end of the year book list

so i thought i’d pass on a list of the books that i’ve read this year…

if you are out of reading material or wonder what book you might want to tackle next, maybe pick one from my list. the books i think were good (hot) will be red. those that i think you shouldn’t waste your time (cold) with will be blue. the books i don’t feel real strongly one way or the other about (tepid) will be green. along with each book title i will include a link to where you can find the book (by clicking the title), the author’s name, and for some of the books, a short review.

so here goes, in no particular order:

• bible – God – words of mine couldn’t do this one justice, so i’ll just say read it for yourself.
• reflecting his image – k.p. yohannan – an easy read, but seemed to stray some from it’s intent.
• God tells the man who cares - a.w. tozer
• the making of a man of God - alan redpath – a look at the life of david. hard to put down once you start!
• man of suffering (bio on watchman nee) – bob laurent – a challenging look at this man’s life.
• the last christian generation – josh mcdowell
• faith undone – roger oakland – a challenging look at what direction many of the emerging churches and leaders are taking.
• macbeth – william shakespeare – it’s a classic.
• power from on high – charles finney – some good insights and challenging topics concerning the christian walk.
• the five points of calvinism – george bryson – a look at the five points, and then a counter to them. i’m not a five-pointer, but this book wouldn’t have convinced me if i were.
• serving as senders – neal pirolo – how to encourage and support missionaries in the field.
• dare to be different – fred hartley – good for youth to read.
• the Lord’s work done in the Lord’s way – k.p. yohannan – sorry, didn’t turn up on amazon. short read, challenging to how/why you do ministry.
• touched by His Spirit – jim hesterly – a simple look at the work of the Holy Spirit.
• the release of the Spirit – watchman nee
• moody (bio on d.l. moody) - john pollock – a great life lived for the glory of God.
• the complete works of e.m. bounds on prayer – e.m. bounds – a much needed christian discipline! highly recommend reading this one.
• the emerging church – dan kimball – i recommend this hesitantly. if you’re an experienced christian and want to be aware of what’s going on, this is a good place to start.
• when will Jesus come – dave hunt
• another Jesus? – roger oakland
• finding your way – gary laferla – a decent book about how to find God’s will in your life.
• the apostle (bio on apostle paul) – john pollock – i read this as i was studying through acts. really helped to make the story come alive.
• every man’s battle – arterburn & stoeker – unfortunately, its a reality for men. might as well arm yourself against it.
• sit, walk, stand – watchman nee – a sort of commentary of the book of ephesians.
• the autobiography of george muller – george muller – a great man of faith!
• experiencing God - blackaby & king – just recently finished this one and was encouraged by the reading of it. i think you would be, too.
• strengthening your marriage – greg laurie – always good to read about how to strengthen the second most important relationship in your life!

well, i think that does it! we’ll see what 2008 brings as far as reading goes. if you’ve read any of these books, i’d love to hear your thoughts about them. leave a comment. if you have a recommended read for 2008, leave that in a comment as well.

latest book review

i finished the josh mcdowell book, “the last christian generation”…

i can’t give it two thumbs-up.  it was decent, but not good enough for me to tell anyone to put it at the top of their reading list.  in the book, josh shares with the reader the current “state of the union,” for lack of a better way to put it.  he then goes on to share different methods and approaches to help fix this problem.

the first half of the book was actually quite good.  in it, josh lays out the facts.  maybe its just because i’m a numbers type person, but i liked that he shared the statistics for what the younger generations of today believe, both from a christian perspective and a non-christian perspective.  sadly, there wasn’t much of a difference.  as i read through these chapters, i found myself dog-earing the corners of the pages so i could refer back to them at a later time.

the second-half of the book ended up with very few dog-eared pages.  once josh states the facts and lays the foundation, he begins to tell of his approach and solution to turning things around.  don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t all bad.  i did tag some of the pages for reference later on.  overall, though, i got the impression that he was trying to sell something more.  i couldn’t help but think i got this book mailed to me for free because he and his publisher were hoping it would lead to me purchasing more resources and materials from them.  i came across several places where a resource was mentioned to help solve a problem and i was referred to the appendix to find out how to order that said resource.  to me, this kept nagging me, and probably kept me from really getting into what was being said.

another thing that caught my eye was the use of a fair amount of postmodern or emergent terminology.  this makes me wonder exactly where josh mcdowell stands in the emergent conversation.  i personally don’t have a problem with terms like “missional” or “community” -  i think its great to be a group of believers with a purpose – but it makes me curious to see where he goes from here.  is this his way of testing the waters, or slowly entering into being a ‘friend of emergent?’  i don’t know.  only time will tell.

so the real question i ask is, “was this book worthwhile?”  honestly, i’d have to say it was.  it was only 186 pages long, so it wasn’t a long commitment.  in fact, i started and finished another book while reading this one, so if i had focused my attention to this one alone, it would have been much quicker.  if you are cramped for time, though, you could read the first 6 chapters, skip chapters 7-10, and wrap up with chapters 11-13.  to me, these were the high points.