Church + Home is the ideal combination for growing Christian faith

Mark Holmen of Faith@Home Ministry writes from personal experience as a Faith@Home dad and a Faith@Home pastor on how to build lifelong faith at home. The book is a very quick read filled with personal testimonies as well as other voices from all over the country. I think Mark gets it right when he encourages church leaders to weave home directed faith throughout the church programming instead of building another family program as a separate entity.
I'm just a bit uncomfortable with this self-proclaimed "Faith@Home movement" as it is described in this book and the general tenor of Holmen's ministry. Don't get me wrong, there is tremendous spiritual advantages as we as church leaders discuss and plan how to encourage families to bring glory to God at home. However, as I finished the book I was left with a few haunting reminders of how easy it is for the church in general to get caught up in systematic programming combined with sloppy theology thus detracting from Christ and clear vision of God's sovereign plan. All the events and steps in the Take It Home concepts are, I'm sorry to say, more programs. When you plan a regular event at the church it is a program. It very much has the feel of a silo, the very thing, I know Holmen wants to avoid. Here is the point: as a church gathers to worship Christ, preach and respond to a Gospel that no one ever outgrows, and studies in such a way to believe the Bible and live out the Bible, then you know from the Word that the Holy Spirit is behind the scenes orchestrating it all. I saw very little confidence in the work of Holy Spirit in this book as the driver of parents hearts to bring to bear the Word of God to fruitfulness. I saw hints of a man centered approach to salvation as all the pressure was placed upon the church leaders and the parents to bring faith to the home or another generation will be lost for Christ. I don't buy it. God uses His vessels certainly as He is a God of means but all the pressure is on Him to build His church.
The "movement" to build the Church was started at the cross and it includes every area of life and practice including the home. Its interesting to me that the New Testament constantly directs us to the Cross and to the Church. I think that the Bible writers were able to assume by God's inspiration that faith was going to be taken to the marketplace, the town, the countryside and the home. True God wrought conversion does that to a person. I think the main problem that Holmen exposes but never realizes is that faith is so often not at home because its not at the church or in the typical 'seeker' style entertainment driven church goer. Parents are not saved and that is why faith is not at home. The answer is the gospel, a true God centered gospel and not a Finney bootstrap false gospel.
Finally, all in all, I enjoyed the book as it was another reminder in my life to disciple my own children in the spirit of Deuteronomy 6. For this reason alone I give this book a thumbs up.

Intelligent Design needs better designed books

I was handed this book as a gift from the Answers In Genesis booth at a recent Munce show in Murfreesboro, TN. I rarely, if ever read novels but since it was a gift and had an interesting story line I thought I would give it a go. I will admit up front that I blew through this book quickly on a recent air travel business trip. Even after knowing exactly how it was going to end when I was about 50 pages in. I still enjoyed it and appreciated a novel attempt to expose the insidious nature of modern, humanistic religion also known as evolution. Conspiracy theory always makes for a good read and this one almost didn't disappoint, but alas, it did indeed disappoint. Here is where I think this author needs to grow a bit. First, the dialog between the scientists was quite lame. If you ever watched a creationist verses evolutionist debate you would immediately realize that these conversations were weak, straw man arguments at best. I think modified debate transcripts from some well know debates such as a Hitchens/Wilson would be in order. Secondly, and maybe the most disturbing, was the trite, Arminian laden gospel presentations. Man centered, boot strap, God's sovereignty, glory robbing gospel presentations are just flat out misleading at best. God saves us, rebirths us, gives us faith and repentance to believe in Him too. We don't have any resident or residual faith that we can exercise at anytime of our own choosing toward a relationship with God. The Bible teaches just the opposite: we are dead and do not seek God ever. God seeks us.  The gospel conversations were more like canned, Billy Graham training session presentations instead of real conversations with lost people. Finally, the plot was way too predictable. You basically could guess the ending well before the halfway point and seriously, that just takes all the fun out of a mystery. I'm sorry miss Julie Cave, new author, it just does. Again, I appreciate the attempt but would be more apt to recommend the book if it were a more believable read. All in all, though, I still want to read the next in the Dinah Harris trilogy to see how she grows as a character and how the author grows too.

The Church should be allergic to the world

Tozer connects another lethal blow to man's self-centered sufficiency in this newly discovered, unpublished work. 47 years after his death, Tozer is still absolutely critical for the modern church to take heed. Tozer's lifelong message of battling entertainment in the church and an insidious form of Christless mysticism still rings truer than ever. Listen to Tozer in his own words: "The average person, unable to understand this passion for intimacy with God, fills his life with things, hoping somehow to satisfy his inward longing. He chases that which is exterior, hoping to satisfy that inner thirst, but to no avail."
This work of Tozer is a basic walk through the book of Hebrews guiding the reader into an opening of the scripture. The modern church still has so much to learn from the simple message of real Christianity that Tozer champions. Tozer was able to see the danger signs in the road of post modern, post Christian American churchianity and his message in this new book needs to be heard and applied. Our churches our filled with entertainment seeking, sin cauterizing conscience, spiritual lethargists.
Here is another great quote to sum up this book and it's importance to us: "From my reading of the Holy Scriptures, church history and Christian biography, I find that there is nothing in the church that appeals to the world, and nothing in the world that appeals to the true Church of Jesus Christ." Tozer's problem with the Church was that worldliness was creeping in and taking over. "Christianity, I fear, is not allergic to fads and fancies." Tozer's simple Christianity from a simple study in the book of Hebrews is another wake up call for us, the modern church. Are we still hitting the snooze button?

Star Parker, female Uncle Tom

Star Parker's Uncle Sam's Plantation from Thomas Nelson is the exact book we need as we face these troubled times in this country. Hard hitting, no punches pulled honesty from someone who lived exactly what she now warns against. Star Parker must be heard and deserves to be heard. Since she broke free from liberal welfare plantation ownership her clarion call is refreshing and right on target. Star Parker for president I say. After reading this book I am more convinced than ever that a welfare state causes infinite harm to the individual, the family, the community as well as the country and is the source of our economic troubles, certainly not the cure.

This experienced voice needs to be heard and trusted. Star's ability to write of her experiences applied to our modern troubles in American politics is most helpful. You will really like her definitions of poverty breaking it down into three levels. From the very beginning to the last page she paints an unflattering picture of what happens to humans that are constantly feeding from a free food trough. I really appreciate her insights into the problem with plenty of answers from common sense and the Bible. Add this to the increasing pile of proof that the government is not at all the answer. Put this one down on your Christmas giving list for all your politicians and even your liberal friends.