Reid, Alvin L. Sharing Jesus Without Freaking Out. Nashville: B&H Academic, 2017. 144 pages. $16.99. Most people who attend church at least once a month believe they have a personal responsibility to share their faith, but few actually do. A recent survey from Lifeway found that almost half of churchgoers have never shared their faith or invited someone to church, and 61 percent have not done so in the last six months. In a question asking respondents to rank attributes of growing … [Read more...]
Praying together at church, home
Hill, Megan. Praying Together: The Priority and Privilege of Prayer in Our Homes, Communities, and Churches. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2016. 158 pages. $12.99. I was thirteen when my family started attending church, and my parents went all-in. We didn’t just go to church on Sunday mornings, but on Sunday nights and Wednesday nights as well. Wednesday nights were church-wide prayer services. You were handed a prayer list when you entered, and then my pastor would take prayer … [Read more...]
Considering the ‘Benedict Option’
Dreher, Rod. The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation. New York: Sentinel, 2017. 262 pages. $25.00. Thirty-six years ago a philosopher named Alisdair MacIntyre declared that Western culture had lost its way, similar to the Roman Empire before its fall, and that those living virtuous lives could no longer participate in this culture. Instead they must form alternative cultures that would allow them to survive this new “dark ages” with integrity and … [Read more...]
Developing leaders in the church
Geiger, Eric, and Kevin Peck. Designed to Lead: The Church and Leadership Development. Nashville: B&H, 2016. 234 pp. $22.99. The church needs leaders. The world needs leaders. Jesus saves us to be leaders in advancing the gospel to the ends of the earth. One of the purposes of the church is develop and send out leaders to advance the gospel to the ends of the earth. Most Christians and ministry leaders agree with the previous paragraph. So where are all the leaders in our churches? … [Read more...]
‘Redeeming anger, irritation’
Powlinson, David. Good & Angry: Redeeming Anger, Irritation, Complaining, and Bitterness. Greensboro, NC: New Growth, 2016. 26 pp. $19.99. Every one of us knows what it’s like to have our anger go bad. We get irritated and begin complaining, we pass judgment on people who don’t meet our standards, we seethe inside at some wrong we’ve experienced or blow up in a rage. We also know what it’s like to be on the receiving end of anger gone wrong, to be judged, yelled at, or ignored in a … [Read more...]
A Bible worth reading in 2017
ESV Reader’s Bible, Six-Volume Set. Wheaton: Crossway, 2016. 3,364 pp. $199.99. A new year is a fitting time to take stock of your life, to think through where you are, where you want to go, and how you can get there. This is why January is the time of new gym memberships, diets, budgets, and other lifestyle changes. Spiritually, this is why January is also the time of Bible-reading plans, as believers seek to deepen their relationship with God by spending time in his Word. Like other … [Read more...]
‘The truth behind the birth of Christ’
Keller, Timothy. Hidden Christmas: The Surprising Truth Behind the Birth of Christ. Viking: New York, 2016. 148 pp. $20.00. Just about all people, Christian or not, think they are familiar with the Christmas story. Even in our increasingly secular culture, Christmas continues to be a time when the truth of Christianity is seen and sung. Every December you can still see nativity scenes with Baby Jesus resting in a manger. You can still turn on the radio and hear songs proclaiming, “Joy … [Read more...]
‘Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther’
On October 31, 1517 a monk named Martin Luther posted a paper to a church’s door, and transformed the world. Of course, like many world-transforming events, no one at the time could have known this would happen, including Luther himself. He posted his ninety-five theses to the door of Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany to start a theological debate, challenging the power of the pope to forgive sins and essentially sell salvation. Yet God used this man and this moment to spark a … [Read more...]
BOOK REVIEW: Praying through the Word of God
Prayer is talking with God, and as Christians we have the unimaginable privilege of talking with God whenever we want to because Jesus Christ has granted us access to the Father. The Holy Spirit continually moves us to pray and grants us the assurance that our Heavenly Father wants to hear from us. As those in Christ we get to experience the joy, peace, and glory that come with prayer. We get to experience the grace of answered prayer and the wonder of seeing God work in us and around us … [Read more...]
‘Who moved my pulpit?’
Rainer, Thom S. Who Moved My Pulpit: Leading Change in the Church. Nashville: B&H, 2016. 143 pp. $12.99. Nine out of ten churches in North America are either declining or growing more slowly than their communities. As Thom Rainer, President of LifeWay Christian Resources, states near the end of this book, “We are reaching fewer people. Our backdoors are open widely. Church conflict is normative. Pastors and church staff are wounded. Many have given up altogether” (124). Yes, … [Read more...]
Engaging the culture without losing Christ
We live in a time when fewer and fewer Americans are self-identifying as Christians, and more and more Americans are explicitly rejecting Christian values. Christian understandings of sexuality, marriage, the sanctity of life, gender, and religious liberty are increasingly seen as outdated, if not dangerous. Younger people especially are rejecting religion in general and Christianity in particular as lifestyles of intolerance and even oppression. The idea of America as a Christian nation, … [Read more...]
Review: Ortlund’s ‘How the Church Portrays the Beauty of Christ’
The gospel is the good news that God the Father sent God the Son, Jesus Christ, to live a perfect life, die on the cross in our place, and rise from the dead so that we can have life. Jesus rescues us from the judgment we deserve for breaking God’s laws, brings us into the kingdom of God, and grants us eternal life. This message of salvation through grace is the defining truth of Christianity and the point of the entire Bible. The gospel is what we must believe in order to be Christians, … [Read more...]