Hook's Final Point

We lost a giant of a man last Friday. Cecil Hook passed on from this life into the next.

Who, you say?

His name is not listed among the great scholars and speakers from Churches of Christ, but he was every bit as important and influential as any of them. His books, especially the first one, Free In Christ, were some of the most eye opening I have ever read. I came across them at a time when I was beginning to question much of the traditional Church of Christ rhetoric, having just come from a mission trip to Ukraine and learning first hand that our traditions were painfully hard to back up with scripture when faced with honest questions and seeking.

Cecil was a hell-fire and brimstone preacher for many years, yet slowly God peeled away the layers and opened his eyes to grace and truth. Upon retiring from preaching, he wrote and self published 5 books that he described as his "lover's quarrel" with Churches of Christ. Although ridiculed and mocked by some of those within, he never gave up on her, all the while continuing to gently point out her flaws and point us back to the truth and away from tradition. He personally sent out each and every book sold - over 75,000 of Free In Christ alone, not counting the others.

Cecil and I spoke on the phone once, and shared some notes through snail mail and e-mail over the past 12 years. He was always very encouraging and enlightening. I will miss his weekly e-mails every Wednesday. He had a way of making me think long and hard, even about things so simple that we would swear we had them all figured out. Maybe on a slow day I'll share some of those with you.

His books are available free on line here.