Here is a timely response to those who are frustrated with the church to the point of considering leaving. It is timely precisely because many have walked away from institutional Christianity not because they are spiritually backsliding but because they find the church to be more part of the problem than the solution. Brain Sanders [...]

Patrick has taken the defining characteristics of emerging churches as identified in Eddie Gibbs and Ryan Bolgers, Emerging Churches (Baker, 2005) and woven a story around them, thus making those principals more accessible by providing an attractive narrative.

Here is a book that received my “happy face” seal of approval (the highest honor possible). Roger Olson’s Reformed and Always Reforming: The Postconservative Approach to Evangelical Theology (Baker Academic, 2007). Some of us are thinking different theologically. Sometimes it feels like we are on shaky ground, but this way of doing theology seems [...]

At first read the book would seem to have little to do with leadership defined according to the criteria of modernity. It is rather an account of a personal journey in engaging culture. When one grasps the fact that leadership in a postmodern context is more about defining reality and the struggle of relating personally [...]

The front cover highlights the intention of the book in reclaiming the mission of the church from: big Business, Parachurch Organizations, Psychotherapy; and Consumer Capitalism. It provides thoughtful chapters on defining success, evangelism, leadership, worship, preaching, justice, spiritual formation and moral education.

Brian McLaren has a new book out–Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crisis, and a Revolution of Hope (Thomas Nelson, 2007). Buy this book and read this book. It will disturb you and challenge you. It just might make you angry. Read this book! We who live in a Western, capitalistic, individualistic world need to [...]

How (Not) to Speak of God by Peter Rollins (Paraclete, 2006) is a fabulous book! Rollins is founder of the Icon community in Northern Ireland. He offers a way of looking at the study of God from a perspective of humility, mystery and wonder. Rather than making God the object of our [...]

Jesus is constantly reshaping the thinking and actions of his followers. They/we are works in progress. The work is never done. In this passage, Jesus is making his way towards Jerusalem and the cross. On the way, he makes preparations for a visit to a Samaritan town, but he is not [...]

As part of Webber’s Ancient-Future series, Webber develops an informed understanding of spirituality that sweeps the history of the church. He shows ways in which biblical spiritualities have become captive or diluted by culture, and more importantly he develops ways in which the contemporary church, attuned to the impulses of culture, might recapture [...]

Sometimes I just have to get away from the academic and theological world and escape into a different reality. I have just done that with a most wonderful novel by Sara Gruen called Water for Elephants (Algonquin Books, 2007). This is a book about life in the circus and on a circus train. [...]