The Pastor’s Bookshelf, Why Reading Matters for Ministry
I have a passion for reading and when I discovered that this book had received Christianity Today’s 2022 Book of Merit award in the pastoral leadership category, I was immediately drawn to it. Austin Carty shares my love for reading, and reading The Pastor’s Bookshelf, as I was reading heavier works at the same time, […]
Live Your Truth and Other Lies, Exposing Popular Deceptions That Make Us Anxious, Exhausted, and Self-Obsessed
Live Your Truth is a follow up book to Childer’s Another Gospel? in which she exposed the lies of progressive Christianity. This volume addresses a dozen other popular lies that have infiltrated our culture, including our Christian culture via popular authors, influencers, social media, and pop-psychology. These are the kinds of lies that many have […]
Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy, Discovering the Grace of Lament
Following the stillborn death of his daughter Sylvia in 2004, Pastor Mark Vroegop experienced deep sorrow for the first time in his life. This period of sorrow started Vroegop on a lifelong journey in lament, which was a means of grace to his soul (p. 195). As he began to look at the world with […]
The Thrill of Orthodoxy, Rediscovering the Adventure of Christian Faith
The Thrill of Orthodoxy received Christianity Today’s 2022 award of merit for Book of the Year in the theological category, and it was deserved. Trevin Wax, who wears many hats, is concerned that, in a world filled with information and disinformation, it has never been more important to reach back to old, foundational truths tested […]
Our Hope for Isabelle, Grieving with Joy and Hope for Eternity Through Infant Loss
This volume tells the sad but hope-filled story of a young Christian couple’s journey involving the birth, and four days later the death, of their little girl from Trisomy 18 (pp. 6-7). While other books have been written dealing with the loss of babies through miscarriage or after birth, the Bloomquists saw a need for […]
Overcoming Apathy, Gospel Hope for Those Who Struggle to Care
This book addressing apathy among Christians, written by a professor of theology at Talbot School of Theology, received Christianity Today’s book of the year award for 2022. The purpose of the volume is to explore apathy or indifference toward the things of God among Christians who are perplexed and want to change (p. 11). Chapter […]
Letters to a Romantic, First Years of Marriage
Letters to a Romantic is written by two young pastors who minister at First Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Florida, and are both trained as biblical counselors. This book is designed to “cover twenty-two relevant issues and answer questions that almost all newlyweds wonder about” (p. 9). Toward that end, they address many pertinent subjects that […]
Created to be His Help Meet, Discover How God Can Make Your Marriage Glorious
Apparently Debi Pearl, and her husband Michael, have wide appeal through their “No Greater Joy” ministry. They have written numerous books on marriage that they claim have been read by millions. Their straight-forward, no-holds-barred, strongly-opinionated style is appreciated by some. In this work, Debi says her aim is to reveal God’s plan for a heavenly, […]
Becoming Free Indeed: My Story of Disentangling Faith from Fear
Jinger Vuolo is well known as the sixth child of the Duggar family from TLC’s 19 Kids and Counting reality TV show. She and most of her family are avowed Christians who adhered closely to the teachings of Bill Gothard and his Institute of Basic Life Principles (IBLP). While growing up, Vuolo was starstruck by […]
The Good Life, Lessons from the World’s Longest Scientific Study of Happiness
In 1938 the Harvard Study of Adult Development was initiated to try to determine what made people thrive. Beginning with 724 participants, it is still ongoing and in its third generation covering over 1,300 of the descendants of the original members. The study has followed the participants from age 14 on with an amazing 84% […]