It is a question I get asked with fair frequency: What book would you recommend for a new Christian? If someone has just made a profession of faith in Christ, what would you suggest they read? The answer changes with the times because the times continue to change, so while there are some issues that…
No church can survive solely upon the labors of its pastors. No church can thrive when the expectation is that all ministry must be formal and must originate from the front of the room. No church can remain healthy when it falls to the elders to give and the members to consume. Rather, the work…
The Trellis and the Vine by Colin Marshall and Tony Payne was a surprise bestseller. Coming from a small Australian publisher, it made its way into Mark Dever’s hands and he declared it “the best book I’ve read on the nature of church ministry.” The rest, as they say, is history. Pastors and church leaders…
For several months now Aileen and I have been pursuing physical fitness. While neither of us was horribly out of shape, neither were we nearly as fit and healthy as we wanted to be. This summer we made the decision that we would join a health club and, for at least a time, would recruit…
Catechism. Even worse, catechesis. These were words that once struck fear into my heart, or if not fear, dread at least. Whatever the emotion, I have had an uneven history with catechisms. I was catechized as a child and as a teen. This involved memorizing questions and answers from the Heidelberg Catechism, then standing before…
David Platt’s Radical was one of those rare books that catapults a first-time author straight to top of the charts. For two years it was a fixture on the lists of bestsellers and even today it remains a top seller in the Christian ranks. Radical was a call for Christians to escape the doldrums of…
Since the release of Crazy Love in 2008, Francis Chan has become one of the consistently bestselling Christian authors. Crazy Love, The Forgotten God and Erasing Hell have all made their mark, tallying millions of sales. His most recent book, Multiply, was released in November. Written with Mark Beuving, it begins with a statement that…
It is my habit to post some kind of an original article on Monday and then a book review on Tuesday. This week I am going to reverse the order since the book review in some ways feeds into what I would like to say tomorrow. So bear with me. I have not read too…
Having read The Fallacy Detective, written by Hans and Nathaniel Bluedorn, I turned immediately to the second title in the Christian Logic series. The Thinking Toolbox is “like a toolbox – full of all kinds of tools you can use for different thinking tasks” (from the back cover). Like its predecessor, it is self-teaching and…