Presby-Musings

Start! The Bible For New Believers, General Editor: Greg Laurie ; Thomas Nelson (2010) Greg Laurie, the General Editor of the Start! Bible, is the senior pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside, CA, "one of the largest churches in America."  Laurie's touch is seen throughout the Introduction of this Bible, which is marketed to be given to new or non-Christians.   Start! is filled with both "Know" and "Grow" notes throughout the text.  The "Know" notes highlight passages of Scripture throughout the Bible that are central to Christian teaching and doctrine.  The "Grow" notes illuminate certain verses or passages with lessons geared toward beginning believers.  Each book of the Bible is provided with a basic, informative introduction that is designed to give the reader a deeper understanding of the context and the purpose of the book, without a great deal of overly educated language.  The one criticism I have of this v...

The Gospel According To Jesus: A Faith that Restores All Things by Chris Seay ( Thomas Nelson , 2010).   Chris Seay's newest book  The Gospel According To Jesus is the kind of book that I will be pondering long after I have finished reading it.  Seay, a church planter, author and pastor, is a man after my own heart.  He's the author of The Gospel According to Tony Soprano and the Gospel According to Lost-- which reveals that he's the kind of guy who's not afraid to make the connections between the sacred and the "profane."  The fact that The Sopranos happens to be one of my favorite TV shows ever doesn't hurt either.  However, The Gospel According to Jesus is something completely different--it's a call to repentance for the Church and for those of us who call ourselves Christians.  In Seay's mind, the Church has ceased to place Christ at the center of it's theology, ecclesiology, soteriology and a host of other "ologies."  It...

Cover via Amazon Jesus Manifesto: Restoring the Supremacy and the Sovereignty of Jesus Christ by Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola , Thomas Nelson (2010) What kind of book would elicit praise from both Ed Stetzer of the Southern Baptist Covention's publishing arm Lifeway and Christian activist Shane Claiborne ?  If you were anticipating Jesus Manifesto as the answer, then you were right on the money.  For that matter, Len Sweet and Frank Viola would seek like an odd pair to write a book together, and they actually acknowledge as much when they mention that there is much they disagree on when it comes to politics, theology and the like. But in the end, it is their love of Jesus and their deep desire that Christians embrace a Christ-centered life that brought them together and produced this wonderful book that seems to cross "party lines" and get down to the very heart of the matter when it comes to the Christian faith: Christ has died, Christ is Risen, Christ will...

A Guy's Guide Life: How To Become a Man in 224 Pages or Less by Jason Boyett (Thomas Nelson, 2010) A Guy's Life is a reissue of a book by the same name that blogger/author Boyett released in 2004. A Guy's Life is pretty much what it's advertised to be:  A guide to all things manly--at least from a Christian perspective.  It's the kind of book that I am planning on leaving on my teenage son's bedside table in hopes that he will actually read it.   Boyett, the author of O Me of Little Faith and one of the most widely read Christian-y bloggers in the blogosphere, mixes humor, sarcasm and plain old-fashioned, God-fearing advice into this latest book, which is unashamedly geared toward guys in their tweens and teens.  Boyett covers some fairly pedestrian topics like cleanliness, gentlemanly behavior and acne with tips on how good Christian fellows deal with those kinds of thing.  He also takes on some difficult topics like masturbation, premarital sex and por...

Anne Jackson is a self-described Christian author, blogger, speaker and activist.  She is the author of the best-selling Zondervan release Mad Church Disease: Overcoming the Burnout Epidemic (2009), she serves on staff at Cross Point Church in Nashville, she also is a passionate advocate for Compassion International and will be a rider on the 2010 Ride:Well Tour, a cross-country cycling tour in June and July of 2010.  The goal of the trip is to rasie awareness and funding for water wells in Africa and is part of the Blood:Water Mission initiative.  Anne has recently completed her second book, Permission to Speak Freely: Essays and Articles on Confession and Grace , which will be released by Thomas Nelson publishers in August of 2010.  In addition, Anne's blog, www.flowerdust.net , is one of the most visited and followed blogs in the country.  She has traveled to Uganda and to India with Compassion International and will be at my church--the First Presbyterian...

Take Your Best Shot: Do Something Bigger Than Yourself by Austin Gutwein (with Todd Hillard) is the kind of book that I am going to assert my parental authority and make my 15 year-old son start reading.  I know that if he begins to read it, he won't be able to put it down.  Austin Gutwein was a nine year-old kid that was given the opportunity to travel to Uganda on a mission trip that would change his life.  When he was confronted with the overwhelming poverty that he encountered in Africa, Austin wanted to do much more than just keep asking the question, "What could I possibly do?"  He decided to raise money by doing something that he loved to do, play basketball.  Austin's vision of shooting free throws for pledges grew into the Hoops for Hope program that has fund raising events all over the country.  This book is filled with inspirational moments and unbelievable challenges for any of us who claim to have a heart for the poor.  Sometimes, in the...