Coming to the Resource Center - August 3, 2014

Here are just a few of the new titles you can find in the church Resource Center this coming Sunday, August 3. 

(All text copy from Goodreads unless otherwise stated):

Sentness: Six Postures of Missional Christians (2014) Kim Hammond, Darren Cronshaw

Ever wonder why people fall asleep in church? It happens. We’ve all seen it. We shuffle into rows of seats that grow more comfortable with every new fundraising campaign. We slouch down and settle in for an hour or so, as singers and storytellers and preachers and teachers take their turns filling our ears. And almost without fail, at least one of us nods off while listening to the greatest story ever told. The church was not meant to be like this. The church was meant to be on its feet, in the world, making all things new. The church was meant to be sent. Kim Hammond and Darren Cronshaw want to help us--all of us--rediscover our sentness. Dive into Sentness, and explore the six postures of a church that's keeping pace with God's work in the world. Rediscover the gospel that first quickened your pulse and got you up on your feet, ready to go wherever Jesus called you. Get Sentness, and prepare to get sent.

The Passionate Intellect: Christian Faith and the Discipleship of the Mind (2010) Alister E. McGrath

2011 Christianity Today Book Award winner! Alister McGrath, one of the most prominent theologians and public intellectuals of our day, explains how Christian thinking can and must have a positive role in shaping, nourishing and safeguarding the Christian vision of reality. With this in our grasp, we have the capacity for robust intellectual and cultural engagement, confidently entering the public sphere of ideas where atheism, postmodernism and science come into play. This book explores how the great tradition of Christian theological reflection enriches faith. It deepens our appreciation of the gospel's ability to engage with the complexities of the natural world on the one hand and human experience on the other.

The Unfolding Mystery: Discovering Christ in the Old Testament (2013) Edmund P. Clowney

Have you ever wondered what Christ said to his disciples to make their hearts burn on the Emmaus road? Beginning with Adam and Eve and closing with the last of the prophets, Dr. Clowney takes a fascinating walk through the Old Testament, revealing Christ in places where he is usually overlooked.

Sensing Jesus: Life and Ministry as a Human Being (2012) Zack Eswine

In a style reminiscent of Donald Miller and Eugene Peterson, pastor turned professor Zack Eswine knows what burnout looks like and writes out of heartfelt concern for those in full-time ministry. Eswine draws on personal stories of crisis, shares openly about his own failures, and communicates honestly about what he has seen throughout his twenty years in ministry, providing readers with a much-needed, authentic look at life in the trenches. Eswine also covers practical matters such as how to pray for the sick, how to make leadership decisions, how to do church discipline, and how to handle family dynamics and pressures in pastoral ministry. Presenting sound pastoral theology couched in autobiographical musings and emotive prose, this book offers a fresh and biblically faithful approach to the care of souls, including your own.

Coming to the Resource Center - June 29, 2014

Here are just a few of the new titles you can find in the church Resource Center this Sunday, June 29. 

In this edition, we offer a boxed set of books for young readers chronicling the history of the church, a book on healing sexual and relational brokenness, and a Christian classic. (All text copy from Goodreads unless otherwise stated):

History Lives Box Set: Chronicles of the Church (2012) Mindy and Brandon Withrow

This five-volume set of books for young readers covers the following:

Vol. 1: Peril and Peace: Chronicles of the Ancient Church 

(3 BC - 550 AD)

Vol. 2: Monks and Mystics: Chronicles of the Medieval Church 

(550 - 1500 AD)

Vol. 3: Courage and Conviction: Chronicles of the Reformation Church 

(1500 - 1700 AD)

Vol. 4: Hearts and Hands: Chronicles of the Awakening Church 

(1700 - 1860 AD)

Vol. 5: Rescue and Redeem: Chronicles of the Modern Church 

(1860 AD - tomorrow) 

Sexual Sanity for Women: Healing from Sexual and Relational Brokenness (2013) Ellen Dykas, ed. 

Sexual Sanity for Women guides participants through the process of understanding why they struggle with destructive relational and sexual patterns and how the gospel brings change and a new way of living. Twenty lessons guide participants to understand God's good design for sexuality, the underlying reasons they struggle with sexual brokenness, and how the grace and truth of Jesus Christ can be applied to their struggles. Change begins as deeper heart issues are uncovered, and women learn that they are well-loved daughters of God who will find healing and wholeness as they live out God's Word in their relationships. This workbook is ideal for a one-on-one mentoring, college age student groups, and women's groups.

(The Resource Center also has Sexual Sanity for Men: Re-creating Your Mind in a Crazy Culture by David White) 

The Pilgrim’s Progress (1678/2009) John Bunyan

For more than three centuries both Christians and non-Christians, young and old, have been fascinated by the characters and story of John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress: From This World to That Which Is to Come - regarded as one of the most significant works of English literature. While keeping the dignity and beauty of Bunyan's language, editor C. J. Lovik has updated words and phrases for today's readers.

This deluxe edition of Pilgrim's Progress, brought to life in forty all-new, full-page, color illustrations by award-winning illustrator Mike Wimmer, takes readers on a visually stunning journey with protagonist Christian as he seeks the Celestial City. Along the way, readers encounter Evangelist, Mr. Worldly Wisdom, the Interpreter, Hypocrisy, Watchful, Faithful, Talkative, Hopeful, Ignorance, and others. Through word and picture, readers will better understand the obstacles and encouragements they will face as they live out the Christian life this side of heaven.

(The Resource Center also has Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress: Christian Guides to the Classics by Leland Ryken)

Coming to the Resource Center - June 10, 2014

As you’ve probably noticed, we haven’t had a “New Books” newsletter for several weeks, but rest assured, we’ve got plenty of great books coming your way soon! Here are just a few of the new titles you can find in the church Resource Center this Sunday, June 15. 

In this edition, we offer books on our vocations, peace, and why the incarnation matters to our faith. Plus - and I know many of our students just graduated - a book on preparing teens for college. (All text copy from Goodreads unless otherwise stated):

Visions of Vocation: Common Grace for the Common Good (2014) Steven Garber

Is it possible to know the world and still love the world? Of all the questions we ask about our calling, this is the most difficult. From marriages to international relations, the more we know, the harder it is to love. We become cynics or stoics, protecting our hearts from the implications of what we know. But what if the vision of vocation can be recovered--allowing us to step into the wounds of the world and for love's sake take up our responsibility for the way the world turns out? For decades Steve Garber has come alongside a wide range of people as they seek to make sense of the world and their lives. 

Vocation is when we come to know the world in all its joy and pain and still love it. Vocation is following our calling to seek the welfare of the world we live in. And in helping the world to flourish, strangely, mysteriously, we find that we flourish too. Garber offers a book for everyone everywhere--for students, for parents, for those in the arts, in the academy, in public service, in the trades and in commerce--for all who want to discover the virtue of vocation.

Real Peace: What We Long for and Where to Find It (2013) Andy Farmer

Peace is possible.

We all experience stress, anxiety, grief, conflict, depression and despair--pain that causes us to cry out for peace. Taking on these common yet critical hardships, seasoned pastor and biblical counselor Andy Farmer shows us where to find and how to experience true, lasting peace--peace with God, peace with each other, and peace with ourselves.

Incarnate: The Body of Christ in an Age of Disengagement (2014) Michael Frost

The story of Christianity is a story of incarnation--God taking on flesh and dwelling among the people he created. God appointing and sending people as his body, his hands and feet. Disciples of Jesus bearing the good news even as they bear the marks of his passion. Whatever Christianity is, it is at least a matter of flesh and blood and the ends of the earth. And yet so much of contemporary Christian culture is rooted not in incarnation but in escape--escape from the earth to heaven, escape from the suffering of this world, escape even from one another. Christianity is increasingly understood as something personal, conceptual, interior, private, neighborless. If Jesus was God incarnate, the church is in danger of being excarnate. Michael Frost expertly and prophetically exposes the gap between the faith we profess and the faith we practice. And he offers new hope for how the church can fulfill its vocation: to be the hands and feet of Christ to one another and to our neighbors, to the ends of the earth and to the end of the age.

Preparing Your Teens for College: Helping Them Face the Challenges: Faith, Finances, and Friendships (2014) Alex Chediak

More than ever, college is a big deal. It costs more than it ever has. A college education is needed more than it ever has been to get a good-paying job. And, on top of that, only half of those who go to college will find careers in the field that they studied. What teens do during their college years affects them more than ever. That's why college expert Alex Chediak is being asked by so many anxious parents: "How do I get my teen ready?"This book is Alex's answer. It covers everything from helping teens apply to the right college to navigating through the college financial maze. Alex covers all the hot-button issues: dating, premarital sex, dorm mates, career guidance, God, and much more. The book is designed for parents who have teens in high school and want some advice on how to prepare them. But it's also useful for parents and grandparents who are guiding their teens and young adults through the college years.You won't want to be without this essential survival manual for college.

Coming to the Resource Center - May 4, 2014

Coming Soon to the Resource Center - May 4, 2014

Here are just a few of the new books you can find in the church Resource Center tomorrow, May 4, 2014. In this edition, we offer two closely related books, one on the meaning of true beauty, the other on seeking our approval from God and not the world. There’s also a book on worldviews and a book on what the Bible says about itself... and why it matters. (All text copy from Goodreads unless otherwise stated):

True Beauty (2014) Carolyn Mahaney, Nicole Whitacre

What is true beauty?

Whether it's age-defying makeup or the latest diet fad, our culture continually tells women that beauty consists of flawless skin and a supermodel figure.

In True Beauty, Carolyn Mahaney and her daughter Nicole Whitacre direct us to the truth of God's Word, where we encounter an entirely different--and refreshingly liberating--standard of beauty.

Offering a path to freedom from the false idols that society, the Devil, and our sinful hearts so often create, this encouraging book will help you exchange the temporary glamour of pop culture for the unfading beauty of godliness.

Includes a discussion guide.

Love Idol: Letting Go of Your Need for Approval - and Seeing Yourself through God’s Eyes (2014) Jennifer Dukes Lee

We all want someone to think we're sensational. We desire to be recognized, to be valued, to be respected . . . to be loved. Yet this natural yearning too often turns into an idol of one of God's most precious gifts: love itself. If you, like so many of us, spend your time and energy trying to earn brownie points--at work, home, and church--all the while fearing that, at any moment, the facade will drop, and everyone will see your hidden mess . . . then love may have become an idol in your life. In this poignant and hope-filled book, Jennifer Dukes Lee shares her own lifelong journey of learning to rely on the unconditional love of God. She gently invites us to make peace with our imperfections and to stop working overtime for a love that is already ours. "The Love Idol" will help us dismantle what's separating us from true connection with God and rediscover the astonishing joy of a life full of freedom in Christ.

What’s Your Worldview? An Interactive Approach to Life’s Big Questions (2014) James N. Anderson

How Do You View the World?

It's a big question. And how you answer is one of the most important things about you.

Not sure what you'd say? Join James Anderson on an interactive journey of discovery aimed at helping you understand and evaluate the options when it comes to identifying your worldview. Cast in the mold of a classic "Choose Your Own Adventure" story, What's Your Worldview? will guide you toward intellectually satisfying answers to life's biggest questions--equipping you to think carefully about not only what you believe but why you believe it and how it impacts the rest of your life.

Taking God At His Word: Why the Bible is Knowable, Necessary, and Enough, and What That Means for You and Me (2014) Kevin DeYoung

The Bible stands at the heart of the Christian faith, but people disagree about its nature and authority. Can we trust the Bible completely? Is it sufficient for our complicated lives? Can we really know what it teaches? And isn't it more important to focus on Jesus instead of the Bible?

With his characteristic wit and clarity, Kevin DeYoung has written an accessible introduction to the Bible that answers important questions raised by Christians and non-Christians alike. This book will help readers understand what the Bible says about itself and the key characteristics that contribute to its lasting significance. Avoiding technical jargon, this winsome volume will encourage men and women to read and believe the Bible--confident that it truly is God's word.

Calvin and Hobbes

Here's a great article on Calvin and Hobbes (the comic strip, not the theologian and the philosopher), courtesy of Tim Challies's excellent blog Informing the Reforming. If you don't regularly read Tim's blog, you should, especially if you're a Kindle owner, since he passes on information about Kindle bargain books on a daily basis. Also don't miss his Friday book giveaway, which offers some great stuff. (I enter the drawing every week, but have never won. But hey, I don't hold that against you, Tim! :)  

Coming to the Resource Center April 6, 2014

Here are just a few of the new books you can find in the church Resource Center tomorrow, April 6, 2014. In this edition, we offer two more works by David Wells, a book celebrating the power and passion of Easter, and a gospel-driven book on productivity that will both challenge and encourage you regardless of your occupation. (All text copy from Goodreads unless otherwise stated):

God in the Wasteland: The Reality of Truth in a World of Fading Dreams (1994) David F. Wells

David F. Wells’s award-winning book No Place for Truth -called a stinging indictment of evangelicalism’s theological corruption by TIME magazine - woke many evangelicals to the fact that their tradition has slowly but surely capitulated to the values and structures of the modern world. In God in the Wasteland, Wells continues his work on a biblical antidote to the modernity that has invaded today’s church.

Above All Earthly Pow’rs: Christ in a Postmodern World (2005) David F. Wells

In our postmodern world, every view has a place at the table but none has the final say. How should the church confess Christ in today's cultural context?

Above All Earthly Pow'rs, the fourth and final volume of the series that began in 1993 with No Place for Truth, portrays the West in all its complexity, brilliance, and emptiness. As David F. Wells masterfully depicts it, the postmodern ethos of the West is relativistic, individualistic, therapeutic, and yet remarkably spiritual. Wells shows how this postmodern ethos has incorporated into itself the new religious and cultural relativism, the fear and confusion, that began with the last century's waves of immigration and have continued apace in recent decades.

Wells's book culminates in a critique of contemporary evangelicalism aimed at both unsettling and reinvigorating readers. Churches that market themselves as relevant and palatable to consumption-oriented postmoderns are indeed swelling in size. But they are doing so, Wells contends, at the expense of the truth of the gospel. By placing a premium on marketing rather than truth, the evangelical church is in danger of trading authentic engagement with culture for worldly success.

Welding extensive cultural analysis with serious theology, Above All Earthly Pow'rs issues a prophetic call that the evangelical church cannot afford to ignore. (Publisher’s description)

Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross: Experiencing the Passion and Power of Easter (2009) Nancy Guthrie, ed.

This collection of readings, drawn from the writings and sermons of 25 classic and contemporary theologians and Bible teachers, focuses on the wonder of Christ's sacrifice.

In a culture where crosses have become little more than decorative accessories and jewelry, how easy it is for even the most well-intended Christian to rush from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday without thoughtfully contemplating the cross and all that it means. Yet we miss out on spiritual riches when we do.

So that we all may linger at the cross during the Lenten season-and stay near it the whole year through-editor Nancy Guthrie has compiled this special anthology. It draws from the works and sermons of classic theologians such as Luther, Edwards, Spurgeon, Ryle, and Augustine, and from leading contemporary communicators such as John Piper, R. C. Sproul, Francis Schaeffer, John MacArthur, Skip Ryan, and Joni Eareckson Tada to help readers enter into an experience of Christ's passion and anchor their hope in the power of his resurrection.

Each essay in this collection holds to a high view of Scripture and expounds on a particular aspect of the Easter story using the appropriate Scripture passage from the ESV Bible. These readings are sure to prepare people's hearts for a fresh experience of the cross each and every Easter season.

What’s Best Next: How the Gospel Transforms the Way You Get Things Done (2014) Matt Perman

Do work that matters. Productivity isn't just about getting more things done. It's about getting the right things done---the things that count, make a difference, and move the world forward. In our current era of massive overload, this is harder than ever before. So how do you get more of the right things done without confusing mere activity for actual productivity? When we take God's purposes into account, a revolutionary insight emerges. Surprisingly, we see that the way to be productive is to put others first---to make the welfare of other people our motive and criteria in determining what to do (what's best next). As both the Scriptures and the best business thinkers show, generosity is the key to unlocking our productivity. It is also the key to finding meaning and fulfillment in our work. What's Best Next offers a practical approach for improving your productivity in all areas of life. It will help you better understand: 

Why good works are not just rare and special things like going to Africa, but anything you do in faith even tying your shoes. 

How to create a mission statement for your life that actually works. 

How to delegate to people in a way that actually empowers them. 

How to overcome time killers like procrastination, interruptions, and multitasking by turning them around and making them work for you. 

How to process workflow efficiently and get your email inbox to zero every day. 

How your work and life can transform the world socially, economically, and spiritually, and connect to God's global purposes. 

By anchoring your understanding of productivity in God's purposes and plan, What's Best Next will give you a practical approach for increasing your effectiveness in everything you do.

A Loving Life Paul E. Miller

A Loving Life: In a World of Broken Relationships (NF 2014) Paul E. Miller
Crossway, $12.99
ISBN 9781433537325

A few years ago I read Paul Miller’s A Praying Life (2009), a book that continues to change my prayer life. It’s a book I’ve recommended it to others and have sometimes given as a gift. When I heard about Miller’s new book, A Loving Life, based on the Book of Ruth, I was certainly eager to read it. 

Miller does a wonderful job of describing hesed love, which could be translated “steadfast love” and thought of as “love without an exit strategy.” It’s certainly not a self-centered, “What-can-I-get-out-of-this-relationship” love, but a love that gives, even when that love is not reciprocated. Such a love, as Miller often points out, is not based on feeling, which often drives a lot of what we normally call love. It is rather a love based on serving others, a love that loves in spite of the dangers of that love not being returned or even acknowledged. In short, hesed love is the way Jesus loves. 

Miller provides many examples of hesed love from the Book of Ruth, as well as from other Scriptures and stories he has encountered in his own life. The vast majority of the book is filled with helpful, biblical information and teaching. I particularly appreciate Miller’s idea of “God in the Shadows” (Chapter 19), giving examples of how Jesus often deliberately kept to the outer edges of several situations, humbly allowing others to have space in order that faith might emerge. (Examples include the sinful woman crashing the party in Luke 7, the woman caught in adultery in John 8, Jesus hiding his identity on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24, etc.) When we love rightly, we often “disappear” so that God can be discovered. 

A Loving Life is filled with many such valuable ideas based on biblical teaching. I do, however, want to make sure I’m not misreading parts of Miller’s book. For instance, while suffering in silence can certainly be an important part of hesed love, I can think of some situations (such as abusive relationships) where suffering should not be silent. I also felt Miller sometimes points a finger at our culture (Oprah, in particular) in a way that clearly identifies a problem (or the symptoms of a problem), but harps on those problems with more force than is necessary. Again, these instances could all be misreadings on my part. 

A Loving Life is a book that will challenge your thoughts on how we think about love in a biblical, God-honoring way. Please consider reading it.