Previously released as Stop Dating the Church, Joshua Harris’s Why Church Matters encourages readers to love and commit to a local church.
Although this short, easy-to-read book primarily prods casual attenders to commit to a local church, even members who are already with a church for the long-haul can benefit from the encouragement to continue making the local church a priority.
A couple years ago, I saw a copy of John Stott’s Between Two Worlds: The Art of Preaching in the Twentieth Century on the shelf of our favorite thrift store. John Stott was a common name in the blogosphere, but I did not know much about him. The book came home with me that day.
Now, I have a vague goal (though without much hope) of not moving books that I haven’t read when we move in a few years (with exceptions for reference books and some books that interest Michael but not me). So, when John Stott passed away last week, it seemed an appropriate time to decide whether the reading of Between Two Worlds would happen now or never.
Tomorrow the season of Lent begins. During this traditional season of fasting and preparation for Easter, I find that choosing reading material specifically about Jesus helps me to spend the season focusing on Him and what He accomplished rather than on me and what I am doing. In previous years, I’ve read through John Piper’s Book Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die (reading one reason a day, then fitting a few extra in during Holy Week).
This year I feel a greater need, and so I have selected a bit more to read. Here are some books I would like to read this Lenten season:
I read a complimentary PDF copy of Cruciform Press’s recently released book Servanthood as Worship by Nate Palmer. Written from a reformed perspective, this book encourages every Christian in the "privilege" of servanthood, in the local church, for the glory of God.
Palmer sets out to "provide the theological framework that Christians need to understand what serving in the local church is really all about." (page 9) He describes serving as something we are always doing, and says "There is never a moment when we are not serving someone . . . Most of the time we are simply serving ourselves—pouring our energy and hope for happiness into the nurture of our own desires" (page 9).
This is a guest post from Erin Joy, a real doll. She writes about life in rural America and in the big city where she studies at a Bible college.
Accused of being antisocial, labelled as shy, I learned at an early age that I am an introvert, which has been confirmed with each personality test I’ve been administered. As I was growing up, I also learned to love the church, earning rug burns swinging around the carpeted poles in Fellowship Hall with friends, adoring stained-glass windows in the sanctuary, meeting and celebrating Jesus, crying about fractures which formed within this family of believers. When I went to college, I found my new church to be the source of most of my friendships, but I felt awkward attempting finding my place, frequently feeling invisible, struggling to make smalltalk, expected to lead but hardly able to relate to the girls in my group, finally learning to bribe friends with food. The topic of Introverts in the Church is obviously of interest to me, so I requested a copy of Adam McHugh’s book from our public library after seeing it positively reviewed.
Characterizing introverts by being "engergized by solitude" (page 35), using "internal processing" (page 37), and having a "preference for depth over breadth" (page 41), McHugh, an introvert, combines his personal experience in ministry with research to present the strengths of introverts, some challenges they face, and potential ways to help introverts be part of the church community without requiring them to turn into extroverts.
I loved reading Dug Down Deep⁂ by Joshua Harris. Dug Down Deep communicates core truths of Christianity using biographical examples from Harris’s life.
It is one of the few books I would give a five-star rating if we had a rating system with stars set up. That doesn’t mean it was perfect; it means Harris combined spectacular writing with excellent content.
Tension is the best word to describe my experience with Jim Belcher’s book Deep Church: A Third Way Beyond Emerging and Traditional (affiliate link). The first time I recall hearing about the book was when @jimbelcher followed me on twitter. When he was not following me a few days later, the follow/unfollow felt somewhat spammy; however, the book did impress me with its endorsements. On the one hand, I didn’t care much about the controversy of the emerging movement; on the other hand, I was concerned about the amount of emergent literature I saw in the library of someone I care about. When I saw a promotion to get a copy of the audio book from Christianaudio, I decided to go ahead and take a chance on it. After listening to it, I felt largely positive about it, but decided to get the paperback copy from the library so I could see the words on the page and better understand it.
Deep Church begins with Belcher’s narrative of his relationship to the emerging church and why a third way matters. He attempts to define the emerging church and identifies seven "protests" of the emerging church: captivity to Enlightenment rationalism, a narrow view of salvation, belief before belonging, uncontextualized worship, ineffective preaching, weak ecclesiology, and tribalism. He takes these protests and devotes a chapter to understanding the controversy of the protest and presenting his "deep" solution: Deep Truth, Deep Evangelism, Deep Gospel, Deep Worship, Deep Preaching, Deep Ecclesiology, and Deep Culture.