Book Reviews

Book Reviews provides thoughtful, biblically informed reviews of books that serve churches, leaders, and disciples. Explore summaries of key ideas, theological and practical evaluation, and clear recommendations on who each book is best suited for—pastors, elders, small group leaders, students, or everyday believers. You’ll find reviews across theology, ministry, discipleship, Christian living, and church history, helping you choose resources that are faithful, helpful, and worth your time. Whether you’re building a library or selecting a study for your church, this hub offers trusted guidance for discerning readers.

October 31, 2010

Christian Standard

FROM MY BOOKSHELF: Lessons from Lives Past

By LeRoy Lawson Stanley: The Impossible Life of Africa”s Greatest Explorer Tim Jeal New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007 Cleopatra: A Biography Duane W. Roller London: Oxford University Press, 2010 George, Nicholas and Wilhelm: Three Royal Cousins and the Road to World War I Miranda Carter New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2010 “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?” Who hasn”t heard Henry Stanley”s famous greeting when, after an incredibly arduous search for the missing missionary-explorer, he uttered this premeditated, deliberately understated line? More Than a Counterfeit That greeting, frankly, is about all I could have told you of the man before reading

October 29, 2010

Christian Standard

A Resource for Readers of Books

By Mark A. Taylor “Do you publish books?” It”s a fair question for Standard Publishing, because our company is known for so much more than books: Sunday school courses for every age, a best-selling and award-winning VBS, classroom supplies, youth material, electives for children and teenagers and adults, small group resources, teacher-training materials, and much more. But amid all these Bible-teaching resources is a growing library of books that many adults have come to savor and share. Some of them are best-sellers, too. All of them inspire and entertain and teach. You”ll find many good reads among the books we”ve

October 28, 2010

Christian Standard

My Paper Friends

By Mark Atteberry My wife introduced me to my love affair with books. And now they”ve been my companion in life for decades. When you walk into my office you”ll notice a unique smell. No, I don”t have an aversion to personal hygiene. Nor do I burn incense, smoke cigars, eat junk food at my desk, or keep my clothes in mothballs. The smell is a mixture of paper, cardboard, glue, and ink. That”s because my office is full of books. Some are old and a little musty, while others have that distinctive new smell. Whatever they may smell like

October 27, 2010

Christian Standard

Read a Book!

By Matt Proctor I love books. As a kid, I read everything””westerns, science fiction, Laura Ingalls Wilder, and J.R.R. Tolkien. Most kids think Disneyland is “the happiest place on earth,” but for me it was the public library. I was such a bookworm that, when I got in trouble at home, my parents would ground me . . . from reading! It wasn”t until I enrolled at Ozark Christian College that I discovered reading books could actually be a spiritual discipline. Growing up, books were entertainment””a way to feed my imagination, but I had never considered that the right books

October 4, 2010

Christian Standard

FROM MY BOOKSHELF: Two to Help Us Think About Prejudice

Talking Hands: What Sign Language Reveals About the Mind Margalit Fox New York: Simon & Schuster, 2007 Christianity: A Short Global History Frederick Norris Oxford: One World, 2002 ___________________ By LeRoy Lawson For this reader, Margalit Fox”s title could be Talking Hands””and What They”ve Taught Me About Prejudice. Prejudice is sneaky, hiding in the deepest crevices of the human psyche, seldom recognized in oneself even by the most accepting and fair-minded among us. Campaigning Against Sign Language Take our attitudes toward the deaf, for example. Who would have guessed that Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone, whose compassion for his

September 1, 2010

Christian Standard

FROM MY BOOKSHELF: Missionary Loses It All””Even His Faith

By LeRoy Lawson ___________________ Daniel L. Everett, Don”t Sleep, There Are Snakes: Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungle (New York: Vintage Books, 2008). Kerry and Chris Shook, One Month to Live: Thirty Days to a No-Regrets Life (Colorado Springs: WaterBrook Press, 2008). Leland Ryken, How to Read the Bible as Literature (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1984). ___________________ You won”t sleep through Daniel Everett”s Don”t Sleep, There Are Snakes. This is one of the most engrossing and disturbing books on missions I have read in a long time, a study in cultural anthropology and linguistics that often reads like a jungle

July 18, 2010

Christian Standard

FROM MY BOOKSHELF: Who Will Help the Poor Help Themselves?

By LeRoy Lawson The Poor Will be Glad: Joining the Revolution to Lift the World Out of Poverty Peter Greer and Phil Smith Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2009 The Supreme Court: The Personalities and Rivalries that Defined America Jeffrey Rosen New York: Times Books, 2006 On the Wealth of the Nations P.J. O”Rourke New York: Atlantic Monthly, 2007 Sunday”s sermon was a good one, but on the way home we talked less about what the preacher said than what the preacher showed. His PowerPoint pictured the church”s mission dollars at work in Uganda, among the poorest of the poor: images of the

June 6, 2010

Christian Standard

FROM MY BOOKSHELF: Three Reads to Make You Squirm

By LeRoy Lawson Frank Viola and George Barna, Pagan Christianity? Exploring the Roots of Our Church Practices (Carol Stream: BarnaBooks, 2008). Jim Henderson and Matt Casper, Jim and Casper Go to Church: Frank Conversations About Faith, Churches, and Well-Meaning Christians (Carol Stream: BarnaBooks, 2007); also available on Kindle. Richard Stearns, The Hole in Our Gospel (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2009). This column isn”t going to be easy reading. Well-intentioned friends recommended all three books. Maybe they felt I needed to squirm, undoubtedly thinking I”m a little too much at ease in Zion, too comfortable in my suburban church life. Well, I read and I

May 9, 2010

Christian Standard

FROM MY BOOKSHELF: Will You Lead? Will You Serve?

By LeRoy Lawson Jeff Jarvis, What Would Google Do? (New York: HarperCollins, 2009). Gary Hamel with Bill Breen, The Future of Management (Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing, 2007). Seth Godin, Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us (New York: Penguin Group, 2008). Does WWGD? look familiar, like maybe WWJD? If so, then Jeff Jarvis has made his point. As Christians ask what Jesus would do, Jarvis argues that organizations wanting to prosper in today”s brave new world need to ask what super-Internet-searcher Google would do, because Google does it right. No company in history has grown like it. Jarvis has “reverse engineered”

April 11, 2010

Christian Standard

FROM MY BOOKSHELF: Focusing on Grace

By LeRoy Lawson Murray Hollis, Preacher, You”ve Got Friends (Joplin: Christian Friends Connexion, 2009). Jack Cottrell, Set Free! What the Bible Says About Grace (Joplin: College Press, 2009). Michael C. Mack, Burnout-free Small Group Leadership (Houston: Touch Publications, 2009). Roger Parrott, The Longview: Lasting Strategies for Rising Leaders (Colorado Springs: David C. Cook, 2009). Murray Hollis has done Christian church ministers a real favor. His Preacher, You”ve Got Friends compiles 25 stories by “battle-tested Christian leaders” whose personal experiences “will fortify your faith and build your determination to face your next trial or challenge.” I know most of the writers; I even knew some of

March 14, 2010

Christian Standard

FROM MY BOOKSHELF: Politics, Commerce, and Religion: All About Us and Them

By LeRoy Lawson Fareed Zakaria, The Post-American World (New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 2009). James A. Morone, Hellfire Nation: The Politics of Sin in American History (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004). David Domke and Kevin Coe, The God Strategy: How Religion Became a Political Weapon in America (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007). Love of country can be beautiful. I remember returning from my first extended trip to Europe. When we landed I almost kissed the ground, I was so glad to be home again. I”ve since had that experience over and over. I”m proud to be

February 14, 2010

Christian Standard

FROM MY BOOKSHELF: Group Projects and Real People

By LeRoy Lawson Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers: The Story of Success (New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2008). I had already read Malcolm Gladwell”s best-selling books The Tipping Point and Blink, so when Outliers appeared there was no question that this one, also, would be a must-read. I was not disappointed. The Tipping Point is a “big picture book”; Gladwell outlines the macro rules that govern social change. I”ve discovered that many ministerial friends have read the book or at least are familiar with its basics, since these fundamentals are so helpful in figuring out how to lead their sometimes obstreperous

January 24, 2010

Christian Standard

It”s Just Like Fishing

By Rick Chromey Children”s ministry in the smaller church has the same amazing potential to grow and thrive as a mustard seed. It”s all in how you cultivate it. This practical guide provides insights that will encourage you in your children”s ministry, along with ready-to-use tools for evaluation, budgeting, and teacher training. Energize your children”s ministry! Use these innovative strategies for mega-impact with limited resources, people, and money. Energizing Children”s Ministry in the Smaller Church (item 42311) is available from your local supplier or at www.standardpub.com. “”˜Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “˜and I will make you fishers of men”” (Matthew

January 24, 2010

Christian Standard

Children”s Ministry Leadership GOLD!

By Rick Chromey Children”s ministry in the smaller church has the same amazing potential to grow and thrive as a mustard seed. It”s all in how you cultivate it. This practical guide provides insights that will encourage you in your children”s ministry, along with ready-to-use tools for evaluation, budgeting, and teacher training. Energize your children”s ministry! Use these innovative strategies for mega-impact with limited resources, people, and money. Energizing Children”s Ministry in the Smaller Church (item 42311) is available from your local supplier or at www.standardpub.com. To lead a children”s ministry in the 21st century””regardless of church size and shape””requires

January 10, 2010

Christian Standard

FROM MY BOOKSHELF: Forgotten, Free, and Faithful

By LeRoy Lawson Amity Shlaes, The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression (New York: HarperCollins, 2007). Chris Anderson, Free: The Future of a Radical Price (New York: Hyperion, 2009). Harvey Cox, The Future of Faith (New York: HarperOne, 2009). Here”s the thing about reading: it”s addictive. Read a good book and it whets your appetite to read more on the subject, or by the author, or to satisfy your curiosity. This month”s column is mostly about that curiosity. Bearing the Brunt The Forgotten Man is a good example. In a recent column I reviewed David Wessel”s In

January 6, 2010

Christian Standard

Interview with Chris Travis

By Brad Dupray In his new book Unnamed, Chris Travis explores the stories of eight biblical heroes who went without much recognition. In fact, the Bible doesn”t even mention their names. Based on Standard Publishing”s 2010 Vacation Bible School theme, his book combines stories of these Bible personalities with incredible accounts of modern-day unnamed heroes. Readers will discover solid biblical insight to consider what it means to live a heroic life for God in our day. Last year, Chris and his wife, Lindsay, left a staff position with LifeSpring Christian Church in Cincinnati, Ohio, to move to New York City

December 20, 2009

Christian Standard

FROM MY BOOKSHELF: Taking the Lead

By LeRoy Lawson Bill Hybels, Axiom: Powerful Leadership Proverbs (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2008). As a rule, I don”t promote leadership books. Most of them seem like the same old same old, prettied up in new packaging. Sometimes, though, rules are made to be broken. So I”m breaking one. If you are looking for an easy-to-read, common-sense set of principles that can lift your effectiveness to a new level, try Bill Hybels”s Axiom. PROVERBS, NOT TRUISMS My appreciation rose when I learned from these pages that Hybels holds in high regard another of my favorite books on the subject, Steven Sample”s

November 29, 2009

Christian Standard

FROM MY BOOKSHELF: From Mathematics to Mystery

  By Leroy Lawson Marvin L. Bittinger, The Faith Equation: One Mathematician”s Journey in Christianity (Indianapolis: Literary Architects, 2007). The Faith Equation is one book I”d have never picked up on my own. I don”t like being reminded of my ignorance. I may know a little about a few things, but I know nothing about mathematics. But what do you do when the author gives you an inscribed copy? He wasn”t trying to get into this column; he doesn”t know I write it. He just wanted to share his faith with another believer and, because of his vocation, his faith

November 11, 2009

Christian Standard

FROM MY BOOKSHELF: Practical Advice for Problems We”d Wish to Avoid

By LeRoy Lawson Glen Wheeler, Widowers Hurt, Too (self published, 2008). Cheryl Savageau and Diane Stortz, Parents of Missionaries (Colorado Springs: Authentic Publishing, 2008). Daniel Gottlieb, Learning from the Heart: Lessons on Living, Loving, and Listening (New York: Sterling Publishing, 2008). Practical is the key word for this column”s books: practical advice for men who have lost their wives, practical advice for parents who have “lost” their children to a faraway mission field, and practical advice from a man who has lost the use of his arms and legs and has learned to live successfully without them. LOSING A WIFE

November 1, 2009

Christian Standard

My ‘Must-Read’ Books

By Contributing Editors This week we publish ideas from leaders who are readers. Below are recommendations of “must-read” books from our contributing editors. Many of them had a difficult time limiting their recommendations to the few we allowed them. How many of their choices have you read? Meanwhile, Publishing Committee member Eddie Lowen wrote an essay this week about three books he recommends. In it, he weaves in examples and principles to describe how reading can change a local ministry. And don”t miss the essay by Contributing Editor Arron Chambers in which he describes how and why he”s written several books. Additionally, Contributing Editor/Publishing

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