Book Reviews

Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller

Don draws the reader into conversation and thus relationship in such intimacy that upon completing Blue Like Jazz and putting the book down I felt a sense of loss as though I had just parted ways with a friend. Don says on his website when speaking of this book that he started out thinking like Sting that he was stranded on an island all alone writing this book like a letter in a bottle only to discover a hundred million bottles had washed up on the shore. Don writes with bold honesty and openness that refreshes and humbles my spirit.

Tangible Kingdom by Hugh Halter and Matt Smay

More than a few people in our worship gathering with Living Word Church have asked me what it looks like to be a missional church. We struggle to explain that each church looks different because church is the people gathered to follow Jesus together in their context. Each person is different, each context is different; so it only makes sense that each church looks as different as their people and contexts. Enter Hugh Halter and Matt Smay and their book Tangible Kingdom which seems to communicate the core of being a missional church without creating a cookie cutter approach to church. Do you want to know what it looks like to live a missional life with people, read Tangible Kingdom

Forgotten Ways by Alan Hirsh

This book is not for the faint of heart, but Alan is a great guy working on the forefront of the missional movement. I had the privilege to talk with Alan over a couple beers about this book and it’s potential impact on the church in America. His research into the early church movement and it’s parallelisms in the underground church in China have helped shape my thinking. If you are up for a deep dive into the church movement that examines who we are at the very core of our mDNA, then this book is for you. I love it.

Life Together, Dietrich Bonhoeffer

As a man who knew what it was to be alone and the value of living in close community with followers of Jesus, Bonhoeffer timelessly communicates the essence of life together. I regularly use this book along side the Scriptures to move me closer to the people around me. This book is devotional and expositional. Grab your Bible and Life Together and go spend some time with God, before you know it you will be longing to spend time with God and His people.

Decision Making and the Will of God by Gary Friesen

As a follower of Jesus it is common for me to talk with people who are looking for directions to follow God in their every day life. But how do we know we are living in God’s “will”? What if we get it wrong, does that resign us to God’s second best will? Is determining God’s will like throwing darts or like living in my back yard? Gary addresses the theology of determining God’s will and how that influences our decision-making. He addresses such important decision as: dating, marriage, ministry, education, career choice and conflict.

Bondage of the Will by Martin Luther

Bondage of the Will is both the greatest of Luther’s works as well as his personal favorite since it deals with the very core of the Reformation movement; salvation by grace. The key issue of the Reformation is whether salvation is by grace alone or a mixture of our nature and some grace. Bondage of the Will is the passionate discussion between Luther and Erasmus over these core Biblical doctrines and their impact on our very salvation. Luther writes with passion and wit exampled by this quote, “When you are finished with all your commands and exhortations… I’ll write Romans 3:20 over it all. ‘Through the Law comes knowledge of sin.’”

Mark 6:36-37 36 Send them away to go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.” 37 But he answered them, “You give them something to eat.” And they said to him, “Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii [1] worth of bread and give it to them to eat?”

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Links of Interest

The Great Commission