Reviews

Reviews offers thoughtful evaluations of books, movies and resources that serve churches, leaders, and disciples. Explore reviews that summarize key ideas, assess theological and practical strengths, and highlight who a resource is best suited for—pastors, elders, small group leaders, students, or everyday believers. You’ll find insight on new releases and enduring classics across ministry, theology, discipleship, leadership, and Christian living. Whether you’re building a reading list, choosing curriculum, or looking for trusted recommendations, these reviews help you invest your time and learning wisely.

December 28, 2013

Christian Standard

Studies in Pride, Lessons in Humility

By LeRoy Lawson X Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, Sheila Heen, and Roger Fischer New York: Penguin Books, 1999 You Are Not So Smart: Why You Have Too Many Friends on Facebook, Why Your Memory Is Mostly Fiction, and 46 Other Ways You”re Deluding Yourself David McRaney New York: Gotham, 2012 The Years of Lyndon Johnson: The Passage of Power Robert A. Caro New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2012   “Pride goeth before a fall.”Âť “The bigger they are, the harder they fall.”Âť “Just who do you think you are, anyway?”Âť “Blessed are the meek,

November 1, 2013

Christian Standard

Books I Enjoyed about Subjects I Don”t

By LeRoy Lawson   Fermat”s Last Theorem Simon Singh London: Fourth Estate, 2002 Evolution: The Remarkable History of a Scientific Theory Edward J. Larson New York: The Modern Library, 2006  Massive: The Missing Particle that Sparked the Greatest Hunt in Science Ian Sample New York: Basic Books, 2010   Confession is good for the soul, the saying goes””and it is. Whether it is good for the column is quite another matter. Today”s books are held together by a common theme: things I don”t know. I am way, way out of my field here. But just as when driving you get lost

September 26, 2013

Christian Standard

Five “ËśMust-Read” Books for Ministry

By LeRoy Lawson Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth Richard J. Foster New York: HarperOne, originally published in 1978 In the Name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian Leadership Henri J. M. Nouwen New York: The Crossroad Publishing Company, 1989 Communicating for a Change Andy Stanley and Lane Jones Colorado Springs: Multnomah Books, 2006 Deep and Wide: Creating Churches Unchurched People Love to Attend Andy Stanley Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2012 Simple Church: Returning to God”s Process for Making Disciples Thom S. Rainer and Eric Geiger Nashville: Broadman and Holman Publishers, 2006   Recently Milligan College and Christian Standard asked

August 23, 2013

Christian Standard

Your Church Is Like a Family

By LeRoy Lawson Generation to Generation: Family Process in Church and Synagogue Edwin H. Friedman New York: The Guilford Press, 1985 A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix Edwin H. Friedman New York: Seabury Books, 2007 Friedman”s Fables Edwin H. Friedman New York: The Guilford Press, 1990 Where was Edwin Friedman”s Generation to Generation when I needed it? It”s out of print now, published in 1985, but fortunately still available in used books at Amazon.com. I would have missed this one if it hadn”t been for a highly regarded minister friend who said, “This is

August 1, 2013

Christian Standard

Love Story, Leadership Principles, and the Faith of a Scientist

By LeRoy Lawson Joni & Ken: An Untold Love Story Ken and Joni Eareckson Tada Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2013 On Point: Four Steps to Better Life Teams Del Harris Charleston: Advantage Media Group, 2012 God According to God: A Scientist Discovers We”ve Been Wrong About God All Along Gerald L. Schroeder New York: HarperOne, 2009 What I like best about Joni & Ken is that I have finally learned more about that shadowy figure who has for more than 30 years been husband, caregiver, friend, and source of strength for one of modern Evangelicalism”s leading ladies. From the moment she began

June 28, 2013

Christian Standard

From the Trivial (but Interesting) to the Eternal (and Compelling)

By LeRoy Lawson At Home: A Short History of Private Life Bill Bryson New York: Doubleday, 2010 The Divine Embrace: Recovering the Passionate Spiritual Life Robert E. Webber Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2006 Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus: How the Jewishness of Jesus Can Transform Your Faith Ann Spangler and Lois Tverberg Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2009 Some authors are hard to resist. I”d already read several Bill Bryson books (Mother Tongue, Notes from a Small Island, A Walk in the Woods, A Short History of Nearly Everything), so when I came across At Home: A Short History of

June 21, 2013

Christian Standard

A Book of Treasures

By Daniel Schantz My heart is racing and I can”t sleep, so at midnight I rise and go to my study. I sit at my desk and reach for an old, brown volume titled, Favorite Hymns. Slowly I leaf through the pages, reading the titles and lyrics of hymns like, “Be Still, My Soul,”Âť and “God Will Take Care of You,”Âť and “It Is Well with My Soul.”Âť My breathing slows, and soon I trudge back to bed, where I drift into deep slumber. Tranquility is just one of the many virtues buried in the old hymnbooks. Much of what

May 25, 2013

Christian Standard

From Three of My Favorite Female Authors

By LeRoy Lawson   Animals Make Us Human: Creating the Best Life for Animals Temple Grandin and Catherine Johnson Boston and New York: Mariner Books (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), 2009, 2010 An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith Barbara Brown Taylor New York: HarperCollins e-books, 2009 (HarperOne) Acedia and Me: A Marriage, Monks, and a Writer”s Life Kathleen Norris New York: Riverhead Books (Penguin Group), 2008   This month”s books are by three favorite female writers. Each has earned respect by life well-lived and books well-written. The first is Temple Grandin”s Animals Make Us Human, perhaps a surprising choice

February 25, 2013

Christian Standard

Failing, Fathering, and Falling Toward Maturity

By LeRoy Lawson   The Damnation of Theron Ware Harold Frederic Various editions; first published in 1896 Gilead Marilynne Robinson New York: Picador, 2004 Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life Richard Rohr San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2011 Pastoral ministry can be among the hardest jobs there are””or the easiest. Since pastors are granted freedom to set their own schedules and priorities, the conscientious minister tends to work too hard and the indolent one finds every excuse to take it easy. What this means is ministry attracts””or creates””the finest of characters or the worst. I”m exaggerating of course,

February 1, 2013

Christian Standard

Leadership Proverbs and Models of Change

The Leadership Wisdom of Solomon: 28 Essential Strategies for Leading with Integrity Pat Williams with Jim Denney Cincinnati: Standard Publishing, 2010 Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard Chip Heath and Dan Heath New York: Crown Business, 2010 Better Off: Flipping the Switch on Technology (Two People, One Year, Zero Watts) Eric Brende New York: Harper Perennial, 2004 Of the writing of leadership books there is no end. So much of what you read in one seems to be copied from others of them. In Pat Williams”s The Leadership Wisdom of Solomon, though, what impresses is not that there is

December 16, 2012

Christian Standard

Choosing to Love, Discovering the Enemy

By LeRoy Lawson   I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor”s Journey on the Road to Peace and Human Dignity Izzeldin Abuelaish London: Bloomsbury, 2010 Son of Hamas Mosab Hassan Yousef, with Ron Brackin Carol Stream: SaltRiver, an imprint of Tyndale House, 2010, 2011 For many years I led tours to the Holy Land. It never failed that as we prepared to go, someone would ask, “Don”t you think you should wait until there”s peace in the Middle East?”Âť My answer? “We have been waiting for 4,000 years now. I don”t think we can wait any longer.”Âť Flippant, admittedly. But

November 20, 2012

Christian Standard

Missionary Books, Missionary Enterprise, and Workings of the Mind

By LeRoy Lawson The Jesus Documents (The Missiology of Alan R. Tippett Series) Alan R. Tippett (Shawn Redford, editor) Pasadena: William Carey Library, 2012   River of God: An Introduction to World Mission Doug Priest and Stephen Burris, editors Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 2012   Thinking, Fast and Slow Daniel Kahneman New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011 (accessed at Audible.com) I remember when Alan R. Tippett came to study at the fledgling Church Growth Institute, which was then meeting on the campus of my alma mater, Northwest Christian College (now University) in Eugene, Oregon. Donald McGavran had only recently

October 22, 2012

Christian Standard

Africa and Afghanistan, Ethics and Unity

By LeRoy Lawson Say You”re One of Them Uwem Akpan New York: Little Brown and Company, 2008 The Places in Between Rory Stewart Orlando: Harvest Original/Harcourt, 2004 Just Ministry: Professional Ethics for Pastoral Ministers Richard M. Gula Mahwah: Paulist Press, 2010 The History of the Open Forum on the Mission of the Church 1983″“2009 John Mills Middleburg Heights: Open Forum/Southwest Christian Church, 2011 Oprah”s Book Club is not my usual source to find a good read. Not that good books aren”t there. It”s just that my interests and her recommendations haven”t often jibed. That is, until now. Or until 2009,

October 14, 2012

Christian Standard

Hope, Despair in India: Find This Book and Read It! (Part 13)

By Jim Tune   A Fine Balance Rohinton Mistry St. Louis: Turtleback, 2001 I have given copies of A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry to more of my reading friends than possibly any other book I have read. All the cruelty and corruption, dignity and heroism of India is startlingly captured and made real to the reader. Set in 1975 in an unnamed city by the sea in India, this eye-opening novel looks at the lives of four strangers who have fallen, almost instantly, from a middle-class lifestyle to the ranks of the poor due to sudden economic upheaval. These

October 14, 2012

Christian Standard

Epic and Eternal: Find This Book and Read It! (Part 12)

By Charlie W. Starr   Epic: The Story God Is Telling and the Role that Is Yours to Play John Eldredge Nashville: Thomas Nelson, first published in 2004 When I read this issue in past years, I complained about the lack of fiction books among the choices, even to the point of writing a letter about it to Christian Standard. I”m a literature teacher and a writer. I understand the power of stories. I believe Christians should look more to the imagination for its importance in teaching truth and reaching people. So I”m somewhat self-shocked by the fact I”m choosing a

October 13, 2012

Christian Standard

All About Worship: Find This Book and Read It! (Part 11)

By Dale Reeves   The Air I Breathe: Worship as a Way of Life Louie Giglio Colorado Springs: Multnomah, 2009 I”ve had a calling on my life to be a lifelong worshipper of God since I was a little boy sitting in Sunday evening services at Clovernook (now LifeSpring) Christian Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. Back in those days, David Lang led us in singing the great hymns of the faith””all of the verses””and to this day it”s amazing how the lyrics of those hymns are tucked away in my brain. They often rise to the surface during a season of seeking

October 13, 2012

Michael C. Mack

The Vitality of Christian Community: Find This Book and Read It! (Part 10)

By Michael C. Mack   The Relational Way: From Small Group Structures to Holistic Life Connections M. Scott Boren Houston: TOUCH Publications, 2007 The model of the church today stands in stark contrast to the church of the New Testament. In this book, Scott Boren calls for a new restoration””a restoration of the “relational way”Âť that is at the very heart of God and his design for his church. The ideas Boren proposes are revolutionary within our culture; indeed, they are counter-cultural, which is exactly what he intends and proposes in this book. If you are not directly involved in small groups,

October 13, 2012

Christian Standard

Reading for Enrichment: Find This Book and Read It! (Part 9)

By Marshall Hayden   It”s great advice! “Read broadly”Âť we have been told. It will enrich your life, your thinking, and your preaching. It”s true. But until retirement came, the stack of interesting books””purchased but unread””just kept getting taller. Now there is the fine advantage of carrying a little electronic thingamajig, rather than a bag or briefcase full of books. Maybe you will start taking that good advice earlier than I did. You may be like our remarkable friend, Roy Lawson, whose reviews you read on the pages of Christian Standard. He is not yet retired. Well, twice retired, but

October 12, 2012

Christian Standard

Exploring Authentic Manhood: Find This Book and Read It! (Part 8)

By Eddie Lowen   Man Alive: Transforming Your Seven Primal Needs into a Powerful Spiritual Life Patrick Morley Colorado Springs: Multnomah, 2012 Several people who narrowly escaped the collapse of the World Trade Center towers 11 years ago credited their safety to “a man wearing a red bandana.”Âť The man approached several bewildered people and said, “Follow me. I can help you get out.”Âť He carried one woman on his back down 17 flights of stairs. When the rubble was cleared from where Tower One once stood, the body of a young man wearing a red bandana was found among the bodies

October 12, 2012

Christian Standard

An Exciting Family Devotion Resource: Find This Book and Read It! (Part 7)

By Matt Lockhart   Discovering God”s Story Jim Eichenberger Cincinnati: Standard Publishing, 2010 Have you ever wrestled with wanting to do a family devotion but struggled with what to use or how to get started? If so, do I have a reading recommendation for you! Discovering God”s Story is a great book to help families engage with God”s Word. It”s a beautifully illustrated, full-color hardcover that provides a chronological overview of major Bible stories and themes in 100 short and visually rich vignettes. While a great reference book for any Bible student, I can tell you from firsthand experience that

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