The Hollywood Commandments: A Spiritual Guide to Secular Success by DeVon Franklin is guidebook for believers in Jesus Christ who desire to fulfill God’s purpose for their lives within the career field or industry that God has sent them into.

 

This book is sure to be an answer to the prayers of many believers who have questioned or felt conflicted about whether God would call them to work in a secular industry.

 

 

There is no doubt in my mind that this book is going to lift a weight off of a lot of believers in Jesus Christ. So many of us (believers in Christ) have been cautioned about pursuing careers in secular fields and industries, often by religious leaders and organizations. In many cases, believers are persuaded to avoid certain careers entirely, even when they have a burning passion to share their gifts and talents within those arenas. Through this book, DeVon is essentially given those who have nearly had their fires quenched the greenlight, the permission and the tools to go into those secular arenas properly prepared to operate in their gifts and leave a lasting impact that will please their Heavenly Father.

 

This is such an enjoyable and fun book to read. It has a conversational tone that makes it easy to read through and understand the concepts that DeVon is sharing. I really liked how the concepts in this book are presented. I’m not a fan of books that are heavy on sharing stories and experiences, unless it’s done the right way. This book does it the right way! There is a great balance between presenting and exploring the concepts and then sharing experiences that make the concepts even easier to comprehend. Plus, it’s evident that DeVon is speaking from years of experience having done exactly what he is encouraging others to do.

 

There are plenty of things that I really appreciated about this book. However, there is one thing that stood out to me that kept me from “loving” it. There is no doubt that DeVon is aiming to present a balanced perspective between the spiritual and secular aspects to pursuing our careers. Unfortunately, I don’t think he’s accomplished that with this book. There is definitely a focus placed on the spiritual aspect of the career pursuit, but the balance ultimately weighs heaviest toward the secular side.

 

The clearest example of how spiritual aspects of the career pursuit were minimized can be found within the first chapter of the book. In presenting the concept that prayers alone aren’t enough, there is a lot of focus placed on the work that the individual must do and very little mention of the role that God ultimately plays in our career pursuit.

 

By no means was the importance of prayer disregarded, this is evident by the encouragement throughout the entire book for readers to pray. However, what’s lacking is the acknowledgement of the true spiritual power of prayer. I can’t say for certain if this key principle is missing because the author has not yet come into a full understanding of the power of prayer and how great of an impact it truly has on our lives or if the author does have that understanding and simply chose not to expound on it within this book. Regardless, it was clear that the main focus was not on the power of prayer, but on the work that readers must be willing to do in conjunction with their faith.

 

I completely agree that believing and having faith, without being willing to put in the work that God requires from us is not enough. At the same time, I couldn’t ignore the fact that nearly every positive statement about prayer was followed by a “BUT” statement explaining why prayer isn’t as valuable as our actions and the work that we must do. Despite this, and a few other things that I didn’t completely agree with, it by no means takes away from the fact that this is a valuable, enjoyable and potentially life changing book.

 

This book is loaded with vital principles for success that are not only shared, but explained and often founded on sound biblical truths. The addition of the “Thou Shalt” and “Thou Shalt Not” section at the end of the chapters did a great job of summarizing and simplifying the key principles and takeaways from each chapter. By far one of my favorite parts of the book is when DeVon shares multiple ways for determining if what we are pursuing is truly a talent from God or not. I found immense value in that!

 

The Hollywood Commandments is a book that delivers on it’s promises. If readers have a sincere desire to learn how to express their God given talents within secular industries and careers, this book will definitely equip them with the tools and strategies to successfully do so. I highly recommend this book and truly believe that it is a must read for believers in Jesus Christ who want to fulfil the call on their lives!

 

If you would like to learn more, you can check the book out on Amazon.

I received this book free from the publisher through the BookLook Bloggers book review bloggers program.