Book Review: Crazy Busy by Kevin DeYoung

Crazy Busy by Kevin DeYoung was crazy good. Basically, DeYoung offers ways to find sanity in and for the busy lives we live. His outline consists of 3 dangers to avoid, 7 diagnoses to consider, and one thing you must do.

His 3 dangers deal with what busyness does to our lives. Busyness can steal our joy, rob our hearts, and it can rot our souls. His 7 diagnoses are really good, and they end with an interesting twist! He lets the reader know that busyness is something we all are going to struggle with. There is no cure, no way out, no escape, however if we can embrace the burden of busyness we will be able to deal with it in a more productive manner.

He closes his book with one thing you must do: Prioritize Christ. On page 116 he writes, “When I daily admit how needy I am, daily meditate on the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and daily feed on the restorative wisdom of His Word, I am propelled to share with others the grace that I am daily receiving at the hands of my Savior.” What a powerful thought, which is the last thought of this book I would recommend to anyone seeking how to deal with busyness.

Book Review: Cofee House Chronicles Set

For the past few years a friend of mine has been struggling with faith in God. He has questioned God, Jesus, creation and everything else that goes along with faith. Through this process, we have moved from creation to the person of Jesus.

I purchased the first book in this series, “Who is Jesus,” in hopes of taking a in-depth look to see if my friend could be convinced that Jesus really was a real person who lived, died, and has a story history cannot deny… in my friend’s mind! This book was totally different than what I expected, but it was good and proved useful.

Written by Josh McDowell and Dave Sterrett, this series is comprised of three books: Who Is Jesus, Did the Resurrection Happen, and Is the Bible True. All of these books are all short reads, told in a story format. The setting is a college campus and coffee house where people wrestle with and debate points of faith and Christianity. Personally, I really enjoyed all three books. I found all to be beneficial, easy to read, and filled with great facts. However, if you are looking for a resource comprised of cold hard facts, I would recommend looking elsewhere.

Book Review: The Good News About Marriage

What if I told you that everything you thought you knew about marriage and divorce was wrong? You know, that 50% of marriages end in divorce and the divorce rate in the church is the same as in the rest of the world… Would you feel deflated? Would you be discouraged? Perhaps you would feel a bit hopeless, and maybe destined for defeat? I think most everyone would feel that way, and even the best of marriages might have times where the doubts of, “are we really going to make it” might creep in.

Shaunti Feldhahn (a research analyst) decided to examine the divorce rate, factors influencing the divorce rate, and then she found The GoodNews About Marriage! Basically, over the past several years we have been told the divorce rate is 50% in and out of the church, Church Matters!

Not only has the divorce rate never been close to 50%, it has never been the same for church attenders and non-church attenders (listento a sermon on Church Matters here). Feldhahn also discovered the actual divorce rate to be between 20-25%, with that number dropping in half for those attending church. These are just a few nuggets in this book I would recommend to anyone wanting positive information on marriage and the church!

Book Review: All In by Mark Batterson

All In by Mark Batterson is a great book. He opens strong with the one-way missionaries stories, and finish strong with a challenge not to hold out on God, knowing God will not hold out on you. Throughout the book he provides biblical wisdom with personal testimonies and stories from Christians past that spark the reader’s imagination to think what God could do through them if they would simply make themselves open and available to Him. Again, this is a really good book I would recommend to anyone struggling with being fully devoted to Jesus.

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: Dirty God by Johnnie Moore

Every once in a while I obtain a book I would never buy, and typically never get around to ready. On a recent trip, I packed one of these books in my bag just in case… The name of the book is, Dirty God: Jesus in the Trenches. In Johnnie Moore’s work, there is a refreshing view of grace and our lives in accordance to the grace Jesus has given to those who believe in Him. There are many great things about this book. First, the content is great. Second, it is very easy to read. Thirdly, it grabs your attention and is a true page-turner. Fourth, this book has great research. To that point, many books lack high quality quotes and reference just the author’s point of view. Dirty God uses quotes from contemporary and past men of influence. Fifth and beyond, it has an interesting/intriguing title. There are other things, but that is all of this review. For me this was a book I read just because. If you have no real agenda (or have an agenda to get a fresh perspective on grace), you should read this book too!

Book Review: The Catalyst Leader by Brad Lomenick

This May I had the opportunity to go to Catalyst Dallas, a conference of innovation and challenge for ministers. One of the books I chose from the selected giveaways was one called The Catalyst Leader by Brad Lomenick. This book has 8 essentials for becoming a change maker.  This book provides insight into Lomenick’s accession to the leader of Catalyst. Each of the 8 essentials are described in detail, and matched with stories from how the lessons were learned and implemented. For me, I am glad I picked this book out and happy that I made the time to read it. This is a good book that I would gladly recommend.

Book Review: Death by Living by N. D. Wilson.

Instead of writing a typical book review, I am just going to share the thoughts on this book while reading, Death by Living by N. D. Wilson. Here we go:

Random stories. No connection or link. Random thoughts. Feel like I'm reading an ADHD writer. Page 62, God falls short? Chapter 11 had a clear thought process; it was strange for this book. Why is this author insinuating curse words, then giving me the greatest commandment and the next? What is this dude talking about... and why did I waste my time reading this book!

In short, this is either the worst book I have ever wasted my time reading or the second worst book I have ever wasted my time reading (see The Gospel According to Lost by Chris Seay for the competition to this book).

Book Review: Communicating for a Change by Andy Stanley

-->

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!

Book Review: You Were Born For This by Bruce Wilkinson

Bruce Wilkinson is best known for his Book, The Prayer of Jabez. In this book, You Were Born For This, Wilkinson focuses on the idea that God is looking to partner with ordinary people in order to accomplish miracles works in the lives of others. The main idea to understand in this book is the thought of a partnership between God and His followers.

This book is broken down into 4 parts. Part 1: Miracles are waiting to be completed through God’s people. We need to be actively looking for opportunities to be His miracle agents. God desires to use come people in uncommon ways for His glory. Part 2: We must be willing to whatever God wants, whenever God wants, to whomever God wants, regardless of our fear and discomfort. Therefore, we must take risks for God! Part 3: God provides you with multiple cues to deliver His miracles to others – so pay attention and be intentional to respond. Being God’s “Miracle Delivery Agent” begins with you and ends with God; focus on your role and trust God to fulfill His role. Part 4: While there are more than just 3 areas where you can deliver miracles, the primary areas are financial (helping financially), dreams (helping people realize their God-given potential), and forgiveness (releasing people from the prison of unforgiveness).

This was a good book. It was definitely an eye-opener to the reality that Heaven is not just a destination, but a place where God is working on an agenda. “Everywhere around us God has urgent work to be done. At all times He is looking for volunteers who will partner with Him. And He isn’t just passively on the lookout; He is actively, constantly, and passionately sending out request” (p. 41). If you fail to realize that God wants to use you, how He wants to use you or how to be used by Him, you need to read this book.

Book Review: 50 Days by Jerry Harris

50 Days: Seven Spiritual Disciplines That Will Shape Your Character is a 50 day devotional book focusing on 7 different biblical characters. It was based upon a prayer the author (Jerry Harris) used to pray on a regular basis:

Father,

Give me the Faith of Abraham,

The Humility of Moses,

The Strength of Samson,

The Wisdom of Solomon,

The Spirit of Elijah,

The Heart of David,

And the Love of Jesus.

Each week the reader would read through the story of each character, highlighting evidence of the specific prayer request made in regards to them. At the end of each week the author provides the reader with a challenge to obtain that discipline: worship, fellowship/community, Bible study/reading/memorization, giving, serving, fasting, and sharing Jesus.

We challenged our church to go through this for the past 50 days. It was a good devotion based off a great prayer. If you are in need of a good devotional book and a challenge to your personal spiritual disciplines, this would be a good place to start.

Book Review: 10 Who Changed the World by Danny Akin

A friend of mine, Jarrett Stephens, recommended this book to me and I am glad he did. Danny Akin takes 10 great missionaries are correlates their story with a portion of Scripture that he exegetes as well.  There are many tremendous details of famous missionaries’ stories I had not heard, as well as introductions to missionaries I was not familiar with. Without going into great detail about each chapter, I am going to give you the name of the 10 missionaries and the key takeaway I had from them:

1.     William Carey – Not His Own

2.     Adoniram & Ann Judson – All Good Even When Life Is Not

3.     Bill Wallace – Sacrifice Today for the Eternal Tomorrow

4.     Lottie Moon – Living and Loving Loud for the Gospel

5.     Jim Elliot – Passionate Persistent Pursuit of Proclaiming

6.     George Leile – Slave to the Gospel (True First Modern Missionary)

7.     David Brainerd – Unashamed Self-Denial

8.     Eric Liddell – Surrendered Champion

9.     John & Betty Stam – Courageous Glorification in Life and Death

10. James Fraser – The Prayer Missionary

This is one of the true first books I have read just to read since I graduated from school. It was a great read and I would recommend it to anyone wanting to learn more about missions, missionaries, passion for Christ or His mission. This is an encouraging and challenging read for followers of Jesus.

Book Review: Your Life Without Limits by Nick Vujicic

This is a good little book that a man born without any limbs. It is meant to encourage the reader and provide them with hope, regardless of whatever difficulties they might be facing. Nick has become an international speaker who travels around the USA, China, Korea, etc. sharing how he has overcome his adversity and his love for God. The subtitle is good too, “Inspiration for a Ridiculously Good Life.” This is a book that you could read yourself and pass on to someone else who is in need of a pick-me-up… and if nothing else, it will make you feel good about reading a book from cover to cover in about 15 minutes! Here is a video of one of his talks:

Book Review: Quitter by Jon Acuff

Quitter by Jon Acuff was a good book, easy to read, with really good insight about dealing with your day job and progressing into your dream job. For many of us, there are times where we find ourselves struggling with the job we are in for various reasons, and we dream about the job we would one day like to have (it is not a secret that I would love to senior pastor one day). 

Acuff talks about the counter-intelligent “wisdom” some people have to quit their day job to truly pursue their dream. While that may make sense, it is not very wise because we all have bills to pay, families to provide for, and responsibilities. With this, he encourages a focus on falling in like with you job – focus on the things your job does provide you with, and learn to appreciate all of those things. Refocusing one’s attention on the good, instead of what we are missing out on, was a great nugget of wisdom from this book.

He also encourages individuals to pursue their dream outside of work time, as not to rob from your current employer and to actual do something to pursue that dream one might have! The final nugget of wisdom he talked about was for those pursing a dream (job) to create a list of rules for a new job. He was talking about personal/family boundaries, but I think it is fair to apply it to creating a list of requirements a future job must have.

Overall, Quitter was a very worthwhile read. I would strongly encourage anyone facing discouragement in their day job to read it. While it is not a theological work, it does provide great wisdom and insight for people with dreams. Acuff uses humor, personal experience, and learned lesson to guide people who are where he is to do what he has done. This was a really good book.

Book Review: Plastic Donuts by Jeff Anderson

Plastic Donuts by Jeff Anderson was given to me by my friend and mentor, Paul Taylor. Paul actually setup a meeting between Jeff and my pastor’s accountability group where he showed up and told us about his book, his work, and the ministry God has called him too. While Jeff Anderson is not a household name, he does have a great heart and a great story.

This book was based on a true story where his daughter came and gave him a little plastic donut, along with some other plastic foods. The gifts, albeit unnecessary, brought his daughter great joy to give him and also put a smile on his face. This little exchange gave the author an insight into how he believes God receives gifts from us. While God does not need anything from us, it brings Him pleasure to see His children giving their things to Him. It is a fresh perspective for this reader, and one I appreciated as well.

Throughout this book, there are many insights and challenges into giving. Personally, I was challenged greatly by Jeff’s story and testimony throughout the book. He challenges the reader to pray about what they give and to allow God to guide the amount and destination of one’s gifts. For me this was a challenging read spiritually, and a book I would recommend to anyone wanting or needing to be challenged in the area of stewardship.

Book Review: Real-Life Discipleship by Jim Putman

-->

Real-Life Discipleship is a book about how Jim Putman’s church (Real Life Ministries) makes and trains disciples. Putman has a gift for explaining and communicating how discipleship should occur within a church context. While his model is specific to his church, there are many great things to learn and apply from this book. His hope from the book is stated that the reader will begin to intentionally, relationally, and strategically disciple others.

This book is broken down into three different parts. The first part is about setting the stage for discipleship. He states that discipleship requires real teaching and real learning (conversation, modeling, encouragement, etc.) in the context of a relationship. His definition of a disciple is good too, “A disciple is one who is following Christ, being changed by Christ, and committed to Jesus’ mission to save people from their sins.” Following principles he studied from the Gospel, he points towards three keys to success: intentionality, relational environment, and having a process.

He uses the following stages of a disciple’s growth: Spiritually dead; Spiritual infant; Child; Young Adult; and Parent. Since Putman places discipleship within the context of a relationship he discusses the importance of a relational environment that includes real teaching, shepherding, transparency, accountability, and guided practice. Within the relational focus, he specifically addresses the importance of church and the necessity to be engaged in a local church family.

True to form, Putman explains the process disciple-makers follow to make disciples. His reproducible process is for people to share, connect, minister, and disciple. In the second part of this book he explains each one of stages. Before he gets into that though, he gives the reader a reminder that they must understand they are only responsible for their part in the process. God has His part, the disciple has their part, and we have our part! We cannot control or dictate anything other than our own actions; a good reminder.

He then details his strategy by identifying people at different stages of spiritual growth. Without giving a full rundown of everything included it would be best just to look at the diagram he provides that I found online:

Putman states that they need to keep Bible central to what we are doing in our small groups (Good Call!), so they partnered with Avery Willis (creator of MasterLife) to develop Storying thru the Bible. Basically, instead of a printed material, they read a Bible story, have someone recite a Bible story, discuss how that person did (if they added to or missed anything in the story) and then ask discussion question to dig deeper and apply the lesson. They love the model and have seen many benefits from this style of learning including that it makes the story stick, easy to recruit leaders, meets people where they are, arms people for service, helps disciple kids, evaluates where group members are, keeps groups from getting boring, and helps people get to know one another.

The final part of this book is about letting disciples emerge as leaders. He communicated the need to disciples to grow up by relating to the development of a child, into a teen, young adult, and then a parent. It is unnatural to stay in one stage of life and that should be true about our spiritual growth as well.  He said, “God gives specific gifting to people in the church in order to help the church work together effectively.” This statement speaks to the fact that God calls upon every one of His followers to be used and useful for His purposes.

This was a great book, with a phenomenal and tangible explanation for how to make disciples in a church small group setting. Putman is able to clearly communicate what his church does to the reader, therefore it is no surprise that Real-Life Ministries has grown from 12 people to over 12,000 members. I love the heart, detail, and functionality of this book. It is a must read for those who want to make disciples.

Book Review: Church Is a Team Sport By Jim Putman

This book starts off with a lengthy introduction to tell the reader how the author got where he is and the motivation behind the book. Putman is a wrestler and former wrestling coach who views the world and church through the lens of sports. He views himself as a new kind of coach, most call his role a pastor though, but he has several other coaches on his staff as well. He sees his church as a team, which should be a natural link. As a sports fan this is something I rather enjoyed.

Throughout the book he also talks about winning, something he majored on before Charlie Sheen broke on the scene with his drug-inspired freak show! One of the things I really enjoyed was how he made clear that churches should seek to win. He also defined winning by stating, “Winning is making disciples – converts who are disciple onto God’s team and taught to take part in Christ mission” (70). He showed how pathetic the state of the North American church is too through the Barna Groups research/ Of the 360,000 church in America, only 2-5% are experiencing conversion growth. Also, 50% of all evangelical churches in America did not have a single convert last year – pathetic! There are more stats, but that is enough to get a Christian fired up!

He also talked about the need for churches to win, because we belong to God and God has given us the keys to prevail over the world – in short, every church should be seeing people coming to faith in Christ and developed into disciples. Putman makes it clear that winning starts with coaches. Coaches need to move beyond their comfort zone and discover God’s purpose for the church. He views relationship, real, authentic, vulnerable relationships where you really know people and they really know you as the key for this to take place.

In his 3rd portion of the book he outlines what his church does and why. Everything is connected to the main purpose of the church. There are no independent programs or ministries, everything is interdependent and fruitful to the primary purpose of the church – in short they are a focused church. The primary method or means to make this happens is through small groups. Small groups are the fuel for making disciples and everything they do points towards getting people in small groups, so they can be involved, serve, and eventually start leading their own small group. Their goal is to develop players and them set them loose to play.

The fourth section has to do with making sure everyone is on the same page. They are all aligned for reaching the victory they have in mind. He encourages unity and the church values unity above most everything else when it comes to having everyone on the same page. It is refreshing to see the value he places on this necessity. From coaches to players, his church makes sure everyone is able to read from the same playbook. While he views theology as highly important, he is intentional to avoid useless disagreements about minor aspects of the Christian faith.

His final part of the book summarized the book and provides useful information for leaders. He speaks to hiring and recruiting new leaders. He also places a high value on constructive criticism. One of the things many pastors do not talk about is their inability to handle criticism. Putman encourages pastors/coaches to create an environment where staff and members can offer suggestions for how a pastor can improve (he really includes everyone). He says, “A coach must allow others to evaluate him; there must be a culture of accurate assement in an organization. A coach must become vulnerable and positive when he received honest feedback, or the process ends right there… An accurate and honest assessment encourages better leadership” (208). He ends the book with a challenging pep talk.

Overall, this was a very good book. He sticks to his personality and is true to himself. It was easy to read and beneficial for any church leader. The most insightful thing I read from the book was his outline of the discipleship process. He lists it as 4 Phases of Discipleship:

1. Share-Phase: knowing Christ or hearing of Him (no real difference between praying a prayer or hearing the message – I know my explanation is not what he means, but I am not elaborating here!)
2. Connect-Level: Being involved in a small group, sharing life in a Christian community
3. Ministry-Level: Serving others, moving from the consumer level (connect-level) to being a contributor
4. Disciple-Level: Training others to do what you do.

Rob Bell's "Love Wins" = a Loss for Truth

This is a link to an in-depth review of Rob Bell's new book, Love Wins. If you are unaware of the book or the author, you need to know who he is and what he is teaching. His popularity sets mainly with the younger crowds who tend to label themselves in the emergent church. In my opinion, this book is heretical in all it's forms and resembles anything but the truth of Christ, the truth of the Cross, and the way to salvation. Here is what an excerpt from Kevin DeYoung's review that I perceive to be the key thought: "If Rob Bell is right, then historic orthodoxy is toxic and terrible. But if the traditional view of heaven and hell are right, Rob Bell is blaspheming."

Click this link for the full review of God Is Still Holy and What You Learned in Sunday School Is Still True: A Review of “Love Wins” by Kevin DeYoung.

I believe his teachings are heretical blasphemy, and I do not enjoy even writing those words. If you are unconvinced about your stance, read the Bible in proper context for yourself and let it speak to your heart. This book just makes me sad.

Al Mohler's Take.

Book Review: The Prodigal God by Keller

Timothy Keller’s work, The Prodigal God, focuses on The Parable of the Prodigal Son. Although it is not the most exciting or entertaining book I have ever read, it is very though provoking and stirs one’s mind to think about the life you live – whether or not you live it for God or to get something from Him.

He introduces his ideas in a way I have never heard the story framed, by those hearing it. It seems funny for me to say that as I like to be one who follows proper hermeneutics, but in reality it is true. The primary focus is always on the lost son, and I have never heard any preacher talk about the perspective of the hearers of the story. In reality, that is what makes this book great as it opens up the heart of what Jesus was getting at.

Keller intentionally labels the brothers the younger brother and the older brother… eventually adding another brother to the story – no this is not heresy, it simply is an addition to illuminate what could have or should have been. He concludes his book with a Gospel presentation and challenge. This is a book I would recommend to anyone preaching, teaching, or wanting to get to the heart of The Parable of the Prodigal Son.

(here is a link to the parable)

Book Review: The Slow Fade by Joiner, Bomar & Smith

This is another book I picked up at Drive Conference 2010. My initial thought was that The Slow Fade by Joiner, Bomar & Smith would serve as a good resource in connecting with college students for our Ignite Worship Service geared at reaching young adults. Instead, I discovered that I picked up a guide to mentoring. Although not explicitly stated, this book provided all the resources necessary to starting a mentoring ministry.

Chapter 4, “Mentoring Redefined,” presented a detailed description of the role of a mentor – again there is no list, but I did come up with 6 key roles from this chapter. Chapter 5, “A New Bread of Leader,” described 8 things a mentor should be intentional about doing. Appendix A “A Note To Ministry Leaders,” gave Chuck Bomar’s mentoring ministry strategy.

Overall, this is by far the best book I have read on “How To” mentor. While the premise for this book deals with this subject, the title and subtitle do not, which is the only knock on it. If you work with college students (the intended target of this book) or young adults, you really need to read through this book. I am already excited to equip some of our mentors with the tools learned from reading this book… and not being able to sleep (tonight) finally paid dividends!