In the book The Myth of a Christian Religion, Greg Boyd explores what he understands to be the true calling of the church and the ways religion often gets in the way.  He argues that the true calling of the church is to represent and proclaim the Kingdom of God, which he defines as: the Kingdom [...]

Even almost sociopathic narcissism feels right at home on My Super Sweet 16.  Atlanta teen Allison tells a party planner she wants to block off part of Peachtree Street so there can be a parade for “my grand entrance.”  Peachtree is a major thoroughfare, the planner reminds her.  She responds, “My sweet 16 is more [...]

Soong-Chan Rah argues powerfully that the evangelical church in America is held captive to Western (he means white) culture.  He points to the models of ministry held up as ‘successful’ at conferences and in publishers’ catalogs as evidence that American evangelicalism glorifies the white suburban church as the epitome of what church should look like. Throughout [...]

Thoughts from Mary (My first attempt at blogging) As a counselor, I am struck again and again by the universal nature and influence of death and loss.  Everyone has or will lose someone they love.  It is only a matter of time.  While death is universally experienced by all, grief is processed so differently and [...]

This book is meant to be a guidebook for developing vision in your life.  Stanley steps through the story of Nehemiah and pulls out visioning principles along the way.  He challenges everyone to live with purpose by developing a vision for each aspect or role of their life.  That means I have a vision for [...]

This is a book that makes you want to go out and conquer the world.  Friends of Mary’s and mine previously attended Mark Betterson’s church in Washington DC, and they kindly gave this book to me.  I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it.   The Wild Goose that he challenges us to chase is [...]

There has been a little bit of evangelical in-fighting going on recently.  Many in the traditionally reformed camp have criticized the theology of justification that N.T. Wright (and other NT scholars of his ilk) espouse.  John Piper wrote a book summarizing these criticisms, and N.T. Wright replied to Piper’s book with the one I am here reviewing. [...]

This is a postmodern tale if I’ve ever read one.  For the first hundred pages or so, I wrestled with whether or not this ludicrous story was true.  The author indicates as much in his preface, but slowly I came to see even that as part of “the story.”  The story is not true, as in it [...]

This is a helpful book for anyone wanting to grow in their understanding of race and racism in America.  In the book Dr. Tatum defines racism as a “system of advantage based on race”.  She differentiates between racism and bigotry by emphasizing the systemic nature of racism.  She then calls on people to be those who resist [...]

This book/DVD is worth its weight in gold.  It’s about disciplining your children in a way that is both effective and stress-reducing for the family system.  Mary, my wife, checked out the DVD version from our local library and we watched it last week.  We have since put it into practice, and so far we’ve [...]