Lost and Found: A Review
May 2, 2009
I began a review of Ed Stetzer’s new book Lost and Found here. In that beginning, I acknowledged at least two things I hated to admit, given that the book was given to me as a freebie on the promise of a review: one, I was tardy in getting the review done. I hate that, because I like to meet schedules, particularly under these circumstances. But two, among the reasons I was tardy was that, honestly, I found it hard to get into this book. Sorry, it’s the truth: the book didn’t grab me. I got into it a little more the further it went along, but this wasn’t the most scintillating read I’ve ever read, sorry.
Here’s the synopsis of the book: Stetzer and his co-writers, Richie Stanley and Jason Hayes, undertake to discover the reasons behind the high church dropout rate among 20-somethings, and then to suggest some things that the “younger unchurched” might be looking for in a church, as well as tell the stories of some churches which have had success in reaching this age group.
What bogs the book down in the beginning, from my perspective, is the excessive use of statistics. Now…I acknowledge the need for illustrating points with the data that has been garnered from interviews with young people in this age group; Stetzer and his friends have done us a great service by gathering this information, and by analyzing it for trends; this is certainly the high-water mark of the book, the sheer information gained. But it makes for sometimes tedious reading, at least for this reviewer.
The second part of the book moves to analysis, and this does serve to bring all the data together in a more user-friendly format, identifying major themes that emerged from the data. Four “markers” of this generation of “younger unchurched” emerge as being the key to reaching and retaining them, if their words are to be trusted: community, depth (and content), responsibility, and (surprisingly to me) cross-generational connection. Clue in to these four markers, and a church ostensibly will improve its success among this age group.
The final section surveys some churches that are employing these markers in their outreach to this age group, with each chapter’s title beginning with “How Churches Are…”. This section didn’t deliver as well as promised, though, at least with respect to my expectations; what I’d have liked to have seen, rather than getting different thoughts from different pastors in each section, would be to have read an in-depth analysis of one or two churches in each given category; for instance, under “How Churches are Making a Difference Through Service” (Chapter 9), I’d have preferred to read about one church that had really made serving others a significant priority, rather than read quotes from a dozen pastors and leaders from different churches. Maybe that’s a personal preference thing…
At any rate, this book could be quite useful for those seeking answers to the dropout question, and particularly for those interested in seeing the evangelical church make a significant course correction. My prayer and hope is that that will be the case in years to come!
Review Coming Soon: Lost and Found
April 3, 2009
I have a confession to make: I’m tardy. Terribly tardy. Tardy in an area I don’t like to be tardy in, and that is that I received a book for review a couple months ago, and I was supposed to have the review done and posted by now, and I’m late. March was a blur, and now my life is settling down a bit, and I’ll get this done–soon.
The book is Lost and Found, by Ed Stetzer and others. Here’s the first part of the review, though–I’m over halfway through with the book, so I can write something. It’s a book about the fact that the 20-somethings are dropping out of church, why this is happening, what 20-somethings are looking for in a church (through a survey that was done asking unchurched and de-churched 20-somethings a lot of questions), and it ends with a study of churches that are effectively reaching 20-somethings. I’m looking forward to this section of the book, because here’s the truth: the book hasn’t “grabbed” me yet. I’ve read some of Stetzer’s work; he’s a good writer, knowledgeable in his field, and this book will be of benefit to me and others, I’m sure. Here’s the rub: he begins with a lot of statistics, analyzing the survey that was done in detail.
Now, I like statistics, at least to a point; I think they tell us some important things, like why Donovan McNabb truly is an overrated quarterback. But to lead with so many stats didn’t work for me, and it’s causing me to have a hard time really getting into the book; I feel like I’m slogging my way through. I fully expect the pace to pick up when I begin reading real-life stories about effective churches, but for now, that’s where I am with it. More later, and I hope the mood will brighten!
God’s Politics? I Don’t Think So…
December 30, 2008
Every now and then, it’s good to read a book that, going in, you expect to disagree with in large measure. For instance, though I’ve not bought any of the books written by the new “militant atheists”—and don’t intend to—I’ve perused some of their arguments, particularly those of Sam Harris in Letter to a Christian Nation. I don’t find his reasoning particularly compelling, from what I’ve read, but it is good from time to time to read such. And so my reading over Christmas vacation was Jim Wallis’ God’s Politics. Now, I don’t mean to lump Jim, a professed evangelical Christian, in with an atheist like Harris; I certainly agree with Jim Wallis on the “big ticket” items of life (salvation in Christ being at the very top of the list, of course). But Wallis is a Democrat, and takes a decidedly liberal position on political questions of the day. I confess up front that I know I’m a tough cookie in such matters; my positions have not been taken without considerable thought, and so I don’t generally vacillate a whole lot. That said, I want to be open-minded; I didn’t start out as the libertarian I’ve pretty much become, but rather have arrived at this political stance after rethinking a whole lot of things; I can even date the genesis of this political conversion to a conversation with my friend Wade in the car on the way to PromiseKeepers 1994 in Indianapolis—but I digress. I wanted to read Wallis’ book in order to give him a fair hearing, because I don’t think he’s a stupid man, and because say what you will about him, I believe he is quite genuine in his concern for people, a concern motivated by his commitment to Christ. What would God’s Politicshave to teach me? How might it change my perspective? And just as importantly, could Wallis begin to give me some level of intellectual and spiritual justification for changing my thinking politically?
And so I dug in. And it wasn’t easy, frankly, because—how do I say this gently—Jim Wallis isn’t a particularly good writer, maybe on the level of Sean Hannity, ability-wise, which isn’t saying a whole lot. The first five-six chapters of the book give one the feeling that he wrote each chapter individually, at times far removed from each other, and then promptly forgot what he’d previously written. He repeats himself over and over again to the point of distraction; how many times does he feel it necessary to explain that he really, really believes that Saddam Hussein had to be removed from power? Does he write to convince us, or to convince himself? It’s hard to tell, and hard to read as well.
Finally, after taking several chapters to repeat his standard evangelical leftie boilerplate, he tackles the war in Iraq. This is probably the best part of his book, because he does make a reasonable case that this war was unnecessary (I concur) and counterproductive in the “war on terror” (again, I concur). I believe that history will not be terribly kind to George W. Bush—and that’s before the president’s ridiculous rush to involve the government in American business to an unconstitutional and unprecedented degree. Though I’m not terribly sure that the solutions that Wallis favors—he’s a big believer in multinational solutions, and puts a lot more faith in the UN than I believe is warranted—will work, it’s nonetheless true, particularly in retrospect, that the Iraq war was a mistake.
The part of the book that interested me most, though, was his take on domestic issues, poverty in particular. Could Wallis provide intellectual justification for big government approaches to solving the problem?
In a word, no. Rather than engaging in a discussion of the actual effectiveness of Wallis’ favored big-government solutions, Wallis’ approach is to simply assume that the Democrat/liberal/big government/throw more money at the problem solution is the right one, without much of any attempt at justifying his conclusions. For instance, though he doesn’t mention it a great deal, Wallis treats as a given the fact that the minimum wage is too low in America, and that it needs to be raised to provide a “living wage”. This, of course, is just the problem: it’s rather simple economics to demonstrate that the minimum wage (i.e., artificially tinkering with market) does harm to the very people it purports to help. “Regulation” of the market is a good thing to Jim Wallis, and problems come when the government isn’t providing hawk-like oversight. It either doesn’t occur to Wallis that part of “God’s politics” ought to include intellectual justification for his positions, or Wallis has his blinders on to such a degree that he’s not even willing to consider any alternative to what he’s been immersed in all his life.
Basically, what this book seems to do is to suggest that Democrat policies are on target except on pro-life issues (and there, he still comes off as though the issue isn’t as big a deal as I believe it to be), and that they just need to moderate their tone on some things, to be more genial, etc. Wallis demonstrates a woeful ignorance of fundamental economics—something that seems to be to be endemic to most all liberal-types—and throws around the standard liberal buzzwords (“social justice”, to name one particularly vacuous one) and such rather than engage in vigorous examination of the issues at hand. I can’t say I’m surprised. This is what I find to be true on a large scale for liberal apologists: there are code words and buzz words and mantras ad nauseum; there is plenty of emotion and lots of feeling; there are red herrings galore, question-begging a-plenty, guilt-by-association and logical leaps by the bucketload. But substantive debate? Arguments that stand up to the light of reason and reality? Proven solutions rather than surface-level, emotion-driven plays upon our passions? Nah, I don’t find much of that, and God’s Politics is just another book in this long line.
Jim Wallis is a guy with a big heart, and one can appreciate his passion for a better world. I admire that greatly, and find myself challenged by his example. Nonetheless, God’s Politics isn’t a particularly impressive book, and I find myself continuing to wonder of the “evangelical left”, “is there one among you who can develop an intellectually-satisfying defense of your positions?” Guess I’ll have to keep looking…
America’s Choice 30: A Review
August 14, 2006
I recently received the “America’s Choice 30″ split-track CD, featuring 30 of the most popular praise/worship songs in America, for the purpose of reviewing on this blog. It’s a nice CD, with a good sound, although the split-track version, which is useful for sing-along purposes (small group setting? Excellent!) isn’t quite as easy to listen to as a normal, stereo CD, since the words all come out of one speaker and the music all out of the other. That, of course, is a function of the very nature of the beast, so we can’t hold it against the dear CD!
The music is fairly middle-of-the-road; no head-bangin’ here, but with that “safe” sort of semi-homogenized evangelical sing-along sound. That sounds too critical, and I don’t mean it to be; again, it does what it’s designed to do, which is not to offend either by edginess or blandness, but to assist in worship leading. Frankly, I can see myself using this CD in the future for just this purpose; in a small group setting, if no one has the talent to play a guitar or keyboard, this CD would be a certain asset.
There’s a link on the sidebar to the publisher of the CD, Coolsprings Records; I’d encourage you to check them out for this and other good stuff!
Out of a possible five UVa helmets, I’ll give this recording a three.
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I received this CD free of charge from Stacy over at Active Christian Media, who does a great job of hooking up bloggers with good books and now, great music (and even a video or two!). You should check it out!
Credo: A Review
April 1, 2006
Ray Pritchard, a graduate of my alma mater, has undertaken to work his way through the Apostles’ Creed in his new work, entitled Credo: Believing in Something to Die For. Ignoring the dangling preposition at the end of his subtitle (you know, a preposition is really a lousy word to end a sentence with! Some of you will get that eventually…), Pritchard has written a nice little book that very ably, if not deeply, calls evangelical Christians back to the roots of their beliefs. At the end of the book, Pritchard sums things up this way: “This is the irreducible minimum Christians have always believed. The Creed reminds us that Christianity has a doctrinal basis. Although we talk a lot about a personal relationship with Jesus, that’s more than a feeling or a personal experience. It’s a relationship based on the truth revealed in the Bible.”
That’s a message that too many have forgotten in our individualistic, truth-challenged age, and Ray Pritchard deftly handles each clause of the Creed, explaining its meaning and then challenging readers to come to grips, not only intellectually but practically as well, with its implications for our lives. He brings the Creed to life, patiently illustrating the pertinence of our beliefs about such things as the Virgin Birth, the Ascension, and God’s judgment of all people. He made me think about some things, and I think that this book will serve as a nice resource, again, not because of particularly deep thinking, but because of its practical importance.
This is the kind of book that I’d encourage young believers, particularly, to pick up and read, in order to acquaint themselves with historic Christian faith. No, the Creed doesn’t cover every doctrine that I personally find critical; inerrancy isn’t mentioned in the Creed, and thus Pritchard doesn’t touch on it. We might say that the Creed wouldn’t necessarily serve particularly well as a full summation of our critical beliefs today, but as far as it goes, it goes well—and the same can be said for Pritchard’s elucidation of it.
Out of a possible five UVa helmets, I’ll give Credo a solid four.
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I received this book free of charge from Stacy over at Active Christian Media, who does a great job of hooking up bloggers with good books. You should check it out!
Christ-Based Leadership: A Book Review
February 17, 2006
What great timing; I received Christ-Based Leadership while I was in the middle of reading John Maxwell’s The Twenty-One Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, and the contrast could hardly have been greater! Maxwell’s book, written from the perspective of a Christian pastor, is nonetheless barely a “Christian book” (well, if we speak in dichotomous terms—but let’s not get into that now, ‘kay?); it contains a good deal of “worldly wisdom”, much of which has value, but as it seems designed for a very broad audience, Maxwell holds the Scripture references to a minimum and emphasizes a more “secular” approach. David Stark, by contrast, attempts to integrate Scripture at all turns, and the result is a nice book that will not go on my “best of 2006″ list, but which takes its place as a reasonably good effort at “applying the Bible and today’s best leadership models to become an effective leader” (the byline). That said, you might find this criticism interesting: I think that the book is misnamed; I’d have christened it Bible-Based Leadership instead of Christ-Based Leadership, because I assumed, as I picked up the book, that it would focus almost exclusively on lessons from the life of Christ, whereas instead of relying almost solely on the gospels, Stark draws from a wide range of Scripture to make his points—and on some points, he stretches a tad to make them fit into the Scripture he provides. Still, I appreciate the effort; this book is designed primarily for pastors and ministry leaders, making it directly applicable to my own life and situation.
Stark borrows, as the byline suggests, fairly liberally from many different leadership sources (curiously enough, not from Maxwell at all!); having recently read Thom Rainer’s Breakout Churches, wherein Rainer basically uses Jim Collins’ Good to Great as the template for his book, I felt like I was in some kind of time warp when Stark did much the same. Some of what he finds from these authors is helpful, though; “all truth is God’s truth”, as they say, and Stark makes good use of them.
Stark’s style is to title each of his chapters in the form of a question: “who is the Lord of your leadership?”; “do you have a culture of excellence or a culture of winning?” (the correct answer is “culture of excellence”); “are you ready to create new wineskins?”; and so on. He gets off to a quick start by asking, “what is the truth of your ambition?” and adopts Collins’ differentiation between “Level 4″ and “Level 5″ leadership as a main point. I admit to a bit of confusion between the two, as one would think that a “Level 4″ leader, while maybe not at the top, would be a pretty good leader; Stark (and maybe Collins; haven’t read his book) pretty much paints the Level 4 guy as a clod; I found myself wondering what a “Level 1 or 2″ leader must be like—Attila the Hun on a bad hair day?
Chapter Two is the one I take most issue with; when Stark asks “who is the Lord of your leadership?”, his answer is to point his readers to the necessity of understanding God’s will and leading that readers of this blog would recognize as one with which this blogger would not agree. I won’t get sidetracked into that discussion except to say that it seems to me that with Stark, as with others who defend his point of view, the more he speaks, the less clear he becomes when it comes to specifics. That said, even this chapter has value.
Fear not; I don’t intend to do a chapter-by-chapter analysis here. Suffice it to say that I found this book readable, helpful, but a lot to take in all at one time, particularly for one such as myself who finds his eyes rolling back in his head when he gets too deeply into leadership theory; I just don’t find some of it to be all that scintillating stuff (sorry, Bill Hybels, we each have our gifts and interests, and if you want to read everything you can get your hands on about leadership, be my guest…). But I digress…
Summing up, I found myself toward the end thinking that there will come a time when I will want to refer back to this book to brush up on some of the principles I found therein, so from that standpoint, I think that the book was/will be helpful to me, and could be to most pastors, particularly those who want a pretty good, readable, Biblically-based approach to the subject of leadership.
My rating? Three UVa helmets (out of five)
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I received this book free of charge from Mind and Media (thanks again, Stacy!) with the proviso that I write this review. It’s a good deal; you should sign up for it!
Book Review: Think Before You Look
January 3, 2006
Dan Henderson, pastor of Grace Church in Eden Prairie, Wisconsin, has done men a great service with his new book Think Before You Look, which I received free of charge from Mind and Media (thanks again, Stacy!), for only the “price” of this review, and which is featured on the sidebar.
In this book, Henderson uses the approach of enumerating 40 reasons why men (and women, assumedly!) should “think before they look” at pornography. While perhaps an argument could be made that he conflates the number of reasons so that he can hit the magic number of 40, Henderson nonetheless deftly and biblically demonstrates reason after reason why we need to allow our minds (Biblically-renewed!) to rule over our impulses when it comes to what we allow our eyes to dwell on. Packaged in short, readable sections, the book would be ideal for devotional use, and to spark discussion among serious Christ-following men on how they can guard their hearts by guarding their eyes.
He articulates the effect that pornography has on a person’s relationship with God, his relationship with others both inside and outside of the body of Christ, and upon one’s spouse and children. He backs up most all of his 40 reasons with solid Scripture, and I found him to be a good writer, deftly illustrating his points with examples from everyday life. Further, Henderson really “talks turkey”, not mincing words nor dancing around issues related to the intake of porn. Finally, he finishes with 40 practical pointers on how to withstand the temptation of lust. If he stretched to make a point or two in the main body of his book, he stretched a bit further here, but nonetheless lists some great practical considerations for those serious about honoring God in this area. He lists several websites which can be of help to the Christ-follower in the battle for the eyes (and for the mind and heart!), including his own site, Strategic Renewal, from which one can access free Bible studies and a screensaver related to the subject.
Let’s face it: the internet has opened a whole new era of accessibility when it comes to the viewing of pornography; we receive unsolicited solicitations via email, and the pornographers are all-too-clever and willing to exploit every advantage they can in order to market their pernicious evil. Dan Henderson has presented us with a good argument—and with some good tools—to check their advances. I highly recommend Think Before You Look!
Four UVa helmets (out of five)
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This phrase comes from the 1978 "Jonestown massacre" in which most members of the Peoples Temple cult, blindly following their leader Jim Jones, committed suicide by drinking cyanide-laced Kool-Aid.
Osborne: A Contrarian's Guide to Knowing God
Schlossberg: Idols For Destruction
