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The New Restoration

The Next Christians by Gabe Lyons

If I was to awaken you from a deep REM cycle and question your self-identity, how would you answer? Would it be a racial or ethnic label, political or alumni affiliation, or would your respond with the label of any one of the innumerable cultural tribes? If I was to ask this question of a younger disciple of Jesus, author Gabe Lyons asserts that the answer would most likely not be ‘Christian’. As he says in the opening lines of The Next Christians, many of his generation were and are embarrassed by this label. Not because of Jesus, he is quick to add, but because of the negative cultural connotations that have become associated with the EvangelicalFundamentalLiturgical tribe.

Lyons spends the next two hundred pages outlining the efforts and leadership of a generation of Christ followers intent on restoring two things, the positive image of the Christian label and the influence of that tribe on the larger culture. Far from proclaiming that the Church is dead, Lyons identifies a strata of disciples who are investing their lives in the restoration of Christian transformation of the culture. The intention of the restorers is not to stand aloof from the world and point to its many corruptions from the safety of a sanctuary, but rather, to immerse themselves in the culture and change it from the inside out. The restorers take seriously the salt and light imagery given by Jesus.

There are many parallels between the missional movement popular a few years back and the restorers. The difference that Lyons highlights through the many people he uses to illustrate his points is that the missional Church was a top-down movement that affixed a label to a church in the hopes that members of that church would self-identify as well. The restorers are a distinctly bottom-up tribe, followers of Christ first and foremost who take their influence fearlessly into their vocations. If the Church at large should wish to follow, that would be fine, but the restorers are not waiting on any ordination of their ministry before following their calling.

The Next Christians serves the followers of Christ in two ways. It is an important cultural touchstone for the Church as a whole who need to understand and follow the new leadership that will arise and call them out of their fortresses. It is also mirror that can be used in your personal self-survey. Examine the lives that Lyons highlights. Test them against your theological and cultural understandings. The author doesn’t provide ten steps to becoming a restorer; those steps will be up to you and unique calling that infuses your life. What he does record are the lives of influencers, believers who are restoring one small corner of the world, and re-establishing the Christian label as a positive identifier.

I’m grateful to Doubleday publishers who graciously provided this copy for review.

Searching for Soulprints

On Sunday mornings we strive to blend in with the rest of the scrubbed faces in the chairs in the auditorium. We dress nice, but not too nice so we’re not accused of being flashy. We put a smile on our face, not even hinting that there might be problems in our lives. We blend in, masking our individuality because we’re afraid of what others will say if they discover the real you.

We’re afraid because we don’t know who we are ourselves.

Mark Batterson’s new book Soulprint delves into the process of peeling back the layers of makeup that we’ve applied to make ourselves presentable to the world. Washing them away, Batterson encourages us to stand bare before God and to take our identity cues from the hands that formed us rather than the false messages we get from the world.

Using the victories and failures of King David as cairns around which to center his discussions, Mark encourages us to examine ourselves in light of how absolutely unique we are in God’s creation. Just as the shepherd David was the only giant slayer on the battlefield that fateful day, God has created in each of us a singular personality with a purpose that only we can accomplish.

The examination of David’s humility as he sheds worldly trappings to worship with abandon and zero concern for the opinions of those around him is the highlight of the book. To be so fully devoted to God that the world falls away in importance has always been my prayer, but vestiges of the fallen life remain. They remind me not to lift my hands too high, not to allow my foibles to be known, to keep the happy face required in church. I long to dance in worship.

Pastor Batterson has done a fine job with this volume. Men’s groups will be especially well served by centering a study around this and the applicable scriptures that tell David’s story. If only a small percentage of men can shed the masks they wear in our communities, the Church and world will never be the same.

I’m grateful to Multnomah books who provided this copy for review.

Radical–David Platt

Uncomfortable.

It’s been a few days since I turned the last page of Platt’s Radical and I’m still unable to identify the source of my discomfort. The book is wildly successful by any measure. It racks up sales and plaudits in equal measure and yet, I find myself in disagreement with the majority opinion as to the quality of this volume.

The message, convoluted and scattered as it is, is sound. The sub-titled idea of separating Christian faith from the materialism of American life threads its way throughout the chapters. The cost of following Jesus (cf. Luke 9:57-62) has largely been lost in the program-laden and comfortable church of today and Platt attempts to steer the reader’s thinking to the spiritual benefits of sacrifice in the service of His Lordship.

Living sacrificially, in terms of our time, treasure and talents, is encouraged by Pastor Platt through equal parts illustration and Scriptural authority. The Spirit will nudge you as you contrast your church home and life with those in the majority world who may, the very next day, give of their life in order to remain faithful to the Lord. You will begin to see many areas of your life in which material blessings have become a millstone around your neck that impedes the full expression of your faith.

The discomfort in reading the book for me came in terms of the author himself. The chapters are filled with Platt’s globe-trotting, suspense-filled-secret church meetings and philosophical musings while sitting in the Sudanese desert. Does all of this travel come for free? Did the fistful of degrees earned in his short life come without tuition, books and board? The reader cannot help but contrast the author and the message he wants to deliver and find them incongruent.

http://waterbrookmultnomah.com/catalog.php?isbn=9781601422217

Multnomah graciously provided this copy for review.

Building Fires Rather Than Boats – Uncle Sam’s Plantation

When the Emancipation Proclamation effectively put an end to slavery in 1863, few could anticipate that only one hundred years later, the government of the United States would be responsible for enslaving millions of people all over again. Star Parker’s updated edition of Uncle Sam’s Plantation pulls back the shell of the destroyed generations of Americans who have been pulled into the entitlement culture and made dependent upon the government for their existence. It is a pitiful existence without values, responsibility and most egregiously, hope.

Miss Parker knows of what she writes, as a one-time member of the dependent culture. She describes an early life in which she was inculcated by the mantra that she was ‘owed’ something by others due to the color of her skin. Star was immersed in a culture which valued what you can get right now ( high, sexually satisfied, money from burglary) over what could be earned by responsibility tomorrow. The effects of these attitudes on generation after generation have led to the tragic destruction she sees within her racial community, and in the widespread attitudes of many of the dependent class.

“Like a castaway who uses all of the wood on an island for fires before making a boat” is a paraphrase of Miss Parker’s analysis of the short-sightedness of the government programs that purport to aid the poor. First, there is little consideration for the unintended consequences that ‘fixes’ generate. Rent control, for example, may help a renter by initially making housing affordable. The owner of the building though has little incentive to upgrade the facility or even keep it in good repair since the return on his investment will be negligible. Second, the values-free nature of government solutions ensures that this damaging attitude will infect those who participate in them. Staying in the housing discussion, why is government housing so bad? Because none of the tenants has an ownership stake in the building, none of them cares how it is taken care of.

This book is bracing and it can be a disheartening read. Some will read the accounts she includes and say, “see, I told you that is why those people act that way!” This is a response out of ignorance. Reading these pages should make you angry and broken-hearted. Though Parker offers no solutions, there is a clear message that reform comes through a realization of self-worth, one that she received along with the Spirit. The problems may seem massive and nearly hopeless, but see if there isn’t one life that you can affect by teaching, mentoring or some other one on one activity.

This book was graciously provided by Thomas Nelson publishers.

Discovering “A Praying Life” by Paul Miller

A Praying Life arrived in my mailbox unbidden, but divinely well timed. In a box of books sent from NavPress in satisfaction of an old subscription to their discipleship journal that had ceased publication, Miller’s book was on the bottom of the stack and unremarkable in its cover art. The gifts were distributed among friends and family, but I placed this book on the shelf to be read at some undetermined date. It wasn’t to be a long wait however, as something moved me to insert this into my reading rotation immediately. I’m very glad I did.

Paul Miller’s A Praying Life is simply a prayer guide for the majority of the modern church, most of whom do not have a regular time of communion with God. It is not a program, a method or a theological dissertation. Instead, Miller’s approach is to aimed square at the heart of the Christ follower who has shied away from prayer because he believes that it is too hard or time consuming. He speaks from the heart of a harried, burdened Christian who also stumbles and teaches the reader that prayer is not simply an appointment to be kept. It is a way of life that can become as natural as breathing.

Many in the Christian community keep themselves from prayer because they see the challenges as insurmountable. The literature on prayer is wide and deep, and depending on the books that you select, it is easy to become discouraged and turn away from the practice. Picking up Bounds, you look at your life and wonder how you would find hours per day to pray. Hybels sets out a formula (ACTS) that is perfect for some but constraining for others who attempt to steer the thoughts of their heart into the framework instead of pouring them out to God. Foster gives us 21 types of prayers, all biblical and wonderful but a challenge for the Christian to remember and apply on a daily basis. Each of the authors has enriched my life, but I find it difficult to recommend them to the majority of Christians I come in contact with.

Miller takes a different approach to the privilege of prayer. He begins our discipleship in the art of prayer by turning us back to our childhood and encouraging us to speak to our heavenly Father in the same, open, unguarded fashion we once spoke to our earthly fathers. We didn’t worry about form and just told him what was on our minds. Why would God be any different? Beginning in this way we learn to crave the time with Him, worrying less about content and simply develop a comfort in the moments spent together. Without this foundation, Christians find it difficult to develop a more mature approach to prayer.

Prayer is hard, as is life as a child of God. Our Father says no, He has periods of silence that stretch for months on end and He can call us to obedience in ways that we wrestle against in resentment. It is easy for us to remember the chapters of the Bible in which prayer is immediately answered in a positive way, yet we are quick to forget the dark night in Gethsemane where the Lord cried out for His Father to take the cup from in but received a no in response. By intertwining experiences from his own life, Miller helps us to get over this hurdle that stops many Christians in their attempts to build a life of prayer. He shows that answers may not come, they may be no or that the answer may be several years separated from the supplication. The foundation that he built in the initial pages supports the broken heart of those disappointments and long winters of wait.

Whether you posses shelves of books on prayer or are seeking a new start, A Praying Life is an outstanding book to include in your library. You will read it once and be immediately moved to read it again at a slower pace, seeing and considering the parallels between your own life and that of Mr. Miller’s. This is prayer guide that should become a part of many church discipleship programs.

Spiritual Rhythm by Mark Buchanan

In the opening pages of Spiritual Rhythm, Pastor Mark Buchanan rehearses with us of the closing verses of Psalm 88. The closing verse especially–“the darkness is my closest friend.”—speaks to a spiritual darkness nearly as black as the afternoon at Golgotha. All that the psalmist had, or thought he had, is gone, and he cries to the darkness to explain why God has abandoned him here. Most Christians can identify with the bleakness evoked in that scripture, of knowing that moment when life has crashed down and crushed our souls. As our fingers weakly reach from the rubble for the hand of the Father, none is found. We find ourselves in a season of winter.

Buchanan echoes a well known theme similar to the conclusion drawn by the author of Ecclesiastes, that our lives can be viewed as a cycle of seasons. Just as our moods and behaviors differ from season to season as the weather changes, so also should our spiritual lives mirror the life-season we find ourselves in. An important distinction that the Pastor draws in the analogy is a difference in the length of the seasons. According to the calendar winter will last precisely 90 days; a spiritual winter may last an achingly long time or pass in a few weeks. This variability demands that we prepare for the eventuality of a sudden transition into a new season before it arrives.

Spiritual Rhythm combines a pastoral sensitivity aimed at helping the believer identify the spiritual cycles and a teacher’s heart for training the disciple. In the same way that we anticipate the season to follow our present experience and prepare for it, Buchanan suggests that our spiritual disciplines should prepare for us the coming seasonal transition. Without this preparation, he says, we may find ourselves cursing the darkness rather than being able to thank God for it.

Pastor Buchanan engages the reader in the book as he has in his previous volumes. With a pastoral sensitivity and an ear for the proper personal interlude, Mark speaks to the reader as closely as your own pastor would and in a way that only a trusted associate can. He does not speak from the lofty pulpit of theological precept. Rather, he leads us to search the scriptures to find the nuggets that may not preach well but become the pearls that we jot in our journals or remember long after the book is returned to the shelf. Men will be particularly touched by the volume as Buchanan willingly visits and revisits the heart-rending pain of the lost of his friend and co-pastor Carol, expressing his pain and sorrow with complete abandon that many men strive to hide beneath layers of false machismo. A man who is especially observant will also never forget the name Abishai again.

Spiritual Rhythm is a volume that reads fast, but is one that you will want to linger on and savor. The temptation will be strong to turn this into a small group curriculum, but this material and the spiritual exercises lend themselves more to personal practice. Unless all of the members of a cell found themselves in the same spiritual season at the same time, the needs of all of the individuals would more often than not find themselves in conflict. Spend time with this book on your own and align your actions to your current season. Never again will you be anxious at an approaching transition.

I’m grateful to Zondervan who graciously provided this copy for review.

Beyond Opinion by Ravi Zacharias

Zacharias guides this apologetics compendium in a different direction from other, more cerebrally oriented works. Beyond Opinion approaches the defense of Christianity from a personal angle, saying that our lives, and the witness they present, are the strongest apologetic argument that we can make in favor of the truth of Christianity. In this goal, Zacharias and his co-authors succeed wonderfully.

In any multi-author work, an inconsistency from chapter to chapter is the norm but not so in this volume. An expert editing touch makes the work flow across all of its 338 pages. Zacharias organizes the apologetic approaches by grouping different situations and challenges that the Christian faces. First, he touches on challenges that are voiced by different social and religious groups and the the answers that the reality of Christianity offers in response. The logical answers are provided, but the emphasis is on backing up the words with action.

The section devoted to making the apologetic answers personal by internalizing them is a challenge to read and apply. The theological and philosophical discussions are excellent but the addition of a few steps of down-to-earth application instruction would have gone far in making these chapters more approachable. Zacharias’ closing chapter on the work of the Church in strengthening the apologetic minds of her members is the strongest in the book. Moved to the front of the volume, it would serve better as a primer before jumping into the details of the following chapters.

Though it is wide ranging in its coverage, the book whets the appetite to explore the individual areas in greater detail. One would not be prepared to defend the faith against the challenges of Islam, for example, by consuming the chapter on the topic. You will, however, gain just enough knowledge to guide your study further in order to present the exclusivity of Christ in the best possible light. Your apologetics library benefits from the inclusion of this fine book, providing as it does the touch points needed to drive your study in many different directions.

I’m thankful to Thomas Nelson for providing this review copy.

Jesus Manifesto by Leonard Sweet & Frank Viola

Sweet and Viola say this somewhere near the midpoint of their new book, Jesus Manifesto: “Get a fresh glimpse of your incomparable Lord, and you will be emboldened to stop spending your life on yourself. Connect with Him who is life, and you will be empowered to deny yourself, live beyond yourself, and live outside yourself.” Herein is the key idea behind the author’s call; the Church and her members have abandoned their life in Christ in favor of creeds, theological constructs, and self-help. Rather than sermons, service, and self rooted in ‘having my best life now’ or ‘the me I want to be’, Manifesto insists on every page that we return to a Christianity rooted in Christ, from Alpha to Omega.

The call for Christians to return to our first love is all encompassing as befits the all-in-all that Sweet and Viola remind us that Christ inhabits. It is this need to remind us of our first love that drives the book. The authors reach far and wide to examine the myriad ways in which Christians have substituted self-esteem, moral improvement, theology, social justice and a whole host of other things for Christ. Jesus has been reduced to the titular center of the church. Our movement away from Him in an imagined exchange between Jesus and Peter. Does Christ ask Peter, upon his restoration, to build a leadership program, improve the self-esteem of His followers, or help them to try harder to be Christ-like? No. Jesus asks His friend Peter, “Do you love me?”

Along the entire span of Alpha to Omega there is but one question to answer about Jesus, “Do you love me?”

Thomas Nelson graciously provided this book for review.

We Band of Brothers

Before opening John Eldredge’s updated edition of Wild at Heart I thought about the changes that have occurred in the lives of men since I read the first edition back in 2001. The landscape of the world has changed. We confront enemies that threaten our families in new and devious ways, we stare at meltdowns in our finances and worklives that are often beyond our control, and our increasingly fragmented relationships have left us more alone than ever. The definition of what it means to be a man, especially a man who is a servant of God, has become more difficult to grasp than ever before. It is an ideal time for the rediscovery of this book.

Eldredge has generated a fair amount of controversy over the years from those who find either his battle against the weakening of men or his theological underpinnings to be questionable. I won’t delve into his theology here except to say that he is not the heretic that some would like to make him out to be. John can occasionally pull a verse out of context in support of his point but he does not do violence to the Scriptures in doing so. Likewise, when Eldredge is bound for burning by those who see him defying Sola Scriptura by saying that God may speak through a movie or song or even the adventure of a climb, he is innocent as was Paul who wrote of all creation being revelation in his letter to the Romans.

Wild at Heart is Eldredge’s call for men to be men rather than the little boys that the culture encourages us to remain through its stereotypes. This man is a man of responsibility, one who takes seriously the call of God on his life. The Wild man is a man who fights for the heart of his King (to borrow a McManus illustration) and remains loyal despite the setbacks that he encounters. Perhaps due to a deficit of modern archetypes, the author leans on bigger than life imagery to incite and arouse the hearts of men to this loyalty. What man is not stirred by the Shakespearean words of Henry V at Agincourt about his band of brothers far more than a Tweet reporting a new coffee flavor at Starbucks?

I enjoyed this book much more as I read this new edition. I don’t attribute this the new or edited content as much as the decade of scars I have accumulated since its first perusal. As we have watched the fading influence of the Promise Keepers, men’s ministry has likewise fallen from favor in the Church at large. Perhaps this new volume can ignite a new movement of men; grown men with their hats on forward, grown men with a deep love and respect for their families, and a growing reverence for their King.

I am grateful to Thomas Nelson Publishers who provided this complimentary copy for review.

Deepening Your Spiritual Intelligence Quotient

Spiritual immaturity is one of those problems within the modern Christian church that is known, discussed, and programmed with little fruit to show for all of the myriad efforts. Cultural forces have allowed the intentional pursuit of discipleship to fall from favor in the Church, only to be replaced by a more casual approach, maturity by osmosis. Spiritual muscles have gone soft with a commensurate lack of influence in the world.

Alan Nelson’s contribution to the library of spiritual development is his newest book, Spiritual Intelligence. Borrowing loosely from Goleman’s Emotional Intelligence, SI is measured by the ability to translate the Christ-likeness that we hear about in sermons, talk about in small groups, and even occasionally encounter when opening our bibles into transformative application in our day to day lives. Just as many social problems are attributable to a low EI, lack of spiritual maturity reflects deficit SI.

Nelson doesn’t offer a quick three-step solution to this problem. True spiritual maturity with meaningful depth is not gained by watching a DVD series with your cell group followed by some obligatory conversation and snacks. It requires an intentional workout, one that takes time, effort, and dedication with none of the social status that comes with being seen at 24 Hour Fitness. The path to growth that he advocates mirrors the rigorous investment that Jesus made in His original disciples. The ‘travel team’ is the modern equivalent of Jesus’ band of brothers ( now brothers and sisters ), and intentional assembly that are in covenant agreement with one another to travel the challenging terrain of discipleship together. They will love you and hold you accountable as you will them for consistent gains in spiritual fruit, humility, and the demonstration of a lifestyle that is consistent with the faith your profess.

One of the fine attributes of this book that will also turn off many readers is that Nelson states that there is no single path or experience that will culminate in maturity. He rightly recognizes that, like the original disciples, we are all vastly different people who will each follow a slightly different road to growth. The book offers a wide variety of mapping strategies, suggestions for the inclusion of a Pathfinder, and strategies for avoiding the inevitable plateaus and days of back tracking. Unlike a 40 day schedule that excites the church for a month and a week, SI emphasizes that the methods of Jesus apply to the whole of our lives, from “pampers to depends.”

When you turn the first few pages you will be tempted to put it aside as I did. You have encountered everything you will read in SI in little bits here and there and the temptation will be to dismiss this as derivative of everything that came before it. Pick it up though and read it again. There is a rigorous demand that supports the ideas, a program of growth that will drain all that you can offer just as the Disciples were drained by their three year internship with Jesus. He took his band on a road trip of epic proportions experiencing joy, disappointment, frustration and love along the way. When it was time for them to display their SI, the individual disciples made an imprint on the world that is still being felt today. Isn’t that what you want to do with your life?

I’m grateful to Baker Books who supplied this copy for review.