book review vol. thirteen

It’s been a long while since I last published a book review, and for good reason too: it’s been a long while since I last finished a book. That said, I give you a review for No Compromise: The Life Story of Keith Green.

As you may have ascertained from the book’s title, this is a biography. Those of you who are really observant may have already gathered that Keith’s wife, Melody, wrote the book. I point that out just to lend more credibility to the book’s contents, which are quite enjoyable.

She tells the story of her husband who, if you aren’t familiar, was a pretty big “star” in the Christian music world in the late 70’s and early 80’s. I’d compare him to a blend of Jason Upton and Chris Tomlin today, to give you an idea. Keith was an awesome man. He didn’t become a believer until after he turned 20, and from that moment on, he went hard after Jesus and the things of Jesus.

Keith saw things in black and white, and he was a real passionate, in your face kind of guy. He’d say things from the stage – or in churches, or meetings – that weren’t popular things to say. And he didn’t do it for controversy’s sake, he did it because he firmly believed the things he was saying were straight from the heart of God. One of the things he’d often say at shows was how he hated the fact that people thought of him as a star (hence the quotes used above). It bothered him to the point that he was willing to give up his music career to avoid bringing glory to himself… something I doubt many folks today would be willing to do.

He lived out his convictions in a stronger way than most men do. At one point in the midst of his very successful music career, he felt like he should not be charging money for his music because he felt the Gospel should be free, so he put a pay-what-you-can pricing standard in place, both at his shows and at local music stores who carried his music. Another example of his saying unpopular things: he once told a group of fellow popular Christian music artists that they were in sin because they charged for their music and their shows. Like I said, things were pretty black and white for him.

This book gives a very detailed portrayal of Keith’s life, and his struggles with his faith and how it worked in the world around him. He was so honest, both in his life and in his writings, and the Lord really used him to touch a lot of people.

When Keith was 28 he died in a place crash with 11 other people, including two of his children, outside his East Texas home. Though the Lord obviously knew what He was doing in taking Keith home, I would really love to have seen what he’d look like if he were still around today, and what kind of impact he’d have continued to make on the Church if he weren’t taken home so early.

So if you’re in to examples of people living out their biblical convictions in the context of being a “star”, then I recommend this book. I’d especially recommend it for people who are in to music, and for those who are thinking of (or already are) pursuing music as a career.

Thanks to Hannah for the recommendation, and for putting the book in my hand.

book review vol. twelve

I came across this book at a Dallas area Half Price Books I visited with a friend. I had no intentions of leaving the store having made a purchase, but upon thumbing through this book I thought it worthy of my $6.47. At first, second, and possibly third glance, I wasn’t sure how to go about thinking of this book. Was it a joke? Was it serious? The cover and certain charts (including the “Common Handraising Postures” chart) made it seem as if it were a sarcastic book, but the content of much of the body seemed too right on to be a joke.

Well it turns out that A Field Guide to Evangelicals & their Habitat is in fact a satirical look at, well, evangelicals. The author, Joel Kilpatrick, creator of Lark News, is said to “attend church regularly for personal fulfillment and new material.” Well having completed the book it is evident that this man does indeed attend church and has a knack for picking up on the humorous nuances that occur across the nation in churches residing under the “evangelical” umbrella, ella, ella.

So after reading this book, not only will you have laughed a lot (assuming you’re one who can poke fun at things that are typically taboo to laugh at), but you will also have learned:

- What evangelicals believe
- How to identify an evangelical on the field
- How to plan and execute a field trip to an evangelical church
- How to talk and act like an evangelical without being one
- Evangelical habits overseas
- How to decorate like an evangelical
- and much more.

Some recurring themes you’ll come across in this book is the fact that evangelicals love homeschooling, eating, and voting Republican. Meanwhile, they hate bars, R-rated movies, and CNN.

Though I did laugh throughout the entirety of this book (less in the “Evangelical Mating Habits” chapter), about half way through I started to question how fruitful it is to go into this much detail poking fun at the quirkiness of the current status of the church in America. Though I doubt anyone reads the book this way, a beneficial way to look at it would be to realize that, though it is a satire, this book does justice to how the non-believing world sees believers. Upon realizing that, if we could strive to be less lame, that, I think, would be fruitful.

I’ll leave you with a few quotes from the book:

[On how missionaries make a living]
“Long-term missionaries spend every third year traveling the US… they also dress in the perceived traditional clothing from their country of service, playing to Americans’ mistaken belief that Third World residents dress in colorful handcrafted garb… missionaries know that if they showed up to preach in an old *NSync T-shirt and ill-fitting swim trunks, nobody would give them a dime”

[On decorating like an evangelical]
“On the wall immediately visible when you walk in, hang a framed cross-stitch or embroidery that reads, ‘As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord, Joshua 3′. There is simply no substitute for this particular piece if you wish to maintain a convincing evangelical design”

[On greeting evangelicals]
“…offer a standard greeting, coupled with a phrase like ‘God is good’ or ‘Praise God’ or ‘What a blessing’. Give a warm handshake, perhaps pulled into a brief hug if the person is of the same gender.”

[On bars, nightclubs, and poolhalls] (Bold added)
“You will not find evangelicals in places that encourage drunkenness, fornication, dancing, or fighting with pool cues. The only time they might duck into such a place is to hang a poster for a Christian concert or a notice about an alcohol recovery program at their church. Evangelicals don’t want to make the mistake Jesus made in hanging around society’s lowlifes and becoming known as winebibbers and drunkards — a reputation that put a major crimp in his earthy ministry.“

book review vol. eleven

I bought this book after it was brought to my attention with a high recommendation from Allen Duty. You may recall the title from the review on the Duty’s blog. Well now I’ve completed the book and it’s my turn to give my two cents.

There is no question that at this point in history, the scientists, environmentalists, conservationists and preservationists have successfully informed the public of the deteriorating state of our world to the point that it is now very chic to be (or at least to appear) green. Some people are legitimately doing it, others fake it – not unlike claiming the name of Christ. Matthew Sleeth and his family are doing it. This gives him credibility in writing a book on the topic.

One of the biggest points that Sleeth gets across in this book is the fact that a part of obeying certain well-known commands from scripture (i.e. “Love your neighbor”) includes living in such a way that minimally impacts the environment, both for the benefit of future generations and those living in today’s third world countries. He teaches that our motivation for living green ought to be love, which comes from the Lord. That’s true, and it’s something that I’m sure a lot of people need to hear.

However, I came into this book already believing that it is our duty as believers (not to mention humans) to live modestly, and even sustainably. Though this book did open my eyes to a few areas where I could reduce my impact on the environment, most of what he taught I either already knew or could have figured out without too much thought. Now that isn’t to say I’m practicing it, so it’s good for me to hear, but still, it was less practical than I’d hoped.

I was also pretty disappointed with most of Sleeth’s references to scripture and how he used them to make the point he was making. I found the majority of his arguments far from convincing. To say that you are experiencing “the peace that surpasses all understanding” because you were gardening with your wife just like God created you to… come on, that’s weak. And I’m pro-gardening and certainly pro-wife.

In his defense, Sleeth did have a nice little collection of pages there in the appendices that were a lot more practical than the 200 pages that precede them. Unfortunately I found even those to be lacking. The theme of what he taught was to pick the appliance that used the least energy when purchasing new ones, and to make sure to turn things off when they aren’t being used.

So thank you Allen for the book recommendation, I appreciate your thinking of me. But to my readers: I don’t recommend this book to you unless you truly feel at a loss as to where you stand on environmental stewardship. If you find yourself unsure of what our role as believers is, then by all means pick up the book. I’ll let you borrow mine. If you think you’ve got a pretty good grip on how we ought to treat our world, and what motivates us to act that way, you don’t need to read this book. What you do need to do is check out the Supercinski’s blog, where they’re doing a series on getting greener. I do recommend this, and I strongly believe it will not be a waste of your time.

book review vol. ten

Remember my two cool friends who started their own t-shirt co.? One of those sweet girls, upon hearing me express my feelings about my current life situation, recommended and later loaned me this book, for which I am thankful indeed.

Twentysomething: Surviving and Thriving in the Real World by Margaret Feinberg.

As I was reading through this book I really appreciated how Feinberg put into words a lot of the things that have been going through my head the past year or so. Some of the issues addressed I’ve since come to terms with, others I haven’t yet, and others still I never wrestled with in the first place. She offered nothing profound, but because she wrote this book at the tail end of her twenteysomething years, the issues were still fresh on her mind and she was able to clearly express them. However, after presenting various issues that any given twentysomething deals with (adjusting to work-life, looking for community, desiring marriage or being married, paying bills) I was mostly unimpressed with how she then failed to teach on them, firmly backing her opinions with the Word.

Don’t get me wrong, there were Word references and a lot of things she said were pretty fruitful, but I finished the book thinking, “There needs to be an awesome book about this very topic, and this is not it.” Still though, I think this is a valuable book to read soon after graduating from college because if nothing else, it solidifies in the mind of the reader that it is entirely okay for you to be thinking the things you think. You aren’t alone in this new stage of life. Lots of other people are going through it too.

So all in all, not a bad book, and until I find a better one, this’ll be my recommendation to all the new graduates who come to me seeking wisdom… all zero of them. Thanks Nat-town for the loan. Much appreciated.

book review vol. nine

This book is somewhat of a classic, especially among those Americans who love the outdoors. I’d heard about it back in college from some climber friends, and I recently borrowed a copy from a friend who had to read it back in high school.

I could give you a summary of the book, but it cannot be put any better than Krakauer himself said it:

In April 1992 a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. His name was Christopher Jonhson McCandless. He had given $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet, and invented a new life for himself. Four months later, his decomposed body was found by a moose hunter…

One thing that quickly appealed to me as I learned more about Chris McCandless was the fact that he lived out his convictions, and he had plenty of them to be sure. He was, as many college graduates are, extremely opinionated. The difference between him and his peers was that he acted out on what he believed, a decision that ultimately cost him his life.

Also interesting to me as I read the book were the similarities I see in myself and McCandless. Noticing those similarities (the specifics of which I’ll spare you) caused me to think not so much about how I long to go travel and find myself and live off the land (not sure I’d fare too well), but more about how fascinating it is to me that youth tend to be so idealistic and passionate while older people tend to be much more subdued and tolerant of things they may not like. I realize that between college and retirement there are a series of events that will drastically change ones perspective, but I hate to think that someday I will no longer be passionate about things in which I place so much value now.

At any rate, Chris McCandless was never given much of an opportunity to have his perspective on life change, at least not in the way of which I just spoke. He learned from everything around him, and his actions always seemed to put him in situations that strenthened his passionate, idealistic tendencies. It would be interesting to know, had McCandless survived the Alaskan bush, how he would view the world today, 15 years later. Of course, had he survived, we would know nothing of his post-college story, thus, learning how he viewed life wouldn’t be that facsinating.

Anyway, great book, extremely well researched and well written. Exciting, thought-provoking… I recommend it.

book review vol. eight

I can say with absolute certainty that the sum of the time it took me to write this review and the time it takes you to read it will be less than the amount of time it took me to find the picture that greeted you when you opened my blog. I wasn’t happy (and I’m still not) that the cover you’re seeing is different from the one I saw all those hours I spent inside this book. Nevertheless, the words inside are the same, and they are some good words indeed.

I love Philip Yancey. I always put him on my list of people I’d like to have lunch with. Philip, if you’re reading this, I’m free whenever you are. Anyway, this book is called “Disappointment with G-d: Three Questions No One Asks Aloud” and it was perhaps the most appropriate book for me to have read during this season of my life which can adequately be described as either disappointing or dissatisfactory.

Yancey explores in a encouragingly honest fashion the three questions he claims, correctly, that people don’t ask aloud. Is G-d silent? Is G-d unfair? Is G-d hidden? I’m not going to tell you what he has to say about each of those questions, but if it sounds like something you’ve perhaps asked yourself at some point in your life, then this book is certainly worth your time… especially since it’s only 5.99 on Amazon. And if you’d like to see the cover of the book as I saw it, you can just click that link at any time. I didn’t want to use the picture with the “Search Inside (TM)” atop it. You understand, right?

A huge chunk of the book is dedicated to study and exploration of the book of Job. Not a bad choice when it comes to discussing disappointment huh? So I suppose I also recommend this book to people who haven’t yet fully reconciled the events of Job and made them mesh nicely with their theology.

So again, another not-very-reviewy book review. I think I’ll recommend this book to all my friends who graduate from college and a year later find themselves pretty unhappy with where they’ve ended up. Thanks Jon for such an awesome C-mas present. You know me.

book review vol. seven

I’ve known for a while that I enjoy learning, but until recently I thought I only enjoyed learning about certain things, things that I found pertinent to my life and the lives of those for whom I care. Then I read Freakonomics and realized that my limited set of information that I strive to know more about may not be so limited.

I’m sure you probably wouldn’t roll into a bookstore and pick out a book that looked like the one pictured above. Well I did and after reading the intro and the first chapter (a pre-purchase routine I regularly rehearse), I knew I wanted every ounce of information this book had to offer. It was like reading a textbook, only good. I’ve never read a book like this before, and when I’m in charge of this nation’s education programs, I’m going to require teachers to teach out of books like this. Kids would undoubtedly enjoy school more. No question in my mind. Why is that? Let me tell you.

The authors of this book have a gift. They know how to present potentially boring data in a very exciting way. For example, their blog is interesting, where as mine, for the most part, isn’t. This discrepancy in interesting-ness can be accounted for in two areas: One, they’re freakishly smart; Two, they present information well.

The book is mostly based on the research of Steven Levitt, who is basically like Brad Pitt in economists circles. He’s won tons of young economist awards and he’s well on his way to winning a Nobel Prize (according to an economics professor I sold shoes to yesterday). During his career as an economist, Levitt has simply asked tons of unconventional questions and found very interesting ties between variables that most people would never notice.

If I had to draw a picture that best represents the book, it would be a sledge hammer crashing down on the words, “Conventional Wisdom.” If that doesn’t get you excited, I don’t know what will. Levitt explores things like why parents don’t feel safe when their kids play at a house whose owners keep a gun, while they fail to think twice about having their kids play at a house with a swimming pool, which is in fact, statistically, significantly more dangerous. Stuff like that is interesting, no?

So there you have it. Go buy Freakonomics (or borrow the Supercinski’s). Read it. Have intelligent discussions with your peers (This book will give you no shortage of things to discuss). Read the Levitt’s work so you can claim you knew him before he was famous (i.e. before he wins a Nobel Prize). And also listen to Andrew Peterson’s Christmas album like I asked you so kindly to do in yesterday’s post. If for some reason you can only do one, listen to the music. It’s more powerful than the book, unless you were somehow able to read the whole book in 45 minutes, and even then I think the music trumps.

book review vol. six

I came across this trendy looking book while browsing through my friend’s bookshelf the other day. I took the liberty of leaving his house with it and reading it over the past few days. Now you guys will reap the benefit of that which you did not sow.

The general idea of this book, written by George Barna, research masta‘ (yes, masta‘), is that there is a growing group of people within American Christianity today who are, quote, “Revolutionaries.” (Side note: if you do read this book, you’ll never want to hear that trendy word again – save Shane Claiborne’s Irresistible Revolution – because he certainly has a way of beating it to the ground.) These are the kind of people who have an unquenchable desire to know Jesus and to better serve Him, and anything that gets in their way of doing that, well it’s going to have to go. The “revolutionaries” are passionate about intimate worship, faith-based conversations, intentional spiritual growth, servanthood, resource investment, spiritual friendships, and family faith. One of the things Barna addresses as a hindrance to their sanctification is, ironically, the local church.

As any of you who’ve ever seen any Barna stats before know, they don’t say anything positive about the current state of the American church. That, however, is not a new idea. It shouldn’t surprise anybody (especially my generation, which Barna deems the Busters, born 1965 to 1983) that the American church isn’t coming close to living up to its full potential. In my opinion, we have written quite enough books about how the church is struggling, while there is a huge void in the area of books (or teachings) that help us fix the problem.

Barna does, to some degree, go beyond stating the problem by offering a solution. It’s real novel: follow Jesus. That’s what these “revolutionaries” are doing, and as Barna states, many of them are finding that their churches won’t fully stand behind their strivings after Him, which sounds terrible, and probably most of us go to churches that would allow it, but I can totally see it being true. Some of these believers, Barna says, will seek to find like-minded “revolutionaries” and start meeting with them in house churches of sorts. I don’t have a problem with that, assuming they’re still under a Biblical authority. That gets into a whole lot of other stuff that I could certainly go into, but nobody would read because the post would be too long, which for some it may be already.

In closing, this book offers a tangible look at the current state of the church (if you still need that) and presents a view of church that, though Biblical, seems to butt heats with a lot of today’s religious leaders. It was challenging, informative, yet I still don’t know that I’d recommend it. Scale of 1 to 5: I give it a 3.

book review vol. five

This is the first of my book reviews in which I’ve attempted to tackle not only a non-Christian book, but a modern day classic in it’s own right. That said, I’m getting in deeper than I have any business getting, so do grant me grace.

The Cather in the Rye was recommended to me by a friend Steve Miller many months back. Having absolutely nothing but time on my hands these days, I opted to give it a read, knowing nothing about the book other than that it was a classic of sorts. Now, having read the book, I have learned a whole lot about it.

It was written in the late 40’s, early 50’s, and it’s simply the story of a teen on his journey from being kicked out of prep school to home. The colloquial language used by Salinger is pretty in-your-face if you will, even today, which makes it hard for me to imagine how it was received at the time of publication.

All throughout the book the protagonist, Holden Caulfield, shares his brutally honest thoughts on events and people in which he comes in contact as he goes through his day. I was able to really identify with Holden in a lot of ways (and not at all in others). He, like me, is extremely opinionated, critical, unconventional, and sometimes hypocritical in his thought. He despises the “phoniness” he sees all around him that, as far as he can tell, goes unnoticed by everyone else.

Holden (hopefully unlike me) comes across as very negative, seemingly hating everything. However when you “get to know him” better (if you can do that with a fictional character), you realize that there are plenty of simple pleasures in which he takes great delight. He genuine loves his sister and his late brother. He enjoys the innocence of children, good books, and honesty in any way that it chooses to display itself.

Essentially, Holden is a kid who would normally get written off without second thought by most people, but because he shares his story with us in a very popular book, people are given the chance to look deeper into him as a person than what they see on the surface, which is always a good thing to do.

There you go. My first, and quite possibly last, review of a modern day classic.

book review vol. four; part two; section a

If you can remember back all the way to the post before last (thiiiink… or scroll down), I threw out some thoughts about the Emerging Church Movement and told you that I’d give you a little more info soon. Well good news, soon has come. I’m in the delightful process of reading this book shown above, “Confessions of a Reformission Rev.: hard lessons from an emerging missional church.” It’s a long title with at least three questionable terms. “Reformission” (this isn’t a typo) is a word that Driscoll coined and the idea is basically taking the traditional missionary mindset and applying it to the culture in which we live. I find “missional” and “reformission” to be synonymous, and I don’t think Driscoll would disagree. The third word that ought to catch your eye is “emerging.”

I feel like I’ve learned more about the Emerging Church Movement from the intro to this book than I did from reading the entire book from McLaren (“A New Kind of Christian” – below). Mark Driscoll says in his book that he used to be closely associated with the emergent church but had to distance himself do to theological differences. He makes a distinction between the emerging church and the emergent church. Note the differences in the suffixes. The emergent movement is technically under the banner of emerging, but seems to be the more theologically liberal sect. In other words, all things emerging (as far as I see it right now) are not bad or false teachings. However, as with any teachings, we must be solid in knowing what we believe so as to discern what is true and what isn’t. That said, here is what Driscoll says that helped me a lot. Note: He’s kind of sarcastic… be warned. (p. 22, Zondervan, Copyright 2006, other legal stuff…)

“I am particularly concerned, however, with some growing trends among some people: the rejection of Jesus’ death on the cross as a penal substitute for our sins; resistance to openly denouncing homosexual acts as sinful; the questioning of a literal eternal torment in hell, which is denial that holds up only until, in an ironic bummer, you die and find yourself in hell; the rejection of God’s sovereignty over and knowledge of the future, as if God were a junior-college professor who knows only bits and pieces of trivia; the rejection of biblically defined gender roles, thereby contributing to the ‘mantropy’ epidemic among young guys now fretting over the best kind of looffah for their skin type and the number of women in the military dying to save their Bed, Bath and Beyond from terrorist attacks; and the rejection of biblical names for God, such as Father, which is essentially apologizing before the unbelieving world for the prayer life of the flamboyantly heterosexual Jesus, who uttered the horrendously politically incorrect ‘Our Father’ without ever having the decency to apologize for being a misogynist patriarchal meanie.”

So there’s that. I liked it, I hope you like it. Maybe it will be helpful for you. If nothing else I hope you at least giggled or smiled or something. This has been a very long post. Time for some very long (and numerous?) comments. Go!