Danny J Bixby

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Let’s face it, I’m no Max Lucado fan.

I’ve read about 5 books he’s written. Which seems like a lot. Until you realize that’s over 10 years, and you can read one of his books in about an hour. For that matter the man is a writing machine, he pumps out approximately 87 books a year (ish).

So I wasn’t too thrilled about reading his newest book “Outlive Your Life,” but I can honestly say that this is the best Max Lucado book I have ever read.

For some of you, that may not be saying much. One of my good friends commented that Max Lucado is kinda like the Dave Matthews of Christian authors. Pretty popular, safe, formulaic; everybody likes him, but nobody can really say why.

This book is no exception, it’s fairly typical Lucado style: short chapters, paragraph hallmark card prayer at the end of each one, stories/anecdotes juxtaposed with each point he’s making, discussion guide in the back, etc. What really got me on this book is the subject matter.

It’s essentially Max Lucado’s version of “The Hole in our Gospel” by Richard Stearns. Which is appropriate, as Richard Stearns is the head of World Vision, and Max Lucado does a ton of work with that organization. In fact, his royalties from Outlive Your Life are being donated to World Vision. So that’s pretty awesome.

It’s not about displaying the horrors of the world out onto pages and attempting to guilt & shame people into action. Not at all! But it focuses instead on trying to make the reader realize that there are seemingly small things we are capable of doing in our day to day lives that will make worlds of difference.

And once we start doing the small things, we’ll see opportunities for the bigger ones. We’ll break out of our protective shell that keeps our compassion tucked deep inside us, and as it spills out we’ll find that it is contagious.

As he quoted in his book, “None of us can help everyone. But all of us can help someone.”

His book is a strong and clear call to action in the every day situations we find ourselves in. It’s a push to stretch ourselves beyond what is comfortable…if only by a minuscule amount! It doesn’t matter if we don’t think it’s good enough, or that it will solve all the world’s problems, just go and do something!

Which I think is a great approach.

I wonder if we may get overwhelmed by “the big picture” when we look at the poverty, hopelessness, disease, etc in the world. We get a donor fatigue — compassion fatigue — love fatigue. We think the things we do can’t possibly make a difference.

At least I feel that way sometimes.

I think that if you feel that as well, Outlive Your Life could be a very good shot in the arm for you.

You should buy it, after all, royalties are going to World Vision anyway.

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Economy of Love is a DVD/Book study from ‘Relational Tithe,’ and has video segments featuring Shaine Claiborne.

Economy of Love is for hippies.

Filthy hippies.

Probably commies too. And most likely socialists.

But it’s especially for capitalists. Americans. Me, you, her, him and everyone who has ever muttered or thought the phrase “I don’t have enough.”

It’s an incredibly challenging read about breaking the hold materialism has on our lives in our constant pursuit of “more.”

Whether it’s more stuff, more nice stuff, a bigger place to put our stuff, just having more than someone else, or wanting to have more than someone else. This study is about our pressing felt need for “more.”

The authors counter this notion with the suggestion that what we really need is not “more,” but “love.”

We don’t ignore the poor because we don’t care about them, but most often because we don’t see them.

Because we don’t relate with them, because we don’t share our lives with them, because we are intentionally and subconsciously separated away from “the poor” until we are so disconnected that we no longer regard the poor as people…but as “the poor.”

This study is very challenging, and should be eye opening.

This isn’t about social justice, or redistribution of wealth…though the authors certainly use those terms. They constantly bring up the point that this isn’t about a system of economics, but a change of heart. That programs, structures, laws, etc are not the answer; the answer is a reorienting of our hearts & minds to legitimately love for others as if they were ourselves. The answer is in relationships.

That others can find their needs met in our excess, and that likewise our own poverty can be fulfilled through the excesses of others. Through personal, real, loving relationships. Not faceless programs, charity, pity or greed.

I personally think it’s a great study, I look forward to using it in a group at some point. I think it’s definitely worth your time.

You can check it out through Amazon, or by navigating through Relational Tithe’s website.

>Even if you consider yourself a fairly avid reader, you probably don’t sit down and blow through a 200+ page book in one sitting too frequently. I know I sure don’t.

Except yesterday.

Yesterday I devoured Rachel Held Evans’ new book Evolving in Monkey Town from cover to cover. Even though I was only able to read it in spurts, I was constantly drawn back to it whenever I had a free moment. I’m fortunate to call Rachel a friend, and was thrilled for the chance to review her book. She even sent a hand written thank you card along with it, complete with apologies for the horrible handwriting. How awesome is that?

You may have heard it said before that sometimes faith can be like building a wall, where each brick represents a specific belief that is layered atop another, atop another, atop another. The problem with having faith like this wall, is that when some of the bricks in the middle or the bottom are removed (as often happens when the realities of life are thrust upon us), the whole wall crumbles. “Evolving in Monkey Town” is a story about what happens when some of those bricks are removed. Rachel shares her journey from iron clad certainty about her faith and her life in the apologetics intensive, Christian as an adjective, anti-skeptical, anti-doubt, evangelical Christian subculture into…well, where she is now.

Rachel would love to be known as a female Donald Miller. But let’s get real here, she’s not. It’s more like Donald Miller is a male Rachel Held Evans. (Yeah, now we’re talking some SERIOUS bonus points!!!)

The book is hilarious, incredibly deep, and if I’m honest pretty convicting. I read Rachel as a more intense version of myself in many of her recollections of the arguments she held onto, false fundamentals she swore to, and beliefs that gradually got shattered as she became more and more exposed to the world we live in. I know too well the pain and fear she experienced as her intellectualized faith fell to pieces. I subconsciously was right along with her as she struggled to keep her faith in God while losing all the reasons she had to believe in him in the first place.

It didn’t take me long to notice there was an “oh snap” quote about every two pages or so that was worth sharing. So I put some of the shorter ones out onto twitter yesterday. Just do a hashtag search for #monkeytown and you’ll get a decent list of some snippets. As Rachel would agree, most of her sentences are way too long to put onto twitter, so you’ll have to read the book to get the really good ones. Clever ploy on her part, isn’t it?

Honestly, you need to read this book. 

I try not to say that too often, but you really do. I thought of many people who would feel such reassurance and relief from reading about the struggles and victories Rachel went through while her faith evolved. I already know who I’ll be lending this book to first (sorry Rachel, one less purchase).

I know my faith has changed drastically over time. I’d imagine yours has as well. I’d love if you could share some ways that your faith/belief structure has transformed over the years. How you adjusted. Or even if you’re still adjusting (I think most of us are). And while you’re thinking of what to write, you should go buy her book.

BAM!

If you’re not convinced yet, watch this “official” book promo:

Buy Evolving In Monkey Town on Amazon
Subscribe to Rachel Held Evans’ blog
Follow her on Twitter
Friend her on Facebook

>If the title of Charles Foster’s new book “The Selfless Gene: Living With God and Darwin” makes you cringe or feel immediately defensive that it is impossible to reconcile God & Darwin…this book is probably not for you. 

But if there is something in you that believes all truth MUST be part of God’s truth, and you just can’t throw away modern science as some sort of “devil’s handiwork,” then you are really going to appreciate this book.

“I wrote this book because I was angry and worried. I was angry at the fundamentalist reductionism of Richard Dawkins and his enemies (yet crucial allies), the creationists”…….”writing this book has not made me less angry. But I can now go for a walk without feeling dirty.”

>Just a quick excerpt from a book I’m reading, “The Selfless Gene: Living with God and Darwin” by Charles Foster.

“There are many things to say about the Intelligent Design hypothesis, one is that ID is a classic “God of the gaps” argument. It says, effectively, “We don’t need God to explain 95 percent of the evidence, but we can’t see how the remaining 5 percent can be explained without him. Therefore he must be the explanation.

Apologetically, of course, this is exceedingly dangerous. Any competent lawyer instructed on behalf of Christianity would advise against deploying it. For whenever a gap is plugged by new research (and gaps are being plugged all the time, as we will see), God is nudged nearer and nearer to redundancy.

And each time he is ousted as a necessary explanation, he loses a bit more credibility. That is precisely what has happened and is happening as ID loses ground. If you pin your creed on the earth being the center of the universe, a short lecture from Copernicus leaves you as an atheist.”

So…

What are your thoughts about that excerpt?

I’ll go first. Personally, it makes me think we may “pin our creeds” on too many things. And maybe if we focused more on Jesus and less on the “other stuff” which seems to often come packaged with Christianity, that perhaps we’d be better off.

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27 Tough Questions Pastors Ask is a new book by Dick Hardy that is written specifically to help pastors…well…answer some tough questions that come up in ministry. This book gets right to the issues (the 27 questions) and doesn’t bother with extra filler. I like that.

Each chapter is concise, direct and unapologetic for the responses to these very tough questions that tons of pastors regularly deal with. The book is divided into sections about:

• Leadership & Management
• Staffing
• Conflict Management
• Discipleship
• Budget & Finance
• Hospitality

This Book Is Not Just for Pastors

Obviously this book is designed for a small target audience of professional ministers. However, I think the book is a fantastic resource for those outside of professional ministry as well. Because, as it turns out, the solution to a great deal of a pastor’s headaches rests upon the people they are leading. The regular church member. You. And me.

Pastors don’t have to deal with unruly board members if the board members are sold out to their vision. They don’t have to figure out how to not be undermined by congregation members if their congregation trusts them. Pastors won’t have the same development and discipleship issues if the members realize how much responsibility they should personally have in the process. The examples go on and on.

Except for the chapters about staffing and budgeting, nearly everything else in this book can be applied to regular church members…if you have any interest in assisting your pastor & leadership team to make your church better off.

Which I’d hope you have interest in doing.

So yes, though this is an excellent resource for professional ministers, it’s also incredibly valuable to anyone who just wants to give their Pastor, Pastors, church staff, volunteer leaders, etc a break and get on their side instead of unknowingly being a roadblock.

You can check out this book at the website of Dick Hardy’s consulting company http://www.thehardygroup.org

>I wanted to include this quiz as a part of my review of “The Naked Gospel” that I put up yesterday…but I thought it deserved its own post.

Maybe you’ve experienced the same realization Andrew Farley has. Where you’ve just had to admit that you’re doing everything they say a good Christian should do…but you still don’t feel closer to God…

Maybe you see Christianity as a means of behavior modification, perhaps you liken it to aspects of humanism in its goals. Or you could wonder why it seems that being a Christian makes little practical difference in the day to day lives of many people…except that for some, it adds layers of guilt or perceived misery.

Below are ten faith related concepts that don’t seem to be regularly discussed in many churches today. They may be discussed in yours…or they may not be. Our view of each of these concepts affects our relationship with God, our spiritual growth and our fulfillment in life. So for each of these ten concepts, please decide whether you think each is true or false.

1. Christians should ask God to forgive and cleanse them when they sin.
2. Christians struggle with sin because of their old self within.
3. We should wait on God even before making everyday decisions.
4. When we sin against God, we are out of fellowship until we repent.
5. Old Testament law is written on Christians’ hearts so we want to obey it.
6. The Bible tells us Christians can obtain many rewards in heaven.
7. Christians will give an account of their sins at the great white throne.
8. Christians should tithe at least 10 percent of their income to the church.
9. God gets angry with us when we repeatedly sin against him.
10. God looks at us as though we’re righteous, even though we’re really not.

How many did you answer as “True?” And how many as “False?” Andrew Farley, author of The Naked Gospel, insists that the answer to each and every one of those questions is “False.”

You should read his book to find out why.

Pick up The Naked Gospel at Amazon
Check out Andrew Farley’s website at http://www.thenakedgospel.com 
or follow him on twitter @Naked_Gospel
Read my review of The Naked Gospel

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I just breezed through “The Naked Gospel” by Andrew Farley and I have to say that I was genuinely surprised. I was surprised that I have never heard about this book before. Because this has to be one of the most powerful and grace filled books that you may ever read.

The whole book could be summed up pretty easily:

Jesus. Plus nothing.

The author, Andrew Farley, recalls his experiences with his ‘evangelism addiction.’ He says that he had to share the gospel with a stranger every day or he wouldn’t be able to sleep at night. He tells stories of his fervent prayer and Bible study life and how he eventually found freedom from these (and many other things) in the person he thought he was following the whole time: Jesus.

He goes on to examine a large amount of presumptions that we have about what our relationship with Jesus is “supposed” to look like…and how over and over again we have added all these requirements to the gospel.

This isn’t just some hippy book about some “secret gospel of Jesus” or anything like that. Though it may have been marketed in a mystique filled way…the subtitle is “the truth you may never hear in church,” the reality of the matter is that the truth is right before your eyes the whole time. You just have a hard time seeing it through the religiosity.

The book is structured around a 10 question true/false quiz that Andrew Farley offers up in the first chapter..and I only feel it’s fair to tell you that you may find yourself angered at first by some of the answers. If I’m honest, I didn’t agree with him. But as he goes through and explains his position, you will find yourself being won over.

I had a strange feeling while reading this book. Like I was rediscovering something I had already known…but forgotten somehow. It was exciting. As I was reading, I started to notice myself thinking “Wow that sentence was really powerful,” or “Ok, now that is a really solid point,” over and over as I went. So I decided to dog-ear the pages that I thought were worth referencing later.

I ended up with 50. Here are a few examples:

“We’re called to look within, to discover the life that is instinctive to us as new creations, and to live from that life. Imitating the actions of others, even the Jesus of the gospels, is nothing but a shallow mechanical act.”

“Christianity isn’t intended to meet humanity’s ill-perceived need for religion.”

“No amount of education will change the heart of a spiritually dead person.”

“Too many Christians succumb to the Accuser while wrong attributing these attacks to the conviction of the Holy Spirit. There is no better tactic for Satan than to first tempt us, and then flood us with guilt by masquerading as the Holy Spirit.”

You won’t be won over by some smooth-talk, or new age shenaniganry (I like that word a lot all of a sudden), but because his opinions are firmly grounded in scripture.

By the time you’re done reading this book, you’ll have read nearly all of Galatians, Hebrews, 2 Corinthians and several other books from the Bible…just because of his quoting.

This has been the most unhyped gem of a book I’ve read in a long time. It does truly hold the power to make you aware of religious bondage in your life that you don’t even know is there.

As Paul said, and Andrew Farley excellently reverberates, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” – Galatians 5:1

>I’m a fairly large Jason Boyett fan. I try to keep up with reading his blog as often as he posts. I’m a “Pocket Guide” series enthusiast. I even make it a point to give a copy of his “Pocket Guide to the Bible” to every person involved in one of the small groups that I lead. So I was pretty stoked at the chance to read & review an advance copy of his new book “O Me of Little Faith.” You can pick up a copy at Amazon.

This book, as you may guess, is about doubt. His own doubts.

Not just little doubts, either. Big stinking “I wonder sometimes if we’ve just made the whole thing up” kind of doubts.

The kind of doubts that keep you up at night. That you carry with you for a lifetime. The kind of doubts that books, seminars, sermons, counseling, and answers do not satisfy. The kind of doubts that you KNOW the answers to, that you can give the responses to the questions just as easily as anyone…but you still doubt.

O Me Of Little Faith is about those kind of doubts. And how to live faithfully within them. Let me tell you, it’s powerful.

Despite my Jason Boyett closet man-crush, I didn’t think this book would resonate too greatly with me.

Why?

Because I don’t really share those doubts.

Sure, I have my moments of doubt and my times of questioning my faith, who doesn’t? But if we’re looking at a ratio of doubtful periods to non-doubtful periods…well, the latter wins hands down. For that, I am incredibly lucky.

That being said, I really enjoyed reading this book. A lot. Being a memoir instead of informative it was completely different in style from his other books (the Pocket Guide series, for example), but maintained his signature humor & self-snark. It was hilarious, personal, relatable, and, if I’m honest, a bit painful as I really felt his anecdotes and personal references. Also, he uses footnotes. Footnotes are infinitely superior to endnotes. It’s science.

I don’t want to give too much of the book away, because it’s constructed in a semi-narrative format that really should be read through in order…instead of just picking apart pieces of it and quoting them on blogs.

However, it deserves to be mentioned, this book is not about helping you to get over your doubts.

It’s far more practical than that.

Jason Boyett has written a long version of two of the most powerful words you can say to someone when they’re going through a difficult time in their life or in their faith, “me too.”

When we’re wrestling with these things that rattle everything we believe in, we don’t want quick answers. We say we do, but we really don’t. We know that deep down, those answers won’t help us.

What we really want is empathy. We want someone who understands what we’re going through because they’ve gone through it as well. We want someone to walk through our struggles with us, and let us know that we can come out on the other side all the stronger for it.

We want to be able to lay out our doubts, our insecurities, our frustration with our own lack of faith and be met with someone saying “me too.”

So for those of us who do have doubts, who do have serious struggles, Jason offers up that he’s been there too. He hasn’t just been there, he lives there. That it’s not as scary a place as you might think it is, and it’s quite possible to live a faithful life, even when you’re not quite sure you’ve got it all right.

Here’s how he does it.

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Extra info:

O Me Of Little Faith is for sale on Amazon.com, and just about everywhere else for that matter.

If you’re interested in developing your own man crush on Jason Boyett, here is his interweb home.

For the sake of disclosure, all links for his book are affiliate links, and I received a review copy for free. Also, my FTC disclosure policy.

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Sex, Lies & Religion: Enjoying the Freedom of Unconditional Sexuality is a new book by Randy Elrod that is being released (conveniently) on this upcoming Valentine’s Day. It’s also where I’m stealing today’s ‘Monday Question’ from:

Have you ever had an experience with God that was so amazing it exceeded your wildest and most fulfilling sexual moment?

Think about that for a second…

Of the hundreds of people Randy Elrod surveyed on that question, only one said yes.

He goes on to explain in his book why he thinks that is, while bringing to light the lies we have taken as truths about sexuality, beauty, nudity, etc; also the REAL truths that we find through scriptures about our sexuality and its connection to our spirituality. He believes there is a real parallel between sex and God’s relationship with humanity, that sex is nearly (or is) of sacramental status. That’s church talk for saying an act that bridges a gap between the physical and the spiritual, that it is a sacred moment of connectedness with God akin to baptism or communion.

Quite honestly, this is one of the best books on spirituality and sexuality I have ever read. 

His writing and language is direct without being offensive, explicit without being vulgar, and very spiritual without being religious. It’s incredibly straight forward, and very widely influenced.

I believe this book has the power to transform both the relationship that we have with God AND the romantic relationship that you may have with someone else. I think this book is appropriate for adults and teenagers alike. In all seriousness, if you’ve ever had sex or think there’s a chance you may ever do so in your life, you need to read this book as soon as possible.

If you’re married or in a committed relationship, give some thought to reading it together. I’m trying to convince my wife Jenny to read it, because it’s just that good.

For reals, I finished reading it and immediately started to read it again. I don’t do that.

Conveniently, you can pre-order it for Valentine’s Day from here. And of course you could get it from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, other bookstores, or on the Kindle.

FTC Disclosure concerning book reviews