Book Review: Counterfeit Gods

I know that this is my fourth book review in a row, but I intend to write a couple more before this break is over. As I stated before I've had a lot of free time to read over this holiday break and it has been extremely beneficial. I've been able to open my mind to some principles and concepts that I haven't really meditated on before. This book was no exception.

The last book review I wrote was on Tim Keller's The Prodigal God, which, I must reiterate, was an incredibly insightful book. I decided to read more Keller right away with Counterfeit Gods and I am going to read his third book The Reason for God before I move on to another author. Keller did not disappoint when it came to this book. If anything, this book may have been better than the last one. He has an amazing ability to take simple concepts that you have heard in church all your life and explain them in a way that you have never heard before. In this book he takes on the issue of idols in our everyday life and expounds upon it in a way that I have never even thought of. He addresses the three big idols: Money, Sex, and Power and shows how dangerous and integrated they are in our everyday lives. He addresses the ways in which idols can sneak into every area of our life, especially in the presumed "Christian" areas. Most importantly, he offers the only resolution there is to these intensely dangerous idols.

Probably the most innovative idea that he presented was how these idols are simply the gods that we serve. Now don't get me wrong, I've hear this before, but Keller defines it better than I've ever heard. He explains why it becomes our gods rather than just stating that as a fact. He explains how we deify and demonize things into absolutes that cannot handle that type of definition.

Once again I am forced to recommend this book. It is an absolute must-read. It will help you understand your walk in a clearer way. The best thing about Keller's writing is that he has an uncanny ability to strip you of any presumptive opinions you had about your own personal walk with God and convict you of the lack thereof. Through his writing he is able to break down those outer walls and make you realize what your true intentions are in your Christian walk and then helps you resolve it. This was an amazing book and I highly recommend that you read it.

Book Review: The Prodigal God

This is the my third book review in a row and hopefully I will continue this pattern. The book I just recently finished was The Prodigal God by Timothy Keller. I'm already halfway through another book by Keller and I have no intention to stop. I actually got the opportunity almost a year ago to hear Keller speak at his current pastorate: Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan. He is possibly the top authority on ministry to postmoderns. His approach thus far is genius to say the least.

One of the best things that Tim Keller does is that he takes rudimentary truths and stories that you have always heard, given you have a mild Christian background, and he expounds upon them to a point that you have never heard of before. In the literature of his that I have read so far, he does an amazing job by not going over your head with difficult concepts, which is much appreciated. There are two things that I really appreciate about his writing. The first is that he is very systematic in his approach. He starts at the beginning of a subject, passage, or concept and just simply works his way through it systematically. This makes whatever the subject matter is very easy to understand. The second thing that I really appreciated was his peculiar use of sources. Now this might sound weird at first, but the more I thought about it, it made a lot of sense. Keller would use sources like a verse from the musical Oklahoma, a lyric from Flannery O'Connor, or a quote from Nietzsche. On the outside this may seem a bit odd, but after seeing how he handles it I thought it was pure genius. He is addressing of people of all different types of status, nationality, and stage in life, and with that comes a demand to speak directly to these people. Keller does not disappoint, he is able to take sources from all different mediums to prove a central point.

Now on to the subject matter of the book. As you may have guessed Keller talks about "The Parable of The Prodigal Son", which he appropriately renames "The Parable of the Two Lost Sons". He takes this parable that we have heard over and over again and complete breaks down any preconceived notions you may have had about it, and then builds a new picture of what Christ meant through it. Now, I don't want to give too much away because I think it would be a great benefit for everyone to read it. This is what I will tell you: this book will make you look at the Christian faith in a entirely different way. It will help you understand why certain believers do one thing, while others work on the other end of the spectrum. Keller subtly redefines a lot of concepts that we have all taken for granted. I'll leave you with a very simple quote that I read in the book that I hope will wet your appetite to read it. He is writing about how Christianity isn't the same as religious moralism.

He writes "Religion: 'I obey--therefore I am accepted by God.' The gospel: 'I am accepted by God through what Christ has done--therefore I obey'".

Book Review: In Real Time

If any of you have lived in Nashville for any amount of time, there may be a good chance that you have at least heard of the young adult ministry called Kairos. It is a twenty-something ministry that is held out at Brentwood Baptist and is lead by their Senior pastor there, Mike Glenn. This ministry seems to have exploded overnight. It is huge and its still growing. Young adults from all over the Nashville flock to Brentwood Baptist on Tuesday (and now Thursday) night to hear "Uncle Mike" exegete the Scripture with immense practicality. This has stirred the interests of church growth theorists everywhere. Thus, Mike Glenn wrote a book on it and this is it.

The difference between this book and most church/ministry growth books that you'll read is that Mike Glenn does not focus on the specifics too much. He makes a huge emphasis on the principles that they use and how to approach the people. He does not discuss the intimate details of the program. His reason for this is that he doesn't think it has anything to do with the little specifics. He feels that if you were to look too much at the specifics that it wouldn't make sense in another context. That is the exact meaning of their ministry: Kairos, which is Greek for "a unique moment in time". He feels that this ministry is just the right thing at the right time to accomplish the right goal.

There were a handful of things that really jumped out at me from this book. He made a lot of valid points about ministering to postmoderns. He talked about how this generation, because of the disintegration of the American family, has problems with any type of relationship. It takes them a long time to build that trust with individuals, especially when it comes to people in authority like pastors. He also made a great point about how pastors expect to be treated like professionals: making appointments with people, scheduling with people and so on. He said the problem with this is that this generation doesn't look at pastors as professionals because of how clergy have been portrayed in popular media. One of the great things about this book is that between chapters he takes you through a "Kairos guided prayer". He shows you the way he leads this congregation through prayer each night and how it effectively leads them into worship.

In short, he makes a lot of great points concerning the ministry of postmodern young adults. It is one of the better books that I have read on the subject. He expounds upon a lot of great truths that I have not thought about. I highly recommend this book, especially to those in the ministry or that are seeking to be in the ministry. There are some things in this book that we all have to address, whether we want to or not.

Book Review: The Bravehearted Gospel

Since it is Christmas break I have had a lot of free time on my hands. Thankfully, I have been able to discipline myself to get a lot of reading done that I have been putting off. I have a handful of books that I still desire to finish before break is over in two weeks, but I have been able to knock out a good amount so far. With that said, I thought it may be beneficial to write book reviews on the books that I finish. Let me put forth a disclaimer though: I am by no means the Ebert and Roeper of the Christian book genre. I just wish to offer my opinion on these books and maybe encourage you to read them if you find it applicable. With that said, here's the first review:

I recently read through Eric Ludy's book The Bravehearted Gospel. Let me preface by saying: I think this is a book that every Christian man living in this generation needs to read. I will get to why in a second. Ludy deals without a ton of pressing issues in this relatively small book. The main premise for this book is that the Body of Christ has been emasculated. Now I may warn you, he takes a long time to warm up. He spends the first couple of chapters of the book preparing you for what he wants to talk about and he does it very carefully, but once he is done with that, he just takes off.

Now this book does not claim to be a scholarly book by any means. Eric Ludy is not a prestigious clergy member, to my knowledge he has not earned a doctorate, but he deals with some heavy issues quite adequately. He talks about how the American church has lost it's masculine side. He goes on to explain that the contemporary church has focused so much on love, hope and tolerance, that it has lost it's view of truth completely. This is definitely a truth that should make our ears ring. Ludy does a great job of dealing with issues like relative interpretation of the Bible, over-tolerance of sin among believers, and what he calls "metrotheism", while at the same time laying a great foundation for Biblical Christianity through ancient believers. It is a great call to go ad fontes as it were. He echos the cries of the martyrs to challenge today's church. I have yet to read anyone that deals with Biblical masculinity better than Eric Ludy. He knows how to touch the heart of man and stir it to action. I challenge you to read this book. I am not an emotional guy when I read, but there were parts where I wanted to cry during this book because I was so moved.

Let me give you an excerpt that I was reading when I was on a plane on my way to Miami.

"Doubt barks, 'This isn't true, this can't be true, this whole Christian thing is a lie!' But the miniature, ever-growing Athanasius within us cries out, 'Here I stand!' Hollywood scoffs, 'Your faith is hollow. It's based upon mythologies and fables!' But the miniature, ever-growing Luther within us cries out, 'Here I stand!' Our friends mock, 'This is just a phase you're going through. One day you will see this whole Christian thing for what it is - a mere psychological elixir!' But the miniature, ever-growing Wilberforce within us cries out, 'Here I stand!' Even the modern church chimes in: 'Now, be careful not to expect too much from God in this life. Otherwise you will end up disappointed and disillusioned and forsake your faith altogether.' But the miniature, ever-growing Jesus Christ within us cries out 'Here I stand!'"

When I read that on the plane. I wanted to jump out of my seat grab all those willing and storm the gates of Hell. This is a powerful book that will challenge the way you live your Christian life.

I dare you to read it.

Don't Waste Your Life