January 31, 2023
I must admit, I simply couldn’t ignore this title. I had to buy a copy of "The Duct Tape Letters" just to see how it measured up to "The Screwtape Letters" by famed author C. S. Lewis. . . . Would Drew Baker’s recently published homage be worthy of comparison?
December 25, 2019
Reviewed by Caleb Kaltenbach Tim Harlow excels in ministry leadership. He serves a growing church—Parkview Christian in Chicagoland has gone from 150 to 10,000-plus—mentors countless people, and encourages fellow senior ministers. He has served as president of the North American Christian Convention and authored Life on Mission: God’s People Finding God’s Heart for the World. And he’s done all of this—plus earned a doctorate—while loving his family and displaying courage, humility, and a sense of humor. However, if Harlow were asked what he’s most proud of in his ministry (besides his family), my guess is he’d say, “Leading a church
January 6, 2018
By Jerry Harris One of the top-selling books of the recent past by an independent Christian church writer is undoubtedly Barry Cameron’s The ABC’s of Financial Freedom, which has sold approximately 250,000 copies since its release in 2001. The book has helped hundreds of churches and thousands of people across America turn their financial situations around, and it has helped churches raise millions of dollars for kingdom causes. Through the ABC’s, readers have discovered biblical principles to help escape the burden and bondage of debt, enabling them to declare their financial independence. Churches have reduced their debt and improved their financial
February 16, 2017
By Bob Mink I Wish Jesus Hadn”t Said That Stephen Timmis Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2014 The Hard Sayings of Jesus F.F. Bruce Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1983 Some book titles get your attention by implying they are about something you may not agree with. When I was a youth minister in the 1970s, I used Fritz Ridenour”s book How to be a Christian Without Being Religious, and was taken to task by a mother who misunderstood the title. Steve Timmis”s book, I Wish Jesus Hadn”t Said That (Zondervan, 2013), does the same thing. The title is his initial response to
February 16, 2017
By Richard A. Knopp Making Sense of God: An Invitation to the Skeptical Timothy Keller New York: Viking, 2016 Tim Keller writes, “If you think Christianity doesn’t hold much promise of making sense to a thinking person, then this book is for you.” I would add: If you even have contact with anyone who thinks Christianity doesn’t hold much promise of making sense, then Making Sense of God is for you. Whether you are a strong skeptic, a Christian scholar, a sermonizer, a church shepherd, or a concerned saint, this book is worth your time (and your dime). Keller’s numerous
February 2, 2017
By LeRoy Lawson What”s in a Phrase? Pausing Where Scripture Gives You Pause Marilyn Chandler McEntyre Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2014 A Faithful Farewell: Living Your Last Chapter with Love Marilyn Chandler McEntyre Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2015 A Long Letting Go: Meditations on Losing Someone You Love Marilyn Chandler McEntyre Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2015 The Gene: An Intimate History Siddhartha Mukherjee New York: Scribner, 2016 When I learned of Marilyn McEntyre”s 2014 book What”s in a Phrase? I had to add it to my “must read” list. Earlier I had read her Caring for Words in a Culture of Lies. Her purpose in
September 4, 2016
Work as Worship: How the CEOs of Interstate Batteries, Hobby Lobby, PepsiCo, Tyson Foods and More Bring Meaning to Their Work Mark L. Russell, author and editor Boise: Elevate Faith, 2012 A book review by Matt Johnson Worship is not just a Sunday event; it is a lifestyle. Decades of worship wars often focused on worship as what happens only on Sunday mornings, but an examination of our practices and the Scriptures has expanded our definition of worship to include both nonmusical and non-Sunday events. With the proliferation of books on leadership, it was only a matter of time before an interdisciplinary entrepreneur like
February 27, 2016
By Matt Johnson Everyday Theology, as its subtitle promises, tells us How to Read Cultural Texts and Interpret Trends. How does your faith speak to human rights, pop music, or designer funerals? Is there any benefit to buying a ticket for the latest Hollywood blockbuster? When should we embrace the hurry of modern American culture, and when should we slow down? What does the proliferation of the blogosphere mean to our culture and the church? Complicated questions have complicated answers, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling you something less than the gospel. So I appreciated Everyday Theology (Grand Rapids:
February 7, 2016
By Jeff Faull The Book that Made Your World suggests that the Bible provided the framework that orders most of Western society today. Whether we realize it or not, most of us think theologically. The things we believe or fail to believe about God and his will shape our worldview and how we react to situations in life. Author Vishal Mangalwadi is so attuned to this concept that he published an entire volume entitled The Book that Made Your World with the subtitle How the Bible Created the Soul of Western Civilization (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2012). His thesis is that
December 11, 2015
By Tim Neuenschwander For the Beauty of the Church: Casting a Vision for the Arts Edited by W. David O. Taylor Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2010 For the Beauty of the Church brings together a collection of noted voices of art making (the craft of making art) and art makers (the people who create art) from religious settings, churches, and forums. There is something in this collection for everyone who is looking for ways to manifest arts in his or her religious venue. While some chapters held little interest for me, others were spot on and I gleaned much from the encouraging and
November 22, 2015
Review by Dick Alexander Leading a Healthy Multi-Ethnic Church: Seven Common Challenges and How to Overcome Them Mark DeYmaz and Harry Li Zondervan 2013 Why would a person be interested in a book titled Leading a Healthy Multi-Ethnic Church? Most likely for the same reason Mark DeYmaz got interested in the subject””a growing burden, born of a prompting of the Holy Spirit, that the church on earth should look more like the church in Heaven. If that”s you, and if you”re seeking answers to complex questions and direction for the journey, DeYmaz can help. Biblical Principles, Practical Strategies Leading a Healthy
September 3, 2015
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
February 9, 2015
Review by Dick Alexander Unhooked Generation: The Truth about Why We”re Still Single By Jillian Straus Hyperion, 2007 Have you noticed Americans are waiting longer to marry than past generations? And have you noticed a growing number don”t marry at all? So did Jillian Straus, because she was one of them. With matchmaking websites, speed dating, and shelves of relationship books, why can”t today”s young adults find the love relationships they”re looking for, and make them last? Straus, a former producer for Oprah, interviewed more than 100 single men and women thirtysomethings, and wove their stories with her own observations into
January 14, 2015
By Jim Tune The Pacific Crest Trail is a 2,650-mile hiking trail that reaches from Mexico to Canada. Starting in desert chaparral near the Mexican border, the trail climbs along the backbone of the Sierra Nevada and Cascade ranges. It winds through Oregon forests and skirts along the shoulders of volcanoes like Mount Rainier in Washington. In the spring of 1995, a disillusioned 25-year-old Cheryl Strayed hit the trail to lose her problems. Strayed shared her story in her best-selling memoir Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail. She had never been backpacking before setting out on
December 18, 2014
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
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
June 8, 2014
By Jon Weatherly Creation versus evolution, young earth versus old earth, design versus chance, God versus Darwin””few issues stir as much controversy for and among Christians as the question of origins. The recent debate between Ken Ham, founder of Answers in Genesis, and Bill Nye, PBS”s “the Science Guy,” is but the latest in a series of flashpoints going back at least to the celebrated Scopes “monkey” trial of 1925. In the aftermath of these events, Christians sometimes feel they”ve been surrounded by mortal enemies who must be fought at all costs. Too often what some Christians mount as a
August 1, 2013
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
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
October 14, 2012
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
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