Ministry Book Review

Many Christian communities today are applying a renewed focus on the spiritual disciplines. A growing list of books are being published to help educate evangelicals in these often neglected practices. Douglas LeBlanc takes a look at tithing in his book Tithing: Test Me in This, the seventh volume in Thomas Nelson’s Ancient Practices series. In the book, LeBlanc interviews clergy and ministry leaders, discovering their personal experiences with tithing. The subjects come from very diverse backgrounds, including an Orthodox rabbi, liberal Episcopalians, evangelical pastors, and a famous Christian author (Randy Alcorn).

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Over the last 20 years, a growing trend in comedy is to make humorous observations on everyday stuff (think Jerry Seinfeld, Ray Romano, and Kevin James). Jonathan Acuff, Creator of StuffChristiansLike.net, provides a similar style of social commentary, with a focus on evangelical Christianity. I have been an admirer of his work for the past 2 years, and when I heard Jon was writing a book, I was ecstatic. His book, Stuff Christians Like, provides the same wit and humor found on his site, but in a smaller and more portable version. (more…)

In this episode, I look at easy to understand Bible resources. These resources provide lay Bible teachers with a brief overview of Bible passages.

(This is the first episode of a weekly video series, in which I will provide a quick review of several resources).

The Power of a Praying Husband, by bestselling author Stormie Omartian, is a book aimed at helping men develop more focused prayers for their wives. In this book, Omartian challenges husbands to blanket their wives with prayer, covering every aspect of their lives. Each chapter covers a separate area of need, specific requests in that area to pray for, and a sample prayer. Suggested areas for which to pray include her emotions, her friendships, her future, and her trust.

When I first received it, I was hesitant about a book for men written by a woman. Would it be too critical on men? Would it sound like it was written for women? Some may disagree with me, but I think the book worked fine. Stormie provides helpful insight into what a woman is thinking and how best to pray for a woman. Each chapter includes a brief section by a husband (either Stormie’s or one of her friend’s husband), providing an anecdote related to the area of prayer. (more…)

The Expanded Bible: New Testament is the latest attempt by Christian book publishers to make the Bible more accessible for people to study. Based on the New Century Version, The Expanded Bible is a functional-equivalent translation, emphasizing on readability over a more literal translation. This version is helped by the big name scholars they enlisted: Tremper Longman III, Mark L. Strauss, and Daniel Taylor. Translation aside, this Bible’s most notable feature is the formatting of the text.

Instead of placing alternate translations and cross references below and to the side of the biblical text, this version puts the notes inline with the biblical text (similar to the Amplified Bible). The biblical text is bold, with [explanations in brackets], and a host of additional letters signifying the type of explanation: “or” for alternate readings, “L” for what the Greek literally says, and “T” for traditional (KJV) readings. (more…)