Unexpected Destinations, by Wesley Granberg-Michaelson

What do you get when you take an attractive, intelligent kid born into a loving, happy, Midwestern family and relinquish him for baptism, telling him he is now "engaged to profess Christ"? Wesley Granberg-Michaelson, that's who.

This is a wonderfully well-written auto­biography by one of the notable leaders of the contemporary American church. If you are a Protestant Christian over 50, there is a good chance that you will see marks of your own pilgrimage in the steps of Granberg-Michaelson.

His journey began in a well-formed, evangelical Reformed church and in the fledgling Young Life movement (he was a conservative compatriot with our present secretary of state back when she was a young evangelical). He was probably the only person to attend Hope College as an act of rebellion. He went to Princeton Seminary and then became the youngest member of Senator Mark Hatfield's staff. He was mentored by Gordon Cosby, was present for the earliest days of Sojourners, then became a pastor and general secretary of the Reformed Church in America. Granberg-Michaelson has landed in some outstanding locations.