
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