DAVID ADAMS reads Mick Duncan’s book, Alongsiders…
Mick Duncan
Alongsiders: Sittting with those who sit alone
UNOH Publishing, Dandenong, 2013
ISBN: 978-0987099457
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“A book that will challenge and hopefully inspire, Alongsiders is about getting your hands dirty and putting into practice what the Bible teaches about reaching out to the ‘widows and orphans’ – the most vulnerable in our society, whoever they may be.” |
For years Mick Duncan has been seeking out those who live on the outside of society, to be what he calls an “alongsider” as he walks through life with them.
In this book Alongsiders, he shares what this call is all about – how as Christians we are called to connect with those whom society shuns – and outlines a series of very practical steps on how to go about it.
In Duncan’s view being an alongsider is different to being a friend, a social worker, mentor or even an evangelist – while being an alongsider can be part of all these things and provide a means to introduce them to Christ, it’s about drawing close to people without an agenda or a ‘goal’.
The New Zealander draws heavily on his own past in Alongsiders; how, when he had only recently found Jesus, he was the recipient of the care and attention of a pastor, Murray Robertson, who taught him what it truly means to draw alongside someone.
He talks honestly of the years his family spent living in a slum in The Philippines, about the wrestle he went through when one of the leaders in a church he was pastoring told him he was a practising homosexual, and the struggle he had with a church member he found it incredibly difficult to like and the book also contains numerous illustrative examples and Scriptures from the Bible.
The latter half of the book is more concerned with the practicalities and strategy behind the alongsider relationship. Drawing on his own years of experience, Duncan outlines the different stages of the relationship and how a person looking to be an alongsider can ensure they are properly equipped for the task.
He finishes with a look at the excuses Christians use not to become alongsiders and a look at the Biblical mandate for us to overcome them. A book that will challenge and hopefully inspire, Alongsiders is about getting your hands dirty and putting into practice what the Bible teaches about reaching out to the “widows and orphans” – the most vulnerable in our society, whoever they may be. After all, as Duncan says at the end of the book, “Everyone needs an alongsider.”
