Series: Reviews

December 17, 2015

Christian Standard

Pursuing Unity, Revisiting Assumptions, Winning with Winsomeness

By LeRoy Lawson Disunity in Christ: Uncovering the Hidden Forces That Keep Us Apart Christena Cleveland Downers Grove: IVP Books/Intervarsity Press, 2013   Jesus Feminist: An Invitation to Revisit the Bible”s View of Women Sarah Bessey New York: Howard Books, 2013   The Best Kept Secret of Christian Mission: Promoting the Gospel with More Than Our Lips John Dickson Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2013   Hearing Her Voice: A Biblical Invitation for Women to Preach (Revised Edition) John Dickson Grand Rapids: Zondervan 2012, 2014 I like introducing people to authors I”ve just met. Recently I read three books that made me want to become better

November 28, 2015

Christian Standard

Competitors, Charismatics, and Caregivers

By LeRoy Lawson Birdmen: The Wright Brothers, Glenn Curtiss, and the Battle to Control the Skies Lawrence Goldstone New York: Ballantine Books, 2014 Prototype: What Happens When You Discover You”re More Like Jesus Than You Think Jonathan Martin Carol Stream: Tyndale Momentum, 2013 Call the Midwife: A Memoir of Birth, Joy, and Hard Times Jennifer Worth New York: Penguin Books, 2012 Disillusioned. There”s a sad word for you. It means that something you believe or want to believe or thought was true but never checked out turns out to be not so. You believed an illusion, and now you know. Sorrow comes

October 25, 2015

Christian Standard

The Book that Saved My Ministry

Seven leaders tell how reading made all the difference for them. ____ TODD CLARK, teaching pastor, Christ”s Church of the Valley, Peoria, Arizona Too Busy Not to Pray: Slowing Down to Be with God by Bill Hybels (InterVarsity Press, 1998) Choosing to Cheat: Who Wins When Family and Work Collide? by Andy Stanley (Multnomah, 2003) The Life You”ve Always Wanted: Spiritual Disciplines for Ordinary People by John Ortberg (Zondervan, 1997) Soul Keeping: Caring for the Most Important Part of You by John Ortberg (Zondervan, 2014) A Tale of Three Kings: A Study of Brokenness by Gene Edwards (Tyndale House, 1992) As I

October 24, 2015

Christian Standard

Books Too Good to Miss

What should I read my children? What should my children read? This teacher”s answers to those questions just may point out books you”d like to read for yourself! By Pat Magness Reading is one of the greatest gifts parents can give their children. It is especially crucial for Christian parents for whom the reading of the Word is central to their faith. The love of reading is best nurtured long before children are reading for themselves: the best reading teacher is the one with a child on his or her lap, reading aloud in a total context of love and

October 22, 2015

Christian Standard

New Testament Church, New Insights on Ministry

By LeRoy Lawson Renewal for Mission: A Concise History of Christian Churches and Churches of Christ W. Dennis Helsabeck Jr., Gary Holloway, Douglas A. Foster Abilene: Abilene Christian University Press, 2009 A Dresser of Sycamore Trees: The Finding of a Ministry Garret Keizer HarperSanFrancisco, 1991, 1993 Priest, Prophet, Pilgrim: Types and Distortions of Spiritual Vocation in the Fiction of Wendell Berry and Cormac McCarthy Todd Edmonds Eugene: Pickwick Publications, 2014 When I was 9 years old, I made my nervous way down the aisle of my home church. I confessed my faith to our minister in front of all those people.

October 10, 2015

Christian Standard

The Speed of Trust

By Jeff Faull Stephen M.R. Covey calls it “the one thing that changes everything.” When you have it, you can move forward quickly, confidently, and positively. When you don”t have it, your enterprise, organization, or endeavor is hindered and even paralyzed. According to Covey, trust is what changes everything. In fact his New York Times best seller on the subject is titled The Speed of Trust. Covey contends the commodity most overlooked and underrated in organizational health and efficiency is the trust factor. No, he isn”t longing for a return to the days of deals sealed with a simple handshake

September 24, 2015

Christian Standard

Is Religion the Problem?

By LeRoy Lawson Can We Be Good Without God? Biology, Behavior, and the Need to Believe Robert Beckman Amherst: Prometheus Books, 2002 Fields of Blood: Religion and the History of Violence Karen Armstrong New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2014 Home Sweet Anywhere: How We Sold Our House, Created a New Life, and Saw the World Lynne Martin Naperville: Sourcebooks, 2014 I bought Can We Be Good Without God? because I wanted to know the answer. It”s not unusual for someone going through a medical, familial, or other kind of crisis to ask, “How does one who doesn”t believe in God get through something

September 3, 2015

Christian Standard

Working for the Glory of God

Book review by Bob Mink Work: A Kingdom Perspective on Labor Ben Witherington III Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2011 Ben Witherington doesn”t merely suggest that modern American Christians know little of what the Bible says about work, and that theologians have seldom addressed the topic. In Work: A Kingdom Perspective on Labor, he offers solutions to both deficiencies. And in the course of his short book (166 pages), this professor of New Testament at Asbury Theological Seminary relays quite a bit of what the Bible says about work. Foundational to a biblical and Christian view of work is that

September 3, 2015

Christian Standard

Work: A Part of God”s Plan

Book Review by Bert Crabbe Every Good Endeavor: Connecting Your Work to God”s Work Timothy Keller Dutton (Penguin Group USA), 2012 Tim Keller, lead pastor of New York City”s Redeemer Presbyterian Church, possesses a unique ability to cause his readers to see things from a perspective not their own. Opening up Every Good Endeavor, I thought I had a pretty good bead on the place of work in the life of a Christian. Keller, as he so often does, led me to another level of theological thought. Work is sometimes considered a result of the fall of man, a punitive addition

August 22, 2015

Christian Standard

Powerful, Prolific, and the Professor

By LeRoy Lawson   Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World Jack Weather ford New York: Broadway Books, 2005 Surprised by Scripture: Engaging Contemporary Issues N. T. Wright New York: HarperOne, 2014 Reading Backwards: Figural Christology and the Fourfold Gospel Witness Richard B. Hays Waco: Baylor University Press, 2014 When I told a friend I was reading a biography of Genghis Khan, he laughed at me. “You will read anything, won”t you?” No, not anything, but a lot of things! “But why Genghis Khan?” Because I don”t know very much about him, that”s why, and because he was

July 27, 2015

Christian Standard

Growth, Grace, and a Writer I Like

By LeRoy Lawson   Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership: Seeing God in the Crucible of Ministry Ruth Haley Barton Downers Grove: IVP Books, 2008 Lila: A Novel Marilynne Robinson New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2014 Persuasion: A Novel Jane Austen Originally published in 1817   I”ve written here before about how much I learn from my students. Many books in this column have appeared because they told me I needed to read a favorite of theirs. Ruth Haley Barton is one of those favorites. She is president of the Transforming Center, where she and her colleagues are in the business

July 2, 2015

Christian Standard

An Annotated List of My Latest Finds

By LeRoy Lawson The War of the Worlds H. G. Wells London: Penguin Books, 2007 (first published in book form in 1898) Science and Religion in Quest of Truth John Polkinghorne New Haven: Yale University Press, 2011 Finding Neguinho David Randle New York: Page Publishing, 2014 Chasing Francis: A Pilgrim”s Tale Ian Morgan Cron Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2013 (previously published by NavPress, 2006) Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue: The Untold History of English John H. McWhorter New York: Gotham Books, 2009 Language A to Z (audio download/CD) John H. McWhorter Chantilly: The Great Courses, 2013 The Most Powerful Idea in the World: A Story of Steam, Industry

June 7, 2015

Christian Standard

A Book to Push Us Deeper

By Matt Johnson Is your church liberal or conservative? The question is a land mine, often meant to act as a test of fellowship. Christians who wish to honor God with their hearts as well as their minds see this question as a false choice. For this audience, Adam Hamilton has written Seeing Gray in a World of Black and White: Thoughts on Religion, Morality, and Politics (Abington Press, 2008). Radical Center Hamilton divides his book into three parts. First he lays a foundation for what he calls the “radical center.” His goal is not to arrive at tepid, middle-of-the-road

May 25, 2015

Christian Standard

Struggling for Balance

By LeRoy Lawson   Slow Church: Cultivating Community in the Patient Way of Jesus C. Christopher Smith and John Pattison Downers Grove: IVP Books, 2014 iGods: How Technology Shapes Our Spiritual and Social Lives Craig Detweiler Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2013 Brave New World Aldous Huxley New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics; originally published in 1932 Chris Smith presented the argument for Slow Church to a small gathering in Erwin, Tennessee. After a season of serious drought, First Christian Church has been enjoying renewal under the steady leadership of Chris”s friend Todd Edmondson. Erwin was a fitting venue, since many of the growth techniques that have

March 30, 2015

Christian Standard

God”s Heart, God”s Servants, a Growing Church

By LeRoy Lawson Life on Mission: God”s People Finding God”s Heart for the World Tim Harlow Pastors.com, 2014 Timeless: Devotions Based on the Sermons of Floyd Strater Kim Hamilton Self published, 2014 (available at amazon.com & lulu.com) No More Dragons: Get Free from Broken Dreams, Lost Hope, Bad Religion, and Other Monsters Jim Burgen Nashville: Nelson Books, 2014 The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity (Future of Christianity Trilogy) Philip Jenkins New York: Oxford University Press, 2011 The 2014 North American Christian Convention was a profitable one for me. In addition to Ian DiOrio”s Trivial Pursuits, which I reviewed in last month”s column,

March 1, 2015

Christian Standard

Tragic Hero, Seven Great Men, and How to Reach the “˜Nones”

By LeRoy Lawson Washington Journal: Reporting Watergate and Richard Nixon”s Downfall Elizabeth Drew New York: Overlook Hardcover, 2014 Seven Men: And the Secret of Their Greatness Eric Metaxas Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2013 The Rise of the Nones: Understanding and Reaching the Religiously Unaffiliated James Emery White Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2014 I have been reliving a nightmare. Not just my bad dream, but our nation”s. Nightmare isn”t even my word. It”s Gerald Ford”s, part of his August 1974 swearing-in remarks. Richard Nixon had left the White House in disgrace. “My fellow Americans,” Ford told the country, “our long national nightmare

February 28, 2015

Christian Standard

A Literary Conversation about Racial Prejudice

By LeRoy Lawson Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power Jon Meacham New York: Random House, 2012 Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America Gilbert King New York: Harper Perennial, 2013 Trivial Pursuits: Why Your Real Life Is More than Media, Money and the Pursuit of Happiness Ian DiOrio Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2014 I often make my way through two or three books at a time, one on my Kindle, one for listening pleasure when grunting my way through morning exercises, and a “real book” with paper pages at the office or

January 30, 2015

Christian Standard

Assessing a Pope, Learning about Armenia, Reconsidering Depression

By LeRoy Lawson   Pope John XXIII Thomas Cahill New York: Penguin Books, 2008 Armenia: A Journey Through History Arra S. Avakian Fresno: The Electric Press, 2008 The Armenian Genocide: Forgotten and Denied Yair Auron Valley Cottage: Contento De Semrik, 2013 My Age of Anxiety Scott Stossel New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2014 On March 13, 2013, the Roman Catholic Church”s papal conclave elected Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina as the new pope. We commoners held our collective breath. So much depends on the character of the man, his leadership style, his ability to hold together his far-flung, disparate, often

December 18, 2014

Christian Standard

The Crime-Poverty Connection

Book Review by Doug Priest The Locust Effect: Why the End of Poverty Requires the End of Violence Gary A. Haugen and Victor Boutros Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014 The Locust Effect made me extremely angry. I seethed with righteous indignation for the entire first half of the volume. Gary Haugen is the founder of International Justice Mission, an international human rights agency that provides service to “impoverished victims of violent abuse and oppression in the developing world.” His book begins with several gut-wrenching illustrations of injustice in the majority world. From Yuri, the small Peruvian child who was raped

December 16, 2014

Christian Standard

What Does “˜Justice” Mean?

By Chris Travis Generous Justice Timothy Keller New York: Riverhead, 2010 In Generous Justice, Tim Keller leads us through a straightforward, well-reasoned, and brief but comprehensive survey of what the Bible says about justice. It”s eye-opening to see how much emphasis God puts on justice in Scripture. This is a particularly relevant book in the wake of socially volatile situations like this summer”s shooting of Michael Brown and ensuing protests in Ferguson, Missouri. There is so much impassioned public discourse about what”s right and wrong, and not nearly enough deep contemplation about what the Bible actually says about justice. Generous

Help Keep Christian Standard Free & Accessible with a Tax Deductible Donation

We can do more together!

Every gift makes a difference!

No, thank you.
100% secure transactions - receipts provided.
Does Your Church Want to Support Christian Standard?

Would your church consider including support for Christian Standard in its annual missions budget? Your support would help us not only continue the 160-year legacy of this unifying ministry, but also expand the free resources, cooperative opportunities, and practical guidance we provide to strengthen churches in the U.S. and around the world.

We can do more together!

Every gift makes a difference!

No, thank you.
100% secure transactions - receipts provided.
Secret Link