Category Archives: Literature

Book Review: You Lost Me

You Lost Me
By David Kinnaman

Summary:
David Kinnaman has written an incredibly honest, important work that conveys the monumental changes in a post-Christian culture where the new generation is telling the church, “You lost me.” He has compiled all the common reasons why youth and young professionals are exiting the church doors. From interviews, research, and personal experience, Kinnaman makes clear the landmark at the crossroads of our faith, where we can embrace the rapid shifts of our world and hold the timeless truth of the Gospel instead of choosing one at the expense of the other.

Strengths:
This is an extremely organized book with informative charts, articulate reasoning, and not a single word wasted. Six common complaints have been made by the three groups of church drop-puts — prodigals, nomads, and exiles — which are Overprotective, Shallow, Antiscience, Repressive, Exclusive, and Doubtless. Kinnaman is careful to present these claims in a nuanced, balanced, well-researched manner without compromising. He treads a fine line here between understanding the overwhelming grip of our interactive society while re-asserting the tenets of orthodox Christian faith; it’s great credit to him that he does this without spiritual vertigo. He is pliable where he needs to be but firm where the Word does not budge.

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Quote: Chisel


“Does God want us to suffer? What if the answer to that question is ‘yes’? You see, I don’t think that God particularly wants us to be happy. I think He wants us to love and be loved. He wants us to grow up. You see, we are like children who think that our toys bring us all the happiness there is, and that our nursery is the whole wide world. But something has to drive us out into the world of others, and that thing is suffering. Put simply, pain is God’s megaphone to rouse a deaf world. We are like blocks of stone from which the Sculptor carves a form. The blows of His chisel which hurt us so much are what make us perfect.”

– C.S. Lewis

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The Best Christian Books of 2011

Here are my favorite books of 2011. These are not necessarily the best written, but the most personally impactful.

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Erasing Hell
By Francis Chan

In response to Rob Bell’s Love Wins, Francis Chan writes a sobering and solemn appeal on the reality of hell. While largely criticized for its length and simplicity, I found it a near-perfect plea for those who do not consider our spiritual futures. My review here.

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Book Review: Jesus + Nothing = Everything
By Tullian Tchividjian (pronounced “chu-vi-jin” like religion)

An engaging if at times over-wordy work on what it really means to be known by Jesus. Tullian is a great writer, cutting away years of idolatry and guilt-driven religion in just a few sentences. My review here.

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Redemption
By Mike Wilkerson

One of the best works to arrive for breaking addictions and pains of the past, Mike Wilkerson of Mars Hill Church uses Exodus as a stirring challenge to overcome our shackles. Despite some structural problems, the book is a swift punch to the gut while a gentle embrace of new life. My review here.

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Book Review: Gospel Wakefulness

Summary:
Jared Wilson writes a stirring work with such a flawed premise that he continually detracts from his own passion and eloquence. Because of his elitist, New Age “Gospel Wakefulness” that he drills over and over, at times he appears insincere in marketing a new breed of religion that ascribes transcendental experience as orthodoxy. While he spends many pages protecting his own idea with reasonable disclaimers, this isn’t enough to ward off the uneasiness that this is his idea, an extrabiblical concept for a secret club of those who “get it.”

Weaknesses:
There’s no doubt that Wilson is a great writer, but because of his blogging background, much of his work is strung together randomly as if he copied-and-pasted some old blog posts with tenuous transitions. Nothing flows evenly. He also uses distracting superlatives that are not grounded in the reality of everyday Christians. There is a ton of analogical language that sounds pretty but has no function in the gritty hurt of real life. I kept thinking Hallmark.

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The Top Ten Posts of 2011

These are the Top Ten Blog Posts of 2011. Thank you to every reader and supporter, your prayers and encouragement are welcomed and appreciated. Here’s to 2012!

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10) A Christian Is Not Up To Your Damned Standard
An angry post that caused me to lose some followers, tick off some Reformed people, and indirectly caused a blogger to call me an “abortionist” and “witch whore.” I did apologize for my angry tone.

See also: I Love My Doctrine More Than Jesus: Why No One Cares About Your Theology
And: Gospel Idolatry
And: The Trend of the Gutless Gospel: How My Thoughts About The Gospel Have Changed Over Time, Part One

9) Movies That Christians Should See: The Truman Show
The most popular review of “Christians Should See” series, with perhaps my favorite film of all time.

8) Book Review: Erasing Hell
Francis Chan writes a succinct response to Rob Bell’s Love Wins, which I was also interviewed for by the local newspaper.

7) When Pastors Just Want To Quit
When your church is falling apart: no one’s listening, no one’s cares, no one’s convicted. But why it still matters.

6) It Would Be Easier If I Wasn’t A Christian – Part One
A four-part philosophical look into why we should consider being a Christian. Part Two here. Part Three here. Part Four here.

5) Why Is The Old Testament So Crazy? — Part One
A multi-part discussion about the insanity of the Old Testament. A straight reading of the OT is like a bad acid trip, with its supposedly misogynistic, slavery-endorsing, pagan-esque ways. Plus Part Two. More coming in this series.

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The Origin of Such

I’m confused by these kinds of statements:

“Follow your heart.”

“Believe in yourself.”

“Love who you are.”

“You’ll never know unless you try.”

“Whatever happens, happens.”

And a plethora of other wise-sounding jingles that appeal to the starry-eyed hipster in all of us.

But I wonder if we have ever thought through these statements. What is the logical end result of following them? Have we actually contemplated the origin of such therapeutic self-serving feel-good nonsense? When have they ever worked out? Not when your day got flipped upside-down by death or disaster or worse.

I don’t mean to kill your buzz. But I hate to see mindless blogs of fuzzy cliches that parade themselves as wisdom. Often they’re just excuses to be selfish, as if following your heart to leave your spouse and kids is some kind of acceptable option.

We accept this line of secular thought because it feeds our self-worship project, which allows a religion of lawlessness that creates a devout follower to no real devotion. “Follow your heart” — to everywhere and nowhere. The relativist dream of anarchy.

If you are a follower of Christ, please meditate carefully on the wisdom you’re endorsing because much of the “world’s wisdom” is a lie. If it gives you freedom to go right back into imprisonment, that’s not only selfish: it’s plain dumb.

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Really Saying

It’s romantic to believe that the guy who calls and texts first, saves ‘I love you’ for you, covers you with his coat, cooks your favorite meal even if he’s allergic to it, and a flurry of other Hollywood montage moments will really fulfill you. Before we die, we want to visit Paris at night during Christmas and parasail over the Atlantic and sip wine on a hot air balloon — but you don’t really mean that.

What are you really saying? You want these things if the dude isn’t creepy, if the poor beggars in Paris do not intrude on your comfort, and as long as you don’t have to prepare a thing. A cute guy who texts you first is cute, but you change your philosophy when the dude is too nice or too short or has no jawline. Children are cute until you have to raise one — and kids are screwed up because we push our distorted view of idealism on them in place of real gritty sacrifice.

What you’re really saying is you demand a photoshopped dream, like the impossible make-up model on the cover of Maxim, to attain the highest degree of complacency at the least amount of effort for the easiest life possible. Your blog proves it.

We reveal our selfish hearts with a conditional wishlist that reads more like a bad movie script. Can you step back for a moment and examine what you really mean? And why you have these idealistic fantasies? And what your motives are? We buy into bizarre paradigms of romance and leisure and life without thinking to the bottom of them. You’ll find quickly that self-serving is not even good enough to serve yourself.

The wasted life wastes no time wasting it. The destined life invests time and makes it. You can cheat yourself to death simply by choosing the current convenient option. A life of non-committed fantasy is just a walking grave.

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Gospel Idolatry

Do you idolize the gospel?

The crucifixion has become a concept. That’s nothing new, except for all the marketing. With the recent trend of “Gospel Centrality” by the Reformed Calvinist crowd, who proudly wave the flag of finally understanding the Gospel, I’m both excited and concerned. I’m excited for a return back to the roots of the Bible — that the whole thing really is about Jesus — but much less excited about the elitist nightmare of Reformed teaching that creates ivory towers of superiority. “I got it and you don’t,” shouts the gospel-informed upper class. It is an incipient form of anti-Pharisaical religion masquerading as brand name faith. Suddenly there is a second-rate citizen of the church that apparently doesn’t get it anymore, and those who get it, instead of sharing, are angry and snarling.

Several books have been released just in the last year that capture this bandwagon phenomenon, including Jesus + Nothing = Everything, Gospel Wakefulness, King’s Cross, and simply just Gospel. They are quite excellent reads. The Gospel Coalition blog has expounded endlessly on gospel-centeredness, and have done it well. Tim Keller does a great job of seeding the gospel into Old Testament passages. An entire conference was devoted to this neat trick. And apparently, without the gospel, you got it all wrong man.

The idea is this: the work of Jesus gives you all the acceptance, validation, and approval you need so that sanctification is merely resting deeper in the gospel. The work of Jesus detaches you from seeking lesser treasures. The work of Jesus eats away at worldliness and idolatry and morbid introspection. The work of Jesus gives freedom to lose, freedom for joy, freedom from self.

We see the problem. The work of Jesus. Gospel Centrality often leaves out Jesus himself.

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Book Review: Note To Self


Note To Self
By Joe Thorn

Summary:
A recent trend among pastors has been to practice the art of preaching to yourself. As the Bible says we are a forgetful people (Jeremiah 18:15) and it is right to refresh our memory as long as we live in the tent of this body (2 Peter 1:13), so we must remind ourselves of the Truth. It may sound unsavory to literally preach a sermon to yourself, but with Scripture and the indwelling Spirit and a pretty decent knowledge of your own tendencies, each of us would be most qualified for the job. This is much less self-help than you would think. Rather than a how-to guide, Joe Thorn instead gets straight to the preaching.

Strengths:
In seminary they teach pastors to “preach it to yourself first.” Joe Thorn turns this idea into a bite-sized booklet of self-preaching that is neither narcissistic nor pep talk. It largely avoids becoming a gimmick and does not waste a word. Each chapter begins with a Bible passage and follows with a short, sharp note on living out the multiple facets of the Gospel in light of what Jesus has done.

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Book Review: 11/22/63



11/22/63
By Stephen King

Disclaimer: For Christian readers, this book contains plenty of cursing, sex, violence, and otherwise dark themes. I’m a huge fan of Stephen King but I wouldn’t exactly recommend him for the concerned and squeamish.

Summary:
This is about as high concept as it gets: What would you do if you could stop the assassination of John F. Kennedy? Except the “past is obdurate and protects itself from change.” Time does not enjoy being manipulated. And so Time here is the most interesting character in this genre-weaving tale of time travel, high school theater, swing dancing, and of course, preventing the assassination of JFK.

Our narrator, the somewhat bland but crafty Jake Epping, becomes our vicarious proxy in this journey of unexpected twists and sincere pathos. While much of history unspools exactly as it should, Jake is intertwined almost at a maddening pace into the life of Lee Oswald as he spies on him to ensure he is the lone assassin. Jake meets a local librarian Sadie and falls for her hard, and this is only one of the many subplots that cover a well-researched look into the early sixties. Soon both Jake’s romance with Sadie and his quest after Oswald must collide.

Strengths:
I’m surprised by Stephen King here. Though he’s written great non-horror works like The Shawshank Redemption and Stand By Me, this is a historical piece that must have taken numerous headaches just to fact-check and solidify. Because of that labor, the presentation is effortless. From storefronts to prices to dialect to travel, all the history feels pitch-perfect.

Maybe a little less convincing (as if time travel was so believable) but just as involving is the sweet subplot with Sadie Dunhill and the local high school where Jake Epping (as George Amberson) gets a teaching gig. King has always done well writing cliche elements, and he does this with epic aplomb. While the JFK premise drew me in, the romance is what got me to read this monster-sized book in only three days. I found myself emotional (and embarrassed about it) over Jake and Sadie.

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Book Review: Jesus + Nothing = Everything

Jesus + Nothing = Everything
by Tullian Tchividjian

Summary:
The recent trend of Gospel-centrality has fueled the young Reformed movement and a host of new books by well known bloggers and pastors. It’s not so much a “trend” as it is a reawakening to the major truth of the Bible. Tullian Tchividjian (cha-vi-jin, rhymes with religion), the grandson of Billy Graham, is one of the best voices of this re-introduction to the Gospel.

The book’s thesis will be familiar to those who have been drenched in the Gospel-driven Reformed preaching of pastors like Mark Driscoll, Matt Chandler, and Tim Keller. Since our full acceptance and security is found in Jesus’s work alone, we no longer need to measure up to the world: Jesus measured up for us. It’s not about our performance for him, but about Jesus’s performance for us. Tullian also tells the story of his most painful year in which he had to learn this truth as if for the first time. With a captivating title and a highly articulate style, Tullian gets to work on the real meaning of Christ-given freedom.

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Book Review: Chazown

Chazown
By Craig Groeschel

Summary:
Chazown in the Hebrew language means “vision.” Craig Groeschel’s Chazown in the American language means “success.” His work is a five star book with some sloppy two star content. It’s a Christian book made for non-Christians and made for those who do not like books. It is both encouraging and frustrating, both practical and pampering.

With some unique fonts, pictures, colors, and activities (yes, activities), Groeschel offers a practical handbook on God’s vision for your life. On a theological level it largely fails, but on the practical level it is a reasonable success. If you remove all the references to the Bible, you’d still have about 80% left for a pragmatic booklet on success. Depending on who you are, that’s good or bad.

Strengths:
The book opens strong with an illustration about your deathbed. It’s actually the best part of the book, grabbing your attention by the throat right into the unique voice of Pastor Craig. He is no doubt a conversational writer as if you’re having a coffee at the local cafe, listening to him expound on life.

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Book Review: Am I Really A Christian?


Am I Really A Christian?
By Mike McKinley

Summary:
Many profess to be Christians; many are not. Author Mike McKinley writes an urgent, strong, often humorous treatise on the marks of being a Christian. It is not nearly as simple as reciting a generic sinner’s prayer, nor as misguided as “busy-ness” in a church system. This concise work will either convict you with greater assurance or throw you into necessary reflection. McKinley covers five marks, which I’ll put in five words: Doctrine, Love, Freedom, Perseverance, and Repentance.

Strengths:
I’m usually concerned with works of this kind that are buried in legalistic measures and heaps of uncertainty. It’s good to check your faith but I’ve seen bouts of morbid introspection that kill the joy of professing Christians. At some point it can be dangerous to fix your eyes on the self, which removes focus from the Savior. The book does veer close to this sometimes but (almost) always balances it with the finished work of the Gospel. And of course, Christians should know without a doubt if they’re saved. McKinley leaves no room for doubt.

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Book Review: Erasing Hell

Erasing Hell
by Francis Chan

Summary:
Francis Chan, former pastor of Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley, along with Professor Preston Sprinkle, give a response to Rob Bell’s book Love Wins. It’s much more than this though, as Chan takes a sobering biblical look at one of the most difficult truths of the Bible, hell, and uncovers the even deeper issue of humility.

Strengths:
Francis Chan and Preston Sprinkle make a great team. With Chan’s urgent, down-to-earth tone and Sprinkle’s careful research, the book establishes biblical and extrabiblical knowledge on hell, showing that God is very clear on the matter. There’s no beautifying the subject here: hell is real and people are going.

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Book Review: Rid of My Disgrace

Rid of My Disgrace
by Justin S. Holcomb and Lindsey A. Holcomb

Summary:
Dr. Justin Holcomb and his wife Lindsey Holcomb offer a biblical hope for victims of sexual assault. Justin Holcomb, a pastor at Mars Hill Church who has two master degrees from Reformed Theological Seminary and a PhD from Emory University, breaks down the dimensions of sexual assault and overcoming the aftermath. It is almost a necessary book for both pastors and churchgoers, victims or not, to understand the crime of this specific violence and God’s truth for healing.

Strengths:
Truthfully, this was at times a very difficult book to read. The opening chapters outlining all the statistics and consequences of sexual assault nearly killed me. Many of the testimonies of sexual assault victims were nauseating. I was by turns angry, hurt, and frustrated over how people could do this to one another. Yet I was not surprised. This is a daily reality of an underworld that we hardly give thought to: we often assume our church people are cleaned up, collected, and consolable. But sexual assault victims are often lost in spirals of bitterness, escape, and denial.

I appreciated the absolute biblical, Christ-centered current of the book. It’s like an electric shock that pulses through every page. There is no other remedy but Jesus. Superficial positive self-help statements don’t work. Psychological modifications scratch the surface. Admitting the hurt is only a first step. Holcomb over and over expresses that Jesus went through the same disgrace that many victims face: shame, nakedness, betrayal, physical anguish and abuse. But in Jesus we see real victory. Holcomb’s methodical process to this victory is both realistic and hopeful.

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They’re real people

justin bieber photoshopped

Extremely happy blogs paint Bible stories as success after success, full of faith and blessing and thumbs up and manly pats on the back. Because this is how real life always works, without nuance or anxiety or doubts. You’d think all the Bible people were just one-dimensional photoshopped models-playing-actors. White teeth, perfect hair, the right speech at the crucial moment. Cue the dramatic score, enter the moral lesson. Not even cartoons are this disingenuous.

Moses hardly spoke for himself: he had a speech problem so his brother Aaron, a pagan-loving two-faced idol maker, spoke on his behalf. David slept with a dude’s wife and killed the dude; later he stood by as his son raped his daughter and his other son kicked out David from the throne and plotted his assassination. Gideon was a good example of what not to do with a fleece. Elijah was suicidal. Elisha commanded bears to kill a bunch of youth group kids. Peter cut off a guy’s ear: he meant to cut off the guy’s head because no one ever just goes for the ear. Ruth was a little too forward for even the most desperate dude. Job’s wife told Job to kill himself. Martha thought the Savior of the world would care if the kitchen had dirty dishes. Noah was a drunk, Jonah was a racist, Isaiah preached in his underwear. Did we forget too: Jesus at the cross yelled, “Why?”

We mentally dress up people based on little to no information. That gas station attendant must be a poor father since he gave me the wrong change. That waiter is a sexist because he got to everyone else first. That girl must never have any problems because of rich mommy. We like this quick index of people because of laziness, superiority, jealousy, but most sadly of all, because we believe such labels to be true.

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Book Review: Generous Justice


Generous Justice
by Timothy Keller

Summary:
Christians have some dirty words burned in their collective conscience that conjure up liberal danger: psychology, anthropomorphic, emergent, and of course, social justice. Dr. Timothy Keller unpacks the Christian duty to do justice in the world, including the reasons, motive, how-to, pitfalls, and results. It’s a daunting task that Dr. Keller tackles as easily as the alphabet. In both idealistic and realistic sweeps, the book paints a picture of restoration that the Gospel demands from every follower of Christ. It is a sensitive work without being preachy, an honest look that is not naive. Your safety zone will be challenged.

Strengths:
At some point in recent church history, it was deemed that social justice was a liberal cause void of eternal purpose. We can’t change the world, it was said, so let’s focus on ourselves. There was a prevalent fear that soup kitchens and thrift stores were replacing evangelism, that at the cost of the Gospel we were building temporary houses. It’s a valid fear, but Dr. Keller dispels the notion that both concerns must be exclusive. It is the outworking of our faith through justice that would call others to Jesus’ grace. It is also Jesus’ grace that compels us to do justice.

It sounds simple until we face the dizzying factors of our generation: every social disadvantage feeds into each other until entire groups are fundamentally crippled. Poverty affects literacy which affects job opportunities which leads to crime which ripples through city structures which keeps collapsing in on itself in a vicious cycle. It’s easy to throw our hands up and stick to preaching and teaching. But as Dr. Keller shows over and over, God cares a great deal for the poor, the orphan, the widow, the immigrant, the disadvantaged. Biblically, not caring for them is the same as injustice. Dr. Keller paves a familiar yet convicting groundwork on why and how we should go about real justice. Asides from the moral discussion, he also provides practical steps that will get you to your feet rolling up your sleeves.

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Book Review: Vintage Jesus


Vintage Jesus
by Mark Driscoll

Summary:
With ribald humor and stark seriousness, the hugely popular Pastor Mark Driscoll develops Jesus into a fully three-dimensional human being -slash- third person of God. The Gospel accounts will be enough for most, but Vintage Jesus is for the iPod/digital/Youtube generation. As Driscoll states in the opening dedication, This book is dedicated anyone who takes Jesus seriously, but not themselves. Full of fart jokes, fratboy humor, juvenile asides, personal testimony, and just enough heavy insight, Driscoll succeeds at painting a sound theological portrait of Jesus while poking fun at our often skewed view of him.

Strengths:
Driscoll’s work maintains a tight mix of pop culture, commentary, theology, and dire urgency to captivate even the most wandering reader. By pulling from every worldly view of Jesus, both right and wrong, while cutting to the hearts of us sinful readers, Driscoll destroys a familiar comfort that many of us have about the Messiah. Many see him as an Anglo-Saxon, halo-covered, mild and meek monk, or just as wrongly, a dangerous rebel who broke all the rules and amassed political power. But more than that, we feel reading into Jesus is boring. As much as we hate to admit, sometimes gleaning a picture of God through the Gospels is very hard work. For a lazy society bombarded by attractive presentations and fast media, we do need some help to trigger excitement. This book does exactly that: gets us enthused to pick up our Bibles and read Jesus in a fresh new light.

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Movies That Christians Should See: The Shawshank Redemption

andyred

Shawshank Redemption (1994)

Summary:
Andy Dufresne is sent to prison for the murder of his wife and her extramarital lover. He is soon indoctrinated in a savage world of bargaining, machismo, corruption, and despair. But Andy is a silent unassailable force who through intellect and his child-like innocence gains favor with both the guards and the prisoners. He befriends Red, a longtime inmate, who berates hope but believes in Andy, and together they forge a bond that survives the decades.
Starring Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman, Bob Gunton, William Sadler, Gil Bellows. Directed by Frank Darabont.

Questionable Content:
Graphic violence, quick visuals of a sex scene, language, implied prison rape, a vivid murder, and several suicides.

Why You Should See It:
This is one of the best American films ever made. It did poorly at the box office and was not well received, but picked up steam on VHS and is now beloved by anyone with a pulse. It works because we like Andy Dufresne. He’s perfectly imperfect. Some movies manipulate the audience into rooting for the main character by throwing all sorts of contrivances at him (see The Pursuit of Happiness), but Andy must do his sincere best in a broken system that does not allow for hopeful men like him.

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Book Review: Counterfeit Gods


Counterfeit Gods
By Timothy Keller

Summary:
My growing interest in Dr. Timothy Keller’s work continues with his short and fulfilling book on the poison of idolatry. Using vignettes from the Bible such as King Nebuchadnezzar to outcasts like Leah to the misunderstood narrative of Abraham and Isaac, we’re shown the dangerous power of modern day idols in our everyday life. From culture to career to codependency, we’re bombarded by every created thing that aims to steal us from our true purpose: to know and follow God.

We must live for something, but anything else besides God that is first place in our heart will always destroy us. Idolatry is enslavement: all temporary things consume our thoughts and goals until we are at the pathetic mercy of its every whim. Nothing is spared: Dr. Keller covers all imaginable angles. Yet there is hope, and while this could have easily been distilled to “love God,” he brings more intellect and insight to the issue.

Strengths:
On the first page, the book will cut your soul. Dr. Keller lists off rich men who have killed themselves since the economic downturn of the last few years, then quickly compares idols with the Ring of Power from The Lord of the Rings. From start to finish, this is an exhilarating read that will cut you over and over.

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