Books for February 2012

Revolution in World Missions by K. P. Yohannan
Awhile ago, I was given this book and have been eager ever since to read it. The book tracts the author's story on how his ministry, Gospel for Asia, was started. In this sense, it is an autobiography work and reads quick and enjoyable. Gospel for Asia is doing great work raising up native missionaries and sending them out all over South Asia. Their focus on preaching the Gospel to a lost and dying world was refreshing to hear. However, overall, the best word for author's methodology for missions in this book is unbalanced. For example, the author is thankful for the Western missionaries were sent to parts of Asia and began great works, but now that the church has been born, he strongly urges no Western missionaries to come and let the native Christians to do the work, but we need Western money so send that over. Or, the author stands vehemently against the Western church's big church buildings and material possessions, yet he feeds upon the church's wealth to support his ministry. This is unbiblical and unbalanced.  I give the 6 out of 10 stars.


Leaders who Last by Dave Kraft
Paul writes at the end of his ministry, "I have fought the fight, I have kept the faith, and I have finished the race" Most leaders today cannot say this at the end of their ministry for only 30% of ministry leaders who begin last to the end. As I am entering into ministry, I want to be one of those 30% if the Lord's allows. This drew me to read this book. The best gift the author gives is the title of the book. The book is a combination of some Bible verses and business principles. I felt that there could have been so much more from the author as he has been in the ministry for over 40 years. To give Kraft the benefit of the doubt, this was his first book he had written. I think if I knew Dave and learned from him in person (rather than reading this book), I would have bought more into the meat of his methodology for being a leader. I give the book 5 out of 10 stars.

The Bruised Reed by Richard Sibbs
A best seller in its time (1600s), The Bruised Reed offers sweet grace to a weary and sin-bruised soul reminding me "that there is more mercy in Christ than sin in us". It is hard to capture Sibbs' exposition of grace from Isaiah 42:1-3 in any brief way. Full of vivid imagery coupled with solid, Biblical truth for the mind and "sweet inducements and divine encouragements" for the affections comforted my soul. The language is dated making it harder to understand, but worth it. I foresee re-reading Sibbs' work again and again. I give the book 9 out of 10 stars.

Two Books for March

The Trellis and the Vine by Colin Marshall and Tony Payne

Gospel ministry is about people, not programs. It is about making healthy disciples, not growing churches numerically. And yet, programs and structures in a ministry are necessary for gospel growth. In the book The Trellis and the Vine, the authors lay out a simple metaphor of a church's ministry, a trellis and a vine, to help pastors and leaders of churches put into proper perspective ministry which makes disciple-making disciples. The trellis of a church is the supporting structure. It is the "management, finances, infrastructure, organization, governance" of the church (p. 8). Though important, even invaluable, trellis work won't produce disciples nor is it the goal of a church. Growing the vine is. That is, the goal of the church is growing healthy disciples who love Jesus, trust in His Gospel, and follow Him in every area of their lives who make other disciples. This is where vine work comes in. Every Christian is a vine worker. Vine work is "a Christian brings a truth from God's word to someone else, praying that God would make that word bear fruit through the inward working of the Spirit" (p. 39). From this metaphor, the authors present a ministry model which is both biblical and helpful.

The Holy Spirit by Sinclair Ferguson

Throughout the ages, the writings of Christian theologians on all sorts of topics of theology and the like are voluminous. Yet, the word "sparse" describes what they have written directly on the person and work of the third member of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit.

My guest in why there has been such little attention to the Holy Spirit is that they foresaw Ferguson's work on the topic and said, "What could I have added?" That is, tongue and cheek of course since Ferguson himself is the living ghost of Puritan John Owen, a voluminous writer himself on the Holy Spirit, and that Ferguson's work draws heavily on Calvin, who has been called "the theologian of the Holy Spirit." The book is no less marvelous in all account even if you do not agree with him on every point (which I don't). In fact, I would say that it might be the best theological work which I have ever read on one particular subject.

With all this praise, why is The Holy Spirit by Ferguson so good and worthy of reading? There is the brevity of discussion on all matter important to the Holy Spirit. He explains or concisely touches everything concerning the Spirit. There is the constant exegesis from the Scripture to clear doctrine and articulation of truth. I like books which take larger portions of Scripture and walk their way through them as they explain these awesome truths of God and His world. There is the understanding of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit in a biblical, historical and redemptive way. That is, Ferguson takes in consideration both the forest of biblical themes and the trees of biblical texts. There is the Gospel of Christ work by the Spirit at the center of this work. On almost every page gospel themes are proclaimed and loved. And finally, there is the lay out and flow of this work is creative and he is a great writer (at least for a theologian).

Reading Material

I (Mandy) spent a lot of time reading this year...and I have Lydia to thank. She is newly weaned, but in 2010 I spent many many hours nursing her. And what do you do when you don't have TV? What do you do to keep yourself awake (and therefore not drop the baby) at 3 am. You read, well, at least I do. So, for fun I kept a list of my 2010 reading list...for your reading pleasure!

1. Feminine Appeal (again): great book for wives and moms

2. Shopping for Time: also by Carolyn Mahaney. Coupled this with her "girl talk" blog and got some good ideas for personal retreats and stewardship

3. The Bruised Reed: what's a year without a Puritan book?

4. Prodigal God
5. Counterfeit Gods: both of these are by Tim Keller. I really recommend #4. #5 is good, but wasn't as applicable to me at the time

6. Mimosa: Amy Carmichael's memoir...it was OK...

7. Orthodoxy (GK Chesterton): He rants about the Reformation a bit (he's Catholic) but has some really good thoughts about God. Worth reading slowly

8. Reflections on the Psalms (CS Lewis): should have done this while studying the Psalter...

9. Grace (Spurgeon): quotable

10. Future Grace (Piper): Good...need to read it again though

11. The Introvert Advantage: I learned a lot about my husband and most of my good friends. For some reason I (extrovert-extreme) have been blessed with introverts around me that I don't understand. This book is great...not Christian, but good sociology.

12. Shepherding a Child's Heart: Have a feeling this will be a yearly read

13. The Cross and Christian Ministry (DA Carson): very good. I like how Carson writes.

14. Jesus: Made in America
15. Why We Love the Church
16. Same Kind of Different as Me: I was on a popular Christian reading kick, but #16 was worth it. It's a story of two friends (true story) and basically their intertwined testimonies. Well-written.

17. Reason for God: Keller's apologetic manual of sorts...really helpful

18. Freakonomics: hilarious and interesting

19. Dug Down Deep: Joshua Harris' book that's not about dating. I liked the promos for this book better than the book itself...although it wasn't bad.

20. When Helping Hurts: READ THIS...enough said

21. A Lesson Before Dying: Good ol' English class fiction
22. Wise Blood: Really like Flannery O'Connor

23. Super-Freakonomics: not as good as the prequel, but worth a read

24. Francis Schaeffer's Work Vol. 1: I plan to read all his works, but it may take a while

25. Nine Lives: a survey of interesting biographies of Indians revolving around faith. If you are interested in India or other kinda-crazy religions read this book

26. The Lacuna
27. The Bean Trees: Barbara Kingsolver (#26, #27) is awesome. Still her best is the "poisonwood bible" but both of these are good stories

28. Heaven (Alcorn): a great great book on the theology of where we will live someday and where some will really want to be

29-350: Kids' books read to Lydia. I'm just estimating here!