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Book Review – Telling the Truth: The Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy and Fairy Tale

April 18, 2012 in books, entertainment with 0 Comments

I’ve collected quite a few subscriptions in my RSS Reader over the years. I skim through most of them, but it’s been a great way for me to quickly find great articles, helpful reviews and useful resources.

I recently came across a recommendation in one of these feeds to read Telling the Truth: The Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy & Fairy Tale. The review was so positive that I immediately found a copy at my local library. I couldn’t wait to get started on it. The reviewer even declared that this was essential reading for church communicators and included some promising quotes from the book.

After reading it myself…I’m going to have to disagree. Or at least give a less enthusiastic review. I think the glowing review, the title of the book and my expectations were just all out of whack on this one.

Telling the Truth is not at all what I thought it was going to be. I’m probably too analytical for a book like this. As I read it, I kept thinking that people who like to call themselves “creatives” would probably be the ideal audience.

The book can be summed up with the follow passage from chapter 1.

“The Gospel is bad news before it is good news. It is the news that man is a sinner, to use the old word, that he is evil in the imagination of his heart, that when he looks in the mirror all in a lather what he sees is at least eight parts chicken, phony, slob. That is the tragedy. But it is also the news that he is loved anyway, cherished forgiven, bleeding to be sure, but also bled for. That is the comedy. And yet, so what?….In answer, the news of the Gospel is that extraordinary things happen to him just as in fairy tales extraordinary things happen….It is impossible for anybody to leave behind the darkness of the world he carries on his back like a snail, but for God all things are possible. That is the fairy tale. All together they are the truth.”

Now, the book was worth reading if just for this paragraph. (I love this passage.) It’s just that this quote comes early on (pages 7 and 8). The book had me here. I was sold on it…but then I was left hanging as it never provided any deeper analysis than that. The remaining chapters (2, 3 and 4) cover the topics in the subtitle of the book: Tragedy, Comedy and Fairy Tale respectively. To be honest, I didn’t find these chapters very helpful. They serve more to provide examples (mostly literary) of their respective topics than to reveal how the Gospel functions in that way. That’s not to say that this aspect of the Gospel isn’t mentioned. It is. It’s just not done until layer after layer of other examples are used first. And when it is, it doesn’t go much deeper than the above quote.

It’s probably an expectation thing for me. I’m sure some people will love everything about this book. But for me, it’s a great premise that failed to really expand the main idea.

Now with that said, I’m glad I read it. I think the concept of Tragedy, Comedy and Fairy Tale is a powerful one. And a few sections of the last chapter in particular are inspirational and helpful to minister’s charged with communicating the Gospel.

In this case, the title (almost) says it all. It’s not a bad read. But if you’re looking for practical applications. This isn’t it. The book has a great premise and will inspire. But it doesn’t go much deeper than that.

Book Review – The Circle Maker

March 12, 2012 in books with 0 Comments

I recently finished reading The Circle Maker by Mark Batterson. Since his first book, In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day, I’ve been a fan of his writing. As I’ve mentioned in other reviews of his work, each book gets better than the last.

The book’s title comes from the legend of Honi, the Circle Maker, who drew a circle in the ground and declared he would not move until his prayer for rain was answered. It’s this kind of bold, faith-filled prayer that Batterson addresses throughout.

What I appreciate about this book is its effective mixture of “how to,” theology, and stories of answered prayer. None of these elements outweigh the other to a great extent, but each of these are presented in a highly inspirational way. Batterson has a incredibly effective ability to cause the reader to dream big and pray big, audacious prayers.

The most impacting chapter for me, however, was probably one that dealt the least with prayer. Chapter 15 covers the topic of setting Life Goals. The book is worth picking up for this chapter alone. Too many people (including myself), simply walk through life without considering where they are headed or without creative a set of goals to achieve. I love the practical and inspirational aspects of this chapter. I’ll be revisiting this section of the book numerous times.

Do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of this book. Circle Maker is engaging, easy to read, inspiring and challenging. I highly recommend it.

Book Review – Surprising Insights from the Unchurched and Proven Ways to Reach Them

February 19, 2012 in books, entertainment with 0 Comments

A couple of weeks ago, I finished reading the book, Surprising Insights from the Unchurched and Proven Ways to Reach Them. I’m fairly certain this book has the longest title of any book I’ve ever read. However, this will likely be one of the shortest book reviews I’ve done.

Surprising Insights is essentially a report of the author’s (Thom S. Rainer) extensive research with a group of people he calls “formerly unchurched.” And it does live up to it’s name. Not everything was “surprising,” but it did contain a great deal of insight that I wasn’t expecting.

Essentially, Rainer makes an important and critical distinction between “unchurched” and “formerly unchurched.” Instead of focusing on reaching people who have no connection to a church, he examines the experiences of recently new church attenders and what drew them into the church. In other words…what “worked” for them and drew them into a faith community. It’s a simple, yet profound distinction that informs and directs the course of the book.

It’s a quick, straightforward book to read. But it does read like the report of an extensive survey. There are multiple anecdotal stories and examples throughout that enhance the data. These were okay, but I was mainly interested in the data.

If you’re a Pastor and you are interested in reading about some of the factors that draw unchurched people into church, I recommend it. It will give you some great perspective and likely challenge (at least some of) your current approaches to ministry.

Book Review – With the Old Breed

September 5, 2011 in books, entertainment with 0 Comments

A friend lent me a copy of the book With the Old Breed several months ago. I had just started another book, so it sat on my shelf until a couple of weeks ago.

I was a bit intimidated by the book at first, because the type was small and I assumed it was going to be a history lessen in some obscure details about the Marines. I was wrong. Almost immediately I was sucked into the unfolding story of a young man thrust into the horrors of war.

With the Old Breed is the memoir of E. B. Sledge, a marine who fought in some of the worst battles of the Pacific in WWII. It’s a fascinating look at the harsh realities they faced and the mental and physical extremes they endured.

It’s raw, honest and gripping…yet at times it’s tough to read–the author describes some of the horrors of war. He doesn’t do this in a sensational way, or to exploit the events, but he does so to shed light on the intense circumstances they faced and reveal the often overlooked realities of their experiences.

For someone who hasn’t done a lot of study on WWII, I found this to be an insightful and compelling read. I highly recommend it. Pick it up at amazon.com.

Immediately after finishing the book, I started searching for other information about the book and it’s author. I found the following clip on youtube. It’s part 1 (I believe you can find the rest by viewing this playlist) of a History channel show that documents E. B. Sledge and his experiences.

Book Review – Surprised by Hope

August 18, 2011 in books with 0 Comments

After starting several months ago, tonight I finished Surprised by Love by N. T. Wright. It’s a fantastic book and I highly recommend it. With that said, however, it’s not always an easy book to read. There’s at least two reasons for this:

Wright’s writing style. Wright is smart. Very smart. And this comes out in his writing. His sentences are often long. He will often string together several clauses in order to clarify his point and build his argument. In most books, I’ll highlight a phrase here or there, or a few sentences at a time. But with this book, I found myself highlighting paragraphs (or at least good chunks of them) at a time, just to get the whole thought captured.
Wright’s thoroughness. This book starts out slow and takes it’s time picking up speed. The author takes careful time to develop his argument and make sure it’s properly supported. By the time you reach the end, the pace has stepped up tremendously, but that’s because of the framework built up in the first half.

So what’s it about? In Surprised by Hope, N. T. Wright seeks to correct many of the misconceptions that modern believers have about heaven and life after death. Many people view heaven as an escape hatch out of this evil, cruel world. We long for the day when we will be rid of this place and experience some ethereal existence in the clouds.

But, Wright argues, that’s not in line with the Biblical understanding of these things. Jesus’ resurrection doesn’t teach us about life after death…but “life after life after death.” Jesus didn’t die and come back to life so that he could whisk us up to some other world. Instead, it was the beginning of the restoration of this world. In Wright’s words:

As long as we see salvation in terms of going to heaven when we die, the main work of the church is bound to be seen in terms of saving souls for that future. But when we see salvation, as the New Testament sees it, in terms of God’s promised new heavens and new earth and of our promised resurrection to share in that new and gloriously embodied reality—what I have called life after life after death—then the main work of the church here and now demands to be rethought in consequence.

Later in the book, Wright comments on our focus on heaven. He says, we’re not considering the end of the book:

As we read Revelation, we must not allow the wonderful heavenly vision in chapters 4 and 5 to lull us into imagining that this is the final scene in the story, as though the narrative were simply to conclude (as in Charles Wesley’s hymn) with the redeemed casting their crowns before the throne. This is a vision of present reality, seen in its heavenly dimension. We must read on to the end, to the final vision of Revelation 21 and 22, the chapters that give final meaning to all that has gone before and indeed to the entire canon.

Our partnering with Jesus means that begin to experience and live out the future restored life now. We, in the words of the Lord’s Prayer, do God’s will here on earth “as it is in heaven.” Our actions here matter, not simply because they will save others from hell (though they may encourage others to enter into new life with Jesus), but because “what is done in the present in the body, by the power of the Spirit, will be reaffirmed in the eventual future, in ways at which we can presently only guess.”

Instead of looking to escape or “earn” our way to heaven. We work diligently here and now because “our labor in the Lord is not in vain” (1 Corinthians 15). Our actions matter now.

What you do with your body in the present matters, he [Paul] insists, because God raised the Lord and will also raise us by his power. Glorify God in your body because one day God will glorify the body itself. What is to be true in the future must begin to be true in the present, or it will be called into question whether you are really on track in the first place.

Near the end of the book, Wright moves onto a more practical discussion of how these truths influence Christian life and mission. With the theological and historical framework laid, he provides a wonderful view of the faith that is driven by the hope of Jesus resurrection.

Though I highly recommend this book, I do so realizing that it’s not for everyone. This is a heavy book, particularly in the first half. But I believe Wright accurately corrects and teaches a Biblically accurate view of our future hope. A view, that is too often distorted and watered down in modern Christianity.