unChristian - by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons

We’ll know in a year if unChristian really is as life-changing as I have made it out to be in my preaching. I’ve gotten hot about other books or concepts before, only to forget them. But the truth in unChristian is too important for that.

The research behind this book shows that 91% of those under 29 think that the best word to describe evangelical Christians is “antihomosexual”. 87% choose the word judgmental and 85% said we’re hypocritical. And Kinnaman and Lyons show that these aren’t people who don’t know us. This generation has a surprising familiarity with church. They have been to our Sunday Schools and VBSs and camps. And this is what they see?

unChristian lays out not only problems but paths toward solution. With God’s help, the truth here will help focus my preaching and our church into a rebirth.

unChristian gets a 9 out of 10 from me.

October 27, 2007 · Filed Under Books, Christ, Culture, The Church

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Deadly Viper Character Assassins by Mike Foster, Jud Wilhite

I didn’t have high expectations for Deadly Viper Character Assassins. After all, it was a free gift at Catalyst. But after hearing an interview with the authors, Mike Foster and Jud Wilhite, I decided to give it a try. I loved it.

DVCA is a beautifully-designed book that plays on a tongue-in-check tribute to martial arts, graphic novels and even a little of Kill Bill. And the content on the pleasingly-designed pages is practical and valuable. DVCA takes on the temptations that threaten our character - money, sex, power, busyness, ego, out-of-control emotions, and self-deception. Each chapter is pointed in its application and interesting to read. DVCA is the kind of book I’d like to build a small group around. The excellent Deadly Viper web site adds to the whole experience.

I give this one a 9 out of 10 - highly recommended.

October 24, 2007 · Filed Under Books

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Marshall Goldsmith: What Got You Here…

In this blog’s sidebar is a fairly current list of books that I have been reading. For the next little while, I plan to post brief summary-reviews of the books I have finished this Summer and Fall. You should be able to read each review in under a minute. Most of the older books in my library (see bottom of sidebar) already have short reviews. Enjoy.

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What Got You Here Won’t Get You There, by Marshall Goldsmith
8 out of 10

This is one I need to re-read often. I expected What Got You Here to be about organizational change - how the things that helped our church grow to 300 won’t get us to 500. But instead the focus is on behavior and personality issues that hold leaders back, especially after they rise to a certain point and are responsible for inspiring a larger team. Goldsmith identifies 20 Habits which tend to get in the way of a leader’s ability to lead. The 20 Habits are simple things like failure to give proper credit, “adding value” to everyone’s work (putting your own imprint on it for no good reason, a flaw of mine), not listening, etc. The concepts are simple but the applications are profound, and they attack the obvious flaws we tend to overlook.

Thanks to my father-in-law David Osborn for recommending this one.

October 23, 2007 · Filed Under Books

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unChristian

I have been talking a lot about the new book unChristian, by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons.  Today I found out that Kinnaman did an interview with Time magazine a short while ago on the basics of the church’s image problems with twentysomethings.  It’s a short article with a good summary of Kinnaman’s research and the challenge before us.

October 15, 2007 · Filed Under Books, Culture, The Church

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Treating people like dogs

Do you treat the people around you like dogs?

Don’t think Michael Vick.  Think of the old lady down the street with 3-4 yapping admirers nipping at her heels.

Marshall Goldsmith, in What Got You Here Won’t Get You There,  says that most of us have two contradictory tendencies:  1)  We say we hate suck-ups.  2) We tend to reward people who suck-up to us most skillfully.  We love the family dog who is always glad to see us and fawns at our feet, and we reward people around us who tell us how much they admire us.

The problem, of course, is that we can’t get good feedback about where we need to change if we listen only to our admirers.

Proverbs 27:6 says:  “Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses.”

September 1, 2007 · Filed Under Books, Leadership

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Did Einstein believe in God?

Time magazine has an enlightening article by Walter Isaacson about Albert Einstein and faith. It was published in early April but I just discovered it today (thanks to Preaching Today).

Einstein DID believe in God, and he came to his belief not through religious texts or traditions, but by peering into the mystery of nature. Of atheists, he wrote: “They are creatures who–in their grudge against traditional religion as the ‘opium of the masses’– cannot hear the music of the spheres.” As for Jesus, Einstein said “I am enthralled by the luminous figure of the Nazarene.” Yet Einstein did not believe in a personal God, immortality for humans, or even free-will.

For more fascinating reading on this man whose name is synonymous with genius, check out the Time article, which is an excerpt from Isaacson’s new book on Einstein.

May 7, 2007 · Filed Under Books, Christ

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When hard work isn’t enough

I just finished reading Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich, and let me tell you, it is THE MOST amazing, damning, interesting, entertaining and convicting thing I’ve read in years. Ehrenreich went undercover with “the working poor” in 1999 and 2000 by relocating to new communitites and finding affordable (i. e., substandard) housing and an unskilled job in each. She’s such a great writer (with a razor-sharp sense of humor) that her experiences scandalize and entertain all at once.

The main scandal is that, in spite of our fantasies about how America works, we are increasingly dependent on an underclass for whom hard work isn’t enough to pay the essential bills.

“When someone works for less pay than she can live on - when for example, she goes hungry so you can eat more cheaply and conveniently - then she has made a great sacrifice for you, she has made you a gift of some part of her abilities, her health, and her life. The ‘working poor,’ as they are approvingly termed, are in fact the major philanthropists of our society. They neglect their own children so that the children of others will be cared for; they live in substandard housing so that other homes will be shiny and perfect; they endure privation so that inflation will be low and stock prices high. To be a member of the working poor is to be an anonymous donor, a nameless benefactor, to everyone else.” (p. 221)

You should read this book, and in the spirit of its subject matter, you can get it used through Amazon for less than $5 including shipping.

May 3, 2007 · Filed Under Books, Poverty

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“I’ll be your friend even if you become an atheist.” Criticism & Brian MClaren

Out of Ur has a good post today about handling criticism. Brian McLaren has received a lot of it (and a lot of praise too) for his books, A New Kind of Christian and A Generous Orthodoxy. People criticize McLaren for the same kinds of reasons they criticize the rest of us: Some have honest disagreements with him. Others misunderstand. Some define themselves by tearing down anything or anyone who seems to be rising.

McLaren, who served as a pastor for years, touches a nerve when he says that “pastors know what it’s like to have people they’ve cared for—people they’ve married, and baptized, and counseled—come up and say, ‘You’re not meeting our needs anymore, and we’re leaving.’” To balance that, ministers (and all the rest) need “non-utilitarian friends”, people we’re with simply because we like them, not because they can help (or hurt) our ministry.

When McLaren was a young man struggling with his faith, a Christian friend and mentor told him: “Brian, I’ll be your friend even if you become an atheist.” That profound demonstration of Christian love freed him to open up to God.

Do you care for anyone like that?

March 8, 2007 · Filed Under Books, Discipleship

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Philip Yancey on Prayer

On p. 191 of Prayer: Does it make any difference? Philip Yancey reduces Jesus’ teaching on prayer to three memorable principles: “Keep it honest, keep it simple and keep it up.” He also suggests that you can get an insight about prayer by asking parents of young children what is the “correct” way for their toddlers to approach them with needs. The silliness of the question is a lesson about prayer, in which our relationship to God is always child to parent.

Man, that Philip Yancey can write!

February 28, 2007 · Filed Under Books, Discipleship

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Philip Yancey on Prayer

I’m six chapters into Philip Yancey’s new book, Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference? I’ve been Yancey’s biggest fan for many years, and this book delivers all the good stuff I expected.

Today I ran across an interesting insight that Yancey borrows from Haddon Robinson. Picture the Garden of Gethsemane. Three men are resting peacefully. One is off by himself, agonizing in prayer, with the sweat dripping off of him like blood. You might reasonably look at the one, Jesus, and wonder if he really has the strength for the ordeal that lies ahead. If he is in such turmoil now, how can he possibly hold up when the real action starts? How will he possibly face his impending arrest and trial, to say nothing of the beatings and the crucifixion? Why can’t he relax and trust God, like his three companions seem to be doing?

But that, of course, isn’t the real story. After his heart-wrenching struggle in prayer, Jesus is ready - fully ready - for everything else that comes. He faces the final hours of his life with quiet strength. But the three disciples, Peter, James and John, are completely unprepared. When trouble arrives, they begin immediately to unravel. Soon they will flee into the night to leave Jesus with his accusers.

Robinson’s picture succinctly describes Yancey’s view of the meaning of prayer (at least through chapter six). In spite of all the difficulties we have with prayer (and Yancey deals with all of them), prayer is the ultimate act of faith in which our minds take on the strength of God.

February 15, 2007 · Filed Under Books, Christ, Discipleship

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