TWO STARS: One church’s journey, but not all

This is a book about the success journey of one mega church—Gateway Church in Dallas, Texas (http://gatewaypeople.com/).

Author and Pastor Robert Morris outlines in five sections what he believes it takes for a church to be successful:

1. A vision

2. Church shepherds

3. Church leaders

4. Church government

5.Church culture

As a pastor, I particularly found the church shepherd’s section valuable.  Morris also includes helpful reminder chapters that church leaders need to do like keeping the Sabbath and not putting one’s family on the back burner.

But while there were a few tasty morsels found throughout the book, I finished feeling underfed.  This book is not a “how-to” book, so it doesn’t give detailed instructions on how to grow your church but rather tells Gateway’s story and their principles.  Also, the section on church government did not apply to me as I belong to a denomination that already has a “church government” in place and does not have the freedom to create its own like Gateway does.  So that whole section was not very useful.  Additionally, I missed throughout the book talk of female leadership at his church.  After doing some research on the internet I discovered the church’s position paper on women in leadership says that while women are welcome to serve in ministry, they are not to hold position of Senior Pastor or Elder.  This may explain the lack of women mentioned.  Since I am a female pastor, I found this unfortunate.

While there were some things I found useful and highlighted in the book, overall after reading I felt undernourished.

*I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this unbiased review.

Radio Theater a treat!

FIVE STARS

REVIEW: Oliver Twist by Focus on the Family’s Radio Theatre

I am huge reader, but I humbly admit that I had never read Oliver Twist.  Besides never reading it, I have never really listened to a book on CD.  But, I decided to give a book on CD a shot and very pleasantly surprised!

I say: “Well done, Focus on the Family!”

This was no ordinary book on CD, but rather a full-cast audio dramatization of the story.  As I listened to the CDs in my car, there were times I did not want my trip to end because I wanted to hear more of the story.  The Charles Dicken’s classic Oliver Twist is a story about a boy whose mother dies while giving birth to him, and thus he becomes an orphan.  Oliver unfortunately endures horrendous trials and ordeals throughout his life.  But glory to God there is redemption.

Focus on the Family did a masterful job putting this five CD disk set together (as well as a behind-the-scenes DVD).  The characters come to life through their amazing vocalizations.  I knew right away when someone started speaking which character was talking.  They embodied their roles.  The audio dramatization was not just voices, though.  There was also intense filler noises that set the scene perfectly like dogs barking, carriage rides, and so much more.  This CD helped the story come alive and created a movie my imagination.

While this was my first book on CD, after this wonderful experience, it will not be my last!

I encourage everyone to turn back to a simpler time of the 1940s when family radio theater was popular and experience Oliver Twist.

To learn more, visit Focus on the Family Radio Theatre at http://www.focusonthefamily.com/radio-theatre/oliver-twist.aspx

*Tyndale House Publishers provided me with a complimentary copy of this CD set for an unbiased review.

Greater is grrreeeaaaat!

FIVE STARS

REVIEW: Greater: Dream Bigger. Start Smaller. Ignite God’s Vision For Your Life. 

By Steven Furtick

Greater is grrreeeaaaat!

This is my first book read by author and Pastor Steven Furtick, and I look forward to reading more. 

While this book is serious in nature—about how we as Christians should be seeking the greatness God has for us—it is filled with well-written humor!  There were many times I was reading and just burst out laughing.  My husband kept asking: “What are you reading that is making you laugh so much?”  It is good reminder that yes, Christians can have a sense of humor.

The book is centered on the life of the Old Testament prophet Elisha.  Furtick does a superb job of taking the stories of Elisha found in Scripture, exegeting them so the everyday person can make sense of them, and then tying them back in to our lives today.  He does what any good pastor would do: proves that Scripture is alive and well today and isn’t just stories of the past that have no connection to us today.

Furtick makes many good points in the book as I can attest to with stars, underlying, and notes all over the pages.  It is a book I plan to go back to and not just forget.This book is worth it! 

It will encourage you to be more like Elisha—to go where God is calling you to go and do what God is calling you to do.  When you do that, it will not just be good or great, but GREATER!

For more information on the book and some free resources, visit http://greaterbook.com/. 

*I received this book for free from WaterBrook Mulnomah Publishing Group for this unbiased review. 

Planning to check out Unstoppable

There is a brand new book coming out in a few weeks that I am looking forward to reading… Unstoppable by Nick Vujicic.  If you don’t know who Nick is, he is an inspiration!

I already one of Nick’s books Life Without Limits last year (you can read my review of that book at http://karabookkorner.blogspot.com/2011_04_01_archive.html).

For this newest book, be sure to check out the short video about Nick, and you will see what I mean about him being an inspiration: http://bit.ly/NxKhEa.

And you can even read the first chapter of the upcoming book at http://scr.bi/NxKSFT.  I like what he says so far in this chapter…it is about putting faith into action and never passing up an opportunity to share your faith in Jesus with someone else (you will need to read the first chapter about the heart wrenching regret Nick has with Felipe).

So check it out.  I plan to!

Useful, beginning, step-by-step book about becoming a Christian investor

FOUR STARS

REVIEW: The Invested Life: Making Disciples of All Nations One Person at a Time by Joel C. Rosenberg and Dr. T.E. Koshy

As a pastor, I have a heart for discipleship.  So, I was excited to get my hands on this book.  This is a practical manual on how to be a Christian disciple and disciple others.

Authors Joel C. Rosenberg and Dr. T.E. Koshy point to key figures throughout Scripture who had mentors who discipled them, and in turn, they discipled others—for example Jethro who mentored Moses and Moses who then mentored Joshua, Elisha who was discipled by Elijah, Jesus who mentored his twelve disciples, and Paul who discipled Timothy who then discipled other faithful followers and so on.

Discipleship is in the Christian tradition, in the Christian blood.  It is something we are called to do.  The authors sound that alert that today, though, we seem more interested in spreading the Christian message far and wide (which indeed is something we are called to do), but we lack in leading people into a deeper walk with Christ and do not truly disciple and train followers.  While we of course cannot disciple everyone, the authors say we as Christians are each called to disciple a few (a small group around us), just as Christ did.

The book walks through defining discipleship, how to be a disciple, following Jesus’ discipleship model, how to prayerfully choose who will disciple you, how to get started discipling others, and how to track your progress with a discipleship checklist.

If you are a pastor, lay leader, or mature Christian who seeks to disciple others, or if you are someone who seeks to be discipled by a mature Christian, this is a useful, beginning, step-by-step book about how to go through the process.

*Tyndale House Publishers provided me with a complimentary copy of this book for an unbiased review.

To learn more, you can download the first chapter at - http://files.tyndale.com/thpdata/FirstChapters/978-1-4143-7637-0.pdf

Not a traditional book on marriage

THREE STARS

REVIEW: ALTARED: The True Story of a SHE, a HE, and How They Both Got Too Worked Up about WE  by Claire & Eli

Caution: This is not a traditional book on marriage. 

Actually it is a pioneering look at marriage which contemplates and reflects on the prominence marriage seems to receive by many Christians and churches today.

The book is written by Claire and Eli (their pseudonyms) because they said they wanted to preserve the mystery of their own story as well as not wanting the story to be about them.

The book is half a love story of Claire and Eli and their relationship, and the other half is a biblical look at marriage and singleness.  Their main point seems to stress that true love is not only found in marriage, but it should be found in all relationships.  We should not limit our stress of love in just marriage relationships.

Claire and Eli say our society should not be so marriage-centered but rather loved-centered.  I appreciate that concept, and as a married woman, it made me reflect about the single people in my life.  I also valued their inclusion of Scripture and Christian tradition by quotes by John Wesley, Oswald Chambers, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Augustine, and more.

*I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this unbiased review.

Great reference tool!

FIVE STARS

REVIEW: The End: A Complete Overview of Bible Prophecy and the End of Days by Mark Hitchcock

I am so grateful to have read this book and have it on my shelf.  My church recently did an End Times Bible study and I wish I had this book earlier, because it would have been a wonderful resource!

Author Mark Hitchcock does a great job of organizing the book into 14 distinct parts and 39 chapters. (The book itself is 504 pages.)  He also includes wonderful tables and graphics throughout which helps to summarize the main points he is addressing, and at the end he offers a proposed chronology of the End Times.  It is quite impressive!

I appreciated Hitchcock’s easily comprehendible definitions of hard to explain topics like the various millennial and rapture views, the 144,000, Mark of the Beast, and more.  His writing makes hard topics easy to grasp and this makes the book more reader-friendly.

While Hitchcock does a fair job noting that there are many different end times prophecy views and theories, he is not shy about saying that he holds a futurist, premillennial viewpoint.  So be prepared when reading if you do not agree with that view. 

He does, though, note that although there are differences in the views, he believes there are three nonnegotiables in Christian Bible prophecy—the return of Jesus Christ to the earth, the bodily resurrection of the dead, and the final judgment of all people.  So while you might disagree with his view, he is OK with that and does a decent job at giving explanations and reasons for each view and theory that are different from his own.

This book is well worth the read and a great resource and tool to have on hand.  I am certain I will go back to it time and time again.

*Tyndale House Publishers provided me with a complimentary copy of this book.

To learn more, visit the author’s website - http://marklhitchcock.com/