Big read for Small groups

In What Every Small Group Leader Should Know, Larry Kreider gives the church a very solid training tool for any church's small group ministries. Whether you are a Sunday School teacher, Bible study leader or home fellowship host you will greatly profit from this book.
The book is filled with some basic biblical theology of ministry and small groups. The added strength of the book is the tons of tips, ideas and illustrations about doing it right and learning from doing it wrong.
I like this book. Rarely will a book stimulate whiteboard, dream big sessions with my creativity but this one delivered. I found myself with pen and paper jotting down notes and ideas about my own fellowship group that I lead. Maybe that's the key to this book's success with me: I needed the contents to encourage me to wade out of the shallow end of my small group experience and venture into the deep waters of real ministry. I have left this book encouraged and ready to pursue God with my small group.

Happy 47 years Mom and Dad

Dad is the one in the center.

47 years ago today a very unlikely couple got married. An uptown girl married a 10^th Ward military man. According to my dad, he feels pretty certain the marriage is going to last past the "trial break in period" but he’s still not sure these “arranged” entrapment marriages are for everyone.  I think the odds are now looking better than BP Oil stock futures anyway. They dated two weeks and got engaged then dad went off for a year of military service. He came back for two weeks and they got married. Then he left for another year overseas. So after two years they had been with each other for 4 weeks or so. And yet, 47 years, 3 kids, and 9 grandkids later they are still together. What an island of faithfulness in a crashing sea of broken marriages. Thanks for being a great example and encouragement to Jennifer and me.

Dad retired about three years ago after serving the same company for 40 years. So it seems like this commitment to long term relationships is a pattern. (I mean Dad wore the same American flag running shorts for over 3 decades until they disintegrated off his body on a canoe trip, which really would be another blog post on a mature audience only site.) Since that retirement mom and dad have had a very rough go. Dad contracted leukemia and mom has lung/breast/ovarian cancer. Its nearly killed dad at least twice and mom once. Then on top of all the medical pain and suffering their beloved puppy, Jake, died from kidney disease, or I guess you would have to have kidneys to die from that malady. They have really had a tough time for it seems that all they retired from was good health. Yet, they are alive, still married and we are thankful. God has been faithful, Jesus Christ has shown Himself to be real, Holy Spirit has comforted and all praise, glory and thanks goes to Him alone.

Mom, Dad, I just want to say Happy Anniversary. I am extremely thankful for you. You have lived out your marriage vows and charted a course I wish to emulate. You poured your lives into us kids with tons of sacrifice, hard work, late hours, money, moves to better environments, work, pain, suffering… ah you get the point.  I love you both and honor you on this special day. Pick yourself out something real nice and charge it to Shannon's account. 

Your only son,

Mark

Modern Answers to Modern Problems

Joni and Friends gives the church a wonderful study and resource to answer the really tough ethical and moral questions of our day. Issues like abortion, stem cells, eugenics, disabilities and the right to life debate are clearly articulated, processed through scripture and laid out in a great fashion for the reader. I found the research and clarity very helpful as I continue to hone my beliefs about these complicated and emotion charged issues. The end of the chapter study questions are perfect for small group meetings and book clubs. As an added bonus the book is replete with personal stories and life commentary from Joni and others who have been personally impacted or entrenched in these issues.
I believe the church is in better light when Joni Eareckson Tada speaks and writes as she stands taller in her chair than most do even standing on a chair.
(Book was received from Gospel Light)

General Patton: The Pursuit of Destiny

General George S. Patton Jr. was a man of destiny. During his military career that spanned the first half of the 20th century he was a man in the right place at the right time. Then, as usual, by his own undoing, he became his own worst enemy with deeds and words making him the wrong man in the wrong place at the wrong time.
I learned so much about this man, the military from 1900 to 1945, tank warfare and key battles of WWII from this book. It is an absolute 'must read' for any student of history. I could not stop reading the book, getting up at one point in the middle of the night to finish. Yes, this is a book worth losing sleep over. Grab this book to learn about the greatest military mind who possibly ever wore an American uniform. The "I didn't know that" phrases will pour out of your mouth as you read this book, especially if your only diet of Patton trivia and information was from the 1970s George C. Scott Hollywood movie rendition of the General. Founder of tank warfare? Olympian? Bible student? The war's best decoy? Read the book to find out all these great details. I think to study Patton is to learn about human nature and how dangerous it can be to be who we really are in front of people. Do you dare? Patton certainly did, paying many dear prices in route to becoming a great American still studied and remembered 65 years later.
(Book provided by Thomas Nelson's Booksneeze.com program.)

The Jesus you are probably ignoring

One of America's greatest modern preachers and possibly one of the greatest yet has served up another volume worth reading. Even though this book is a distillation of many of his sermons on the topic of Christ and His bold ministry confrontations it is an important work for me as I try to grow in Christ and grow in my understanding of Christ.
The reader is brought face to face with a Jesus who does not receive too much press in our modern age. As you will learn in this book Jesus spent his whole public ministry confronting in very bold and even extreme ways the prevailing false views and practices of the spiritually elite in a way and style that we as moderns need not ignore and better off to embrace.
I was personally challenged to rethink how and why I should be more bold and wise and yet at the same time mild and loving in my witness to the lost as well as to the church. This is one more book that will be added to my Christology section of the bookshelf and will be referenced again and again.

Thank you Thomas Nelson publishers for making this volume available through your free book blogging service.

Jesus Manifesto

Jesus Manifesto: Restoring the supremacy and sovereignty of Jesus Christ
by Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola



Who do you say that Jesus is? Where does He fit in your thinking, your life, your church? In Jesus Manifesto Sweet and Viola help the reader and thus the church flesh out freshness to our understanding of the Christ. Could it be that the church has become so occupied with Christianity that we miss Jesus? The authors believe it is so and so do I.

Who does the world say that Jesus is? More important, though, is this question: who do you say that Jesus is? This book very directly and simply gives us the answer. Do we really need another book about Jesus? Surely the Bible itself and the countless thousands upon thousands of books written about The Christ is sufficient? Well, yes and no. Yes, the Bible is all that we need for life and godliness. Certainly out of the countless books written about Christ there are no doubt more than enough that are worthy to be read and enjoyed. However, like anything else in this life, seeing and savoring the savior through another set of eyes is always wonderful. Can one have too many pictures over the years of our children going through stages of life? Another book, a good book that is true to Scripture, is always needed. I believe this is one of those books.

To start with, I like the premise behind this book even though the title threw me off and seemed a bit on a cultic twinge. However, the content is very much orthodox and helped me in my walk with God. I believe I need a constant freshness in my view of Christ and this book delivered that for me. This course correction for a modern church that is more interested in having a dialog about justice or going green than in the worship and exaltation of Christ is straightforward and long overdue. This book can reach into emergent, missional, moderate, conservative and even liberal churches in a way that some authors with great books about Christ might not reach. These two authors hand deliver and gift to our churches that is worthy of small group studies throughout Christendom.

Here is the cool content that draws me to and helps me easily recommend this book to my friends. These guys get the questions right and even more importantly they get the answers right. “Who do you say that I am?” “Do you love me?” In these questions lies the premise of the book. The answers are just as profound and fill the pages as they flow over our souls like gentle waves lapping at the shore of our need. Here are a few of these little nuggets to capture your interest. Every scripture and every biblical story points to and is about Christ. “He is the Rosetta Stone of the Bible.” Did you know that? Jesus, the son of man, is the human being, the way human beings were supposed to be before sin. He died the perfect death after He lived the perfect life and all this to please and magnify the Father as we reap the benefits. The book opens with this challenge and I will close this review with it. So what is your chief occupation in life and ministry? Here’s a hint: Whatever you are occupied with comes out of your mouth. It’s what you talk about most of the time.” Is it Christ or something else? That’s why you should read this book.

I was given this book as a free copy to review and blog. I was not told in any way what to say by Thomas Nelson publishers.

Simple, encouraging leadership principles for Church workers

Ok, so there are tons of books on leadership. When I saw that Gospel Light and Regal Books were adding to the list of this genre I was quite skeptical. I wasn't even going to read the book until I met the author, Craig Johnson. Warm, personable, humble and real are my new impressions of this man. His life story, replete with triumph and tragedy, are on display in this book. God is proclaimed and glorified as the victor and ministries across the world should be blessed by this style of leadership. You will certainly benefit from reading this book but more importantly from taking your team through this book this year. Its not heavy theology but should make a heavy imprint on your ministry none the less. Note: I received a free copy of this book from Regal with no expectations to read it let alone review it.