The debate of whether a person is “born gay” or not is an extremely sensitive one in our culture, and it blurs more than gender expectations. Sexuality, and its worship, has transformed our culture into an animalistic one in many arenas. Sane voices which attempt to speak to the issue of homosexuality are often screamed out rather than appreciated or soberly considered.

Out of a Far Country is a story of one family’s experience with homosexuality and a life gone rogue. Angela Yuan and her son Christopher have co-written their account Chris’ coming out and subsequent embrace of a lifestyle bent on self-dstruction.

It’s not the story of a typical family that finds a child has not lived up to their expectations. But it is a story that will connect with many.

Honestly, the best part of the book is the last three chapters as you get to finally hear Christopher process his conversion to Christianity and his reflections on holy sexuality.

"Holy sexuality means focusing all our sexual feelings and behaviors exclusively toward one person, our spouse.

Chris concludes, “The truth is that I did not need to be attracted to women in general to get married; I needed to be attracted to only one woman.”

I’d encourage anyone who is personally experiencing the decision by a family member or friend to choose homosexuality to read this book. The Yaun’s story is compelling and moving.

If, on the other hand, you’re looking for more information or theological implications, you’ll need to look elsewhere. This book has very little of that other than some brief reflections.

By the way, I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review. I’m grateful for their Blogging for Books program.

I rarely rate a book “5-star,” and I may actually need to downgrade my enthusiasm about this book to four stars, but it’s been so immensely helpful, encouraging, and practical for our church’s staff team at this point that I gave it the highest mark.

This is not a book about “church growth.” Rest assured. I too grow weary about books that tell you how to grow your church in 90 days with nothing but poems and parking.

Exponential is a field manual. It’s the tome of Dave and Jon Ferguson who are brothers and pastors of Community Christian Church in Chicago. The book tells their story, but it does so from the perspective of spiritual expectation.

We don’t grow the church; God grows His church as His leaders are faithful to equip His people. So Exponential demonstrates how CCC has organized their ministry in expectation of God’s desire to reach people.

Things you’ll find in the book:

An imperative to develop systems in your church

A strategy for developing leaders who develop leaders

A bedrock solid conviction that when godly, submitted leaders pursue the glory of God, He will grow first the leaders and then the church.

Right now, we are doling out Exponential books like candy to our key leaders and volunteers. Everyone needs to grow in expectations, but particularly church leaders. The Fergusons reveal how God has led them to develop leaders and organize for growth. Our leaders have already found much to be encouraged by as we lean forward in faith to offer His salvation to all peoples.

The God we serve has promised to be a God of impossibilities. Let’s serve Him with loving obedience and expect to participate in His great work. If we serve Him, the results are “exponential.”

I thoroughly enjoyed reading AND. I was recently challenged to consider the tyranny of the word “or.” Essentially, we use “or” in places to indicate a choice between two things that may not need to be placed at either end of a spectrum, especially in organizational life. (i.e., Do you prefer contemporary worship OR expository preaching?) We need to be much more watchful about how we use “or” in leadership, because we may set people up to have to lean in a particular direction when in reality we should encourage better balance.

This book does just that in reference to the sending and gathering of the church. The mission of the church is go into the world and make disciples. There is a “going” (they call it scattering) mode to the identity of the church.

On the other hand, it’s also imperative that the church gathers. It’s plain in the New Testament that new believers and the disciples of Christ came together corporately for worship, instruction and encouragement.

BOTH are needed.

In today’s western Christian culture, there have tended to be folks on the scattered extreme lobbing criticisms at the institutional, corporate and gathered church. Some of their points are valid.

On the other hand, the gathered church has valid concerns about the organic, decentralized, house church movement.

As pastors of a church called Adullam, authors Matt Smay and Hugh Halter encourage us to not choose “or” but to choose “and.” We need both. They have strong words for those in both camps and urge extremists to be faithful to scripture, consistent in mission and authentic in community.

One of the best chapters in the book is their rewrite of the modality and sodality principles first expounded by renown missiologist Ralph Winter.

Should you read this book OR not?

This series lost steam. While I enjoyed the last two, the whole episode with Shaeda was too exaggerated to be enjoyed. The finale by the river was disappointing and did not adequately resolve the various plots. 

Christians struggle to know God because they live prayerless lives. They fail in representing His heart to the nations because they have failed in this critical area of relationship. Prayer defines our experience with God. If we don’t pray, we can’t claim to know the heart of the Father.

Eric & Leslie Ludy’s book Wrestling Prayer was recommended to me by one of the collegians in our church. It’s been a significant addition to my understanding of prayer, and it’s also going to be a continuing shaper of my prayer life as I continue to meditate on some of the thoughts that are shared in it.

A few words to describe the book: Inspirational. Deeply challenging.

I really do look forward to an enriched prayer life due to it’s encouragement. I readily recommend it to anyone looking for a powerful provocation for prayer.

A few notes. It’s definitely an imaginative book. It uses passionate imagery and language to make its case. If you’re looking for a good study on prayer, this is not it. Its theology is a little stunted since it relies so heavily on moving imagery, challenge, great quotes, experience and anecdotes.

It takes great liberties with scripture – using mainly allegory rather than sound interpretation to make its points. I don’t contest many of their conclusions, but I detest how people want to make a sound point but then twist scriptural analogy to do so. They could have made equally sound points without sticking to the story of David and his Mighty Men.

Read with discernment, but don’t miss the powerful and compelling arguments that are presented. If received with humility, they will be useful for a prayer transformation in your life.

The subtitle of this book hooked me. It’s “How the Digital Age Stupifies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future (Or Don’t Trust Anyone Under 30).” Since I’m over 30, you can trust this review…

I plowed through the book. And I do mean plow. It was a tough, arduous task at many points. Author Mark Bauerlein throws so many studies and statistics at you, that at points you wonder how believable the book really is. Any tome that relies on studies and stats has questionable legitimacy since they are so dependent on subjective creation and interpretation to arrive at their information.

Bauerlein is a professor of English at Emory University and has worked as a director of Research and Analysis at the National Endowment of the Arts (not one of my favorite institutions, by the way). He’s got the credentials, and if you can wade through the book, he’s got a point.

The book’s sensational title is a little misleading, however. Yes, the Milennials of today are consumed with technology, status updates and the “now.” But it’s not the digital age that is killing our culture.

Bauerlein’s last chapter is his most profound, inspirational and discouraging. In it, he concludes his thesis and raises our expectations for an informed citizenry.

Essentially, the United States is in an intelligence deficit rather than an economic deficit. And it’s only growing worse. Today’s collegians are uninformed and have rejected knowledge and tradition that not only connects culture with its history, but sustains a unique, selfless, visionary people.

Many reviewers seek to marginalize Bauerlein’s points by lobbing the same old stones over the fence. “He’s just against young people.” “He doesn’t understand the new ways of learning.” “It’s the same argument that old codgers have had against the younger generation forever.”

However, let’s not ridicule what we cannot rationalize. One would be hard-pressed to compare the writings by leaders of our country during the 19th century in their scope, breadth and depth to the writings/communication of our leaders today. It should be evident that there is an intelligence gap, a wisdom gap, a distinct other-worldliness that elicits wonder at earlier generations.

The ideas, philosophies and energized contentions they expounded make today’s societal leaders look like kindergartners. Bauerlein’s assertions in “No More Culture Warriors” simply indicate that we are not raising a future generation of intellectuals that have the mental equipment to process the conceptual framework that will anchor our country’s future in wisdom and worthiness.

Today’s young citizens have cost off knowledge and tradition in favor or narcissism – which is fed and enabled by the digital age. Whereas the opportunity is available (there’s more discovery, education, and sheer information simply on the net), the desire is absent.

Bauerlein delves into political theory in the last chapter as well to conclude his thoughts. The Founders, he asserts, knew that a healty democracy would be dependent on an informed citizenry. But we have abdicated (and the young more so) our responsibility to be vigilant, watchful and participatory in favor of being entertained.

Democracy requires an informed electorate, and knowledge deficits equal civic decay.

The author pleads with an adult society to understand that reading, study, books and ideas are gold mines worth discovering and treasuring. He quotes Columbia professor John Erskine, who said in 1915 that we have “the moral obligation to be intelligent.” In other words, THINK, people.

The latest social and leisure dispositions of the young are killing the culture…

We need a steady stream of rising men and women to replenish the institutions, to become strong military leaders and wise political leaders, dedicated journalists and demanding teachers, judges and muckrakers, scholars and critics and artists.

It’s stupefying.

I was given an advanced reading copy of this book by Bethany House Publishers to read for a blog review. I wondered if the title was simply a sensational teaser to yet another book without much substance. I assure you; the book is worth reading and digesting! I can wholeheartedly recommend it – but especially for pastors, speakers and Christian leaders.

Through careful research and much re-interpretation of faulty explanations of existing research, sociologist Bradley Wright paints a new picture of Christianity in America that will be a great encouragement to believers. His work refutes much of the doomsday scenarios carelessly spouted out by Christian authors, pastors and speakers.

As an example, just the other day, a friend of mine tweeted:

Today, fewer than 20% of Americans attend church regularly and only 22% have a positive view of church. #Exponentialbook

Wright points out that much of the research used to say that people have a faulty view of Christians is spurious and unreliable. In addition, Wright deals with topics ranging from the divorce rate in the church to whether the church losing its young people.

You’ll be pleasantly surprised as I was to learn that good interpretation of these studies reveals that the church in America is in much better shape than we’ve been led to believe. The conclusion of the Wright’s book urges us to think critically again and not to believe stats, polls and “research” – especially when our intuition tells us that this may not be accurate.

He points out that bad news sells. It sells newspapers, it boosts media ratings, and unfortunately, it also sells Christian books and helps advance speakers. Sensational statistics have been used to urge pastors and Christian leaders to buy books which advocate “solutions” when in actuality, the entire thesis seems to be one of promoting fear and worry.

Of particular concern to me were Wright’s findings about some organizations that many Christian organizations depend upon for research (and quote often) – the Barna Research Group and Lifeway Research being two. I’d encourage you to check out Wright’s blog and keep up with his material for another perspective.

In conclusion, I predict that 90% of people who read this entry will think twice about reading another statistic. Like I said, 90% of people who read this entry will think twice about reading another statistic.

<img src=“http://www.journeyguy.com/images/2010/11/Jeremiah_Burroughs-150×150.jpg” alt="" width=“150” height=“150” / >Jeremiah Burroughs was one of the great unaffiliated preachers of the 1600s. He was only 45 when he died, and being born in 1599, he reaped the fruit of the Protestant Reformation that swept Europe while at the same time making contributions of significant depth through his writings.

The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment is a ponderous read. I’ll admit that at the beginning. It’s not full of witty anecdotes or alliteration. It’s depth, however, has made me compare other current Christian books I’m reading to wearing floaties in the baby pool.

It’s tempting a review to quote from Burroughs’ book, but to do so at length would be impossible. I’ve underlined more than I left not underlined in it. I hope to read through the book at least every other year. It’s that good. That challenging.

<img src=“http://www.journeyguy.com/images/2010/11/rare-jewel-of-christian-contentment-194×300.jpg” alt="" width=“194” height=“300” / >In a Mini-Cooper society as ours, his book reveals that we also have mini-souls. We are so easily discouraged. We have become content with being discontent. He offers chapter by chapter, practical and spiritual advice for pursuing and seizing a distinctly Christian contentment.

He urges all of us to get out of the shallow end and go deep into contentment with Christ. It requires a ruthless self-examination of all that we are currently seeking contentment in. He then urges us to press higher (and deeper) by seeking our heart’s contentment in only those things designed to truly satisfy our hearts.

So a Christian coming to contentment is as a scholar in Christ’s school… Just as no one can be a scholar unless he learns his ABC, so you must learn the lesson of self denial, or you can never become a scholar in Christ’s school and be learned in this mystery of contentment… You cannot all be scholars in the arts and sciences in the world, but you all may be students of your own hearts…study the book of your own hearts.

Are you more solicitous about the taking away of your sin than the taking away of your affliction?

I can do all things through him who strengthens me. (ESV)

Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learnedthe secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.

If contentment is something that eludes you, or if you fear that yours is a shallow, uninformed kindergarten contentment, I’d urge you to pick up a spade and dig in the Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment.

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You can also get the Kindle version for only $1.99 here!

Get it. Read it. It’s a fantastic story of Christian notoriety and the failure to resist seizing glory from God.

I’ll confess. I judged the book because of its cover – or title, to be exact. I’ve used the expression Christian Atheist before, and after reviewing the table of contents in the store, I snatched it up for our worship leader and I to read together.

Craig Groeschel is pastor of LifeChurch.tv, which has put the “multisite church” on the map. They export church in the way some countries do bananas. They have vibrant ministries that are impacting thousands, and Craig is a regularly featured speaker at youngish Christian leader gatherings.

Craig’s definition of Christian atheism is when “people believe in God but live as if He doesn’t exist.” The rest of the book could simply be summarized by his chapter titles. Read them and you’ve got the gist of the book:

A Recovering Christian Atheist

When You Believe in God but Don’t Really Know Him

When You Believe in God but Are Ashamed of Your Past

When You Believe in God but Aren’t Sure He Loves You

When You Believe in God but Not in Prayer

When You Believe in God but Don’t Think He’s Fair

When You Believe in God but Won’t Forgive

(get the point?)

…but Don’t Think You Can Change

but Still Worry All the Time

but Pursue Happiness at Any Cost

but Trust More in Money

but Don’t Share Your Faith

but Not in His Church

(and then a break from the formula…)

Third Line Faith

The book’s message is essential. I just don’t know if Groeschel was up to the task. Some of the subjects he tackles in a single chapter are massive, daunting life questions that have challenged us for centuries.

Even with that being said, however, he has a winsome writing style, full of powerful, personal stories that woos you into the material in each chapter.

It’s definitely a great book for college students or those seeking to examine why they are struggling with intimacy with the Lord. It’s not a book that will convince a real atheist, obviously. It’s written to the Christian atheist.

The best chapter in the book is “…but Pursue Happiness at Any Cost.” He does an excellent job of unpacking how God doesn’t intend happiness for us.

If we believe that God wants us happy above all else, rather than acknowledging that our role is to serve God, we wrongly believe that God exists to serve us.

I’d recommend it, but the title is the message. Deal with the power of the message and discover the joy of living with complete, reckless faith in a living God.