Book Review: Faithful Presence (David E. Fitch)

David Fitch presents seven disciplines for the church; disciplines that, when lived out, synthesize the organized Missio Dei approach to mission first described by Newbigin and an incarnational approach to ministry.  Fitch believes he has a finger on the pulse of what it is for the church to be a faithful witness to the Kingdom of God in the world.  I think he is right.

            The disciplines he proposes are, the Lord ’s Table, reconciliation, proclaiming the Gospel, being with the ‘least of these,’ being with children, fivefold gifting, and Kingdom prayer.  In addition to these disciplines, he talks about four postures, submission, receiving, ceasing, and socially engaging.  His most compelling words are his description of mutual submission.

            I wonder what the world would look like if more churches committed to the disciplines Fitch proposes and lived in the postures he describes.  I think I know.  I am sure I know what Fitch would say.  We would see the in-breaking of the Kingdom.  What a sight that would be … will be.

On Edge: A Journey Through Anxiety (by Andrea Petersen)

Andrea Petersen gets intensely personal in her book “On Edge: A Journey Through Anxiety.”  She tells of her lifelong struggle with identifying her own battle with anxiety disorders.  In the process, she is transparent not only about herself but also about her family.  She includes the time when she briefly lived, in high school, with a friend instead of with her parents because they had moved and she wanted to finish out the school year.   That disastrous idea was aborted midstream.  She also relays her father’s laid back parenting style, including a time he was supposed to be watching her, but was high on has, and she got into the hash. 

She clearly loves her parents and her husband and child. And all of them have been a part of her journey.  As she tells the story, she also relays the research and different approaches to treatment that have been used as psychology has evolved in its understanding of anxiety.  She comes at the issue from every conceivable angle, but she skillfully reminds the reader throughout that her work as a journalist comes from both her professional acumen and from her own tortured experience with anxiety.  A most telling observation comes at the end of the chapter in which she explore the connection to heredity and anxiety.  She writes, “Anxiety disorders almost certainly have multiple causes – from genetics to childhood trauma to how your parents interact with you.  And for any given person, the mix of these factors will be as singular as a fingerprint” (p.92).

In the closing chapter, Peterson shares some of the coping strategies that have enabled her to learn to live with anxiety and even thrive in spite of that anxiety.  She muses about what life would be like if she did not have anxiety, but then she quickly dismisses the notion.  “When I try to envision my life without all the experiences anxiety has given me – as well as the ones it has taken away – I don’t recognize myself” (p.260).  Her conclusion is realistic and hopeful. 

I read this book in order to help me love someone in my life who has an anxiety disorder.  And the book has indeed been helpful.  I recommend it for anyone who struggles with anxiety or for anyone who wants to better love and care for people they know with anxiety.

Gilead - book review

“This whole town looks like whatever hope becomes after it has begun to weary a little, then weary a little more.  But hope deferred is still hope.”

Robinson’s story is brilliantly told in the second person in same vein as Baldwin’s “The Fire Next Time,” or Coates’ “Between the World and Me.”  Of course the tone is much different.  Where Baldwin’s narrator burns with righteous fury, Robinson’s John Ames grows restless in his placid life.  And where Baldwin foresees “the fire next time,” Ames insists that there is hope, even in a sleepy Iowa town worth leaving behind.

My ministerial career has been markedly different than Ames’ as has my life been different.  Geography, family history, type of church – all different, and yet I, a 47-year-old father in a biracial family, find it very easy to relate to him, a septuagenarian with a wife half his age.   I can even imagine myself being him.  This is, for me, Robinson’s genius.

All Christians should read this story.  There are no propositions in it.  There’s no “theological stance.”  Don’t expect a tour de force of evangelism or craftily woven statement of doctrine.  It’s story.  And yet, Christians will find God in this book pages as sure as they find themselves in its pages.  

Don't waste your Time Searching for Benno von Archimboldi: Book Review of 2666

One of the ways I expand my imagination is reading literature.  I read widely, all kinds of things, much of it not Christian. I find that God excites my imagination, but like a muscle the imagination must be stretched.  The stronger, more flexible my imagination is, the more capable I am of seeing God at work in the world and appreciating and joining in on the work God is doing.  So, for the sake of growing my thinking cells and building my capacity for imagination I read.  Writing a book review helps me process what I've read.  
The book I review here, "2666," is not a Christian story.  And, it is an R-rated novel.  I decided to follow it through until the end, but I don't really recommend it.  If you are thinking about reading this or other works by Roberto Bolano, remember, it's typically R-rated literature and does not promote Christianity.  

Here's my review of "2666" by Roberto Bolano:

Giles Harvey writes an article in the New Yorker online (https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/in-the-labyrinth-a-users-guide-to-bolao) giving an overview of the workd of Chilean author Roberto Bolano.  I had trouble trusting Harvey's review because he lists "Nazi Literature in the Americas" as one of his top for suggestions for "navigating the Bolano labyrinth."  "Nazi Literature" is, he writes,  "every bit as fun as it sounds."  That's true.  It sounds miserable and it is.  I only read it (parts of it) because he recommended it as a way into the Bolano oeuvre.   That book is nothing more than a way into glum tedium.

However, for me, Harvey redeems himself at the end of his article on Bolano.  He writes, "Avoid '2666' for as long as possible, and for heaven's sake, don't start with it."  I laughed upon reading that sentence, because at that point, I was 10% percent into my first encounter with Bolano - "2666."  I kept at it, but per Harvey's advice, I picked up "Nazi Literature" and also "Last Evenings on Earth."  I will eventually read "Savage Detectives" and "By Night in Chile" as he suggests, but later.

I need a break from Bolano.

Harvey wrote of "2666."   Harvey says, "The book is a desert of negative space across which the panting reader will search in vain for the traditional pleasures of the novel.  ... The result is neither horror nor sympathy.  It is exhaustion."  He's right.  I cannot say I wasn't warned.  Harvey said, "Don't start with 2666."  I did.  He said it lacks all the traditional pleasures of the novel.  It does.

"2666" is almost 900 pages long, and Bolano could have accomplished his goals in maybe 400-500 pages.  Also, when he introduced interesting characters, he could let us know a little something about them later on instead of spending hundreds pages helping us get to know them only to have them drop unexpectedly out of the book with no explanation and no return.  He pulls the rug out like this over and over, throughout the book.


At the end of this novel, all I feel is unsatisfied.  

Review of Eugene Peterson's 'As Kingfishers Catch Fire'

I am extremely thankful that this sermon collection has been released.  Eugene Peterson is the person, in my own reading, who has put the dignity into the work of the pastor.  Peterson was a scholar through and through, but he saw the daily, weekly, yearly work pastors do as being just as important as any work done by anyone in any field.  In fact, he saw a unique dignity in the work of the pastor.

            This collection is one record of how he did it.  ‘As Kingfishers Catch Fire’ is an anthology of his sermons.  Tracking his preaching, one can see how a pastor dealt with the major movements of history as they affected a suburban congregation in Maryland.

            My own preaching is quite different.  However, I am my own person and I live in a different time.  I find myself blessed and educated as I observe how Peterson preached on Moses and Adam and Eve and creation and law.  His work informs and shapes mine.  I recommend this book as a guide to pastors and as a primer in discipleship for all Christians.

"I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review."

Book Review of Peter Bergen's 'The United States of Jihad'

I am extremely grateful for the detailed treatment Peter Bergen gives to America’s so-called ‘war on terror’ in his book ‘The United States of Jihad.’  He paints a picture of a problem that on one hand is too elusive for the massive forces of law enforcement in the United States, but on the other hand is unlikely to directly affect the daily lives of most Americans.  He points out that people are 12,000 times more likely to die in a car accident than in a terrorist attack (p. 272).  However, we don’t live in fear of driving our cars around.  We get in our cars and go without thinking about it.

The stories of the different terrorist attacks in the United States are compelling.  The deaths are tragic.  So too is the fact that it will likely happen again and the media will jump on the next event and over-cover it just it has the previous ones.  The ‘terror’ produced by these incidents is disproportionate to the damage they cause.  The tragedy is innocent people do die.  Furthermore, the families of those who become terrorists also suffer deeply.  And law enforcement suffers embarrassment.  Bergen points out of that many of the attacks were carried out by people the FBI had looked at and dismissed as unlikely to commit terrorist acts. 

My conclusion, having read Bergen’s book is that evil has always been a part of the human story and will continue to be.  In the past evil went by names like slavery, institutionalized racism, genocide, and Jim Crow.  Today, evil is named radicalization, Islamophobia, Jihad (that leads to murderous acts), and terrorism.  Of course evil has many other names today, but these are a few of the more high profile ones. This age of terror will pass.  And evil will find new names.  But evil does not win unless we let it.

Book Review - Trilla Newbell "Enjoy"

The Blessing of Joy

            John Piper tells Christians that the chief end of man is “to glorify God and enjoy him forever.”  In his book about how to live out this edict, how to reach our end, our goal, I feel like he’s barking at me.  Others have been greatly blessed by Piper’s writing on this, but in reading his book, I felt commanded by someone I had not authorized to have power over me. 

            In her new book “Enjoy,” Trilla Newbell whimsically invites me to live out this dictate of glorifying God and enjoying God forever.  By the time I reached the book’s end, I wanted to do just that.  Through art, exercise, nature, food, community, church, and sex (yes sex), I wanted to enjoy God by enjoying the gifts God gives and by seeing my true identity – who I am in Christ.  Newbell beautifully writes about disciplines of joy.  Where I was repulsed by Piper’s dictatorial tone, I was attracted to Newbell’s playful way of drawing me as a reader into her thought world.

            Truth be told, she actually is not inviting me to live out the life of enjoying God.  I am a man and Newbell writes for women.  I didn’t read the description of the author’s intent ahead of time.  I just plunged into the book because I had enjoyed the previous work I had read by the same author.  Not until I was well into the sex chapter did it dawn on me that this is a book for women, by a woman.  At that point, I felt mildly voyeuristic. 

            I don’t understand why women from conservative Christian backgrounds feel bound to write exclusively for women.  Everything in this book is needed by men just as much as it is needed by women.  I still found great benefit from the book.  And I encourage the author to write for everybody because she has things to say that we men need to hear.

"I received a free copy of this book from Blogging for Books for this review."

Review of George Yancey's "Beyond Racial Gridlock"

Review of George Yancey’s Beyond Racial Reconciliation (InterVarsity Press, 2006).

            “I believe racism is a problem that requires specifically Christian insight” (p.77).  George Yancey makes a bold claim when he declares that the solution to a problem that affects all people of all races and all religions is found in the Christian worldview, molded as it is by Jesus.  I believe Yancey is right.  I applaud him for not pandering to universality and not striving for detached neutrality (that might gain him kudos in academic circles).  Yancey is an accomplished scholar, but he is Christian before he is an academic.  He works hard to see the situation of race in America from as many points of view as possible.  And, he admits when he is not able to do so. 

            He writes as a black man, as a minority who has been hurt by America’s racist past.  However, he doesn’t beat up whites in the present who want to atone for our part in this drama of race, and he critiques black authors who do.  Yancey’s vision for reconciliation is fair-minded, but more importantly, it is Gospel based.

            His core idea is the mutual responsibility model which he defines as a “concept that takes seriously the Christian teaching of human depravity” (p.78).  Starting with this definition, he demonstrates that sin is the root problem and that racism is the form in which sin rips society apart.  Jesus gives us power to overcome sins and at the same time wipes off of us the sin already stuck to us.  We have to admit our sins and our part in the sin narrative.  For whites Americans, this will different confession than for African Americans and other People of Color, but all have to confess sin and especially sin within the race drama. 

            From confession, we then work on relationships.  We work to deep friendships with people from different backgrounds than our own.  This work is intentional, sometimes tedious, and ultimately necessary if we want to have a part in the way God will bring healing to our nation.  Yancey’s work in this book is the as comprehensive and theologically cohesive as I have found.  I will use his ideas as a part of our church’s attempt to become a multi-ethnic church.   I hope I can convince everyone in our church to read it.  

Ghosts from our Past - DON't WASTE YOUR TIME

Ghosts from our Past for me turned out to be a complete waste of time.  I did not realize it was a book that was featured in a movie and not even an original movie, but rather a reboot. I might add it was a reboot I had no desire to see.  I guess I have myself to blame.  I didn’t look into the book enough to understand what I was reading.  I should have picked up the ridiculousness of it.  I mean, the entire premise is silly, but it is inane even for something that’s supposed to be silly. My fault!  I didn’t know what I was getting in to.  If I had, maybe I would feel differently.  As it is, I am sorry I wasted my time.  Others may really, really like.  And I must admit, I did have some chuckle as I read.  So, for what the authors, whoever they are, intended, it wasn’t terrible.  But, I wish I had invested my time differently.

"I received this book for free from Blogging for Books for this review."

The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley (my review)

America is incredibly fragile right now, July 12, 2016. There have been killings of black men by the police. There have been mass shootings at gay night clubs. There have been sniper-style ambushes that left 5 Dallas policemen dead. 

How do we respond? Attend community forums. 
How do we respond? Pray. 
How do we respond? Befriend police officer, and befriend people who race, ethnicity, religion, or orientation is different than yours. These friendships won't usually come naturally but must be sought, diligently pursued. It will take work, patience, and tremendous humility. 

How do we respond? Listen to black voices and gay voices and Muslim voices as they speak on NPR, in the TV media, in articles, and in public forums. Listen to Black conservatives and fundamentalists, and to black liberals and fundamentalists. I am not saying agree with all they say, but do listen and thoughtfully consider their perspective. 

Another response is to listen to voices from the past. Two giants to consider are Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. I had read many books by or about King, but this was my first reading about Malcolm. It was so rewarding. The only reason I did not give this book 5 stars is the questionable reliability of the ghost writer, Alex Haley. 

He has been widely accused of plagiarism in his book "Roots," and I have read suggestions that the material in this autobiography is embellished by either him or by Malcolm. I cannot verify the book. But, if it were false, it would to be a wide conspiracy involving many to completely falsify the material. Actor Ossie Davis contributes 4 pages of his own feelings about Malcolm at the end of the book. So, if it were all completely conjured up, he's have to be in on it too. And there is no doubt, Malcolm was killed in a spectacular and public fashion and at a young age. Alex Haley did not make that up.

So, I accept that maybe some of it is embellishment while believing that most is pretty close to what happened. And what happened is an amazing spirit of courage and defiance by a man who insisted on being regarded as a man in a time when many whites arrogantly called black men "boy" or worse. Malcolm X contributed to the strength of black men in our country and he should be appreciated for that.

Ominous Truth in 'Countdown to Zero Day' - Book Review

Review of the Book Countdown to Zero Day by Kim Zetter

I found Kim Zetter’s ‘Countdown to Zero Day’ to be an extraordinarily challenging read because of the implications in what is written.  Zetter is an outstanding writer who keeps the reader in suspense in her telling of all that happened in the series of Stuxnet cyber-attacks.

The most chilling observation comes in the way she talks about ‘firsts.’  The same country that launched the world into the age of atomic weapons is the one who launched the world into the age of cyber warfare.  And it was done as an attempt to cutoff future nuclear conflicts.  The irony would be worthy of an eye-roll if the implications weren’t so ominous.

As wonderful as Zetter’s writing was, I did at points find myself bogged down in the technical details of computer code and computer viruses.  In the acknowledgements at the end of the book, she notes the difficulty of composing a compelling tale and at the same time being true to the necessity of comprehensive technical description.  I appreciated her transparency in the challenge of accomplishing both (a well-written story and one that would satisfy people who know about code, which I do not).  I think she accomplished the goal.  It was easy for me to skim the portions that were beyond my capacity regarding technical description.  It did not detract from me getting into the narrative she shared.

The bottom line is this book makes me feel a bit less secure about the future of international conflict.  This book is another in the line of works that show how the computer age is a dangerous equalizer.  For me the first such book was Friedman’s ‘The World is Flat.’  Zetter’s work shows the next logical step in the flattening of the world.

I hope someone overly talented programmer with serious emotional imbalance in his life doesn’t launch a virus or other type of attack that destroys crucial systems nationwide.  I hope that type of catastrophe doesn’t happen.  After reading ‘Countdown to Zero Day,’ I kind of think it will.  And that is scary.

Disclaimer - I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.

Review of 'Life on the Edge' by McFadden and Al-Khalili

            The subtitle of this book is ‘The Coming Age of Quantum Biology.’  It is a book about science and I am particularly weak in my understanding of science.  Beyond that general disclaimer about me as a reader of science books, “Life on the Edge” is about the quantum realm and how it relates to biology.  The quantum realm is not fully understood, but where it is fully integrated in the conversation is physics, not biology.  I told a friend, a retire professor of biology at a major university, that I was reading a book on quantum biology.  A skeptical expression came over his face.  “Quantum biology?”  He asked.  My feeble efforts to summarize the book were unconvincing to him.

            So, that’s a couple of disclaimers.  I don’t understand science.  And I really don’t understand quantum science.  A third disclaimer is that I am a Christian pastor – a theist.  The authors make passing allusions to scripture.  There book is a science book, not a theology book.  But they cannot resist making theological assertions. 

            The first example comes on page 27.  They identify that prior to advancements in scientific knowledge, ancient people held that some kind of “vital force” or “spirit” animated nonliving things to make them alive.  “Vital forces” are terms the authors use.  Why they don’t just say “God,” I don’t know.  But that’s fine.  Here is what caught my eye on page 27.  They say, “We will [not] be claiming any kind of force, spirit, or magic ingredient animates life.  Our story is much more interesting than that.”  What?  I have heard scientists say that the only knowledge that is real knowledge is scientifically acquired knowledge.  This is the first time that beyond knowledge, I hear scientists claim expertise in the area of what is interesting. 

            So, just to summarize.  The authors assert that what they will discuss in their book, quantum theory as it relates to biology, is “much more interesting” than any type of theological contemplation.  And then they go on for over 300 pages of failure.  Because at the end, all they offer is a series of speculations that have not been proven nor gained widespread acceptance.  They say at the beginning, “It is worth remembering that even in this age of genetic engineering and synthetic biology, nothing living has ever been made by humans entirely from nonliving materials” (27). 

            The authors name as the biggest question in science as the question of how inert atoms and molecules found in rocks are transformed every day into running, jumping … living stuff.  That is the big question.  They also say, it has not happened, not by human efforts.  It has happened either by natural selection, a random process with no intentionality.  Or, it has happened by God’s intervention.  But real scientists aren’t allowed to point to God.

            By the way, I agree with that.  Once God is named as a cause, then something is happening and describing this happening is beyond what science is equipped to do.  Once God is an effective participant in the story, the story is beyond science.  Why that leads scientists to disregard God as if God doesn’t exist, I don’t know.  When they do that, they put all their trust, their faith if you will, in the scientific process of acquiring knowledge and understanding.  Natural Selection is the biologist’s god, not to be questioned, doubted, or challenged.  There is no question that cannot be answered by appealing to the evolutionary process that stands on the random process of natural selection.

            I am no young earth creationist.  I accept the evidence of a universe that is billions and billions of years old and the planet earth that is 4.5 billion years old.  I accept that living things are descended from common, simpler ancestors.  I have many scientist friends who over and over tell me this narrative is rock solid and the ground on which much of science stands.  My only problem with it all is when I hear a biologist describe it.  I find it very unconvincing. 

            The authors of “Life on the Edge” took their crack at describing the very beginning of life on earth in chapter 9.  What they share there is a narrative chalk-full of guesses and faith statements.  However, because that faith resides in a scientific milieu, it is not named and branded as such.  One thing that is clear to me after reading that chapter, something the authors would not want me to think, is this.  Life cannot happen without intention.  No undirected process will bring a nonliving thing to life, not even at the microscopic level, not even if we explain the event in terms of the quantum realm.  The authors are proposing just the opposite of what I just wrote.  But, I read the chapter closely.  There is no way, unless there is some evidence these two expert biologists do know, that life can come about through natural selection.  Natural selection is a survival process.  Prior to the first living thing being the first living thing, who or what is trying to survive.  And of course they end the chapter by saying everything they have just said is “highly speculative” (p.288).

            In the end, I find the book at many points difficult.  But that is my problem.  I have trouble understanding science most of the time.  The book is very interesting.  I might even say it is compelling.  But it is not convincing.  I cannot imagine a scientist, especially a biologist, reading this and thinking they’d want to consider the possibilities of quantum biology.  I am nonscientist, so I might be thoroughly misreading at that level.  At my level, I don’t find any of the ideas presented powerful enough to sway my thinking.  I am glad I read the book and I might recommend it to others.  But I nothing in my mind is affected by the argument made here.  

Kudos for Pope Francis

I am a pastor, a Protestant pastor.  I would consider myself an evangelical.  I don’t have a lot of history with Catholicism.  My tradition is not predisposed to celebrate “the Church.”  I had a reaction inside myself when I saw the new pope on the cover of Christianity Today magazine, and I cannot say that reaction was positive.

Then I started watching what Pope Francis is doing – speaking words of peace, washing the feet of prisoners.  Then I considered a Pope from the 3^rd world, one with a fresh perspective.  Then I talked to one of my friends, a missionary, who a few years ago strategized with this man about how to carry the gospel to Argentina and Brazil.  And this was before he was the pope.  My friend, an evangelical through and through, gave a glowing report, commending the man’s character.

Finally, I read the Joy of the Gospel. And what a joy!  Pope Francis’ spirit leaps off the pages.  I found myself reminded about how happy we are to be as Christians.  I am a church leader.  I am supposed to give this message to people in the church.  Here the Pope was giving it to me – filling me, blessing me.

There are points in the book that are particular to Catholics, but that took nothing away from it for me.  I am so happy I read it.  My review is a recommendation – Christians of all stripes, read this books.  Read Pope Francis’ Joy of the Gospel.  You’ll feel the happiness and fulfillment that should come with a true faith in Jesus Christ.  And you’ll long to reach for that faith and for that joy in your own life.

Review of Miss Brenda and the Loveladies

This is one of the most inspirational books I have read this year.  It is a fast, easy read.  But that does not mean it is simplistic.  The story is complicated.  The story is heartbreaking.  The story is uplifting.  I could not put it down and read just about all of it in a little over 3 hours.

Through the first several chapters, I found myself not liking Brenda.  Many times, I thought, “is she really doing this,” or “is that type of thing seriously important to her?”  She bothered me greatly.  However, by the end of the book, I loved her.  I could not be more different than her, but I loved the transformation she went through.  And I love that she presented herself available to God as one ready to be transformed.  I don’t know if she knew she was doing that, but that is what happened. 

This book presents the beauty and ugliness of humanity.  Besides Brenda there are many other characters that made me smile, had me ready to cry, brought a frown to my face, and made me grit my teeth.  When I finally closed the last page, I felt wonderful – wonderful about God and about people who look to God. 

I recommend this book to readers of every stripe.  You don’t have to be like the characters to like them or be touched by them.  You just have to be a human who is willing to present yourself to God that God might transform you.

** "Blogging for Books provided this book to me for free in exchange for an honest review."

Review of Addie Zierman's "When We were on Fire"

Addie Zierman’s memoir about growing up in evangelical culture, When We were on Fire, is extremely difficult for me to review because it hits so close to home.  My own experience, growing up in an evangelical church and then serving as a youth pastor and senior pastor bears striking similarities to the stories she tells.  I am a little more than a decade ahead of her.  Much of what she experienced as a student in church youth groups I went through as a wet-behind-the-ears youth pastor.  I remember “Acquire the Fire,” “True Love Waits,” and “See you at the Pole.”  I did not get involved in all these things, but in some of them, I was taking youth groups through the programs the year they came out.  I get where Addie is coming from.

            I feel a deep sadness for her.  Being an evangelical Christian can be so wonderful.  It should be.  I grew up as the virgin waiting for marriage.  I was, the kid who may have laughed at the dirty jokes, but secretly blushed knowing God saw me laughing.  I was the one in youth group who took “true love waits” seriously only to discover my friends in youth group were sleeping with each other.

            Yet, I look back on it and my memories are extremely fond.  Unlike the author, I became more evangelical as I grew up.  I may have gone through seasons of sadness, but most of the time, I reacted by running to God, not from God.  So I find the sections of the book disillusion and rebellion exceedingly sad.  Her final section, redemption, left me feeling empty and disappointed. 

            The book also gave rise to a fear in me.  I worry that some of the kids in youth groups I led from 1993-1999 may have fallen away as Addie Zierman did.  She was always a believer, a Christian.  But, she went through a painful, lost season.  She came out of it thinking differently about Christianity.  I fear that in my inexperience as a young pastor in the early ‘90’s, I may have led teens in a way that hurt them as much as she was hurt.  I fear that I may have driven them away from God when I was trying to help them find Him.

            Other readers will not the experiences I did that led me to be affected by When We were on Fire as I was.  It is extremely well written.  Her ability as a write empowers to make compelling experiences that are not particularly remarkable.  Even though she is writing about stuff that is pretty normal for evangelicals, her ability to tell it makes it really good reading.

            I don’t know how to recommend it.  I don’t know how many stars to give it.  She did some things that made me really mad.  However, her writing about it is good, and for that reason, I’d recommend the book.  But I recommend it warning you that if you are like me, you might not feel favorable toward the author.  The pastor in me wants to care for and protect the author.  The evangelical Christian in me who went through high school as an evangelical Christian is mad at the author because I was disillusioned by my Christian peers in high school, and it did not lead me where it led her.  I conclude by saying I would read more of her stuff because she is a skilled communicator. 

           

Disclaimer - I received this book for free from WaterBrookMultnomah Publishing Group for this review.

‘Power’ Lacks Credibility

Review of the Book The Power of a Half Hour  

Tommy Barnett, WaterBrook Press, Colorado Springs, Colorado, 2011

I do not recommend Tommy Barnett’s The Power of a Half Hour.  I assume the author uses ’30 minutes’ as a metaphor for organizing one’s life into manageable chunk.  Thirty minutes is a round number and it ‘hour’ rhymes with ‘power,’ so it makes a good title.  However, the author never really acknowledges that half an hour serves a metaphor.  Throughout the book, every meaningful movement of life is reduced to half-hour increments.  From authoring books to raising millions of dollars to mountain-moving prayers, it all happens in 30-minute segments

Urging people to live disciplined lives is great.  Providing a model for how people can live disciplined lives is great. The notion that I might learn how to be more disciplined upon reading this book is why I chose to read it.  I am seriously disappointed.

Life simply is not something to be reduced to 30-minute blocks.  Some meeting demand more time than that.  Most relationships require more investment than 30 minutes.  The author provided 30 chapters (of course, 30), and in each there was one or multiple stories of amazing accomplishments that were achieved simply by a 30 minute encounter.  It simply is not believable.  I don’t doubt that what Barnett reports happened.  I absolutely doubt that it happened as he described it.

Another problem I have is the endless run of successes, all of which are followed by some version of you (the reader) can enjoy similar success by simply following the 30-minute prescription.  If happy marriages, growing churches, superior physical health, and financial stability could be had by simply breaking life into 30-minute blocks, more people would follow the formula.  But life cannot be lived according to a formula.  Disease, broken relationships, sin, weather catastrophes, and a 100 other unpredictable things show the sheer absurdity of breaking down life into 30-minute chunks.

Again, I have no problem with Barnett’s notion of organizing the way a person or organization spends time.  It is good advice.  But it is impossible to stomach the good advice because he wraps it in a presentation of a too-good-to-be true story.  He ignores the real life interruptions that make the successes he swears will come to be impossible in many situations.  He would read what I wrote and declare “the impossible” can be accomplished in 30 minutes!

I believe he has had a successful life.  I believe he is a disciplined person and a talented person.  I believe his background, the sociological conditions where he did his ministry, relationships forged by his father long before he even grew into adulthood, and his own gifting and commitment all play a part in his prosperity and success.  I believe most of the things that put him where he is are not transferrable to other people.  And I don’t think he recognizes that.  I think he believes others can have what he has if they just do what he does and live as he does.  It is akin to Michael Jordan telling a mediocre basketball player, ‘do it the way I do it.’  The analogy is crude, but it gets the point across.  That mediocre basketball player could practice for 1000 ½ hours and he’s not going to be like Mike.  Similarly, a reader of this book could try to do all that Pastor Barnett has suggested, and at the end of his numerous 30-minute ventures, he will be very frustrated. 

Tommy Barnett has undoubtedly been God’s vehicle for great Kingdom works.  Many people have been blessed through ministries he has led.  He’s done some very good things.  Writing this book is not one of them.  There are more helpful, edifying ways a reader can spend 30 minutes.  I recommend passing on The Power of a Half Hour.

Disclaimer - I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.

Mark Batterson's "Wild Goose Chase"

A Chase Worth Pursuing

Pastor Mark Batterson uses the imagery of the wilderness, the unpredictable, unsafe nature of nature to depict what it is like to follow God’s Holy Spirit.  Batterson writes both pastorally and ambitiously.  He has lived in great blessing, being filled with joy, when in his own life he has followed God’s lead and done so at cost to himself and his family.  When he has shown willingness to risk, he’s been blessed by God tremendously.  He wants that joy and richness of life for his readers.

 
The strength of his book is his call for people of the church to abandon their comfort zones and safety zones.  Christianity in America can be quite comfortable.  In some places, the church can be the location of social, political, and personal power.  It can be as much social gathering as it is body of Christ.  Batterson wants to see Christianity be dynamic – the unpredictable journey on which God knows the way but we do not. 

The high point along this line of thinking comes when Batterson writes, “When did we start believing that God wants to send us to safe places to do easy things?  God wants to send us to different places to do difficult things.  And if you chase the Wild Goose, he will lead you into the shadowlands where light and darkness clash” (p. 106).  Batterson continues, quoting a man who reaches out with the gospel to porn-addicts in Las Vegas, “I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of Hell.” 

Such a faith is daring, uncomfortable, and scary.  It only works if Batterson’s “Wild Goose” points us to the true Spirit of God.  Jesus laid out a future as unsettling as this for Peter when he re-commissioned the disciple after Peter had denied him.  Upon their reunion on the beach, Jesus re-established the fisherman and told him he would one day be led where he did not want to go (John 21:18).  In Batterson’s terminology, Jesus was setting Peter on a wild goose chase.

In this very good book, an extended sermon really, I find a few points to critique.  First, his imaginative depiction of Adam naming the animals (from Genesis) to me sounded kind of corny.  He supposes a literal first human who has the task of setting out over the entire earth to discover (without aid of microscope or scuba gear or mountain climbing equipment) all the animals on the earth and name them.  If he is going to read Genesis that literally, he has a problem because there are so many species, one man could not observe them all in 10 lifetimes.  I assume Batterson was striving for the “awe” factor, but I don’t think it worked. 

Second, he did that bit of creative writing in the midst of his description of time spent in the Galapagos Islands.  To me that seems like a trip many of his readers could never take.  Who has the time or money to go spend 10 days in the Galapagos?  Maybe it is cheaper than I imagine.  But I can’t believe that for the majority of his readers such a trip is even possible.

Third, he refers to his college preaching in a very small church.  Today he pastors a church of thousands.  His view of that experience is that it was to prepare him for “bigger” things (p.30).  He recommends giving your all in small things, which is excellent teaching.  But, those 12 people who received his preaching in that small church aren’t small to God.  Batterson is excited that now he gets to preach to 1000’s most of whom are young (it’s always sexier to preach to young people than to senior citizens), professional (it’s always more impressive to preach to “power-players”), and to do it in a power city like Washington DC.  But in God’s eyes, as Biblical stories attest over and over and over, the big church of sexy, young political staffer is no “bigger” than the church of 12 people.  His work now is not more important than it was when he was unknown and not yet an author. 

Pastors of small churches made up of people with blue-collar jobs who don’t take trips to the Galapagos are not less important than pastors of big-city mega churches.  They aren’t doing smaller work.  They are chasing the “Wild Goose.”  Batterson talks about the Wild Goose showing up in unexpected, wild places.  But most people live most of their lives in normal, everyday places.  Real faith is seen when we earnestly seek and see the Holy Spirit in normal places, in the mundane comings and goings of our lives.  The “Wild Goose” shows up there and those seemingly innocuous places become “thin places” and the normal becomes the transcendent. 

 
The instances from Wild Goose Chase I have critiqued and a few I have not lessen the force of an otherwise very good book.  That said, it is worth reading.  Batterson preaches well through his writing and more often than not I found myself saying “Amen,” as I read.  I appreciate his inspiring story-telling and even more, I appreciate his ambitious attempts to rile believers out of spiritual slumber.  Mark Batterson’s style is inviting and his intent is grounded in scripture. 
 

For an interesting analogy, for very optimistic, positive writing, and for an honest attempt at being true to the Spirit of the New Testament, I recommend Mark Batterson’s Wild Goose Chase.

Review of "The Next Christians" By Gabe Lyons

The way Lyons identifies Christian interactions with culture is extremely helpful: he says that in interactions with the non-Christian world the next generation of Christians are people who are provoked, are creators, feel called, are grounded, engage in the community, and act in way that is countercultural (verses in a way that attempts to make Christianity relevant to the culture). What Lyons sets up is an ideal for Christian teens and young adults to shoot for in the early 21^st century. Whether this ideal will become a reality in the next 20-50 years remains to be seen. But whether it does or it doesn’t, it sets a lofty, worthy goal. These categories are proactive, not reactive. They are positive, not negative. That’s especially important if Christians truly want to break down the “dividing walls” (Ephesians 2:14).

Too often religion serves as a catalyst for hate. In recent times this has been seen in the group from the American Midwest that protests at military funerals United States servicemen and women, perversely tying America’s overseas military conflicts with God’s condemnation of homosexuality. The connection is illogical, the judgment is hate-filled, the theology is bad (not reflective of responsible Biblical interpretation), and the attitude is antithetical to what Jesus taught, modeled, and commanded. Yet, this group operates under the rubric of “church.”

Similarly was hate stirred up by the group in Florida, claiming the title “church.” They threatened to burn Korans. Nothing Jesus ever said suggests that the way of his followers includes a heart that acts towards others with violence. Lyons’ proposed approach is a spiritually healthy polemic against evil that masquerades as Christian. Furthermore, he offers a vision that is be cooperative and committed. Christians be partners with non-Christians in the world, can learn from non-Christians, and at the same time can be committed to Biblical Christianity. Lyons’ vision is of a Christianity that is at the same time open-minded and gospel-centered.

In offering a new approach to living Christianly, Lyons articulates an appropriate critique of the methods churches have resorted to increase membership overall and especially in youth ministry and in ministry to young families. He is right to reject the notion that big means better. Lyons opposes a consumer Christianity where churches are supposed to provide their attendees with everything needed for a happy life.

One poignant example is “Kristi.” He says, “No longer content with pizza parties and lock-ins, she longed for a faith with credibility that matched her real-world longings” (p.172). Kristi found the depth she was looking for in the commitment expected of her Mormon boyfriend. She was done with the gimmicks her evangelical congregation resorted to in an attempt to have fun and boost attendance. What her boyfriend had in his faith seemed much more important than the pettiness of her high school church experiences (which weren’t different enough from secular youth gatherings), so “she began to pursue Mormonism” (p. 173).

The example shows the holes in the approach of many evangelical churches, and Lyons has many other equally impressive anecdotes that support his critique. However, I am not sure that his research reveals that deep longing that is widespread in young people (aged 15-30). Kristi, from his example, yearned from something more, something that mattered, something that demanded a lot from her in the way of commitment and devotion. But, I am not sure that there are many people like her. In my own experience, I see more people who are spiritually shallow, in search of an immediate satisfaction, and not in search of the deeper things of faith.

I think the future will see as many Christians who interact in unhealthy ways with culture as there have been in the past. Lyons’ categories here are also helpful. He sees the following interactions with the world as less than ideal: Separatist Christians (Insiders, Culture Warriors, and Evangelizers), and Cultural Christians (Blenders, and Philanthropists) (p.31). Christians who would fall into each description definitely have their strengths, but overall their approach is either ineffective in evangelism, or it waters down the faith.

I find these categories accurate. His explanation of how Christian groups have related to, fought against, and succumbed to culture is adroit and instructive. I do not think Christians in these groupings are going away. In the future, many, maybe even most Christians will fall into these less than ideal categories. There will also be a group that Lyons would call the “Next Christians” who are provoked, creators, called, grounded, in community, and countercultural. But they will be a minority alongside the old guard who continue to fight culture, escape culture, or submit to culture. Sadly, the old guard usually are more affective in denominational politics. And the new trend of mega churches, bible churches, and independent, unaffiliated evangelical churches will suffer from the same petty politics, even if those politics take on different guises.

The high point of Lyons’ book is chapter 10, “Countercultural, not ‘Relevant’ (p.165-186). His base scripture for his argument, that Christians strive for the common good (p.174), is Matthew 5:13. There, Jesus instructs his followers, “You are the salt of the earth.” Lyons effectively picks up on the restorative powers of salt and uses that image to illustrate the call believers have to be restorers. I find that Lyons’ vision of what Christians are called to be is solidly based on the New Testament. The counterculturalism he proposes is what is seen in the early church. Fortunately Lyons doesn’t prod 21^st century Christians to try to “be like the early church,” as writers so often do. When authors do that, they turn a blind to the 2000 years of cultural and technological evolutions that have taken place to make the world so different 2011 than it was in 40AD. Lyons rightly discerns what Jesus valued and urges today’s church to value that.

Lyons begins his final chapter, “The Next Big Shift” (p.189-208) by stating his view that Christian faith “is on the cusp of a massive shift.” His statement is extremely narrow in perspective. Christian faith in the United States and maybe in affluent places like Western Europe, Canada, and Australia is shifting toward secularism. That shift is pronounced and should be analyzed and Lyons does a great job of analysis, diagnosis and prescription. But the analysis must also acknowledge that Americans, Europeans, Canadians, and Australians are not the only people on the earth. In fact, they are a minority.

Even as Christianity experiences different shades of decline in the (majority White) regions just described, a different story is playing out in Korea, in Africa, in Brazil, and in China. Among Christians there, another shift is happening, one Lyons doesn’t address. Millions each day are coming to discover the Christian faith. Countries like South Korea and the Philippines are sending missionaries around the world. If Lyons is going to talk about the “Next Christians” he needs to mention where revival is happening. He needs to mention those places where baptisms are the norm and a worldview dominated by the Gospel is taking hold. He doesn’t address this cultural shift at all.

Furthermore, he doesn’t address the rise of evangelical Latin Christianity in the United States. In all likelihood, in the next 50-100 years, over 50% of the people in the United States will be of Hispanic origin. Yet Lyons does not talk about the unique nature of the Latin Christianity. The Caucasian Church could shrink exponentially and yet Christianity could grow in the United States. Both could happen simultaneously by the end of this century. Maybe a more apt title for the book would be The Next White Upper Middle Class Christians. That is really who Lyons is addressing and analyzing in his book. He does a great work of writing with regards to the white community. But, he leaves a lot of people. And yet presents his ideas as if they were the norm for everyone.

The strength of his book is his understanding of what Jesus expects of the community that is the Body of Christ. As a futurist, Lyons leaves out too many people, people who will be the majority. However, if readers of all stripes strive to be the “Next Christians” he describes, those who are provoked, creators, called, grounded, in community, and countercultural, then maybe a massive shift will happen after all.