The Voice Bible: A Review

My latest BookSneeze offering was The Voice Bible from Thomas Nelson.  After previously only releasing a New Testament version and one of the Psalms, the Ecclesia Bible Society has finally released a version of the whole scripture.  If you are unfamiliar with the translation of The Voice, it presents scripture in a narrative form like a play.  It is super easy to read and the translators add words and phrases to keep the story clear and moving along.  I have often used The Voice Bible in public readings and in personal study.  I would highly recommend it for anyone looking for a new and fresh perspective on scripture.

Hometown Prophet: A Review

My latest Speakeasy title was Hometown Prophet by Jeff Fulmer.  It is a novel set in Tennessee about a man who begins to have dreams about upcoming events.  Upon announcing his second dream in church and it subsequently coming true, the lead character finds himself neck deep in chaos from the local media and former friends wanting a piece of the new prophet.  I did find it interesting that Fulmer made the lead character out to be a normal guy.  He is not religious by many standards and would be the last person that most would consider to be the voice of God, but I guess that's the point.  It seems that Fulmer is really out to force the reader to reconsider whom God might use and how.  The story is good and kept my attention, but I think that was mostly due to knowing the geography and some of the news headlines from the past few years.  All in all it is a good read and I would recommend it.

Love Does: A Review

My latest selection from BookSneeze is "Love Does" by Bob Goff.  This book is a memoirs of sorts in how love has taken root and played itself out in the life of the author.  For Goff, the purpose of love in our life is to spring us to action, and in the pages of this book there is plenty of action.  From cross continent trips with his family to meet heads of state, trips to Uganda for the purpose of fighting childhood slavery and 10 year old adventures with his children are just a taste of the many ways in which love has manifested itself in Goff's life.  This book is essentially a collection of stories with a scriptural tie in at the end of each chapter.  But through reading this book I believe that Goff is more than just a good storyteller, he is a disciple of Christ and he is simply sharing what that looks like in his life.  The author is not simply sharing his stories for our amusement, but to help inspire what love might do in and through our lives.  Goff is trying to help ignite our imaginations to where the Spirit might lead those who are actually willing to go to the ends of the earth.  I would highly recommend this book.  Read it and be inspired to open up your life to what love will do in your life.

The Jesus We Missed: A Review

Let me first say that I received this book for free in exchange for a review from Booksneeze.  In this book the author seeks to paint a picture of the humanity of Jesus through the stories that are found in scripture.  Upon reading the title of this book I half expected to get a dense theological work on the historical Jesus, but instead this book is an easy to read and well written look at what scripture has to say about the humanity of Jesus.  I did not feel as if any of the information in the book was new, it seemed to be as if a magnifying glass was placed to certain aspects of the story of Jesus found in the gospels.  I do think that what is presented here does force the reader to look through the theological lens of what it means to say that Jesus was human, and in turn how that speaks to our own humanness.  I would recommend this book especially if it were read in a small or study group setting because it would seem to lend itself to good discussions.

Viral: A Review

Leonard Sweet's lastest book is an attempt to understand the current cultural phenomena that is found in social media.  This is essentially a look at the modern and postmodern mindsets and lifestyles, but Sweet refers to them as Gutenbergers and Googlers respectively.  I felt that Sweet did a fair job of defining them both and did not take a side with one being right over the other.  Instead Sweet goes into this with the understanding that in order for the church to survive it will have to take the Googlers culture very seriously.  The meat of the book is centered around dissecting the Google culture which he does using the acronym TGIF (Twitter, Google, Iphone, Facebook).  It seems that this book is targeted to those in the Gutenberg culture in order to become more familiar with the Google culture and in addition to understand how the church can use the tools available to minister within the culture.  I felt it was very well written and easy to understand.  I would recommend this book very highly.  

Click here to download and read Chapter 1.  

I received this book for free for review from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group.  

I Am a Follower: A Review

My latest offering from the Booksneeze bloggers program is "I Am A Follower" by Leonard Sweet.  In this book Sweet is taking on the leadership culture that is dominating the culture of the church and asking if this is what the church is to be about.  As you might can guess from the title he is seeking to call us away from leadership models and into what he terms followership.  Instead of seeing ourselves as leaders he claims that we are to become first followers.  The reason being that much of the leadership culture that is present within the church can lead us away from following after our own whims instead of listening to the Spirit and following after Jesus.  After an opening section that makes the case for followership, the book is then broken up into three subsequent sections that take a deeper look at Jesus being the way, the truth and the life for those that follow after him.

I will have to admit that I loved this book.  As someone who has worked in the church for the past ten years and has been indoctrinated in the leadership culture, although with a great measure of discomfort, I am happy that someone is finally speaking up.  I only wish that this book had been written ten years ago to save me so much heartache and to help put some of my own thoughts into a more coherent form.  I felt that this book was a very easy read and was clear and understandable.  I think that this book is accessible to all audiences, but I think its biggest impact would be had on pastors and lay people who are in charge of ministries.  There will be a measure of controversy surrounding this book as I know of many a pastor who have sold out to the leadership paradigm to the point where they would turn a deaf ear to Sweet's message in this book.  But there is an important message here for the church and those who have been called by God to be the first followers that help to point others to the way, the truth and the life that Jesus is calling us to live.  Thank you Leonard Sweet for reminding me.

December 1941: A Review

My latest BookSneeze title was December 1941 by Craig Shirley.  In this book Shirley seeks to paint a picture of what was going on in America during this pivotal month of World War II.  He does this by researching any and all resources that he could get his hands on from local newspapers to memos straight from the oval office.  I can only imagine how long and tedious of a process that was but it worked.  Aside from the occasional overabundance of information, this book was well written and very informative.  The book is split up by the days of the month with Shirley doing his best to paint the overarching view of the country on that particular day.  I highly recommend this book, especially for any history buffs or those interested in a glimpse at the past.  Get this book!

The Silent Years: A Review

My latest Speak Easy selection was the little novel "The Silent Years."  It is essentially the story of Jesus from before birth through the beginning of his ministry as told by his uncle, who was Mary's brother and a Pharisee.  It is also important to note that the story is told through the progressive Christianity theological lens as well.  I have been finished with this book for a few weeks now, but am still struggling with some of its content.  The story does follow the narrative of the gospel accounts, but their interpretation is where I am having the most difficulty.  Let me explain a little.  I consider myself to be a fairly open minded person, even about things where Christianity is concerned, but I do believe that there are a few things that are crucial to our faith.  One that I feel this book, and progressive Christianity, take that always makes me pause is the divinity of Christ.  This book seems to deny the full divinity of Christ and in turn make him out to be a regular guy who was full of the light of God.  Now I can maybe go there if the book was solely from the perspective of the uncle speaking about Jesus, but the book included many pages of dialogue between Jesus and the uncle both in child/teenage years and as adults.  Through my reading of scripture I just believe that Jesus had an understanding of his identity as he began his earthly ministry.  Another thing that I had a problem with is the portrayal of how Jesus called the fishermen to be disciples.  In scripture we read that Jesus asked them to follow and the dropped their nets and did so.  In this novel Jesus first sets up a trade union to improve their work conditions and profits.  I very seldom speak aloud when I read, but this made me do so.  I felt this was a ploy to insert a certain political agenda into Jesus' story, but I guess you get that license when you write a book.  

Overall I felt the book was well written.  The story flowed well and was engaging.  My biggest issues were with the interpretation of scripture but I guess I am not a progressive Christian in this sense.