Ever since George Barna released his much-disputed survey about Christians having a higher divorce rate than their secular counterparts, the church has been on the defensive about the issue of marriage and divorce. There’s so much confusion and conflicting teaching about the issue from church to church, sometimes within the same denomination. All the flap compelled Barna to do a much broader (and some say better) Divorce And Remarriage in the Church: Biblical Solutions for Pastoral Realities. The conclusion he reaches may surprise some and encourage others. I found the book to be well-researched and at the same time faithful to scripture while being practical in ministry. It doesn’t dispute Barna’s findings but rather seeks to bring biblical and practical ministry light to a desperately-needed topic.

And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?”

He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?”

He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.”

Brewer shows how the Old Testament changed all that in passages like Exodus 21.7-11 and Deuteronomy 24.1-4. He also uses findings and teachings from first century divorce documents and Judaism to show that what Jesus was disputing was one of the two schools of thought in Judaism: the Hillel school. The Hillel school of thought had reinterpreted the Exodus 21 passage to mean a husband could divorce his wife for “any cause.”

When the Pharisees approached Jesus, they were essentially referring to this well-understood issue of his day. Brewer says they were asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for ‘any cause?’” To which Jesus upheld the sanctity of marriage. He was not, Brewer says, addressing the neglect issues present in the Deuteronomy 24 passage.

There were two prevailing schools of thought in Judaism during Jesus’ day. One of them (Shammaite) eventually was snuffed out during the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. Brewer says that this and other mitigating factors led to the church’s misunderstanding of what Jesus taught about divorce and even led the Catholic Church to see marriage as something undesirable for its priests. This ongoing misinterpretation and misapplication of scripture about this issue has led to countless conflicts and pain in churches over the issue of marriage, divorce, and remarriage.

I highly recommend the book to you for your own research and conclusions. However, it should be essential for every church to have a scripturally-grounded and grace-based policy related to marriage and divorce.

1. The biblical grounds for divorce are adultery, neglect and abuse, any of which is equivalent to broken marriage vows.
2. No one should initiate a divorce unless their partner is guilty of repeatedly or unrepentantly breaking their marriage vows.
3. No one should separate from their marriage partner without intending to divorce them.
4. If someone has divorced or separated without biblical grounds, they should attempt a reconciliation with their former partner.
5. Remarriage is allowed in church for any divorce after a service or repentance, unless they have divorced a wronged partner who wants to be reconciled.

It’s rare that I discover two really great books back to back (or cover to cover). However, that’s been the case with my last two reads. Tim Challies’ The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment was a powerful challenge to the 21st century Christian. My review of that book is here.

I regretfully put down Michael Craven’s Uncompromised Faith last night. While I urged Christian leaders and church members to snatch a copy of Challies’ book ASAP, I have to trumpet the urgency of reading Craven’s book for the same group.

This book is incredibly timely, well-reseached and powerful. Simply put, if you are living in 21st century Western culture and want to know what and how to speak and relate intelligently during these new rounds of culture wars, read this book.

It is not for the faint of heart. In fact, I am 100% positive it will make most Christians mad. It will disturb you. It will appall you. It will convict you. The Christian church in Western society has capitulated to the philosophies and attacks of godless worldviews. More than likely, your position on many current cultural issues is more informed by junk science and false research propogated by the main stream media, politicians and Hollywood than it is by the clear teaching of God’s Word.

In hard-hitting chapter after chapter, Craven unpacks such crucial cultural issues such as sexuality, homosexuality, the definition of marriage, consumerism, feminism and new age spirituality. Pulling from research, journals and the scientific community, he cites source after source documenting not only a steady but an intentioned undermining of the ethics and teaching of Jesus Christ. That so many Christians hold opinions contrary to the clearly revealed will of the Creator in these areas is not just alarming. It reveals a church in a crisis of righteousness.

The voice and influence of the church in our culture is negligible because we stand for nothing. And when we do, the angry froth coming off the lips of self-righteous and self-appointed leaders of the Right blinds the eyes and closes the ears of a public more concerned about sound bytes than truth. Craven compares the reactive response of religious leaders today to throwing “Christian hand grenades.”

...occasionally entering culture to present our one-sided arguments for the truth of Christianity and then retreating to our churches as soon as we’re done. Being missional means we act more like a rescue force that is determined to stay until are rescued than like a commando unit that occasionally enters hostile territory to harass the enemy.

Craven provides considerate, loving and wise counsel for churches and Christians who would seek to be a city on a hill once again. Our light must shine. Our works must glorify the Father. We must think again.

His chapter on postmodernism is particularly good. In the past 10 years, Christian leaders have obsessed over how to do ministry in a postmodern age. Many have made money off of books, speaking engagements and the like, claiming to offer and help churches and ministries understand postmodernism. It has almost developed into hysteria. Craven offers instructive counsel, “But upon closer examination, postmodernism is overstated concerning its impact on the culture: Modernity remains in my mind a much more influential impulse.”

He quotes Dick Keyes of the L’Abri Fellowship in Massachusetts in which postmodernism is compared to a flood whose waters have receded: “While the water may be gone, the damage nonetheless remains.”

His assertions on how to dialogue and respond to those who hold a postmodern world view (and a modernistic worldview) are a much-needed corrective to the postmodern hype and hysteria currently being digested in Christianity.

It was, for all intents and purposes, a declaration of war against God’s revealed moral standards. The sexual revolution was the beachhead from which the final assault of God’s absolute moral truth was launched. The battle to redefine sexual ethics has become the ground out of which springs the cultural rejection of moral absolutes and ultimately, I believe, Christianity in America.

It’s not just about prudish Christianity saying sex outside marriage is sinful. It is by its very nature a brutal rape of truth itself. Is there a revealed truth outside of our own preferences? Is there a standard for morality? Or can our behavior be individually determined by what leads to our “happiness?” We are not looking at the slippery slope. We are on it, and we may even be looking back up at it – flat on our backs.

The church has capitulated in its embrace and defense of truth and God’s revealed will. In the name of love and tolerance, we have allowed overtly sinful and offensive behavior in our churches and even in our private lives. A compromised church offers nothing to the world worthy of emulating.

Craven is not afraid to take on Hugh Hefner’s legacy in the book, nor is he hesitant to deal with the societal taboo of homosexuality and its causes. Craven offers scientific studies and other proofs that dispute the pseudo-science offered up by agenda-ized media and political sources that would try to persuade people that homosexuality is genetic. In short, people aren’t born gay, he points out.

Even if homosexuality was inborn (and it’s not), Craven urges readers to consider the logic of claiming the morality of something that is inborn. “Everything from alcoholism, obesity, violence and adultery, according to Time magazine, may be in our genes. If that were the case, would we then say that these tendencies are morally acceptable because they may have their roots in biology?”

...that does not necessarily mean normal. There are a number of defects or handicaps resulting from disruptions in the genetic development, which are inborn, but we would not call them normal for that reason alone. So why should we be compelled to call homosexuality normal, even if it were inborn? Inborn tendencies towards certain behaviors do not make those behaviors normal.

For churches and Christian influencers seeking to understand how to respond to the all-out attack on the revealed will and desires of a holy God, Craven offers surprisingly gracious and loving counsel as he deals with such topics of polarizing viewpoints.

Please, go buy 5 copies of this book now for your Christian friends and leaders. Start a reading group and give yourself two months to be done. You’ll be glad you did. And the church in the West may begin to take some steps toward a godly and redemptive response to our culture once again as Christ’s followers stop blending with society and start transforming it once again.

Tim Challies has long been one of my favorite Christian bloggers. On top of being an excellent designer, he’s a great practical theologian. He’s not afraid to write lengthy, in-depth entries where most of the blog world has succumbed to short “sound-byte” type content in order to keep skimmers. He wants thinkers, real readers. Not those who might scan his material for whatever their current itch is.

I was excited last year when he revealed his work in progress was on the topic of spiritual discernment. It’s a topic near and dear to my heart, and after finally getting around to reading it last month (my mom ordered it for me for Christmas), I was not disappointed.

He pulls no punches in lambasting the Western church for having a childish faith in Christ rather than a to-be-commended childlike faith in Christ. In the first chapter, he takes to task those who would denigrate “theology” as being for seminary-trained, boorish, and argumentative types. Rather, he states unequivocally, theology is for every Christian.

Good theology helps us all to know and understand the difference between good and evil, right and wrong, left and right. Only by knowing truth as revealed in God’s Word are we prepared to avoid know and identify falsehood.

In firm but loving tones, Challies lays out the challenge of discernment for today’s church. He says we must become discerning because there is more falsehood and half-truths than ever before wafting through the airs of Christianity, competing for our attention.

Whether it’s the latest faith-healer, prosperity teacher, multi-mansion owning pastor or stadium-crusader, how is the church to know who are teaching truth and who are masquerading as shepherds when they are actually spiritual wolves?

[Christians] forsake biblical reason in favor of feelings, voices, visions, or other subjective means of supposedly knowing God. This is a deadly error, for spiritual discernment must be founded upon God’s objective revelation of Himself in Scripture.

When we think wrong thoughts about God we soon serve Him in wrong ways as well. We must get our theology right!

I was not disappointed with Tim’s first effort at publication. In fact, it’s destined to become a must-read in this crucial area of church health. He puts forth such a compelling argument for the urgent recovery of biblical discernment that I would encourage every believer – but especially every Christian leader to read it.

We do indeed live in a day where folks are eager to have preachers, teachers and flamboyant personalities simply affirm how they’re already living. Paul had powerful words for his protege Timothy who would be called upon to continue communicating and demonstrating the Gospel in a society much like ours:

I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.
2 Timothy 4.1-4

Except for a couple of pages at the back of the book, I thoroughly enjoyed Yancey’s book that seeks to bring Jesus “down to earth” -again. He does not attempt to reincarnate Christ. Rather, he deftly gives us a grounded perspective of Jesus without the frills of accumulated church history or 20th century evangelical hype.

Yancey brings considerable resources to supplement his work, probably from his vast range of contacts and readings as editor for Christianity Today magazine. He remains one of my favorite Christian authors. Few books can touch his Where is God When It Hurts? and Fearfully and Wonderfully Made (which he co-wrote with Dr. Henry Brand).

If you’re looking for a book that will help you get beyond assumptions and presumptions about Christ to simple observations based on what his life revealed from the pages of the New Testament, this book will do that. It will also begin to warm your heart if you’ve grown somewhat cold.

It’s a wonderful encouragement for those who have grown distant from Christianity because of Christians. It reminds us once again that we all fall short of the glory of God as revealed in Christ. No church and no group of Christians can claim exclusive control of Christ. He will not be boxed up and merchandised. He is God.

And finally, I like how Yancey reminds us how “other” Jesus really is/was:

In many respects I would find an unresurrected Jesus easier to accept. Easter makes Him dangerous. Because of Easter I have to listen to His extravagant claims and can no longer pick and choose from His sayings. Moreover, Easter means He must be loose out there somewhere.

I keep waiting for Andy Stanley to write a flop. So far, he’s exceeded my expectations. Visioneering is probably one of the best books on vision out there, and this entry into the world of practical communication skills will be sure to help innumerable people.

I would sure add it to every preacher’s reading list for this year – especially those who truly want to connect with current culture and younger generations. They may discover that implementing some of Stanley’s suggestions will not just enable them to communicate for change but that it will also refresh and renew their calling to communicate as well.

It’s an easy and compelling read. The first half of the book is essentially a modern parable that illustrates all the principles that Stanley will elaborate on in the second half.

The “Seven Keys to Irresistible Communication” are:
Determine your goal.
Pick a point.
Create a map.
Internalize the message.
Engage your audience.
Find your voice.
Start all over.

Yawn… right? Wrong. While the bullet points listed above seem like tired, old maxims, Stanley’s comments bear digesting. So, just because I’ve shared them with you (heck, they’re on the inside of the book jacket too) doesn’t mean that you know what’s going on.

Again, if you want to communicate for change, you will probably have to change how you communicate. That’s what I found, and while I was encouraged by how closely my teaching style was affirmed in the book, I still found many areas that I really need to work on.

This is usually the goal of the preacher or teacher who methodically and systematically teaches verse by verse through books of the Bible. This is the perfect approach for the communicator whose goal is to simply explain what the Bible means.

This goal was behind the “three points and an application” approach to preaching. The multipoint sermon or teaching outline is a great approach for the communicator whose goal is to teach people the Bible… Preachers who embrace this goal often use alliteration and multiple illustrations… the primary concern is… Did I cover the material?

Spiritual maturity is gauged by application not contemplation… Preaching for life change requires far less information and more application. Less explanation and more inspiration.

However, what I’ve found in my years of preaching and teaching (and I’m no Andy Stanley, so take this with a grain of salt) is that my blatant attempts to narrow down what a passage is saying may often not be what the Lord really wants to say to His people. It’s not a bad approach, mind you. After all, a good communicator will prepare something. Who’s to say anything that we prepare is the right thing? Only prayer and sensitivity to the Spirit.

Yet, even with that caveat, I would urge every teacher/preacher/speaker to try organizing your messages in such a way occasionally and see how your congregation responds. Those who would stay with what they consider to be “tried and true” may later discover they were only dispensing information rather than communicating for change.

Let me just say it outright. Don’t buy this book.

It’s one of the dullest, most uninspirational leadership books you’ll come across. Truly. I ran out of toothpicks propping my eyes open with them.

However, with that said… the StrengthsFinder Leadership Assessment tool is an intriguing tool. After taking it and sharing the results with my wife, she kept saying, “Yes, Yes, Yes!” in response to at least three of my results.

The overall premise of the book and Strengths-Based Leadership is simply that… lead from your strengths. The tool helps you discover your strengths and learn to adapt those and develop those to whatever job or profession you’re currently in.

The authors have done extensive research spanning years to develop this tool, and their observations and conclusions seem to ring true to general human experience: If you try to focus on shoring up your weaknesses, you will always only be an average performer. The real key to excellence is finding and developing and operating out of our your real, innate strengths.

These conclusions are extremely encouraging and challenging. For one, few people are ever able to work in a true strength-based organization. The book offers suggestions for leading your existing company or group toward that goal, but so much rides on the identification and development of exceptional managers that I wonder how many organizations – even when knowing these principles – will ever be able to change without outside consultation and professional direction.

Therein lies the weakness in the approach. The authors’ conclusions might be revolutionary; however, the implementation of the principles are simply nigh unto impossible. You would need the perfect storm of managerial talent, organizational leadership, executive humility, and employee teachability to pull off such a massive ethos transition.

And let’s not forget that in the middle of wanting to change the way your organization treats its people and uses them, it still has to focus on its prime objectives. Strength-Based Leadership would definitely increase and radically transform the organization from morale to productivity. However, getting there is going to be exceptionally challenging.

Especially if all the material is as dull as this book was.

Like I said, the tool is great; the supporting material is zzzzzzz. I would suggest that you go straight to the StrengthsFinder website to take the inventory there, but it appears that they’ve cleverly required you to buy one of their exceptionally dull books to take the inventory. Good luck with that.

For what it’s worth, here are my Strengths, as identified by the test:
Activator
Strategic
Intellection
Belief
Achiever

Activator
“When can we start?” This is a recurring question in your life. You are impatient for action. You may concede that analysis has its uses or that debate and discussion can occasionally yield some valuable insights, but deep down you know that only action is real. Only action can make things happen. Only action leads to performance. Once a decision is made, you cannot not act. Others may worry that “there are still some things we don’t know,” but this doesn’t seem to slow you. If the decision has been made to go across town, you know that the fastest way to get there is to go stoplight to stoplight. You are not going to sit around waiting until all the lights have turned green. Besides, in your view, action and thinking are not opposites. In fact, guided by your Activator theme, you believe that action is the best device for learning. You make a decision, you take action, you look at the result, and you learn. This learning informs your next action and your next. How can you grow if you have nothing to react to? Well, you believe you can’t. You must put yourself out there. You must take the next step. It is the only way to keep your thinking fresh and informed. The bottom line is this: You know you will be judged not by what you say, not by what you think, but by what you get done. This does not frighten you. It pleases you.

Strategic
The Strategic theme enables you to sort through the clutter and find the best route. It is not a skill that can be taught. It is a distinct way of thinking, a special perspective on the world at large. This perspective allows you to see patterns where others simply see complexity. Mindful of these patterns, you play out alternative scenarios, always asking, “What if this happened? Okay, well what if this happened?” This recurring question helps you see around the next corner. There you can evaluate accurately the potential obstacles. Guided by where you see each path leading, you start to make selections. You discard the paths that lead nowhere. You discard the paths that lead straight into resistance. You discard the paths that lead into a fog of confusion. You cull and make selections until you arrive at the chosen path—your strategy. Armed with your strategy, you strike forward. This is your Strategic theme at work: “What if?” Select. Strike.

Intellection
You like to think. You like mental activity. You like exercising the “muscles” of your brain, stretching them in multiple directions. This need for mental activity may be focused; for example, you may be trying to solve a problem or develop an idea or understand another person’s feelings. The exact focus will depend on your other strengths. On the other hand, this mental activity may very well lack focus. The theme of Intellection does not dictate what you are thinking about; it simply describes that you like to think. You are the kind of person who enjoys your time alone because it is your time for musing and reflection. You are introspective. In a sense you are your own best companion, as you pose yourself questions and try out answers on yourself to see how they sound. This introspection may lead you to a slight sense of discontent as you compare what you are actually doing with all the thoughts and ideas that your mind conceives. Or this introspection may tend toward more pragmatic matters such as the events of the day or a conversation that you plan to have later. Wherever it leads you, this mental hum is one of the constants of your life.

Belief
If you possess a strong Belief theme, you have certain core values that are enduring. These values vary from one person to another, but ordinarily your Belief theme causes you to be family-oriented, altruistic, even spiritual, and to value responsibility and high ethics—both in yourself and others. These core values affect your behavior in many ways. They give your life meaning and satisfaction; in your view, success is more than money and prestige. They provide you with direction, guiding you through the temptations and distractions of life toward a consistent set of priorities. This consistency is the foundation for all your relationships. Your friends call you dependable. “I know where you stand,” they say. Your Belief makes you easy to trust. It also demands that you find work that meshes with your values. Your work must be meaningful; it must matter to you. And guided by your Belief theme it will matter only if it gives you a chance to live out your values.

Achiever
Your Achiever theme helps explain your drive. Achiever describes a constant need for achievement. You feel as if every day starts at zero. By the end of the day you must achieve something tangible in order to feel good about yourself. And by “every day” you mean every single day—workdays, weekends, vacations. No matter how much you may feel you deserve a day of rest, if the day passes without some form of achievement, no matter how small, you will feel dissatisfied. You have an internal fire burning inside you. It pushes you to do more, to achieve more. After each accomplishment is reached, the fire dwindles for a moment, but very soon it rekindles itself, forcing you toward the next accomplishment. Your relentless need for achievement might not be logical. It might not even be focused. But it will always be with you. As an Achiever you must learn to live with this whisper of discontent. It does have its benefits. It brings you the energy you need to work long hours without burning out. It is the jolt you can always count on to get you started on new tasks, new challenges. It is the power supply that causes you to set the pace and define the levels of productivity for your work group. It is the theme that keeps you moving.

Victory Over Tempation is a companion book to Bruce Wilkinson’s study Personal Holiness in Times of Temptation. I’ve not been through the latter, but one of our collegiate small groups will be using it as their curriculum this spring.

Victory is a powerful collection of short writings directed to mainly to men. It includes writers such as Patrick Morley, Billy Graham, Howard Hendricks and others. Each chapter is only 3-4 pages long and as such, are easily digested as devotionals.

I’d highly recommend the book as it is deeply challenging and helpfully practical. Plus, it’s an issue of integrity and honesty that Christian men need to consistently address in their daily lives.

I was pretty excited when approved by Thomas Nelson Publishers to be one of their book reviewers. I recently wrote about Holding Fast as part of that program.

When I went to select my next book for review, “pickins” were slim, and I selected House of Dark Shadows. It’s targeted toward young adult readers, but the first chapter both horrified and captivated me. An unknown and unspeakable creature was carting off the mother of a family on his shoulders into the dark recesses of a mysterious house and the battered, onlooking family was powerless to stop it.

I was hooked. I continued to pore through the pages of Liparulo’s first book in the Dream King series quickly. At times, I felt he was borrowing too much from a certain tale involving a lion, a witch and a wardrobe. At others, the dialogue was a little too trite.

Add to that the almost obsessive use of current pop culture (mentioning Xbox 360 games like Halo 3, movies like Aliens and Then There Were None, etc.), and I got the impression the author was trying too hard to connect with a younger audience. Just tell the story, I kept thinking. Don’t try to show us that you know what’s “hip” today. After all, these references will date this series quickly.

However, as I continued to read, the story line finally began to stand on its own. Indeed, in the closing chapters, my thought of not progressing on to the next novel changed to wanting to order it immediately. He does a wonderful job leaving you hanging, wanting more at the end of the book.

I’d not recommend the Dream King series for those wanting more substance. As I mentioned, it does seem a little trivial at times, and some of the plot unfolds a little too quickly. If, however, you’re looking for an easy-to-read, fun, and absorbing tale, you can’t go wrong picking it up. It has some dark overtones that I’m curious to see how they resolve in future books, especially considering it’s a Christian author.

Even more curious, there’s a Reading Group Guide at the end of the book in which you can ask questions for a group. The questions seem more directed, however, to simply eliciting opinion than leading the group to any overall observations or conclusions of substance.

Although I’m only giving this book 3 stars out of 5, it is definitely worth a read for folks wanting to know why the “church” seems to have lost its task and mission. Reggie McNeal is the director of leadership development for the South Carolina Baptist Convention, and honestly, he’s so much funnier in person than he comes across in this book that I wondered if someone wrote this for him from one of his series.

He’s extremely provocative in the book as he seeks to challenge church leaders to realize they can longer rest on their pulpit chairs and expect the kingdom of God to be built in our culture. It’s a strong word for church leaders that I often found myself eagerly nodding my head to. At other times, I wanted to duck for cover.

My goal is to provoke and to frame conversations that lead to action, risk, and to rediscovery of mission.

Please hear what I’m not saying. The death of the church culture as we know it will not be the death of the church.

2. We must shift from church growth to kingdom growth.
McNeal hammers this home, and it’s perhaps one of his best chapters. Church leaders can no longer obsess over growing their attendance, enrollment, giving, etc. It’s not about what’s inside the walls. It’s about extending the kingdom of God into society.

3. We must release God’s people in a new Reformation.
He indicates that the Protestant Reformation was a watershed event for turning the church upside down, but that much of it simply rejected church hierarchy and structure while also providing solid biblical doctrine.

However, the new Reformation must involve getting God’s people to embrace and receive the Great Commission as their commission. Too many church attenders expect paid professionals to do the work of the ministry. However, that rightly belongs to the entire bride of Christ, not just the leaders that God has set over them.

4. We must return to spiritual formation.
Absolutely. I was screaming loudest thoughout this chapter. It’s not about adding more useless, activity-laden programs to the church – whether adult discipleship, kids or youth ministries, or family activity centers. It’s about helping lead people to maturity in Christ and sending them out on mission for Him. Yes, we should be meeting needs, but no, we should not be creating religious clubs that simply offer religious activities for good, moral people.

The better (and biblical) approach to the future involves prayer and preparation, not prediction and planning.

6. We must embrace and encourage the rise of apostolic leadership.
This actually was another great chapter. He urges churches to do all they can to allow their leaders to focus on their strengths rather than drain them by throwing the whole plate of responsibilities in their lap. When a leader has to manage buildings, parking lots, cleaning, teams, and everything that operates within the church, he/she eventually burns out. All that other stuff distracts them from accomplishing and focusing on the areas of their giftedness and what they love doing.

By relieving leaders of tasks and duties that they do not need to supervise, a church actually releases their leader to lead, guide and be more effective in the areas that they are gifted.

McNeal’s subtitle for the book is “Six Tough Questions for the Church.” It’s much more descriptive than the title, and all six are questions that churches should be asking.

In 2006, avid mountain climber Kelly James and two friends planned a climb of Mt. Hood outside Portland, Oregon just before Christmas. Holding Fast is the story of this ill-fated climb that only resulted in one body being recovered from the mountain after a “perfect storm” prevented rescuers from reaching James in time.

It’s a deeply moving story of a family that shifts overnight into emergency mode in order to try to bring a husband, dad, and friend safely off the peak of one of our nations most challenging summits. The author of the book is James’ wife, Karen, and she paints an incredible narrative in short, terse sentences that lead you through the book in 2-3 sittings.

Seeing the rescue effort from the families’ perspectives is a powerful reminder that behind the news and media saturation in events like the 2006 rescue effort are real people who are thrust into surreal events. Holding Fast reveals a humbling portrait of humble, God-trusting people who cast all their hopes on their Creator and are subsequently devastated.

Author Karen James opens her heart to the reader in rare form allowing one to experience the tragedy anew but with great insight and personal investment.

I vaguely remembered the series of events two years ago, but I found myself more engaged in the story. Knowing that Kelley and his friends didn’t make it off the mountain did not detract from the power of the story. Rather, the mysterious things revealed and “coincidences” that Karen shares during the story are enough to leave one shaking their head in at least curiosity, and at most, awe.

James also is candid about her grief process. I was uncomfortable at times with her deep absorption into her husband. At times, she came across as a person who had no life apart from him, whose identity was bound up solely in her husband. Even her faith seemed to be dependent on her husband’s.

I noticed throughout the book that although she referred several times to their home church – Fellowship Bible Church of Dallas, an excellent, biblically-centered church – she only referred to God as “God.” In fact, I grew increasingly bothered by that – not because it’s wrong, but I have always been disturbed by the generic use of “God” in our society. It’s safe. By using the word “God” you can refer to just about any vague deity and not offend anyone.

I am very proud to say that I was not the greatest love of his life. That honor belongs to Jesus Christ.

In what I’m sure is her first book, Karen James has penned a spell-binding encounter that weaves sorrow and joy, soaring hope and crushing devastation into one tale.

I don’t know how much perspective a person can have only a year out of such a devastating and grievous event, but the author allows us to enter into her journey – up to August 2007. The final two pages, in my opinion, may show us that the God that was referred to throughout the book was bringing Karen up a mountain to meet Him while He was taking Kelley off of another to be with Him.