September 12, 2009
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recent books read
- recent books read and/or reread/skimmed, and in-progress (over the past couple months)
Philosophy and the Christian Faith - great review of philosophy... unfortunately I read it so slowly that I forgot most of it already... but it'll be a good reference
The Prodigal God - GREAT short exposition of the parable,and the gospel...
The Reason for God - excellent apologetic, sort of like a modern/postmodern version of 'mere christianity'
Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood - awesome, extremely helpful... especially on the role of women in the church, husband/wife roles, societal feminist myths, etc
Respectable Sins - very good so far... only part way through
30 Days of Prayer for the Voiceless - if you want your gut wrenched and your heart broken, this booklet is for you. What about if you don't want your gut wrenched or your heart broken? You probably need to read this booklet even more in that case. I won't say any more. I just think you should read it. I have a copy if you want to borrow it.
30 Days of Prayer for the Muslims - great booklet! informative, specific, loving... great all around.
Do Hard Things - I was disappointed in reading this book. Maybe my hopes were too high. Their basic message is: 'American teenagers: Do hard things. Don't accept other people's low expectations of you. Look at us, we did hard things. Look at X, Y, and Z, who also did hard things. You can too." I would like to see a bit more emphasis on "why". E.g., Matthew 28 - the great commission. Because Jesus commanded us to go into all the world and make disciples, and because that process is fraught with difficulty and demands courage and diligence, that is why we do hard things. Not just because we want to pat ourselves on the back for having done hard things (they never recommend that, of course). A better motivator might be Piper's biography series (the mp3's are great!) Disclaimer - I only skimmed their book, I didn't read the whole thing through.
The Tragedy of American Compassion - awesome book, summarizing how Americans did charity before extensive welfare came along... and the why, and the results... lots of historical interest... fascinating... extremely relevant to the healthcare debate, etc
Renewing American Compassion - again, great book. I'm only on chapter 1 or 2.
Blue Like Jazz - much better than I had anticipated. It's more of a ramble than anything. His own story makes me understand him better. I'd probably disagree theologically/emphasiaically with him, but the book was worth reading.
Biblical Eldership - great comprehensive book. The main difference highlighted in this book is the problem of the clergy/laity model and/or the single professional pastor / board of elders-in-name-only model, as opposed to the Biblical elders-leading-the-church model. Slightly overstated at points, but very worth reading...
House Church - I'm only a few chapters in so far. Very controversial, apparently somewhat self-righteous/hypercritical (upon first read), but a lot of good ideas!! Some things he's emphasized so far - why do we have everyone sit and listen to a lecture for a while in pews, stand to sing, sit back down, etc, a bit of superficial greetings, when the NT pattern was to meet to eat a full meal (the Lord's supper) every week, and according to 1 Corinthians 14, the meetings were quite participatory - all the men were to come prepared to share...
Might this be more of an expression of american individualism than NT commands? On the other hand, this decentralization/fellowship emphasis has many benefits, addressing the isolation of modern society, and especially preparing for persecution scenarios...
The Heavenly Man - fascinating biography of Chinese church leader. Many accounts of miracles, etc. Interesting to see the church in another culture.
Living Water - by the author of The Heavenly Man, devotionals a couple pages each. Very critical of american christianity, very focused on being "challenging"/"goading"/"pricking", i.e. using and poking with certain challenge passages of the Bible. Helpful, but somewhat overly flavored by the author's experience.
When People Are Big and God Is Small - very good book. The title says most of it. There are stories, tips on how to fix the problems, etc.
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