Book Review: ENEMIES of the HEART by Andy Stanley

ENEMIES of the HEART is a great book. In this work, Andy Stanley deals with Four Emotions that Control You: Guilt, Anger, Greed, and Jealousy. Each negative emotion is dealt with in terms of debt. Whether you owe someone else or they owe you or you owe you or God owes you, there is a clear message communicated of how each of those mentality negatively impact an individual and robs people of the true intimacy God desires they have. Additionally, Stanley provides simple practice antidotes to each one of those enemies of the heart: Confession, Forgiveness, Generosity, and Celebration. It is my opinion that everyone should read this book. In fact, I have distributed this book to several people and purchased another dozen to share as I feel so led.

Book Review: Communicating for a Change by Andy Stanley

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This is a fantastic book for anyone who wants to become a better communicator. Although I have not read other reviews on this book, my guess is that there are some pious people who dislike Andy and thus discredit his in your face reality about preaching and dismiss this book as nonspiritual. Regardless of naysayers might communicate about this book, it is indeed a great read for preachers who want to be more effective in their communication skills. Through a story and then detailed explanation, Stanley provide 7 Imperatives of Communications. This is worth the read for any preacher, especially ones who would like to improve!

Staying In Love - Promo

This Sunday we are starting Staying In Love at First Baptist Jenks. I am really excited to see how this goes and what God does through the marriages in our church. In my opinion, there is not a better communicator than Andy Stanley and I am sure this will be great! Here is a promo video about the series:

SBC 2010: Award Winners

Here are my award winners for the 2010 Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting in Orlando:

• Best Sermon – Tony Evans, if people would have listened to him they would have listened to Evans they would not have made the asinine comments about Stanley


• Worst "Message" - Joshua Shank, Acts 29 Rap... on the path to being the next Wiley Drake!

• Most Popular – David Platt, the twitter trends for him were ridiculous!


• Least Popular/Most Helpful – Andy Stanley, if people would get off their high-horses and listen to his wisdom, their churches would be better for it.


• Best speech – James Merritt for the GCR, it was fantastic!


• Worst speech – The recent grad from one of our SBC seminaries against the GCR… whatever seminary that was should still thanking God he did not claim them!

• Best Dressed – Anyone wearing shorts in the humid hundred degree weather

• Worst Dressed – Ronnie Floyd, don't get me wrong, Floyd did a great job with the GCR, but this Miami Vice suit is TERRIBLE!


• Worst Logo Ever – Love Loud, this logo is embarrassing for so many reasons... absolutely horrendous - even worse than Floyd's suit!

Book Review: Choosing To Cheat by Andy Stanley

Choosing To Cheat is not what it sounds like initially, it is about “who wins when family and work collide.” Throughout the book, Andy Stanley tackles the number one challenge in my life, which is also the greatest challenge in most men’s life: balancing our work-life and home-life, career and family, professional verse parental/spousal. The beauty of this book is that he does not merely address the issue, he gives easy to follow advice for how to deal with these steps.

While there are many helpful points, some are found is addressing the balance between work and family before it spirals out of control. Chapter Four (Picking Up The Pieces) provides a healthy barometer along with quality questions to ask your children to gauge how you are truly doing with your family.

Section 2 is the practical part of the book that provides a roadmap for how to make family your family your top priority. Through the life and dedication of Daniel, Stanley provides 3 simple steps to follow: Make up your mind, come up with a plan, and set up a trial. For me, chapter seven was the most helpful chapter. One of my favorite quotes came from that chapter on page 86, “Reprioritizing your world around your family is not just a good idea. It is a God idea. As a Christian, I don’t think I have any option when it comes to establishing my priorities.”

My reason for purchasing this book and reading it is a direct result of listening to Andy Stanley give the Pastors’ Q & A at his Drive 2010 Conference last week. He said this book was the most important one he has ever written. After completing it, I think he is correct. The only real critique I have of it is what he addresses as the book’s main problem in the introduction, the book’s title. Once he sets up the idea it does make sense, because every man is going to cheat on his job (for his family) or cheat on his family (for his job).

To be clear, I would recommend every father and husband take a couple hours to read this book, then spend your life altering it to do be the man at home only you can be!

Related Post: Family-Ministry Balance