Book review: Mark Driscoll- Religion saves and nine other misconceptions

Religion Saves and nine other misconceptions
Mark Driscoll
Buy- Amazon, christianaudio

In Religion Saves and Nine Other Misconceptions, Mark Driscoll answers a series of questions submitted and voted on by members of his church and people who listen to his podcast.

As you would expect from a book whose content is decided in such a manner, the content is eclectic. The book includes such diverse topics as the tension between faith verses works, a Christian approach to humor, whether Christians are permitted to use birth control and how we decide what can be included in a church service. Because the chapters aren't really connected to one another you could read the chapters in any order or skip chapters without any problems.

It is clear Driscoll has thought and researched a lot about the questions he answers in the book. Even if you don't end up agreeing with his conclusions, you will at least have learned a lot of interesting historical and theological information on the topics. The one chapter that seemed a bit over-researched was the chapter on the emerging church movement. The excessive quoting from various people in the movement was more than was really needed to make the point that the movement has problems, making the chapter drag on a bit. Other than that chapter, the book made for compelling reading. Driscoll is often rather funny.

While not being crass, Driscoll does deal frankly with the topics of sexual sin and birth control making this book suitable for mature audiences only.

I think most Christians could find something of interest and value in this book. I recommend it.

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Book review: Brian Fikkert & Steve Corbett- When Helping Hurts

When Helping Hurts
Brian Fikkert & Steve Corbett
Buy: Amazon, Koorong, christianaudio

Helping the poor is increasingly becoming a priority for many Christians. When Helping Hurts is a guide on how Christians can assist the poor in a way that leads to long term positive change.

I appreciate that the authors try to provide a solid theological framework for helping the poor. To call a chapter focusing on Jesus help for the poor "Why Did Jesus Come to Earth?" is maybe a little overstated since there are a lot of important aspects of why he came that don't really get covered. Regardless, there is still a lot of good theological content to be found in this chapter and throughout the book.

The authors talk about how incorrectly conducted attempts at helping can hurt not just the people getting helped but the people doing the helping as well. I found this very thought provoking as I hadn't thought a great deal about how our help could hurt the poor and certainly hadn't thought about how it could hurt the helpers by developing superiority or patriarchal complexes.

Especially worth reading is the section where they talk about how the poor understand poverty as this provides important insights into what help is needed. The authors argue that poverty is not just a lack of material goods but has social and spiritual dimensions as well.

After establishing where things have tended to go wrong, the authors lay out how to helpfully assist the poor in both in our own communities and in the developing world. They do a good job of explaining the approaches without slipping too much into international development jargon. Some of the advice about helping the poor in our own communities was a little America specific but people elsewhere should be able to learn from it too. Of particular use to many churches will be the chapter on short term missions trips as huge numbers of these trips take place and huge amounts of money is poured into them.

Whether you are helping people in your local community, planning a mission trip or just giving money, this is a book you'll find valuable. Considering we all should be doing something to help the poor, this is a book all Christians should read.



Review copy provided by christianaudio.com reviewers program 

A Long Obedience in the Same Direction

Visiting a Christian bookstore I noticed a common trend. There is lots of books with titles or subtitles like “Lord, Teach Me To Pray In 28 Days ”, “40 Days To Discovering God's Big Idea For Your Life” or “Grow Spiritually Strong In 28 Days”. It seems that book which promise to advance your spiritual development in a certain set amount of time are a hit. I don’t wish to be critical of the content of these books- some of them have some worthwhile things to say.

What has got me wondering is what these kinds of titles and subtitles say about our approach to spiritual life. For publishers to keep using them, they must be selling books. We live in a quick gratification society. I admit I sometimes have a problem with that- I’ve been known to get frustrated that my microwave meal isn’t heating as fast as I’d like. I think these books are tapping into that tendency. We want a timeframe for our spiritual growth and we’d like that time frame to be short.

The problem is spiritual growth doesn’t work that way. We can’t decide that we are going to advance spiritually a set amount in a set amount of time anymore than we can decide that we’d like to be half a foot taller in 2 months time. Certainly we can and should do all the right things for developing spiritual health but we shouldn’t expect quick fixes. The title of a book about discipleship by Eugene Peterson, “A Long Obedience in the Same Direction” captures something of the reality of spiritual growth. Spiritual growth is a lifelong pursuit in which sometimes we will have growth spurts and sometimes we might not seem to be growing much but if we are spiritually healthy we will be moving at least a little in the right direction. We must be careful to not get disillusioned when the pace of growth isn’t what we have in mind. Our task is not to wear ourselves short sprints of attempting to grow spiritually but to run as steadily as we can in faith and obedience so we will still be going at the end of the race.

Featured song: Switchfoot- Hello hurricane

Book review: Douglas Leblanc- Tithing

Tithing
Douglas Leblanc
Buy: Koorong, amazon

Tithing is one of those subjects that can get Christians really worked up- both for or against tithing as a mandatory practice for Christians. In his book Tithing, Douglas Leblanc sidesteps the debates and instead lets people who do tithe tell their stories of why they do it and how they have found the practice beneficial. A strength of the book is that it includes people from a variety of perspectives- evangelical, catholic, eastern orthodox, mainline protestant, seventh day Adventist and even a Jewish rabbi! As a result of the different backgrounds, many different reasons for tithing are put forward. For people considering whether they tithe, it would be worth reading and pondering on some of the reasons given.

I appreciate the focus of many of the interview subjects on tithing not being a legalistic thing they have to do but part of a joyful life of generosity.

Some of the interview subjects did get into the idea of being materially blessed because they tithed and having bad things happened to them when they did not. While God may choose to bless someone for whatever reason he chooses, their giving included, we have to be careful with such a viewpoint because it can lead to prosperity gospel or blaming a bad occurrence on someone’s lack of giving or faith when that may not have been the cause.

Overall, I think this is a useful book if you approach it with discernment and also carefully study the scriptures on the topic.


Review copy provided by booksneeze.com

Book review: C. J. Mahaney- Humility

Humility
C. J. Mahaney
Buy: Koorong, amazon, christianaudio

In Humility, C.J. Mahaney writes of the importance of humility for Christians and how we can become more humble.

The first section of the book deals with why humility is important and biblical. Some of this section was quite interesting but it tended to drag on somewhat leaving me tempted to skip forward. Someone interested enough in humility to buy the book probably isn't going to require that much convincing.

Further into the book, Mahaney discusses practical things we can do to develop humility. This is where the book shines. His advice is both on personal disciplines and acting humble in the context of various types of relationships. I'm sure everyone will find something to take on from this section. I found some ideas for developing humility that I wouldn't have thought of myself.

Mahaney also writes about a Christian response to suffering. He bases this on the book of Habakkuk. While at times I was a little lost as to what it had to do with humility, it was nonetheless worthwhile to read.


In reviewing this book I listened to the audiobook version. The narrator tended to read a little on the slow side with frequent pauses. For most of the book this wasn't much of a problem but it made the long first section a bit harder to get through.

I recommend this book. I think all Christians would benefit from this in some way.





Review copy from christianaudio.com reviewers program

Essential reading for all Christians?

I am putting together a list of books that all Christians should read. Any suggestions for books I should consider?


P.S I am having some problems with my commenting system. If you post a comment here it might not display properly but I am receiving and reading them

Free Mark Driscoll audiobook

This month you can get Mark Driscoll's book Religion Saves and Nine Other Misconceptions for free in audiobook format at christianaudio.com. It is only available free until the end of this month. From what I've listened to so far it seems like a worthwhile listen/read. It does deal frankly with some adult issues like whether it is acceptable for Christians to use birth control so may not be suitable for younger readers. The sermons the book is based on and additional Q&A sessions on the topics are available at the Mars Hill Church website.


Free audiobook
Original sermons.

Featured song: Lecrae- Far away

Photos: Looking up

Notes on reviews, endorsements and advertising

There has been a move in the blog world over recent months towards increased transparency in regards to any material rewards bloggers are receiving for what they post. I thought I probably should clarify what happens on this blog.

• The ads you see for charities  and missions organizations on the right hand side of the screen are there because I wish to support the good work they do. I receive no material reward from these groups or anyone else for running these ads.
• For some (not all) of the books I review, I have received a free review copy from the publisher. Reviews where this is the case will have something like review copy provided by..... at the bottom of the post. No one I receive books from requires me to write a positive review and I do my best to provide an honest review of every book I cover.
• As part of future book review posts, I plan to provide links to places the reviewed books can be brought. These sites will be selected on the basis of which ones I believe will be most useful for my readers. I don't plan to sign up for any programs that would materially reward me for providing these links. Some people do join these programs and use the profits for good causes so use their links instead if you know someone doing this. 
• Anything (music, free offers ect.) I endorse in posts I am endorsing because I believe people will find it helpful, not because I am being rewarded.

Book review: Joyce Meyer- Start your new life today

Start your new life today
Joyce Meyer

Start your new life today is designed as an introduction to the Christian life for those considering the Christian faith or who are new Christians.

For those considering the Christian faith, you could do a lot worse than this. The gospel presentation spread over the first few chapters is reasonably done, although a few points like the eternal consequences of sin could have used a little more elaboration.

Progressing further into the book is advice for new Christians. It is mostly advice on Christian living (emotions, attitude, making right choices ect.) If I was counseling a new Christian, I probably wouldn't give them this book. It isn't necessarily that the advice is bad, but that some of the issues it discusses probably should be much lower down the priority list for a new Christian to learn.  I would prefer to be giving them something that tells them a lot more about God, the bible and theology than this does.

While maybe not so good as a primer on Christianity for new believers, it is a good way to get acquainted with the big ideas Joyce teaches quickly. The big ideas from a number of her books and teachings are condensed into this one. As always you need to approach it with discernment. There were a few things in it I wasn't so sure about  The book is made up of 88 very short (usually 2-3 pages) chapters which makes it quite easy to read.

Featured song: George- breathe in now