Note: I have not been asked to review this book by a publisher or by the author. Like all reviews, these are my sincere opinions.

I was pretty excited to see Dave Lamb had written God Behaving Badly: Is the God of the Old Testament Angry, Sexist and Racist? in the InterVarsity Press book catalog. Dave was one of our profs at Biblical Seminary and everyone in our cohort thoroughly enjoyed his class and teaching style. He’s academic with the just enough “normal” and missional (among other things) made it a good class. This book is a natural expression of his teaching style and sincerely, I really enjoying reading it.

Here is the publisher’s summary:
“God has a bad reputation. Many think of God as wrathful and angry, smiting people right and left for no apparent reason. The Old Testament in particular seems at times to portray God as capricious and malevolent, wiping out armies and nations, punishing enemies with extreme prejudice. But wait. The story is more complicated than that. Alongside troubling passages of God’s punishment and judgment are pictures of God’s love, forgiveness, goodness and slowness to anger. How do we make sense of the seeming contradiction? Can God be trusted or not? David Lamb unpacks the complexity of the Old Testament to explore the character of God. He provides historical and cultural background to shed light on problematic passages and to bring underlying themes to the fore. Without minimizing the sometimes harsh realities of the biblical record, Lamb assembles an overall portrait that gives coherence to our understanding of God in both the Old and New Testaments.”

[Read more…]

I was asked to review Brennan Manning’s new  memoir All Is Grace by the publisher, David C Cook, and as always, I am not required to give a positive review but an honest one.

It’s easy to love this book. It’s been a while since I’ve read a memoir (Eugene Peterson’s Pastor is on the to-read shelf and I need to get on that). In Brennan’s case, it helped that I already liked his work, but I think when available, memoirs are an excellent place to start when you are coming to someone’s work late. (I remember reading books on Luther, Wesley and Lewis before reading their work, made a world of difference for me). My suggestion is that if you have never read/heard of Brennan Manning’s The Ragamuffin Gospel or Abba’s Child to read All Is Grace first,

Most of my readers are fellow Protestants and I’d like to encourage that our reading include those outside of our tradition. A few Catholic thinkers come to mind (Henry Nouen, Peter Kreeft) and Brennan Manning is an excellent choice.

It’s difficult for me to imagine someone entering into the priesthood. I’m sure some have a hard time imagine why anyone would want to go into the ministry at all but the Catholic priesthood is a difficult one for me to understand. Even more complicated, Manning entered just after he was finished with the Marines (yep, he enlisted, not drafted prior to college). In fact, soon into his priesthood training, he resolved it wasn’t for him, then as he was waiting to tell the head priest he was leaving, he prayed the stations of the cross and changed his mind again. Reading him tell the story was beautiful.

I appreciated his honesty concerning his what I would describe, an almost loveless upbringing, particularly, his relationship with his mom. If you don’t read till the end of the book, you missed it – moving, powerful, Christian.

I appreciated his forthrightness on his falling in love (he was a celibate priest!) and getting married, and sadly, his divorce. I think most would find inspiration by how honest he was in telling these stories. Should I live to see my seventies, I hope I can be as honest.

And lastly, I was quite interested in how he dealt with his alcoholism and related issues as he was managing his speaking career. I am inclined to think that he left a few pieces out there (and I suppose that is implied when he says in the beginning, “This is not a tell-all”) but I couldn’t help but wonder about a few more of the details of how he was able to maintain his itinerant speaking. Undoubtedly there are countless Christian speakers/musicians that are able to control their demons for their talk/performance/etc. but it’s been my experience that these types of “cover-ups” are maintained by a handful of people. Which leads me to the what I think the real tragedy of his life was – although Brennan had people around him, some that even confronted him, he was so good at eluding their accountability and he had some enablement.

Given all that, this book is not about a talented man that got by and was able to look back at his life and be humble, repentant and thankful that God used him to touch so many lives  – It’s much more than that. It’s a true testimony of a man who desired to be devoted to God but was insistent on sabotaging himself and the will of God at every turn. Brennan seems to know two things in his life: Despite his talents, he is his own worst enemy, and two, he knows he must cling to the grace of God to get him through – hence the title, All Is Grace. If you could only be convinced of two things, I’m not sure you could find something better.

Again, it’s a beautiful easy read and I hope you can grab a copy.

So I was asked to review the new Max Lucado book, God’s Story, Your Story. I haven’t read a Lucado book since 1997. In those days Max Lucado quotes were overplayed from the pulpits like the way Adele is streamed on the radio. They’re both good, millions says so – but when something/someone gets so overplayed, it loses its worth.

I don’t really know what the author/artist is supposed to do about that. Add to the mix, around the same time, I was reading Dallas Willard and CS Lewis; I simply haven’t had any interest in Lucado. Still, you can’t avoid him. His face is always on the cover of something from a CBD catalog to even Bible Study Magazine (within the same year, they went from NT Wright to Max Lucado. Who knows, I might be next? By the way, it’s a great magazine – only $15).

Now here’s the thing, I have no doubt that Lucado is an amazing pastor and a serous student of Scripture so know that I have no interest in judging that. But if we are being honest, we know that his writing is extremely inspiration-based and very 101 Biblically. In my humble opinion, I think it’s time for him to write a book that has some theological teeth to it and I thought this was going to be it so when I was asked to review it, I admit I had some expectations.

God’s Story is another book in the Scripture as narrative trend going through the Church. Everyone is talking about narrative and story – perhaps the best of this theme is Don Miller’s A Million Miles in a Thousand Places – What I Learned While Editing My Life.

In all honesty, I love the idea of story and how our story fits into God’s greater story and into each other’s story – absolutely love it. I also love that mainstream Christianity is contextualizing the Biblical narrative and trying to avoid being too individualistic and seeking to be more community oriented. This is among the aspects that drew me to the emerging church conversation 8 years ago. For about a decade now, they have been talking about narrative (and meta-narrative). The emergents are like the Winklevos’ but not nearly as good-looking. Mark my words, one day Max and friends are going to pop a book out called The Brand New Christians! or Preaching Redefined but I digress.

So enter in Max Lucado, Randy Frazee and the many featured in CBD. First, welcome to the conversation! I fear that sounds condescending, but I mean it more in the sense that it’s the first time we’ve been in the same room for a while. I also appreciate how we’re reframing how we are talking about the Gospel. I plan on blogging on this another time but since I had your attention, thought I’d mention it.

But about Max’s God’s Story – here is my quick summary.  As with all requests from the publisher, one is never required to give a positive one, only an honest one.

Who It’s For
My friends who hate to read.
My friends who find themselves mentally drained at the end of the day and don’t want anything heavy but want to read something uplifting.
My friends who are new to the story of Christianity. Truth be told, I could see myself buying this for two people in particular.

What I Liked
It’s very readable. I mean very readable.
Max is pretty like-able too. He appeals to my “everyday” man very well.
The excellent illustrations he is known for. He’s like the Ichuro Suzuki of illustrations, his batting average is consistently solid.

What I Didn’t Care For
My review has already been slanted so I’m going to mention one – I wasn’t really crazy about the “If I was the devil chapter”. Some good thoughts there about the tyranny of the urgent and so forth but we have The Screwtape Letters and so this just reminded me how unoriginal this chapter was. Even worse, were the jabs at the devil” with lines like “But I’m not the devil so good for you and take that Satan”. Doesn’t Jude say not to mock the devil?

If you are keeping up with this blog, my new church is going through a 40 week “journey” through the narrative of the Bible. And honestly, I’m pretty excited about it. As alluded to, I feel like I’ve been talking about the Bible in this way for quite a while, and if I may, every so often it feels good to have the rest of the church talking about what me and my friends have been talking about. Or maybe I can put it this way, every once in a while, it feels good to here the Arcade Fire on mainstream radio and every now and then it’s good to have the one and only Max Lucado play a hand at the table with me and my friends. I can already feel the illustrations forming from within my soul.

Feel free to comment on Max’s new book, on his others or on my thoughts – you are always welcomed.

I received a copy of Radical Together: Unleashing the People of God for the Purpose of God for review. I am not required to give a positive review but to only post my honest thoughts.

What’s the Book About?
“Writing to everyone who desires to make an impact for God’s glory—whether you are an involved member, a leader, or a pastor—Dr. Platt shares six foundational ideas that fuel radical obedience among Christians in the church. With compelling Bible teaching and inspiring stories from around the world, he will help you apply the revolutionary claims and commands of Christ in fresh, practical ways to your community of faith.” (From the Publisher).

Who is David Platt?
“Dr. David Platt, 32, is deeply devoted to Christ and His Word. David’s first love in ministry is disciple-making—the simple biblical model of teaching God’s Word, mentoring others and sharing faith. He has traveled extensively to teach the Bible and church leaders throughout the United States and around the world. Atlanta natives, he and his wife, Heather, made their home in New Orleans until they were displaced by flooding following Hurricane Katrina in 2005 (more) …”

What I Liked
I love that David Platt is a Southern Baptist mega-church pastor who is completely opposite of to that caricature. For my north-eastern friends, I’m not sure we can possibly understand this but from my own limited experience (which includes getting married by a man affectionally called Brother Bob in a southern Baptist church … and then taking my new bride across the Mason Dixon line like I was in the General Lee being chased by Roscoe P Coltrane. Anyway, I digress … ;) I love what Platt is saying in light of his context.

I never reviewed his first book, Radical because I felt that it was dated in light of the Ron Siders, Shane Claibornes, Will Samsons, the Emergents, the Missionals and many others. But I did agree with the idea of abandoning the pursuit of the American Dream in light of pursuing the hope of the Kingdom of Jesus. These are excellent books for entry points to the missional church conversation.

This book may be even easier than Richard Stearn’s The Hole In Our Gospel because it’s only a third the size and very reader-friendly. I feel Multnomah said, “David, write a book for busy church people that never read but are interested in seeking God’s purpose in the world.”

I like how Radical Together confronts entitlement and encourages the reader to seek mission and community in Christ.

As with a few books I review, this too, would be an excellent small group resource (There’s a discussion guide already included).

What I Wasn’t Crazy About
I don’t have much critical to say here. Though I would prefer something a bit more challenging, if I am being honest with myself, in my personal application, there’s enough to be challenged by here. I think the Radical series is fulfilling its objective. As mentioned, it’s a great entry point to the missional church conversation.

If you are looking to understand what some of the more progressive and younger evangelicals are talking about when it comes to social justice and Kingdom-living, this is a good place to start.