Review of “Letters to the Church” Chapter 9 – Church Again
This is the last chapter in Francis Chan’s book “Letters to the Church.” This is the chapter where he gets practical and discusses some of their structure and practices. He is trying to get people back to be more like the first century church. This should hit home for those of us in Churches of […]
Review of “Letters to the Church” Chapter 8 – Unleashed
Francis Chan starts chapter 8 in Letters to the Church with the illustration of a zoo. Wild, powerful animals in comfortable cages. Food is brought to them. They aren’t exactly tame but they also aren’t living the life they were meant to live. This is Chan’s illustration for church – something so powerful put in […]
Review of “Letters to the Church” Chapter 7 – Crucified
“Do not pray for an easy life, pray for the strength to endure a difficult one” – Bruce Lee That pretty much sums up chapter 7. In this chapter of “Letters to the Church” Francis is normalizing suffering. He said he did a sermon series on suffering and talked about all the books of the […]
Review of “Letters to the Church” Chapter 5 – Servants
Chapter five of Francis Chan’s “Letters to the Church” is on converting our idea of why we participate in church life from consumer to producer. It is a shift from passively consuming to actively participating in the mission. This is such an important shift for our churches. We need to raise expectations of people. This […]
Review of “Letters to the Church” Chapter 3 – The Order
If church is something designed to glorify God in all the things we do together, it becomes something it was not intended to be once we make it about something it was never intended to be about. Chapter 3 in “Letters to the Church” by Francis Chan is about God’s order for church, the congregating […]
Review of “Letters to the Church” Chapter 2 – Sacred
We are now in chapter two of “Letters to the Church” by Francis Chan and I want to start with this quote and get your feedback, “The stories in scripture are meant to show us that there exists something of greater value than our existence and rights. There are things that belong to God. Sacred […]
Book Review: “Letters to the Church” By Francis Chan (Chapter 1)
I have had a lot of people tell me that I need to read Francis Chan’s book, “Letters to the Church.” I began reading it a few weeks ago and am going to share some thoughts here. I also want to involve you in this conversation for any of you who want to read through […]
Book Review: “A Different Kind of Poison – How Legalism Destroys Grace” by Kevin Pendergrass
This book is a journey from legalism to grace through the life of Kevin Pendergrass. I was unaware of Kevin’s story and his transformation until I read his book and I would like to make you aware of this resource. Kevin group up as many of us did – contending for the faith (which meant […]
Book Review: Jesus’ Economy by John Barry
John Barry was a chief editor at Logos/Faithlife Bible software. He ended his stint with Faithlife in order to work with the poor all over the world and create sustainable business models to help get people out of poverty. He started a non-profit called Jesus’ Economy and has now combined his ministry with his writing […]
Book Review – Paul: A Biography By N.T. Wright
430 pages of text. Less than ten citations of contemporary secondary sources. Roughly a dozen extra-biblical ancient source citations. Another dozen intertestamental/apocryphal citations. Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of scripture citations. All of that to say Wright’s book, “Paul: A biography” is scholarly but not written in direct conversation with various theories of what is […]