Love, Sex, and Happily Aver After

  When I first signed up to read this book, I was unaware that it was: A.) a reprint and B.) a book for newly-weds or almost-marrieds.  Needless to say, I was sad at finding these two things, yet I am glad to have read this book.

  I am a huge fan of Craig Groeschell and lifechurch.tv, I think God is using him and the church to do great things in this country for the Name and Glory of Jesus.

  This book follows along those same lines.  Craig's style is very upfront, authentic and in your face.  He doesn't peter around hot topics, nor does he give room for the reader to interpret his main intent...he just spits it out there and asks the reader to chew on it for awhile.

  This book is written in that mode of thinking.  Craig goes through many of the myths newly-weds or almost marrieds go through, such as sexual myths and the idea of "playing house before married".  He attacks culturally upheld views of cohabitation before marriage as "OK" and breaks down how it can be dangerous for not only the marriage relationship as a whole but for the sexuality of the couple as well.

  Craig then, after dismantling widely held, non-Biblical views about love, sex and marriage goes to reassemble the marriage story using the Bible as his main driving text.  He asks the reader to rethink terms like "husband" and "wife" and to place a Biblical view over their eyes to see how God views those things and how we as the American culture have distorted a beautiful thing.

  Lastly, he reminds the reader that this marriage thing is much more than saying the words "I do" but actually living out a covenant for life.  Marriage is not a "legal contract" that a couple can someday (if they choose) get out of.  It is a life covenant where you are physically, spiritually and emotionally lining your life with another.

  This is a great book to hand engaged couples.  I believe it will cause some people to rethink if they are fit for marriage and will also cause most to strengthen their marriage either before it begins or in the midst of it.  It is a challenging read and much encouraged to any married person.  It will remind us married folks what the covenant is all about and will help the engaged or single folks to see what marriage should be, not what is has been defined as by our culture.

  Take time to read this one..it's worth it!

Radical Together- Book Review

After reading Radical by David Platt, I was excited for the chance to review Radical Together as well.

   This book is a good book.  It has great content and a great heart behind it, but I feel it was severely rushed.  I wanted more meat, not a rehashing of things said in Radical, which I think happened a lot in this book.  Granted it is a companion to the first book and so overlap is clearly expected, but something struck me as disingenuous.  Look, I am a writer, so I am getting to know how the publishing world works.  David's first book was a skyrocket success, unexpectedly so. 

 I fear that he was pushed to write a companion soon so the sales could ride on the coat tails of the previous work.  Because, let's face it publishing is a business and in business you ride on the coat tails of your successes and leave the newbies (who may have a great thing or two to say) by the wayside.  It becomes more about the bottom line than not.

  With all of that said, I did enjoy this book.  David speaks with a raw authenticity rarely seen in Pastors of his status.  He is honest, forthright and very open about who he sees himself as, as well as how he sees the church he leads.  In this book, he takes the main thrust of Radical and puts it into a format the whole church can grasp and follow.  In Radical it was more of an individual call, here it is more of a corporate call.

  In my mind, if you have read Radical you don't really need this book, but if you haven't read Radical this book has great insights in it that will challenge and call you to a deeper community like way of living within your church body.  However, after you read it and you have not read Radical I strongly recommend reading Radical because it is even more profound and even more in depth on how to break the American Mold and be the Christian God has called you to be.

  In the front of the book Radical Together is a quick overview of the whole book, which I feel captures the ethos of the entire book.  Here it is.

1. Tyranny of the Good
      One of the worst enemies of Christians can be the good

2. The Gospel Misunderstood
      The gospel that saves us from work saves us to work

3. God is Saying Something
      The Word does the work

4. The Genius of Wrong
      Building the right church depends on using all the wrong people

5. Our Unmistakable Task
      We are living and longing for the end of the world

6. The God Who Exalts God
      We are selfless followers of a self-centered God


  That is the whole book summed up.  Good stuff, but there could have been more.  I hope the publisher didn't push for this before David was done gestating over it because if they did, we missed out on more.  If not, it is a good little book to spend a couple hours reading and wrestling with.

The Next Christians

I recently read a new book titled "The Next Christians- How a New Generation Is Restoring the Faith" by Gabe Lyons. In this book, Gabe shares about how he has seen a new group of Christians rising up to take the place of their ancestors and setting a new goal for the Church as a whole. Gabe contends that the current flow of Christendom is over and this new generation is changing the tide for the future of the Church. He likens this shift to the Protestant Reformation and is adamant that this new wave of "the next Christians" will restore the Church to what God intended it to be in America.
Gabe talks about the need for the church to change and he discusses how these next Christians are labeled "Restorers". After he gives the title and theme of Restoration, he talks about what attributes these "restorers" take on. Below are those attributes


1. They are Provoked, not offended- He says that the "Next Christians" shouldn't be offended by the world, rather provoked to engage it and change it back to God's original design. I think this is right on. We as Christians should be people who are compassionately provoked to take the world back from Satan by the Power of Jesus

2. Creators, not Critics- He says that the "Next Christians" have stopped criticizing the bad that’s going on in Church and the world and begin to create new functional realities to work within. We can't sit back and say: "that's bad, that's bad" and offer no creative alternatives....this makes the world look at us as jokes who condemn but don't move to change.

3. Called, Not Employed- Here Gabe talks how the "Next Christians" see whatever job they find themselves in as a calling rather than a job. He says these next Christians see every act as something unto the Lord. I think this is where we need to be, but here I think he gives the "Next Christians" too much credit.


4. Grounded, Not Distracted- Here Gabe states that the "Next Christians" are more aware of the distractions of the world and are more aware of how to avoid being trapped by them.


5. In Community, Not Alone- Gabe describes the "Next Christians" as a people of community and I have seen this over and over again with people my age and younger. We are a people that desire to go to the store together, eat together and talk together. Being alone and doing work alone is tiresome and hard.


6. Countercultural, Not "relevant"- Gabe's sixth attribute is an interesting ending to the list. He claims that church after church has been seeking to be relevant to the World around us and has in fact simply become a mirror to the culture, rather than a countercultural movement. Out of all the attributes he lists, this one I disagree with most. I think this is what the "Next Christians" need to become, but I think they have a long way to actually getting there. My generation has a lot of growing up to do in the area of counterculturalism, so I will wait and see if we do!


All in all, this book is helpful to see some new trends in the younger Christians. I think the Next Generation of Christians has a lot to say about the church and in the next 15-20 years will be in positions to change some things they feel needs changed. I think God is going to use us younger folks in mighty ways to reach the world for Jesus. I encourage you to read it and engage with the conversations!

Soul Print--A Book Review

 As part of the Blogging for Books from Waterbrook/Multnomah I was lucky enough to receive Mark Batterson's new book Soul Print for review.

  I have read all of Mark's other works and have never walked away upset that I spent time reading his stuff.  This book is no different.  Mark writes the way he preaches and teaches which is a very matter-of-fact type of communication.  I enjoy this type of writing because it is more raw, real and untamed.

  In this book Soul Print Mark tackles the idea of Identity and Purpose from the storyline of David.  Mark opens with the Goliath scene and takes the reader on a personal journey through David's life, which also exposes their own life along the way.  Mark takes David's lie frame by frame and shares where God is printing your (my) unique soul print within David's narrative.

  Mark is real and honest as he authentically shares his heart and the junk he himself has dealt with in order for him to fully see the Soul Print in which God has placed on his life.  I love his authentic approach to this topic and felt very relieved to read such honest discussion from his own life experience.

  This book is very well written, very well thought out and impactful.  I recommend this book to anyone because no matter where you are at in your Spiritual walk, I think there are some good nuggets you can grab out of this book.

  One of the funny things about this book is that I was reading echoes of what I wrote about in my own book.  This was not to say anything except that God ministered to me about how my writing is on track with what his Spirit is saying.  We need to know our True Identity (or our Soul Print) and we need to be real with God, others and ourselves in order for us to come to the place of deep inner-healing that we desperately need.  This book brings those issues to the table and I was pleased to see and hear someone else saying what I've been saying for years!