Review: The Tipping Point
The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Very interesting read. Different readers will be able to take different things away from this book. I can hardly imagine someone being anywhere near sales and marketing and not having read it. Though it still has value for us plebeians. It is particularly insightful for us to understand something about trends and ideas that tip. There are deliberate thoughts and actions behind them, though don’t take this in a conspiratorial route. You may complain about the styles of the day, but have you ever thought about where they come from? Not a few naive Christians need to have their eyes opened about such things and particularly in light of Romans 12:2.
Review: Family Driven Faith: Doing What It Takes to Raise Sons and Daughters Who Walk with God
Family Driven Faith: Doing What It Takes to Raise Sons and Daughters Who Walk with God by Voddie T. Baucham Jr.
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I appreciate that Baucham says plainly things that need to be said. It is surprising how myopic we can be. We assume readily that the way things are now is the way things have always been. We cannot imagine it differently. Even a little familiarity with church history will show us that the typical church in America for the last five or six decades looks very different from church in the last two thousand years, and particularly in regards to the modern concept of youth ministry.
This book deals with the family at home and in the local church. Modern youth ministry has two main problems: 1) It is unbiblical, 2) It is doesn’t work. Baucham addresses both of these with biblical exegesis for the first and statistical data for the second. Most people recognize a problem and there are two main responses.
1) The typical First Baptist Church in Anytown, USA will try to resolve this problem by hiring more youth staff workers and bringing in more programs. So, something is not working and there is sufficient data to establish it is not working. Evidently, we need much more of it.
2) The second response is to identify the problem exists between the family and the local church, so the response is to abandon the local church to save the family. This response plays out in a variety of ways, but most end up with their own definition of church that is completely unbiblical.
I appreciate that Baucham does not take either of these approaches. I recommend this to parents, pastors, youth workers, church members, Christians, etc.
Review: Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream
Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream by David Platt
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I read this book on the Kindle app on my Android. That feels ironic. It’s a good book in many ways. Platt’s aim is to awaken us out of the stupor or individualistic, materialistic, shallow American normalcy. And we need to be awakened. The message in this book is not what is heard from the average pulpit and professing Christians need to hear it. It pokes us where we need to be poked and I recommend reading it.
Review: The Texas Baptist Crucible: Tales from the Temple
The Texas Baptist Crucible: Tales from the Temple by James Spurgeon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Fantastic read that you will not want to put down. This is the account of the author’s experience at fundamentalist Texas Baptist College, a ministry of Longview Baptist Temple. At the helm of LBT and TBC was Bob Gray, the other fundamentalist Bob Gray. If you have never seen fundamentalism from the inside, you will probably think Spurgeon is exaggerating. Those who have been inside will know better. It is an eye-opening book and I recommend it.
Review: The Secret File on John Birch
The Secret File on John Birch by James C. Hefley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The Secret File on John Birch by James and Marti Hefley is the life story of John Birch. Birch was born in India to missionary parents, but he grew up in the United States when, for medical reasons, his family had to return home. He was a Southern Baptist missionary to China.
Birch went to China before the U. S. entered the second World War. He arrived when China was partially occupied by the Japanese. After Pearl Harbor was attacked, the U. S. entered the war and many missionaries in China were evacuated, but Birch stayed in China. Birch volunteered for the Army and became an intelligence officer in China. He was murdered by the communists after the end of the war.
This book is written from the conspiratorial perspective, which is disappointing because the spiritual aspects of Birch’s life are much more important and edifying. I highly recommend this book so long as you are not caught up with the conspiracy aspect.
