Brad Stetson & Joseph G. Conti. The Truth About Tolerance: Pluralism, Diversity, and the Culture Wars. IVP, 2005. 207 pp.
We all want to be tolerant.
No one wants to be intolerant. But does that mean we have to accept all truth claims as true? Does this virtue rule out having any strongly held moral convictions?
In this book Brad Stetson and Joseph G. Conti explore the use and misuse of this important value in academic circles and popular media. They note that the pursuit of truth and the pursuit of tolerance are often taken to be mutually exclusive, and it ends with truth having to give way to tolerance.
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Geoff Surratt, Greg Ligon, & Warren Bird. The Multi-Site Church Revolution: Being One Church in Many Locations. Zondervan, 2006. 224 pp.
This book captures the story of a widespread movement of churches that are expanding their ministries to include multiple formats, venues, and locations, using dozens of in-the-trenches examples, identifying the primary reasons churches succeed as well as how they overcome common snags on the route to “one church–many congregations.”
Fueled by a desire to reach people for Christ, a revolution is underway. Churches are growing beyond the limitations of a single service in one building. Expanding the traditional model, they are embracing the concept of one church with more than one site: multiple congregations sharing a common vision, budget, leadership, and board. Drawing from the examples of churches nationwide, The Multi-Site Church Revolution shows what healthy multi-site churches look like and what motivates congregations to make the change. Discover how your church can:
- cast a vision for change
- ensure a successful DNA transfer (vision and core values) to its new site
- develop new leaders
- fund new sites
- adapt to structure and staffing change
- use technology to support your worship services
You’ll identify the reasons churches succeed and how they overcome common snags. The Multi-Site Church Revolution offers guidance, insights, and specific action steps as well as appendixes with practical leadership resources and self-diagnostic tools.
Authors:
Overview: Amazon | CBD | Google Books
Excerpts: TOC, pp. 15-20 | Preview in Google Books
Reviews: Amazon
Professors
Pastors/Church Leaders
- Rick Stilwell at Gottabuzz (06/06) Review
- Mark Batterson at Evotional (05/06) Review
- Bob Franquiz at BobFranquiz (06/06) Review
Laymen/Unknown
- DJ Chuang at Leadership Network Books (12/06) Review
- Tony Sheng at Mobilizing Student Ministries (01/07) Review
- Mark Howell at Strategy Central (07/06) Review
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Kevin Blue. Practical Justice: Living Off-Center in a Self-Centered World. IVP, 2006. 143 pp.
I know the world is full of injustice. I know that God calls Christians to work for God on the earth. But what can I do?
Many of us have questions like these. We are well-intended, but stuck in the rut of the everyday. We want to make our lives matter. But we don’t know where to start. We wonder about everything from whether to give a dollar to a beggar to how to participate in the political process; from whether to shop at Wal-Mart to how much to spend on a car.
Kevin Blue has spent his adult life answering these questions for himself and for others. He lives in the heart of Los Angeles, where these questions can’t be set aside. And he has led college students through experiences in urban ministry as well as international treks to the poorest parts of the world. In Practical Justice he combines what he has learned with the experiences of others to answer your questions.
Right thinking. Right action. Just living. God calls us to step up and get involved. This book will help you get started.
Author: IVP Bio | Servant Partners Bio
Overview: Amazon | CBD | IVP | Google Books
Excerpts: TOC | Intro | Ch. 1 | Browse in Amazon
Reviews: Amazon | Endorsements
Laymen/Unknown
- Beth Winton at RememberAndAdjustAccordingly (03/07) Review
- Carrie at It’sNotAboutMe (01/07) Review
- Chris Fann at ThePreface (12/06) Review
Extras: Book Info PDF
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Donald Miller. Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality. Nelson, 2003. 256 pp.
“I never liked jazz music because jazz music doesn’t resolve. . . . I used to not like God because God didn’t resolve. But that was before any of this happened.” In Donald Miller’s early years, he was vaguely familiar with a distant God. But when he came to know Jesus Christ, he pursued the Christian life with great zeal. Within a few years he had a successful ministry that ultimately left him feeling empty, burned out, and, once again, far away from God. In this intimate, soul-searching account, Miller describes his remarkable journey back to a culturally relevant, infinitely loving God.
Author: TN Bio | DonaldMillerWords | Wikipedia | MySpace
Overview: Amazon | Nelson | DonaldMillerWords | Google Books | Wikipedia
Excerpts: Ch 1 | Misc. | Browse in Amazon
Reviews: Amazon | CBD | LibraryThing
Pastors/Church Leaders
- J. D. Greear at SummitChurchLife.com (ND) Review
Seminary/Ministerial Students
- Garrett E. Wishall at ThoughtsandActions (03/06) Review
Laymen/Unknown
- Shane Walker at 9Marks (NA) Review
- Marcia Ford at FaithfulReader (ND) Review
- Tim Challies at Challies.com (04/06) Review
- Joel Mark Solliday at Campus CrossWalk (10/05) Review
- Joseph Thouvenel at BarclayPress.com (ND) Review
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Richard J. Mouw. Praying at Burger King. Eerdmans, 2007. 144 pp.
Richard Mouw packs a lot of wisdom into a few dozen small packages. Writing in an easygoing, conversational style, Mouw here considers how the outward life of a Christian should reflect the inner workings of the Spirit.
Arranged in three sections—Living, Believing, and Church and World—the thirty-six short essays in Praying at Burger King explore simple moments in life from a spiritual viewpoint. Including columns from Mouw’s beliefnet.com work never before collected in book form, these pieces are alternately amusing, touching, and poignant. From chicken dignity to patriotism to a weeping Savior, Mouw reveals how an extraordinary God meets us in everyday life.
Ideal for group discussion or individual reflection, Praying at Burger King shows that “there is no place in all of creation that is outside the scope of God’s mercies—not even Burger King.”
Author: Eerdmans Bio | Fuller Bio | Wikipedia | Mouw’s Musings | Theopedia
Overview: Amazon | Eerdmans | Google Books
Excerpts: TOC | Browse in Amazon | Browse in Google Books
Reviews: Amazon | CBD | LibraryThing | Endorsements
Laymen/Unknown
- Mark Traphagen, Westminster Bookstore (03/07) Review
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Kevin J. Vanhoozer, Charles Anderson, and Michael Sleasman, eds. Everyday Theology: How to Read Cultural Texts and Interpret Trends. Baker, 2007. 288 pp.
Generally speaking, students, theologians, pastors, and church leaders are well-trained in the task of biblical exegesis. Where many fall short, however, is in the area of cultural exegesis—reading and interpreting the texts and trends produced by our culture, which can have a profound influence on the way we understand the world and practice our faith. Anyone interested in the intersection of Christianity and culture needs to be able to do “everyday theology,” that is, to think theologically about our cultural environment and pass it through the grid of Scripture, in order to respond faithfully as Christian disciples.
Everyday Theology is the first volume in the new Cultural Exegesis series. With an emphasis on both methodology and case study, it is well-suited for seminary classroom use. A significant introduction by Vanhoozer lays out the hermeneutical method for engaging with culture. This is followed by a series of essays that engage cultural texts and trends, from the music of Eminem to the grocery store checkout lane to the phenomenon of Internet blogs. A concluding chapter walks the reader step-by-step through the interpretation process with an additional case study.
Authors:
Overview: Baker | Amazon
Excerpts: TOC, Intro, Ch 9 | Amazon
Reviews: Amazon | CBD | LibraryThing
Laymen/Unknown
- Byron K. Borger, Hearts & Minds Book Notes (03/07) Review
- Jason, Christian Book Lounge (05/07) Review
Extras:
- Interview with the Kevin Vanhoozer: Pt 1, Pt 2
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Dean E. Flemming. Contextualization in the New Testament: Patterns for Theology and Mission. IVP, 2005. 344 pp.
From Cairo to Calcutta, from Cochabamba to Columbus, Christians are engaged in a conversation about how to speak and live the gospel in today’s traditional, modern and emergent cultures. The technical term for their efforts is contextualization. Missionary theorists have pondered and written on it at length. More and more, those who do theology in the West are also trying to discover new ways of communicating and embodying the gospel for an emerging postmodern culture. But few have considered in depth how the early church contextualized the gospel. And yet the New Testament provides numerous examples.
As both a crosscultural missionary and a New Testament scholar, Dean Flemming is well equipped to examine how the early church contextualized the gospel and to draw out lessons for today. By carefully sifting the New Testament evidence, Flemming uncovers the patterns and parameters of a Paul or Mark or John as they spoke the Word on target, and he brings these to bear on our contemporary missiological task.
Rich in insights and conversant with frontline thinking, this is a book that will revitalize the conversation and refresh our speaking and living the gospel in today’s cultures, whether in traditional, modern or emergent contexts.
Author: IVP Bio | European Nazarene College Bio
Overview: Amazon | IVP
Excerpts: TOC | Preface | Intro | Ch 1
Reviews: Amazon | CBD | IVP | LibraryThing
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Extras:
- Winner of a 2006 Christianity Today Book Award for Missions/Global Affairs
- Honored as one of the “Fifteen Outstanding Books of 2005 for Mission Studies” by International Bulletin of Missionary Research
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John Blanchard and Dan Lucarini. Can We Rock the Gospel? Rock Music’s Impact on Worship and Evangelism. EP, 2006. 267 pp.
Few subjects generate more heat in the Christian church today than the use of music in worship and evangelism.Does God endorse music of every kind? Can we “cut and paste” secular rock music and “Christianize” it in the process? Should the Christian church unite in bringing rock music to the altar or in sending it to the bonfire?
Every musical form and every way of expressing it has as many detractors as it does promoters. Yet in recent years most of the conflicts have centred on what is generically known as rock music, which has become an increasingly dominant—and divisive—issue since it first slipped into church life some forty years ago.
Two respected Christian leaders and best-selling authors who together have many years of hands-on experience in worship, preaching, evangelism and music have combined to produce a book that examines this controversial subject, using both recent evidence and time-tested truths.
Authors:
Overview: Amazon | EP
Excerpts: Introduction
Reviews: Amazon | CBD | LibraryThing
- The Bookshelf (10/06) Review
- Tim Challies, Challies.com (10/06) Review
- Zach Nielsen, Vitamin Z (11/06) Review
- Gordon Ferguson, British Church Newspaper (12/06) Review
- Randall Shanks, Randall’s Ramblings (01/07) Review
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Last updated 03/21/07
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Walt Mueller. Engaging the Soul of Youth Culture: Bridging Teen Worldviews and Christian Truth. IVP, 2006. 240 pp.
Before we can reach today’s youth with the truth of the gospel, we need to see what they see and hear what they hear. We need to catch the messages encrypted in their culture and understand what’s really being communicated.In Engaging the Soul of Youth Culture Walt Mueller, founder and president of the Center for Parent/Youth Understanding, helps us to navigate the troubling and confusing terrain of teen worldviews so that we can effectively and compassionately pass along good news: our God is their God, our Savior can be their Savior.
Author: IVP Bio | CPYU | Blog
Overview: IVP | Amazon
Excerpts: TOC | Introduction (or here) | Chapter 1 (or here) | PastorBookshelf Excerpt
Reviews: Amazon | IVP
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Last updated 03/14/07
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(2 votes, average: 4.5 out of 5)