Baker Books

Book Review: Welcome to Adulting

/ J.K. / 1 Comment


Welcome to Adulting: Navigating Faith, Friendship, Finances, and the Future

My Rating – Put it on your list

Level – Quick, easy read

Summary 
Adulting is a book about approaching young adulthood from a Christian perspective. The book is broken into five sections, Adulting – with a Purpose, Like a  Boss, with Friends, Fearlessly, and Forever; with each section having one to three chapters. The second section hits on topics like money/budgeting and choosing a career, while the third going into Friends, but also repairing relationships and marriage.  The final section is basically a presentation of the gospel.

My Thoughts
I think I might be just outside the age for the target audience for this book. I have been married, had a budget, and work in my career field, all now for more than 10 years. I could have used the career counseling section more like 15-20 years ago, but if I’m honest, I was probably too young/immature then to even listen. I am already a fairly practical guy, so I was already following some of his tips earlier on in life, but I think the one that would have been the most impactful is the chapter on community.

Community versus friendship is an interesting concept. The fact that it is based on intentionality and not affinity is challenging. I am just now coming around to the idea. The first ‘community/small group’ in which I participated, we were basically all the same person. The one I’ve tried to build over the past two years now is quite different, a pretty big range in education and income, and, most challenging, an age range of over 40 years.

The ‘with Purpose’ section of the book really serves as the intro and the strength of the book comes in the practical steps in the next three sections. Section four was unexpected Pokluda touches on worry and recovery (both overcoming addiction and putting issues in your past behind you). The only chapter I felt that was a little week was the final one. He acknowledges as much in his opening paragraphs of the chapter. His goal is to point us to Christ and the focus of eternity, which makes sense as he is a pastor. However, the chapter was just a little too long and didn’t quite flow/match the rest of the book.

I also suspect most people reading it, already know (again, something he acknowledges). He probably felt he couldn’t pass the opportunity, just in case, which is commendable. Overall, I thought it was an interesting book. It is one I would definitely recommend to people just out of college or starting ‘adult’ life, or for any pastors/mentors out there who know people in this group. It is a solid mix of practical and theological/spiritual and is thoroughly Biblical throughout.

*I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Book Review: 12 Faithful Men

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12 Faithful Men: Portraits of Courageous Endurance in Pastoral Ministry

My Rating – Put it on your list

Level – Quick, easy read; short book

Summary
I have to admit that I just skimmed the title of this book and didn’t read the subtitle. I was expecting a basic short biography of 12 men, but the subtitle says it all. This book is about pastors and their particular struggles in life. The book is a collection of essays written by 12 different men, only one of which was one of the editors. The first chapter is about Paul, and also functions as something like an intro to what the book is trying to accomplish. The other 11 men/chapters are John Calvin, John Bunyan, Jonathan Edwards, John Newton, Andrew Fuller, Charles Simeon, John Chavis, C.H. Spurgeon, J.C. Ryle, Janani Luwum, and Wang Ming-Dao.

My Thoughts
If you are wondering if the ‘J’ in J.C. Ryle is for John, the answer is yes. That means that half of the book is about people named John. I have no idea what Janani means in Swahili, but, it’d be pretty funny if it translated to John (the was John Calvin is actually named Jean). I feel like there was a missed opportunity to go full John here. I’m mostly joking, if anything I wish it had been expanded a little more across time and the world. I appreciate them covering two more modern Christians from other countries (I guess non-English, as most of the guys are). I hadn’t heard of either of these two, nor did I know who Simeon or Chavis were. I thought I new Fuller, but I was getting him confused withe other Fuller, founder of the seminary.

Overall, I thought it was pretty interesting. I’m already pretty familiar with Paul, Calvin, Edwards, and Spurgeon, but this book definitely makes me want to grab a biography, and learn more about Spurgeon, Bunyan, and especially Newton. Personally, while reading this book, I was going through my own time of suffering as well as studying unanswered prayer at church, so this fit in well, and was at least some level of encouraging.

This book would benefit most people who are struggling in their faith, but especially pastors. That really seems to be the target audience. Though, as the book is written by 12 different authors, you have varying degrees of focus. It was probably a mistake to attempt an intro and snippet on Paul. The book would have benefited more from either a dedicated intro, or a chapter more focused on being an intro that used Paul as an example and then perhaps another pastor (obviously needs to be another John, Knox perhaps?) if they want to keep the 12 angry men play on words thing going.

If you like history or biography, it is also a worthwhile book. It is a short enough book that is easy to read and will encourage you in your faith; so it is probably a book most people should put on their list. If you are a pastor/elder/deacon, I’d say it is a must read.

* I received a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

Book Review: Activate

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Activate: An Entirely New Approach to Small Groups

My Rating – Probably Not Worth Your Time

Level – Easy read, moderate length (reads quicker than its 300 pages)

Summary
The subtitle pretty much sums it up, though I’d quibble with the ‘new’ part. Activate is Searcy’s system for running/managing small groups. The book is broken into two parts, The Activate Mindset and The Activate System. The former is his attempt to ‘challenge’ existing ‘beliefs’ on small groups and is broken into four sections (all of which begin with Rethinking Small Group) Methodology, Structure, Strategy, and Leadership. Each of these is broken down into chapters which he calls Big Ideas, of which there are 12.

The System is also broken into four sections – Focus, Form, Fill, and Facilitate. Again, each of these is broken into further chapters, each one being a step or guiding principle to the subset of his system.

My Thoughts
I picked this book because I am a small group leader, though not one that would fit his definition, and I also thought it could be helpful for our Community Pastor, who is a little newer in his role. The title is a little (unintentionally) misleading. I thought it was going to be the groups that were being activated, made stronger, more engaged, etc. However, activate is the name of his system for signing people up for groups. I guess it is people you are activating.

Overall, I was disappointed in this book. To be fair, maybe it was revolutionary 10 years ago, when it was originally published. That’s when I finished grad school, got married, and first attended a church that did small groups. My church in high school had Sunday School, so there weren’t small groups. My current and former church do not have Sunday School, and instead work entirely with small groups. So, all of his ideas in the Mindset part of the book might have been new then, I don’t know how groups were typically run prior.

That being said, many of the ideas he proposed as being the prevailing thought really seemed to be strawmen. I seriously doubt anyone pastor believes that sign-ups should be complicated (compared to his ‘big idea’ that they should not). Now, many pastors may not put much effort or thought into sign-up and they end up being unnecessarily complicated, but that isn’t how he presents his arguments.

The second part of the book, the System, is fairly interesting and has a many good points and practical steps. However, this is only true if your small group fits his definition, which is a group that meets 10-12 weeks to study a specific topic or read a particular part of the Bible. My church offers these, but also offers deeper groups that stay connected for years, as many other churches have and are often called home or community groups.

So, if you have the topical side, his ideas for roll out, launch, and general marketing principles are great. The authors clearly have a good mind for marketing a practical actions steps for achieving goals. I think most pastors could learn a few things, or least use this to augment their current system. If you are looking to change, relaunch, or start this type of small group, this book would be one of the few that would be worth grabbing and reading before putting together your strategy. This is particularly true if you are a seeker church or a very large church.

Now to the problems, this book really left me with a strange feeling. I’m sure the authors are caring pastors who have come up with a system that they think is the best and are genuinely excited to get it out there to everyone else. Everyone knows people like this, those high energy endlessly positive people, that’s how I imagine these authors. However, I don’t think it translated to the written form. Far too much of what is written comes off as a sales pitch. It doesn’t help that Searcy markets his other books eat least once a chapter or so, and tells you to go to his website on every other page. At points it started to seem like an infomercial.

I’m a cynical guy, so in an attempt to see the positive, I went to his website thinking maybe he put everything out there. While there are few free downloads, most of the site is selling his other books or his ‘coaching’ services and subscriptions. Honestly, it is a bit off-putting. There is little discussion in the book of making disciples, but much about growing numbers, both total and participation percentage. Two particularly egregious sections come in the book on page 93 where he states that the best investment you can make in your staff is to hire him for small group coaching and again list his website. The second is on page 147 where he lists the different types of leaders – group leader, team leaders (who manage a number of group leaders), and group coaches (who manage a number of team leaders). He lists the requirements of each of these people and under group coach he states they must have ‘an unshakable commitment to the activate system.’

Again, I don’t know these people, and I’m fairly confident they are just pumped about their system, but much of the book rubbed me the wrong way. It was just far too much of a sales pitch, that included what seemed like upselling. Like I said, there are parts I think you can find helpful if what you are doing matches their groups and you have the same goals/type of church as them. However, if you don’t fit nicely in or you already have fairly successful groups, this book is probably not worth your time.

*I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

Book Review: I’d Rather Be Reading

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I’d Rather Be Reading: The Delights and Dilemmas of the Reading Life

My Rating – If you have time

Level – Short, easy

Summary
It is hard to summarize this book other than it is about loving books and the impact books can have on your life. Each of the 21 chapters is basically a short essay (maybe former blog post) about a different topic related to reading and being a book love, such as – organizing your bookshelf, working for bookstores, and recommending books to other people, etc.

My Thoughts
While the essays are funny, witty, and (to me) pretty relatable, I wish there was a little more coherence to this book. There is no real build or order through the chapters. Some stories are repeated, sometimes more than once, as the book is little more than a collection of essays. The chapters are quick and funny, but sometimes leave you wanting. For instance, she has a chapter on organizing your bookshelf that has some funny observations, but no actual practical help. In her defense, that may not be her intention, but as my personal physical book collection approaches a thousand, I’m looking for suggestions.

That’s pretty much it, a short review for a short book. I do wonder why Baker published it. Not that the book shouldn’t have been published, but Baker tends to have a ‘Christian’ focus on books. That’s not a knock on Bogel, I certainly don’t think Christians should read only Christian books, I’m just genuinely curious as to their criteria for publishing.

For someone trying to become more involved in reading, you should probably pass on this book. You won’t get too much in the way of choosing a book or finding a reading system. On the upside the wife finds the cover of the book to be very ‘cute’, so we’ll probably put it somewhere as decoration.  If you are an avid reader and book collector and are looking for something this could be worth your time.

*I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

Book Review: When God’s Ways Make No Sense

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When God’s Ways Make No Sense

My Rating – Put it on your list

Level – Easy, relatively short (~230)

Summary
This book is mostly about unanswered prayer. We pray for certain people or events, and sometimes God does not answer that prayer, but instead takes our life (or others) in different directions. To us, that makes no sense. The book tries to answer what we do when this happens.

There are 19 chapters, plus an intro and concluding thoughts. The chapters are grouped together in four parts – When God’s Ways Make No Sense, What Then? Three Stories, Three Answers; When God’s Ways Make No Sense, Tremble! Why? What? How?; When God’s Ways Make No Sense: Trust in God’s Unthwarted Sovereignty; When God’s Ways Make No Sense: Three Parables.

I really dislike the use of the book title in each chapter; it seems really unnecessary and redundant. Part One looks at the three stories of Jonah, Paul, and Habakkuk. Part Four retells Part One with modern day reactions. Part Two takes a look at our two responses, as Crabb sees them, which is to tremble and to trust. Part Three takes a bit of a detour into providence and sovereignty, which is probably necessary in a book about God’s plan, especially when we disagree with it.

 My Thoughts
I wish I could rate this book a 4.5, because I think some of the questions Crabb discusses are necessary for all Christians to seriously consider, but some of his analysis isn’t quite there for me. Much like Yancey’s book on Prayer (my review), it challenges Christians to really be discerning and ask hard questions, but I’m not sure either take you much farther (though, that is a great place to be).

Early in the book, Crabb makes reference to Romans, where Paul discusses sin and how he seems unable to stop sinning. That is an interesting aspect to unanswered prayer that I have never considered. Have lost two friends just last year to addiction, I would have liked to hear more about this. However, that is the last mention of personal sin as far as unanswered prayers. That’s too bad, it is an understandably difficult topic. What makes less sense than prayer to God to be delivered from temptation, only to fail? Instead the book moves mostly to the familiar realm of pain, suffering, and failure. I love this quote, and I think Crabb really hit on how Christians feel if they are being honest:

God I know you are good, but what good are you? In struggles with no answer, or when his ways make no sense, we wonder what good God is for us.

It really sets the tone for the book – the honesty, the struggle, the questions – and I’m glad that a esteemed leader in the Christian community is willing to write about them in this way; and these are clearly issues he is struggling with currently.

Part Two is probably the strength of the book. That is where you have to look honestly at events in your life and how the unfold in ways that are not according to your plan and you have to wonder what God is doing. Likewise, Part Three looks at our response and delves Biblically into what God says about suffering and general pain in our lives. Though, I’m not sure why he felt compelled to make up his own term, unthwarted sovereignty, that is somewhat between a slight misreading of Calvinist sovereignty and open deism. It’s almost more of a rebranding (attempt) of God’s sovereignty; maybe some people will find it helpful in understanding God’s ways.

The only part I didn’t really like was the second of his stories/answer/parable in Parts One and Four, when he discusses Paul. In Part One, he does a little exegesis of the three Biblical narratives of people he things exemplifies ways we respond to God when we don’t like what he is doing. Though they were insightful and Biblically sound, I feel like his point on Paul missed. Or rather, his point was good, but Paul didn’t really show it the way he might have thought. His point is that Paul distorted and denied God’s word. Obviously we do that today, and I suppose you could say that Paul did, but that is all before his conversion. I just don’t think you can make a strong argument about a Christian response from a non-Christian.

Overall, I think it is an interesting and challenging book. I think anyone who has ever wondered why God’s ways often don’t make sense should read this. This is certainly a must read for those who believe, like I once did, that you can’t question God’s ways. Similarly, people who come from a moralistic or health and wealth gospel view of God, need to read this book. However, for those who have moved passed this, you won’t get as much new thought, and definitely no definitive answer. But that is our lot in life, right? We will likely never understand why some things happen. For now, we keep praying, keep reading, and continue to seek understand. If unanswered prayer is one of those questions for you, this is a book to add to your list.

* I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Book Review: 50 Core Truths of the Christian Faith

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50 Core Truths of the Christian Faith: A Guide to Understanding and Teaching Theology

My Rating – If you are looking for something (if you’ve read other Systematics then pass)

Level – Fairly easy read, longer (400 pages) and a bit repetitive

Summary
This book is a mix of things – an intro to Systematic Theology, a teaching guide, and reference book to broad theological topics. Allison writes from a broadly Evangelical Protestant perspective. The author has broken the book into eight parts – the doctrines of the Word of God, God, God’s Creatures, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, Salvation, the Church, and Future Things. Each part has varying numbers of chapters, giving you 50 total.

As the subtitle states, the point of the book is to be a guide to understanding and teaching theology, and this leads to a somewhat unique structure to each chapter. It starts with a one or two sentence summary, then bullet points of the main themes, and a list of key scriptures. The largest section of each chapter is ‘understanding the doctrine’, which is broken into three sections – major affirmations, Biblical support, and major errors. After this is ‘enacting the doctrine’, which is basically what the doctrine looks like in our lives, followed by ‘teaching the doctrine’ which includes discussion points as well as a teaching outline. Each chapter ends with a list of resources, however only three Systematics are listed.

My Thoughts
I’ll start out by saying I realize this is an ambitious book, attempting to be both an intro to theology as well as a teaching guide to Systematics.  As an intro, I think Allison does an adequate job. Most full books on theology pass the 800 mark, many going in to the 1,200-1,500 range, if not multiple volumes, so I appreciate his attempt to condense it to about 200 pages or so. Unfortunately, it still manages to feel too redundant. Part of this is due to the structure, having a summary and bullet points then the body, but I think the publishers must have had the intent to make each chapter stand on it’s own, as opposed to building on each other. This forces him to refer back to chapters (or state future points) and the points get repetitive. On the other hand, this is also a great way to learn and internalize the content, which may well have been the goal.

As a teaching guide, I think this could come in handy. The teaching outline presented at the end of each chapter appears to be quite helpful. The book could also function as a quick reference if you have other Systematics you like to use. If you broke out the teaching portions, you might end up with a 125-150 page book, which would likely be worth it on it’s own. If you are looking for something to help you teach theology to other, and you are already familiar and have other books, I think this book would be worth a look. However, as far as a book to study theology on your own, you are probably better off finding something else.

I’ll end the review with a couple theological points and issues regarding the book. First, the main reason I can’t really recommend the book as a way to begin deep study into theology, is that he does argue much with counter points. He lists them as errors, but doesn’t really state how/why others believe this or what their proof-texts necessarily are. If you are really trying to learn at a deeper level, you need to know more about the errors than just that they are errors.

My other problem, and I think this is worse, is that while trying to keep the book geared toward a broader theological level, he gives positive info an different theologies, some of which are completely incompatible. Certain points of Reformed and Arminianist theology cannot both be true. One of them has to be an error, and it is strange that he did not take a stand (though as you read his ‘Biblical support’ it is clear at times where he falls). Likewise, he lists all the points of Dispensationalist theology as equal to Reformed and other historic views of theology. While refusing to call this an error, he does come down on other things, such as calling Annihilationism a heresy. This is especially odd as he wrote a text book on Historical Theology and knows well that support for Annihilationism has much, much deeper historical roots that theologies such as Dispensationalism. I find it odd the doctrines for which he will take a hard stand, will promoting whole theological systems that are wholly incompatible with each other. It is a major failure of the book and one of the reasons I cannot recommend it as much as I would like. You’d be better served by are larger study that looks at points and counterpoints of each doctrine/theology or a study that takes a strictly orthodox view.

*I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

 

Book Review: Practicing the King’s Economy

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Practicing the King’s Economy: Honoring Jesus in How We Work, Earn, Spend, Save, and Give

My Rating- Must Read

Level – Easy read, medium length

Summary
The book basically tries to answer the question of what would it look like if we worked, ran businesses, spent money/time, and gave money/time in a way that was entirely shaped by a Biblical World View. After the intro the book is broken into 12 chapters that are based on the six ‘keys’ to practicing ‘the King’s Economy’. One chapter will introduce the key and the next is a shorter chapter that gives examples of how that key works in the real life, with examples of people/organizations that the authors know.

The six keys are – Worship, this is about who we worship. Is it God or money and how does that look in the way that we give. Community, the focus here is about having a broad community of all types of people, particularly those from different economic classes. Work, why do we work and what is the point of work? Also, what does the Old Testament concept of ‘gleaning’ look like in a modern world? Equity, based on the command that their be no poor among us, this isn’t necessarily just about making sure everyone has money, but that every one has a job and kind provide for themselves (or help to give to others), even further, it is about making sure that those jobs are enough. Creation Care, this is about environmental stewardship. Finally, Rest, and this is a call to bring back the practice of Sabbath.

My Thoughts
I really enjoyed this book. It was probably the most thought provoking and in some way challenging book I’ve read in a long time. Sadly, it isn’t often you read a book targeted at a popular Christian audience that makes you think, even rarely does one challenge the way you should live.

I’ll get the two nit-picky things I didn’t like out of the way first. I didn’t really like the intro, and this was due to their misuse of stats that is a pet peeve of mine. In the intro, they are trying to show that we are richer now than ever, but more unhappy. Unfortunately, they use GDP per capita, which is a useless statistic, because it ignores income inequality and the fact that middle classes wages have been stagnant for decades. It also ignores cost like tuition and healthcare that have risen more rapidly than anything else. However, I don’t disagree with their premise, if nothing else, we are at least more materialistic than ever and constantly surround ourselves with distraction. Second, and I think this is more on the editors or publisher, they only ever refer to Jesus as King Jesus, and this is done to reiterate the title, and it is just awkward and I wish authors/editors wouldn’t do that.

No back to the good part, if you are modern American Christian, especially on the conservative or Republican side, this book will be a challenge. I’d suspect many hardcore Republican’s won’t finish this book as it challenge the assumption that making money is the most important thing in life. It also encourages people to pay living wages, which Republicans generally oppose vehemently. Of course, there are aspects that all sides of the political spectrum will like and dislike, which is a great reminder that neither political party works from a Biblical worldview and we ought not act like they do.

The first chapter, about putting God first and showing that by how we give should challenge the way we all handle money. American’s like to think of ourselves as generous, but in reality we give about 2.5% of income. The Community, Equity, and Rest were interesting chapters that should make you think, and if you take take it seriously, will affect your life. And of course, it should right? The Bible calls us to be different, and especially the chapters on Community and Rest are reminders of just how different we should look. The Creation Care chapter was good and I agree with all of it, I’m a big advocate of environmental stewardship. However, it was probably the weakest on a Biblical basis, and I’m not entirely sure it fit well with the rest of the book.

The best chapter, and worth the price of the book alone, is the Work chapter. For one, many of us, especially white-collar workers who have a lot of options, struggle with what work should look like in out lives, but the crazy part is gleaning. In the Old Testament, the Jews were not allowed to fully harvest their own fields. God required that they leave the edges unpicked so that the poor, widows, orphans, and foreigners would have something that they could eat. Obviously, we are not a majority subsistence agricultural community anymore. So the authors dive into what it could look like and the ideas are fascinating and in some ways pretty radical to the way we view life in America.

I don’t necessarily agree with some of their options, or at least the way that they would work out in most places, but they are thought provoking nonetheless. It is certainly something I’ve never thought about before, but it has been on my mind sense I finished the book a few weeks ago. If you really want to be challenged and forced to think and try to rethink the way we view the economy today, and how we should view it as as Christians, this is a book for you. It is probably my favorite so far of 2018, and is definitely a  must read book.

*I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Top post of the first half of 2018

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I noticed many other bloggers do something like top post/most read of X year or the more prolific ones do a top of the month, or even week. I always kind of wondered how they knew, and that’s when I discovered the depth of the stats pages blogging platforms provide. I brought this up to Mrs. MMT and she thought it was stupid…that I didn’t know this was a thing. To be fair, she is an accredited PR professional, and my desire in life is to be a monk, but with sex, and fishing, and college football. Wait, where was I?

So I dug into my stats, and up until a few months ago, my most viewed overall (and winning by far and away for most views the day it was posted) was the time almost two years ago that I hosted the 2016 August Biblical Studies Carnival. That has since been passed by what is also my most read post of 2018 so far. My top five most read of 2018:

  1. Book Review: Sapiens
  2. Book Review: The Imperfect Disciple
  3. Book Review: Disciplines of a Godly Man
  4. Book Review: Spiritual Disciplines of the Christian Life
  5. Tie – 10 Year Anniversary; Book Review: Four Views on Hell; Book Review: Darkness is My Only Companion

Why these posts? I have a few ideas, we’ll start from the bottom. Interestingly, Darkness is the only book review to make the list that I actually posted this year, so it’s probably there just due to recency. Similarly, Anniversary was post two weeks ago, and probably brought more of my Twits than book reviews due to the pictures of me and the Monday Morning Wife. Not sure about Four Views, other than Hell is weird and people have questions about it. Feels pretty cool that people found me from that.

My guess is that Imperfect, and the two disciplines books were popular searches due to Lent. I’ve already stated, I don’t know how to do Lent, but I do have two thoughts to help. First, you are probably looking up Lent because of fasting. I’ve heard nothing better than this Theocast podcast on fasting. Their idea that it isn’t necessarily about giving up food (Protestant view), but more about reclaiming time is fascinating. Second, if you are deciding which book to read, I can help. Imperfect is not about spiritual disciplines, but is still awesome and you should read it, and I’ve already written a post about why you should read Godly Man over Christian Life (though, if you are a woman, it’s still a better book).

So, this brings us to Sapiens. Why? Well, my stats pages tell me the terms searched that led people here, and basically, it was people searching for a ‘Christian review’ of the book. I was shocked/proud to find out that if you google this, I’ll be one of the top 5 or so (it changes) links shown. That’s really cool, but people were probably disappointed in what they found. I didn’t write a ‘Christian’ review in the sense people were probably searching. I mean, I am a Christian and I did review the book, but I think what people were look for was a Christian response. So, as a man of the people, I plan to write a Christian response to this book based solely on my guess what people were actually questioning (off the top of my head, it’s evolution).

Two final thoughts – I do Advanced Review Copy book reviews for a few publishers, but of the six book reviews that have brought the most readers this year, only one (Imperfect, from Baker Books), was one of these. Second, the May 2018 Biblical Studies Carnival is up over at 5 Minute Bible.

That’s it, those are my top five as of June 1, 2018. I plan to do an end of the year post for the most read of 2018, so stay tuned I guess. Thanks everyone who reads or follows me and I apologize in advance to anyone who found my by accident. I’ll try to do better next time.

Book Review: Real Love in an Angry World

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Real Love in an Angry World: How to Stick to Your Convictions without Alienating People

My Rating – Put it on your list

Level – Quick, easy read; short book

Summary
A good, quick summary of this book is somewhat hard to do. Bezet’s main idea is that there are unhappy people out there who are mad and/or judgmental towards Christianity. Additionally, these people come from both ends – those opposed to Christianity, and Christians (or at least those who would call themselves as such, like Westboro Baptist) themselves who think your Christianity isn’t good enough. He spends a little time on Christian who have drifted away from historic Christianity, i.e. denying the validity of the Scriptures, miracles, etc. However, most of the time is spent on the two more angry sides, the non-believers and judgmental believers (for instance, he relates a story of taking his wife to see a Celine Dion in Vegas, and losing a few church members once they found out he was in Vegas).

The book is broken into nine chapters that kind of bounce around on different topics. Everything from picking our battles to loving your neighbor (and just who is your neighbor) to then loving you enemy, to a little bit of history on the Bible. He touches on politics a number of times, but not necessarily specific topics or policy points, mainly just that Christians can disagree with each other while still be Christians, and Christians can disagree with non-Christians while still showing love and understanding. I don’t know how long he has been working on the book, but as it was published near the end of 2017, I assume it is at least partially motivated by the rise and election of Trump.

My Thoughts
Overall, it is a good book. Bezet is a good writer, very personal, and I thought, very humorous. I struggle with exactly who should read this book. For most Christians, it is probably worth your time to read, especially because it is so short. It reads quickly and is funny, his points on how to listen to people and how important it is to really listen, and his continual emphasis on the need to truly love others, are great reminders and points weakness for most of us. I especially like his point about loving others being the second great commandment. He points out that on the liberal Christian and non-Christian side, there is often the comment that we just need to love each other because that is what Jesus said and that is all we need. Bezet rightly points out, this is the second great command, this first is to love God. Part of that love means being faithful to God and His Word.

While all is helpful, I think the best use could be for those Christians on the extreme end of the non-loving judgmental side. Those who are the most angry and often express hate. The problem is, of course, I don’t think the people who need it the most would actually read it, and if they did they’d likely just disagree. I guess you never know how the Spirit will move some people, but I remain skeptical. Either way, it might be helpful for you to recognize some issues in your life, and if you see some of these issues in others, it might help you in reaching out to them and helping them to show the love of Christ, while retaining the love for God.

*I received a free copy of this book for an honest review

Book Review: On Pills and Needles

/ J.K. / 1 Comment

On Pills and Needles: The Relentless Fight to Save My Son from Opioid Addiction

My Rating: Put it on your list

Level: Easy, moderate length (250+), but reads quickly

Summary
A detailed summary of the book is difficult to do. The subtitle more or less says everything you need to know about the book. Van Warner writes a first hand account of watching is his son struggle with addiction to opioids, starting as a teenager and extending through his mid twenties. The book is broken into 25 broad chapters that generally follow a chronological pattern of thought, but not always. There are a few bits of information regarding the pandemic that is the opioid crisis, but these are mostly scattered throughout the narrative of his son’s life. If you seeking answer to the problem, or even just the ‘Christian response’ (the publisher is Baker Books, after all), you will not find any in this book. However, if you are somehow lucky enough not to know anyone with this addiction, it is worth the read, if for nothing else than to gain an understanding of what happens, what addiction look like, and the impact of family and friends of the addict.

My Thoughts
Van Warner is a great writer in a narrative sense, and I found myself compelled to keep reading this book just to see what happens next. It is an emotionally enthralling book, and if you have normal level of empathy and emotions, it is likely you will not get through this book without crying multiple times. That being said, be aware that there is little else to this book than the story of his son. I’m not really sure what I expected when I ordered it, but there isn’t really any resolution or response to the issue. No ‘warning signs’ or way to prevent this from happening. Nothing along the lines of, how to help those hurting or what we should do as a church. All of  which is fine, it is clearly not the intention he had in mind while writing this, but be aware if that is the type of book you are looking for.

Outside of the lack of resolution, the only thing I didn’t like about the book is the typically evangelical hypocrisy of being anti-government, while blaming the government for not doing enough. While he rightly attributes the initial problem to the Pharma Companies, specifically the one that falsely claimed Oxcy was non-addictive, he does lament the government hasn’t done enough. He also point out that Florida is ground zero of the crisis, with an astonishing 93 of the top 100 opioid prescribing doctors working there. Of course, FLorida is notoriously lax in government regulation and I’m sure this and the low tax (meaning less government) environment is partly what brought him there from New York. He himself doesn’t necessarily rant that much against government in his book, but it is odd to read from the perspective of evangelicals, knowing that most of us are heavily pro-business and anti regulation, inexplicably claiming that the free market couldn’t lead us astray, and then, when they inevitably do, we wonder why the government didn’t help. Those critiques are a little past the realm of this book review, but if you become aware of them while reading, it tends to gnaw at you.

Likewise, he blames ‘bureaucracy’ for his son spending two months in county jail, while he supposed to be transferred to another county jail. All this happens in context of his sons possession and intent to distribute charge being dropped. Being dropped. He doesn’t seem to realize how lucky he is that his son is well off and white. Poor people and minorities don’t tend to have felony drug charges just ‘dropped’, but instead spend years in jail.

I’m hesitant to leave that in for just a book review, but the author does seem to be misguided often. Regardless, his story is revisiting, if lacking insight in to solutions. I have a colleague whose son is currently in the grips of heroin addiction, after starting with Oxcy. The things the author writes about, the stories, the pain, the interactions with counselors and police, could have come from her. There is a shocking amount of similarity. I’m sure that is the same for many others out there. If you are looking for a story to help you internalize the crisis, this is a must read. It is probably helpful for anyone in pastoral ministry, counseling, or youth/child workers. There isn’t a list of things that parents/teachers can look for as far as signs of drug abuse, but there are gleanings from the detail of his story. For those with any interest in the epidemic that is currently among us, this is a book you need to add to your list.

*I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review