This is long overdue. Christian publishers routinely send me their books because this blog gets a great deal of traffic.
Here are some quick reviews on some books that have been given to me awhile back. You can find them all on Amazon.com
MAD CHURCH DISEASE. Anne Jackson (the premier blogger) wrote this one. Gorgeous cover, beautiful lay-out, and well written. It’s sort of an anatomy of church burnout. There is a religious system, folks. And people routinely get chewed up in it. I think one of the things to keep in mind, however, is that what many people call “church” today has few points of contact with the NT ekklesia. And this compounds the confusion. (See “Why I Love the Church: In Praise of God’s Eternal Purpose.”) It’s also the culprit that creates burnout, which often occurs if one gets involved in “leadership” or “service” in a modern institutional church (I possess hundreds of letters on this score by burnout victims). Anne is an impressive person. Quite talented on many fronts. This book is no exception. 82 reviews on Amazon.com to date — 3 cheers for Anne. Read ‘em.
10 THINGS I HATE ABOUT CHRISTIANITY by Jason T. Berggren. This is a refreshing book in many ways. What I like most about it is that Jason nails many of the problems that many Christians think, but would never admit. This book tracks with some of the things I’ve written, though I think our solutions may be a bit different at this juncture in life.
OVERCOMING CRISIS by Myles Munroe. I think this is a helpful book for our times with lots of wisdom. If you’re “going through it” right now, read it and let me know if you found it to be of help.
ANCIENT CHRISTIAN COMMENTARY ON SCRIPTURE by IVP – this is a series that uses the church fathers as source material (quotes) on their thoughts on various passages in the Bible. Interesting work, especially if you want to see what Christians over 1,500 years ago said about various biblical texts.
NEW TESTAMENT FOR EVERYONE BIBLE STUDY GUIDES by N.T. Wright – IVP puts these out. For a bible study guide, these are very brief, but good tools to get a group of believers to interact with the NT text.
MAKING ROOM FOR LEADERSHIP by MaryKate Morse. I had the privilege of speaking at an event with MaryKate at George Fox Seminary earlier this year. She’s a delightful person and her book is no exception. Very insightful and unique (her insights into leadership that is). Len Sweet wrote the foreword, which speaks volumes about it’s helpfulness.
What’s Coming …
I’m heading to Nashville very soon for a conference. But I’m going to try to carve out time to blog about “Kingdom Confusion: Part II” this week. If you’ve not yet read Part I, you can check it out here.
