Four Letter Words by Bill Giovannetti ~ Litfuse Blog Tour & Review

About Four Letter Words:


Thou shalt tolerate every opinion... except the Christian's. Today's postmodern "prime directive" leaves many followers of Jesus tongue-tied. In the global village, isn't it unreasonable, and even dangerous, to suggest that the Bible has a monopoly on truth?


The church needs a new breed of Christ-follower. We need Christ-followers who are alert to today's touchy ideas, the truths that fire up more heat than light. We need Christ-followers who can make a clear case for the Bible's worldview; who are ready to help our friends think through their beliefs; who can recognize inconsistencies and challenge them; and who can do all of this with humility, confidence, humor, and love. For more information visit http://fourletterwords.org.

Link to buy the book: http://ow.ly/8FbUq 

About Bill Giovannetti:

Dr. Bill Giovannetti is a professor at A.W. Tozer Theological Seminary and the senior pastor of Neighborhood Church of Redding. An experienced speaker and author, Bill informs the mind in ways that touch the heart. He enjoys life with his wife and two kids in northern California. For more information about Bill and his other books, visit  http://maxgrace.wordpress.com  and http://fourletterwords.org.

Q & A with Dr. Giovannetti:

What's Four Letter Words about, and where did you get the title?

Four Letter Words is about defending your faith in Christ. If you've ever felt
tongue-tied standing up for Jesus, this book can help.
Even though our culture claims tolerance as a virtue, that tolerance stops at
Christianity's front door: witness the hostility directed toward a sincere Christ-
follower like Tim Tebow. Judging by reactions to him, you'd think he just cussed
out his grandma when all he did was say a word for Christ. Speaking God's truth
and living your faith is quickly becoming today's profanity. Tougher days are
coming; we need to get ready.
There has never been a truth-system more satisfying, consistent, logical and
beautiful than Christianity. I wanted to help God's people rise up and say so.

Did you ever struggle with your faith? How did you work through that?

Even though I've been a pastor for a long time, I struggle with my faith a lot. My
earliest struggles – back in high school days – centered on scientific stuff, like
evolution. In the book I tell the story of how I made peace with faith in a Creator
God and how I fit together science, logic, and the gospel in my own heart.
Now that I'm a bit older, my struggles come more out of pain and suffering. Why
does God let people hurt? I cover those topics too.
Struggles are normal – we just can't let them overwhelm our faith or uproot our
joy. It's super-important for us to know every question raised against Christianity
has an answer. I try to provide some of those answers along with simple talking
points for everyday conversations.

If I read this book, what will get out of it?

I wrote Four Letter Words with three simple goals in mind:
1. Clarity: Know what you believe.
2. Confidence: Know why you believe.
3. Courage: Know what to say when you don't know what to say.

What's your spiritual background? How did you get started with Jesus?

I was reared in a tiny Chicago gospel church. I was loved. I was cared for. I was
taught the Bible. That church was my second family. They introduced me to
Jesus. I received him when I was young and devoted my life to him. But it wasn't
until young adulthood that I began to appreciate how much Jesus was devoted to
me. That discovery rocked my world. I shifted from rules to relationship and from
guilt to grace. I dedicated my life to encourage instead of tear down. I strive to
free others from guilt, shame, and legalism, and to help people discover life and
love through God's amazing grace.

So what do you do when you're not writing?

I'm the husband of one incredible wife and dad to two amazing kids. My main
calling is as a pastor to the Neighborhood Church of Redding, a small-town
church of over 2,000 set amid the snow-capped peaks and pristine lakes of
northern California. I love preaching and teaching—spreading out a rich feast
of God and his grace and digging deep into God's Word. I also serve on the
faculties of A.W. Tozer Theological Seminary and Simpson University. I like
watching mindless action movies, reading, hanging with friends, bass fishing,
woodworking, good coffee, and Chicago sports teams. Go Bears!
Italian food is my love language.

Thank you Dr. Giovannetti !

My Review: Four Letter Words. That's one eye-popping title isn't it? Throughout the course of this book Dr. Giovannetti overviews, in a conversational tone, the logic in our faith's basic doctorines.

I was glad to find this book biblically sound, and enjoyed the easy to read style in which this book was written. I enjoyed how each chapter was summed up right at the beginning, with the "Touchy Ideas" & "Touchy Scriptures" which I thought, helped me to understand the main drift of each particular chapter. Though this book is bold, I would have liked to see it be even bolder. This is just my personal opinion, but I felt that there were some topics that were purposely avoided so as not to offend anyone. For example, evolution and creation. I thought that even if this book wasn't specifically talking about that topic, that a brief "stand" would have been great, and possibly a link pointing the readers to some great resources on the topic.

Don't get me wrong I think this book is great, and the tips on how to (politely) challenge your peers with tough questions were very helpful. I have no opinion on the QR enabled codes. I read the book without looking up the codes and then later went online and looked them up. In my opinion they weren't really that big of a deal and the book can certainly be read without them.

Overall, a very interesting book that though a large majority of it was review for me, I did pick up some nice tips here an there and think that it would be a great read for anybody questioning how faith and logic work together :)

Final Rating: 4 out of 5

Thanks to the author/publisher through whom I received this book through Litfuse Publicity in return for an honest review. I was not required to give a positive review, just to express my personal opinion, which I believe I have done. And thanks to Amy Lanthrop from Litfuse Publicity!

About the Giveaway:


Bill is celebrating the new Kindle edition of Four Letter Words (for only $4.99)! He’ll be traveling coast to coast over the next few weeks on this virtual book tour and he's celebrating by hosting a great giveaway!


Click here (http://fourletterwords.org/2012/01/contest-giveaway) to find out how you can win two gift certificates to Amazon (in the amount of $50 and $25) and free downloads of his yet-to-be-released title, Recession-Proof: Living a God-Blessed Life in a Messed Up World.


The whole scoop here: http://fourletterwords.org/2012/01/contest-giveaway/

Check out the other great stops on this blog tour by clicking here: http://litfusegroup.com/blogtours/text/13453469.