Growth Groups - review

Growth Groups by Colin Marshall (Mathhias Media) outlines important aspects of leading a small group.

Marshall uses a very broad purpose statement for small groups (receive Christ as Lord, live with Christ as Lord, p 12) and then outlines the dynamics of this group. The book gives some excellent discussion on the practical parts of a Growth Group but doesn't spend as much time providing a comprehensive vision for these groups in the context of the broader church.

This is a simple and easy to use book. There is a training program at the end so that you can begin training your new leaders. Excellent for what it does.

In a Sunburned Country - review

In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson is humorous travelogue on Bryson's trip throughout Australia.

Bryson journeys to the corners of Australia detailing the various sights, local history, and his own humorous encounters. He is quite entertaining (a bit crude at times), but much of the book is about Bryson himself on this journey. As an author, he moves you along quite nicely.

A snippet from a conversation between Bryson and a park ranger about the disappearance and presummed drowning of former Prime Minister Harold Holt (they were at the beach where he was swept to sea):

But as I (Bryson) was leaving he called to me with an afterthought. "They built a memorial to him in Melbourne," he said. "Know what it was?"

I indicated that I had no idea.

He grinned very slightly. "A municipal swimming pool."

"Seriously?"

His grin broadened, the nod was sincere.

"This is a terrific country," I said.

"Yeah," he agreed happily. "It is, you know." (p 143)

Life as a Vapor - review

Life as a Vapor by John Piper is a series of 31 meditations about our life in light of eternity. Piper tells us clearly the purpose of this book: "my prayer is that these meditations on the Word of God will link you with eternal joy, and make the vapor of your life an everlasting aroma of praise to the glory of Christ." (p 12)

Excellent stuff here folks! In doing many of these together as a family, I greatly appreciated the prayer at the end of each meditation - succinct, meaningful, passionate. Here is one to get a taste:

"Lord, You have been our dwelling

place in all generations.

Before the mountains were brought forth,

or ever You had formed the earth and the world,

from everlasting to everlasting You are God."

But we are like grass:

we flourish for a moment and then wither.

We are like a vapor:

we appear from the mouth,

and two seconds later we are gone.

Give us a mind to know the past,

lest we waste our fleeting lives

repeating its mistakes.

In Jesus' never-changing name,

Amen. (p 97)

groundswell - review

groundswell - winning in a world transformed by social technologies by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff answers three questions: (1) what is groundswell, (2) what to do about it, and (3) how you can use it to succeed in your company.

So, what is groundswell?

Ans.: a social trend in which people use technologies to get the things they need from each other, rather than from traditional institutions like corporations. (p 9)

Ex.: Brian Finkelstein filmed a Comcast technician who fell asleep on his couch in 2006, waiting on hold for help from the Comcast home office to fix an Internet problem. Now this video is the top result when searching "Comcast" on YouTube. (p 7)

Some of the technologies that create groundswell are blogs, social networking sites (Facebook, MySpace), wikis/open source, forums & ratings, and rss. The authors then go through describing the impact they have on the groundswell. They then detail how this can be used to a company's advantage.

The examples are excellent (Digg and the HD-DVD key, P&G's beinggirl.com, Loblaw and the BBQ cap), but it tended to get a bit dry by the end (a Social Technographics Profile isn't the most interesting thing in the world). Clearly pointed for business people and not just theoretcial ponderings about future of technology. This book either educates those who are newer to some of this tech or it helps bring focus to some of what we already experience. This is a valuable resource for those that interact with the outside world.

The Holman Illustrated Study Bible - review

The Holman Illustrated Study Bible combines the Holman Christian Standard with maps from the Holman Bible Atlas and lots of photos.

Each book begins with an overview including major themes, purpose, Christ, canonical setting, and literary features. Notes, aside from the few text critical footnotes, are topical and sporadic but the photos and vivid maps are quite helpful. There is an appendix that has various charts (millennial positions, canonical lists, measurements) and an abridged concordance.

What really hinders this study bible are aesthetics. The deep yellow for the footnotes is very distracting and the colors for the charts can be a bit grating. The first few pages include space to record births, deaths, etc. To me, those kinds of pages are curious enough, but there is a fake Hebrew type writing underneath each heading.


Notice how they make the Hebrew letters look like the English equivalents above. There is a mutilated Qof and several upside down Shins, to note a few of the errors. This is a perplexing choice - you wouldn't appreciate the line underneath unless you realized that they are Hebrew letters. But, if you knew they were Hebrew letters, you would know that Hebrew is read right to left, Hebrew letters (or words) don't simply correspond one to one with the English phrase above, and that many of the letters are adjusted, flipped, and twisted. If you didn't realize the silliness immediately, you'd figure it out with the helpful Hebrew alphabet acrostics printed with Psalm 119 and Lamentations.

If you don't mind a few visual quirks, this isn't a bad study bible. Unfortunately, there isn't much in the way of content that separates this from better study bibles. My recommendation is the ESV Study Bible - great content and helps.

Silmarillion - review

Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien fills in the history of the events before The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings.

This was for pure fun. I liked it, but I can't imagine many that would - lots of names and relationships to keep straight. If you don't like pouring over a map, this is not the book for you. If you didn't like LOTR, then this really isn't the book for you. You might even like maps and LOTR but still not get into Silmarillion.

However, I did. Thanks Carrie!

The Shack - review

The Shack by William Young is a fictional story about Mack: his loss and his subsequent encounter with God.

Well I read it. If you want a detailed review, you can look here or here or even here (with a few disagreements). If you'd really like a deeper look, I have a friend that has corresponded with author about his concerns with the book. Yes it is fiction, but the author is trying to say something true about God. That's why you have people getting all up in arms about this book.

Actually, I didn't really enjoy it, but it is so popular that I felt I should read it. The hype didn't help. The event that precipitated Mack's journey to the 'shack' was so awful and random that it lost a real connection with me. Parts struck me as hokey. Yes, some things were good, but certain notions were just wrong. Others have said this in a much more eloquent and convincing manner.

If you'd like to read fiction, you could do better. If you'd like to read about God, you could do quite a bit better. For some better books on evil, God, and our response, I'd recommend How Long O Lord? and Where is God? (a true account).

Don't Let the Goats Eat the Loquat Trees - review

Don't Let the Goats Eat the Loquat Trees by Thomas Hale is about a missionary family's journey to Nepal.

Thomas and Cynthia Hale felt the call to serve in Nepal as medical missionaries from 1970 to 1980. This book tells of how God provided for their trip, some of the unique challenges that stood before them, successes, failures, and sitting on long bus rides.

This is a very enjoyable book. It isn't a hagiography, but an honest take on their time (with all of the messy details) while serving in the missionary hospital. It was very real and motivating. Serving the Lord is humbling, it shatters our expectations, and it is the most glorious we could ever be blessed to do!

Hale writes in a readable manner - this is no chore to get through. Personal stories aside, the observations about Nepalese culture make this book worth picking up. Reading this is time well spent.