A book well worn and used before you even finish it. Rarely does a book spawn immediate desire for action and produce instant results. This one does.

Rosemond is sarcastic and I love it. Being helped and encouraged in parenting never hurt so good. My copy of this book is already well worn and I've only had it for a few hours. My wife and I loved his syndicated column until the local paper snuffed it out because it didn't fit their liberal, psychobabble agenda. I am so thankful I obtained this book. Still raising five children often puts me at wit's end and Rosemond has been such a breath of fresh air. I love his format with such an easy going writing style that makes you laugh and think at the same time. Parenting books are a dime a dozen and I have read at least ten to twenty in my day. This one goes down in the top three. You'll be hard pressed to read a better written one any time soon. Parenting and politics are two subject that are sure to start an argument at any cocktail party and this one won't disappoint. He is wonderfully irreverent to the established experts on parenting. You won't disagree with too much but if you do I hope its because you recognize that some of his practical tips are not very biblical such as the whole "The doctor is in routine." Essentially its lying to your child that you talked to a doctor who has prescribed such and such treatment for a certain bad behavior. I have no doubt that the trick would work but lets not lie to our children to accomplish a good end result. This tip can easily be tweaked, however, by just stating what you believe to be facts on a certain behavior issue. "Son I believe you are not eating your meal tonight because you might are not getting enough sleep so we will cure that right now by putting you to bed early." In other words, Rosemond suggests that a child suffer agony over his misbehavior which will give him some excellent self motivated reasons for living rightly. If the discerning reader will over look some of the minors and focus on his majors you are in for a feast of usable tips that cut to the chase and expose the heart of a child. I wish he would have used more scripture to back up most of his points which are certainly common sense from good theology. I found the chapter on strategy much more helpful than the practical tips section. His 'leadership parenting' concept was very beneficial and hardly anyone has really addressed this in parenting circles like he does. I highly recommend this book to any parent or grandparent and will hope for a subsequent study guide containing more bible verses to help flesh out his unique parenting viewpoint. Five Stars and I will be using his tips and in fact already put two of his tips to work within hours of reading the book. I think my 17 year old has actually cleaned his room because I offered a 'deal he can't refuse'. Thanks for the tip. The godfather of parenting has written a deal you shouldn't refuse either.

in reference to:

- The Well-Behaved Child Customer Reviews - Barnes & Noble (view on Google Sidewiki)

Become a famous marketing blogger

Here is a publisher that is doing a great job with viral marketing. Don't just give away free copies to folks that will never read the books. I hope other publishers will learn from Thomas Nelson and get books into bloggers hands to get the word out.

in reference to: Book Review Bloggers at Thomas Nelson (view on Google Sidewiki)

Danger: Don't ever stray from the total sufficiency of Scripture

While I don't agree with all this critic's assessments, the fundamental issue with Wilkinson is sloppy hermeneutics and a shift away from the clarity and sufficiency of Scripture. Dobson and other pop culture Christian gurus fall into the same trap.

in reference to: Who is the Dream Giver? (view on Google Sidewiki)

video gospel for kids?

This very interesting Gospel message does a pretty good job actually of explaining our true state before God as sinners. (Could do a better job explaining what being dead in sin is all about.) Also nice was the role Christ plays as the great exchange on the cross: my sins in exchange for His righteousness. Two possible pitfalls of the presentation need to be addressed however: 1. Repentance is described in the sinner's prayer portion which I liked: "I don't want to sin any more.", but repentance and belief need to be fleshed out a bit more and how they are related. Most modern gospel messages don't show the relationship between the two and certainly don't express that these two are also part of God's gracious gift to us. Salvation is a gift but so in the ability to obtain the gift which clearly also comes from God. (Its your kindness that leads us to repentance, Rom. 2:4. Even belief or faith is also given to us by God and not self generated or inherent in us: Heb. 12:1-2. Jesus is the captain, author and perfecter of our faith.)
2. Having a sinner's prayer for kids can lead to false professions of faith that look great on the 'how many conversions this month' report. I certainly think we should lead children in prayer for salvation and do it often. Yes, we are saved at a specific point in time and space when the Holy Spirit applies salvation upon us but with kids,we can manipulate them into a prayer when they are not saved. They respond to "Just as I am", the song and leave "just as they were" the unrepentant, unsaved kid who prayed a prayer but now have a false, 'easy believism' religion that everyone will use to help prop him us during his life. "Of course your saved son, don't you remember when you prayed that prayer in church back when you were 6." I have seen this over and over again and it is shocking, hurtful, unbiblical and not where we want to end. I always pray with kids and my own kids that God would continue to show them these gospel truths and that he would open their heart to respond to the gospel just like Lydia was enabled by God during Paul's message in Acts 16:14.
With some tweaks this can really be a nice tool in the ministry arsenal. Even though I personally am not a huge fan of fake characters teaching real truth which I think sends a mixed message but I can't say that it is sinful for others to do it either. So, keep up the good work of working with kids and sharing the gospel with them.

in reference to: LifeChurch.tv - LifeChurch.tv (view on Google Sidewiki)

Customized Memory Verses on your computer

For all of us who should have been memorizing the bible all along we now have a great new tool. Verse Minder flat out works! Why? because it jumps out at me while I'm on my computer which these days is 24-7. I personally use the AWANA version because I am an AWANA leader and wanted to memorize along with the kids I work with.
Top new resource.

in reference to: Welcome (view on Google Sidewiki)

Henrietta Mears: The greatest Christian educator you've never known

Henrietta Mears changed the course of publishing, college ministry, evangelism and Sunday School in more positive ways than anyone else in the last 100 years.
She encouraged Bill Bright, one of her college boys in her college ministry at Hollywood Presbyterian in the 30s through 60s, to start Campus Crusade for Christ.
She encouraged Billy Graham to stay the course in the ministry when we was young and discouraged.
She started Gospel Light Press, now Gospel Light, in 1933 with a vision "To know Christ and to make Him known" through innovative bible based, Christ centered, child centered and age graded Sunday School curriculum and VBS.

Her life will inspire you. Her writings were solidly reformed and biblical. Her love for Christ was unequaled in her day.

Enjoy.

in reference to: Henrietta Mears (HenriettaMears) on Twitter (view on Google Sidewiki)

Humility is a great book in my humble opinion!

A fabulous book that is easy to read, great for small group study and so challenging as to be likened to a small pocket knife of biblical stabbing truth. It will challenge you from cover to cover and make you question your beliefs about who you are and what your purpose is. I judge a book by the shelf life. No pun intended but what I mean is, how many times will I put a book back off the shelf to give me life. This book will be referenced by me for future messages and future thinking on the topic of being a true servant. I think you should read it in my humble opinion.

in reference to: Visual Bookshelf on Facebook | Humility: True Greatness - C. J. Mahaney - Books (view on Google Sidewiki)

We are in a worship war! Called to Worship

Called To Worship
by Vernon M. Whaley
Thomas Nelson 2009

With the basic premise of defining worship using clear biblical evidence Whaley offers a lengthy tome loaded with plenty of historical facts. A better title for the book after taking about three analyzing weeks pouring over the chapters could be: The War For Worship, tracing the history of worship in the bible. Or I might suggest: Worship Wars.

This is a very nice view of the history of the bible, worship style.
I really liked the historical overview of the bible with the emphasis on worship.
Other than a couple of research errors, more like misspoken statements such as pg. 56 where he says, "Now rewind, thousands of decades..." Even if you took the plural here in the most limited sense as two that would add up to 20,000 years. I believe he meant to write, "thousands of years" which would be more in line with the roughly 3,500 years between Martin Luther King Jr's speech and the Egyptian monarchy of Moses day.

What is worship and does the bible offer guidance for the modern worshipper and more importantly the modern worship leader? Yes, and Whaley gives the church a much needed history of worship. Much of today's worship and the ever interesting modern 'worship service' will be better served because of this book. I think the worship wars concept speaks dead on and from a perspective that I've never heard before. Over the course of the ages worship of God really has been under attack from enemies like Satan and enemies within like our wicked hearts. Everyone and everything ends up being worshipped over the course of time instead of the one true and living God. Not only does Whaley draw out an interesting perspective on worship from history but add wonderful principles of worship from those same stories.

Whaley shows the reader that God has worship standards, a worship plan, and has put an innate desire within each of us for worship. We are worshipping creatures and if we are not worshipping the one true God then we fill that void with cheap substitutes and the war for worship is continued.

Some areas of concern: I think the author must mention the use and abuse of alcohol at least in five different places which reveals one of the pet sins of the whole conservative Baptist, Liberty crowd. Yet the sin of overeating is never mentioned which seems in my mind just as big (pun intended) of a problem for mankind than someone who enjoys a glass of red wine with a nice steak and ends up having too much and driving home drunk. In both cases of eating a whole box of Twinkies or consuming a whole six pack of beer the issue is worship and over indulgence of something other than God which is the sin. Also to watch out for early on is a small creeping in of Arminianism. Like most of modern evangelicalism we are plagued with this insidious 'me centered' theology that it just slides in to our common dialog. On page xvii of the introduction we read, "Above all, you will read about God's love for you," Really? God's love for us is above all? I do not think that it is above His glory and His desire to be worshipped by every aspect of His universe. Then on page 215 he does get it right: "Yes, but it all begins with the worship-the right worship-of Yahweh, and that starts with recognizing the glory of God-and giving Him glory." So all is not lost with his theology.

I think the biggest impact this book made of me was filling in some missing elements of my theology of worship. For instance, I never thought about the reading, studying and proclaiming of scripture as worship and yet, there it is, all through the pages of scripture. I will never interact with God's word without worship going through my mind and that is a big plus.

Over all, this is an extremely readable treatment of worship and worthy of being read. I enjoyed the unique perspective of drawing out worship principles from the historic battle for worship found all through the bible. Good job Mr. Whaley. I have already starting changing my thinking about worship because of your book and for that I say thank you.

VBS: friend or foe!

VBS, Vacation Bible School. What thoughts do these words conjure up in our minds? I guess even a better question we need to ask of VBS is why? Why do we take the time, money and manpower to pull off the biggest children's programming of the year? Evangelism. A good plan coupled with a solid evangelism everyday curriculum is designed to introduce children, teens and adults to the word of God so they can have a relationship with Jesus. The gospel has to be packed into every lesson, every day. I know as well as you that many children may only show up at our churches for this one event and for maybe just a day or two at that. For those naysayer kids who proclaim, "I already know all that Jesus stuff and salvation stuff!" are the kids who don't have a 'heart clue' but only head knowledge. The gospel never gets old for true believers and is fresh and exciting to lost sinners who are being moved by God to repent and believe. (See Acts 16:14 for real proof of this.)

VBS is one of those 'everyone wins' programs. If I only had 10 kids in the church and 5 of them were my own, I would still put on a vbs, invite the community's kids and have a great time. Along with summer camps, VBS is one of those ongoing programs that brings back the fondest memories in us adults. Personally, I don't remember one Sunday school lesson from my youth but I remember camp and vbs and know that Christ was first introduced to me there in the mid 70s.
From my own ministry experience, VBS from Gospel Light has been very good to me and faithfully accomplished the 3 key things I look for in any curriculum: (in this order) 1. The gospel of Christ is clearly proclaimed. 2. The kids through all the elements are driven back to the scriptures as the only way to find Christ and that gospel. 3. Fun theme in all the elements that keep the kids coming back day after day so the first two can be accomplished.
Gospel Light always seems to accomplish that for me.

Ditching a tried and true program for other programming and re-allocating budgets may certainly be what you need to do or are being forced to do but, wow!, giving up a week to spend and be spent on creating incredible gospel memories in kid's lives is totally priceless. Implanted memories that last require two key elements that only camps, retreats and vbs supply: length of time and repetitive imprints. My week long camping adventures on rivers, mountains etc come back to my mind in almost perfect recall as opposed to a little weekend trip or overnighter. Don't give up on VBS unless you can replace it with something equal or greater in total memory recall ability!

Behold: The Magic Bullet Curriculum

"...the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were." Romans 4:17b
"I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile." Romans 1:16
"One of those listening was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who was a worshipper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message." Acts 16:14

I think we as Christian educators have this crazy idea in the back of our minds that a certain curriculum, just the right set of lessons, will perform miracles. We always hope and pray that our lessons to children will change their lives: fall deeper in love with Jesus, know more about the bible, solidify a biblical worldview, etc.

The bible, however, is clear about how and who does the true changing and educating of all of us. God. God is the supreme actor and we are the receivers. Don't be lured in to thinking that there is a wonder curriculum out there that will change a kid's life. Instead, remember that God uses His word through the power of Holy Spirit to change His children. Look at curriculum as a means, a tool even, in the hands of our powerful God.