Reading List 2017

My first post of the year is the list of books I read the previous year (2014,  2015, and 2016). I’m not doing this to rub it in your face. I do it for personal accountability. I have a goal of reading at least one book a week, and knowing I must write about it helps me get there.

This year I greatly exceeded that goal, reaching 104 books (see graph below for stats from other years). The two main reasons for all the reading was the extra research for book projects and the enjoyable experience of reading (almost) every Jared Wilson book.

Speaking of Wilson, my favorite of his was The Pastor’s Justification. It’s a gospel-feast served by a master chef. My over-all favorite book, though, was Marriage and the Mystery of the Gospel by Ray Ortlund. It’s one of those books, that if I had let myself, I might have underlined more sentences than I didn’t. 

As for novels, I read 16 this year, including rereading All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Dorr, which was even better the second time around. For 2 years in a row, it was my favorite novel. I also thought The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (published 2003) deserves an honorable mention; the book touches father-son issues with all the gentleness of a taser.

Another highlight of the year, although not explicitly of reading but closely related to it, was watching The Return of the King, the third of The Lord of the Rings movies. I watched it at an amphitheater in Philly. Members of The Philadelphia Orchestra played the music score. It would be hard to overstate how amazing it was to watch the movie while a live orchestra played. I read and discussed all three LOTR books (and The Hobbit) this year with a great friend, and he bought the tickets as a gift.

Just in case you look closely at the list, let me flag two aspects of goofiness.

First, I counted the Bible as 6 separate books, even though I firmly believe it’s one book and one story. But counting it this way helped me keep better track of how I was moving along. I didn’t use the ESV Reader’s Bible, but that is where I got the idea.

Second, I included two yet-to-be-published books I wrote. That’s a little goofy, I know. But since I read them each nearly 10 times during the editing process, I figured counting each once was (mostly) legit.

Let me know in the comments what was your favorite book of the year.

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Books Read, 2013-17

Pages Read, 2013-17

Miscellaneous Christian Non-fiction

1. Church Buildings: A Strategic Guide to Design, Renovation, and Construction by Katie Burch (160 pages)
2. Marriage and the Mystery of the Gospel by Ray Ortlund (128 pages)
3. Friend of Sinners: An Approach to Evangelism by Harvey Turner (144 pages)
4. The Prodigal Church: A Gentle Manifesto against the Status Quo by Jared C. Wilson (240 pages)
5. The Whole Message of the Bible in 16 Words by Chris Bruno (160 pages)
6. The Bible: Romans to Revelation, Part 6 of 6 by God (300 pages)
7. Habits of Grace: Enjoying Jesus through the Spiritual Disciplines by David Mathis (240 pages)
8. A Vision for Preaching: Understanding the Heart of Pastoral Ministry by Abraham Kuruvilla (224 pages)
9. Your Jesus Is Too Safe: Outgrowing a Drive-Thru, Feel-Good Savior by Jared C. Wilson (288 pages)
10. Thoughts to Make Your Heart Sing by Sally Loyd-Jones (224 pages)
11. 12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You by Tony Reinke (224 pages)
12. For the Life of the World: Sacraments and Orthodoxy by Alexander Schmemann (151 pages)
13. Living in the Light: Money, Sex, and Power by John Piper (144 pages)
14. Gospel Wakefullness by Jared C. Wilson (224 pages)
15. The Storytelling God: Seeing the Glory of Jesus in His Parables by Jared C. Wilson (192 pages)
16. The Bible: Genesis to Deuteronomy, Part 1 of 6 by God (300 pages)
17. The Story of Everything: How You, Your Pets, and the Swiss Alps Fit into God’s Plan for the World by Jared C. Wilson (240 pages)
18. The Imperfect Disciple: Grace for People Who Can’t Get Their Act Together by Jared C. Wilson (240 pages)
19. The Tech-Wise Family: Everyday Steps for Putting Technology in Its Proper Place by Andy Crouch (224 pages)
20. None Like Him by Jen Wilkin (176 pages)
21. The Seven Sayings of the Saviour on the Cross by Arthur Walkington Pink (142 pages)
22. The Pastor’s Justification by Jared C. Wilson (192 pages)
23. Not Yet Married: The Pursuit of Joy in Singleness and Dating by Marshall Segal (208 pages)
24. Strong and Weak: Embracing a Life of Love, Risk and True Flourishing by Andy Crouch (192 pages)
25. The Bible: Joshua to Esther, Part 2 of 6 by God (300 pages)
26. The Pastor’s Wife: Strengthened by Grace for a Life of Love by Gloria Furman (160 pages)
27. The Joy Project: A True Story of Inescapable Happiness by Tony Reinke (148 pages)
28. Five Points: Towards a Deeper Experience of God’s Grace by John Piper (96 pages)
29. Chosen by God by R.C. Sproul (187 pages)
30. What Is Reformed Theology?: Understanding the Basics by R.C. Sproul (272 pages)
31. The Wonder-Working God: Seeing the Glory of Jesus in His Miracles by Jared C. Wilson (192 pages)
32. Chosen for Life: The Case for Divine Election by Sam Storms (240 pages)
33. Making Sense of God: An Invitation to the Skeptical by Timothy Keller (336 pages)
34. The Bible: Psalms to Song of Solomon, Part 3 of 6 by God (300 pages)
35. Is God a Moral Monster?: Making Sense of the Old Testament God by Paul Copan (256 pages)
36. How Does Sanctification Work? by David Powlison (128 pages)
37. Humility: True Greatness by C. J. Mahaney (176 pages)
38. America’s Pastor: Billy Graham and the Shaping of a Nation by Grant Wacker (448 pages)
39. Sojourn Network Ebooks (four of them) by Various (160 pages)
40. The Joy Project: A True Story of Inescapable Happiness by Tony Reinke (148 pages)
41. The Bible: Isaiah to Malachi, Part 4 of 6 by God (300 pages)
42. Unparalleled: How Christianity’s Uniqueness Makes It Compelling by Jared C. Wilson (240 pages)
43. Gospel Deeps: Reveling in the Excellencies of Jesus by Jared C. Wilson (208 pages)
44. Galatians for You: For Reading, for Feeding, for Leading (God’s Word for You) by Timothy Keller (208 pages)
45. Blessed Are the Misfits: Great News for Believers who are Introverts, Spiritual Strugglers, or Just Feel Like They’re Missing Something by Brant Hansen (256 pages)
46. Church History 101: The Highlights of Twenty Centuries by Sinclair B. Ferguson, Joel Beeke, Michael A. G. Haykin (112 pages)
47. Finish: Give Yourself the Gift of Done by Jon Acuff (208 pages)
48. The Bible: Matthew to Acts, Part 5 of 6 by God (300 pages)
49. Come, Let Us Adore Him: A Daily Advent Devotional by Paul David Trip (160 pages)

Miscellaneous Non-fiction

1. Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance (272 pages)
2. Spunk and Bite: A Writer’s Guide to Punchier, More Engaging Language and Style by Arthur Plotnik (272 pages)
3. Everybody Writes: Your Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content by Ann Handley (320 pages)
4. The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America by Erik Larson (447 pages)
5. Just My Type: A Book About Fonts by Simon Garfield (384 pages)

Books about the Job-Search Process

1. Effective Long-Rang Strategic Planning in Churches: Mitigating Crises, Seizing Opportunities, and Executing Leadership Transitions for God’s Glory DMin Diss., (Westminster Theological Seminary, 2016) by William "Tucker" York (313 pages)
2. Effective Staffing for Vital Churches: The Essential Guide to Finding and Keeping the Right People by Bill Easum and Bill Tenny-Brittian (176 pages)
3. Pastoral Moves | 9Marks Journal (Jan-Feb 2011) by Various (46 pages)
4. Looking for a New Pastor: 10 Questions Every Church Should Ask by Frank S. Page (176 pages)
5. In Search of a Leader: The Complete Search Committee Guidebook by Robert W. Dingman (262 pages)
6. Pastors in Transition: Why Clergy Leave Local Church Ministry (Pulpit and Pew) by Dean R. Hodge and Jacqueline E. Wenger (271 pages)
7. Discerning Your Call to Ministry: How to Know For Sure and What to Do About It by Jason K. Allen (160 pages)
8. Am I Called?: The Summons to Pastoral Ministry by Dave Harvey (224 pages)
9. Don’t Just Send a Resume: How to Find the Right Job in a Local Church by Benjamin Vrbicek (212 pages)

Books about Sexuality

1. Closing the Window: Steps to Living Porn Free by Tim Chester (151 pages)
2. Your Brain on Porn: Internet Pornography and the Emerging Science of Addiction by Gary Wilson (200 pages)
3. Divine Sex: A Compelling Vision for Christian Relationships in a Hypersexualized Age by Jonathan Grant (256 pages)
4. Pornified: How Pornography Is Damaging Our Lives, Our Relationships, and Our Families by Pamela Paul (320 pages)
5. The Porn Phenomenon: The Impact of Pornography in the Digital Age by Barna and Josh McDowell (160 pages)
6. The Gospel & Pornography (Gospel For Life) by Russell D. Moore and Andrew T. Walker (128 pages)
7. The Social Costs of Pornography: A Statement of Findings and Recommendations by The Witherspoon Institute (61 pages)
8. Just One Click: Christians, Pornography, and the Lure of Cybersex by Robert J. Baird and Ronald L. VanderBeck (240 pages)
9. Addictions: A Banquet in the Grave: Finding Hope in the Power of the Gospel (Resources for Changing Lives) by Edward T. Welch (320 pages)
10. The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert: An English Professor’s Journey into Christian Faith by Rosaria Champagne Butterfield (154 pages)
11. Pastoring Singles | 9Marks Journal (Spring 2017) by Various (58 pages)
12. Sex and Money: Pleasures That Leave You Empty and Grace That Satisfies by Paul David Tripp (224 pages)
13. Making All Things New: Restoring Joy to the Sexually Broken by David Powlison (128 pages)
14. Getting Off: Pornography and the End of Masculinity by Robert Jensen (200 pages)
15. False Intimacy: Understanding the Struggle of Sexual Addiction by Harry Schaumburg (256 pages)
16. The Art of Turning by Kevin DeYoung (42 pages)
17. The Hole in Our Holiness: Filling the Gap between Gospel Passion and the Pursuit of Godliness by Kevin DeYoung (160 pages)
18. What Does The Bible Really Teach about Homosexuality? by Kevin DeYoung (160 pages)
19. What is the Meaning of Sex? by Denny Burk (272 pages)
20. Over Coming Sin and Temptation: Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers (1 of 3 books) by John Owen (155 pages)
21. Over Coming Sin and Temptation: Of Temptation, The Nature and the Power of It (2 of 3 books) by John Owen (155 pages)
22. Mere Sexuality: Rediscovering the Christian Vision of Sexuality by Todd Wilson (192 pages)
23. Over Coming Sin and Temptation: Indwelling Sin (3 of 3 books) by John Owen (155 pages)
24. Struggle Against Porn: 40 Diagnostic Tests for Your Head and Heart by Benjamin Vrbicek (160 pages)

Novels

1. Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West by Cormac McCarthy (368 pages)
2. Fellowship of the Ring (Lord of the Rings: Book 1) by J.R.R. Tolkien (432 pages)
3. Dead Low Tide: A Novel by Brett Lot (256 pages)
4. The Twin Towers (Lord of the Rings: Book 2) by J.R.R. Tolkien (352 pages)
5. Tales of the Resistance by David and Karen Mains (110 pages)
6. The Return of the King (Lord of the Rings: Book 3) by J.R.R. Tolkien (432 pages)
7. A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman (337 pages)
8. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien (300 pages)
9. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (400 pages)
10. The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt (771 pages)
11. The Road by Cormac McCarthy (287 pages)
12. Otherworld: A Novel by Jared C. Wilson (386 pages)
13. About Grace: A Novel by Anthony Doerr (432 pages)
14. The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis (272 pages)
15. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (624 pages)
16. All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr (531 pages)

Let me know in the comments what was your favorite book of the year.

12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You by Tony Reinke (FAN AND FLAME Book Reviews)

I see it at stoplights. I see it during timeouts at my daughter’s basketball games. And I even see it when I stand in the back of the sanctuary during church services. When there’s a lull in the action, however brief, smartphones appear, and eyes are toward them.

But why must we check them so often? Is it because smartphones are such great tools for human flourishing or because they are evil taskmasters that make us less human with each use?

This is the dilemma with which Tony Reinke opens his book, and if you are like most people, the dilemma isn’t theoretical. Your phone is changing you. It’s certainly changing me. How could it be otherwise when we apparently check our smartphones every 4.3 minutes of our waking lives (p. 16)?

Buy on Amazon

Reinke is the author of several books, as well as the host of the popular Ask Pastor John podcast and a senior staff writer for Desiring God. He is well suited to write this book for at least two reasons. First, Reinke feels the tension between the blessings and curses of technology more acutely than most. As a professional producer of online content, he must navigate reaching readers without succumbing to the click-bait, Buzzfeed-type posts that dominate web culture (to which, by the way, DG doesn’t capitulate).

Second, Reinke is the perfect person to shine the glare from our screens back into our eyes, not only because he is a competent researcher and a nimble wordsmith, but because he is also a God-centered theologian. And this trait is necessary because, as he points out, “conversations about our smartphones often do not raise new questions; they return us to perennial questions every generation has been forced to ask” (p. 24). And it’s this point about how new technology always brings us back to the perennial questions—questions about what it means to be creature not Creator; about beauty vs. efficiency; about loving God and neighbor—which makes this book so insightful.

Consider for just a moment our longing for approval (covered especially in chapters 3 and 6). Each generation must wrestle with this. The lore of Narcissus in Greek mythology, who fell in love with his own reflection, certainly predates the 2004 birth of Facebook. Today, perhaps, there are just more metrics to measure our beauty (likes, retweets, followers, pins, subscribers, and so on). And if you let it, your smartphone will send you push notifications for each of these so that when you wake up in the morning, you can glance at your phone to find out how many others love your face too. “When we talk about ‘smartphone addiction,’” writes Reinke, “often what we are talking about is the addiction of looking at ourselves” (p. 110).

The chapters of the book include topics such as the way we become addicted to distractions, how we ignore people, crave immediate approval, get lonely, become comfortable in secret vices, fear missing out, and half a dozen other changes our phones are doing to us. Additionally, readers will find the foreword by John Piper something that not only recommends the book to us, but also begins to engage with the topics at hand, including several of the ways technology has changed in his lifetime. For example, Piper bought his first computer in 1984. It was an IBM PC with 256K of RAM, which he bought for $1,995. A quick internet search (and yes, I did it on my phone) tells me this would be nearly $5,000 in today’s dollars!

If there were something to critique about the book, maybe it would be the structure. The title and layout of the book (12 Ways …) could make the book seem like one giant list-article, or listicle as they’re called. Listicles tend to be the lowest common denominator of online content. I say this, by the way, as the author of several listicles. But this criticism, in my opinion, doesn’t hold. The depth of Reinke’s insights and his biblical fidelity resist formulaic chapters.

One final comment. I found the book disturbing. But not because the problems created by smartphones are merely “out there” in culture or even in the church. Rather, I’m disturbed because the problems are “in here.” Despite all the blessings of smartphones (connection to others, wealth of information, and Bible apps galore), I still see the negative impact in my heart and habits. Too often my children compete with a screen for their dad’s attention. Being confronted with this change was disturbing, but it’s the good kind of confrontation, the kind that when paired with repentance of sin and faith in the gospel, leads to the good kind of change.

* This book review originally appeared in the theological journal Themelios.

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I Read Every Jared Wilson Book This Year; You Won’t Believe What Happened Next

Actually, you probably can believe what I did next. I wrote this blog post. Scandalous.

To be completely honest, though, I didn’t quite read all his books. I left off the three books coauthored with Matt Chandler: The Explicit Gospel (Crossway, 2012), To Live Is Christ to Die Is Gain (David C. Cook, 2014), and The Mingling of Souls (David C. Cook, 2015, which I read last year). I also didn’t read Romans: A 12-Week Study (Crossway, 2013), Gospel-Shaped Worship (a 7-week study by The Good Book Company, 2015), or Abide: Practicing Kingdom Rhythms in a Consumer Culture (LifeWay, 2010). Abide is out of print, and the only copy on Amazon was a used copy listed for fifty bucks.

But don’t be misled by this post or my gobbling up a dozen other books by Wilson. He and I are not BFFs. I don’t text with him and call him J Dub. He’s not my Protestant Pope. I refer to the Jared Wilson corpus, not canon. And occasionally, though rarely, I even scribble in the margins of a book “no, that’s not right” or “awkward sentence.”

Yet when you read half-a-million words from a single author, and you do this all in one year, you feel like you know a guy. And what I know, I love. His writing is punchy, rhythmic, grace-filled, unpretentious, and always about a big Jesus and a bright gospel. He writes the kind of theology I read “off the clock.”

Jared Wilson is the Director of Content Strategy for Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and the managing editor of For the Church, Midwestern’s site for gospel-centered resources. He’s been a pastor in several churches and also speaks regularly at conferences.

Some of his books are for the wider Christian audience, and others are aimed more at pastors and ministry leaders. In my opinion, his sweet spot is writing and speaking to fellow pastors. I think this same thing about John Piper, but perhaps I only think these things because I’m a pastor too.

My first introduction to Wilson came through his blog The Gospel-Driven Church, which is hosted by The Gospel Coalition. I’ve read, and reread several times, the posts, “In Praise of Fat Pastors,” “I Wrote This Blog Post on Church Time,” and “I Love the Church, and That’s Why I Resigned.”

What follows in the rest of this post is a “miniature review” of each book—miniature as in I’m only giving a sentence or two of review, along with a favorite quote. Also, I ordered the books, not in the order I read them but in their publication order.

One last comment before we jump in. Wilson is a writing workhorse. I had a vague sense of this already, but when preparing this post, I had to look closer at the publication dates. And, sheesh! Across the years 2013–15, Wilson published ten books! He is the sole author on eight of them, and on two he partnered with Chandler. Additionally, there were a hundred or so blog posts and a few dozen conference messages and contributions to things like The ESV Men’s Devotional Bible. I know enough about writing books to know that he didn’t do all the work for these books in just these three years. But still, that’s a whole lot of ink.

Wilson addressed his writing output the other day on Twitter:

I stay good-natured about all the good-natured ribbing I get about writing “so many” books. I hear it all the time. And I get it. I make Stephen King look lazy.

But here’s the deal, pretty much writing is not something I try out every now and again. I’ve been a writer (of some kind) since I was a kid. Writing for publication has been my career aspiration since elementary school.

Perhaps Wilson is able to write blog posts the way I write emails, and he’s able to write books the way . . . I dunno . . . preach a sermon series.

Regardless, I’m thankful for his output. To borrow a prayer from Moses, may Wilson’s gospel-saturated writings continue to “drop as the rain, and his speech distill as the dew, like gentle rain upon the tender grass” (Deuteronomy 32:2).

Your Jesus Is Too Safe: Outgrowing a Drive-Thru, Feel-Good Savior (Kregal, 2009)

So, who is Jesus? He is many things, and he is not many things. Wilson talks about both. This book is rich and spunky. It has the highest density per capita of tweetable quotes of any book I read this year.

A Favorite Quote: “My friends, Jesus is not a pop song, snuggly sweater, affectionate boyfriend, a poster on your wall, self-help book, motivational speech, warm cup of coffee, ultimate fighting champion, knight in shining armor, or Robin to your Batman. He is blood. And without blood, you die.” (Wilson, Your Jesus Is Too Safe, 243)

Gospel Wakefulness (Crossway, Oct. 2011)

Wilson is convinced that “Jesus won’t become your only hope until he becomes your only hope.” Let the reader understand. But when Jesus does become your only hope, oh, it is good. This is the story of how Wilson got “woke,” as the kids say, to the good news story of Jesus.

A Favorite Quote: “Really, there are only two steps to gospel wakefulness: be utterly broken and utterly awed.” (Wilson, Gospel Wakefulness, 35)

Gospel Deeps: Reveling in the Excellencies of Jesus (Crossway, Sept. 2012)

He who has ears, let him hear: “Deep and wide, deep and wide—there’s a gospel story that’s deep and wide.” And this gospel story is like the wardrobe that leads into Narnia; it’s much, much bigger on the inside than it looks from the outside. May you have strength with all the saints to comprehend it (Ephesians 3:18). 

(I used the below quote in an article titled “The Gospel in 140 Characters,” which now seems a little silly because Twitter now has 280 characters. Oh well.)

A Favorite Quote: “The gospel is contained in an announcement of something Jesus did inside of history. It can even be tweeted in less than 140 characters! But it is nonetheless bigger than the universe.” (Wilson, Gospel Deeps, 21)

The Pastor’s Justification: Applying the Work of Christ in Your Life and Ministry (Crossway, July 2013)

Not only is this my favorite Jared Wilson book, but it’s also my favorite book from 2017. (And I read 100 books this year.) In The Pastor’s Justification, Wilson directs his core, gospel message to pastors. Fellow pastors, come enjoy the feast.

A Favorite Quote: “A different set of traits is needed for pastors than the business world’s management culture. Paul writes, ‘But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children’ (1 Thess. 2:7). This is not exactly the pastoral image that is most popular today. In an age when machismo and ‘catalytic, visionary’ life-coaching dominate the evangelical leadership ranks, the ministerial role of a breastfeeding mom is alien.” (Wilson, The Pastor’s Justification, 48)

Otherworld: A Novel (David C. Cook, Sept. 2013)

I don’t like sci-fi movies or books. Sorry, I never have. Still, I enjoyed this novel, which (to date) is the only fiction contribution to the corpus. The book has murder, mystery, UFOs, spiritual warfare, and a hard-won redemption.

The Storytelling God: Seeing the Glory of Jesus in His Parables (Crossway, Feb. 2014)

Although they are not consciously labeled “Book 1” and “Book 2,” this book on the parables of Jesus is linked with the next book on the list, a book about the miracles of Jesus. As in his first book Your Jesus is Too Safe, Wilson shows that Jesus is not tame. “Throw away your Flannelgraphs,” he writes in the first sentence. “They are flat and soft, and the story of Jesus is neither.”

A Favorite Quote: “The parables are postcards from heaven. ‘Wish you were here,’ they say. Supernaturally, however, they can transport us exactly to the place they depict, the place where God’s kingdom is coming and his will is being done on earth as it is in heaven. As Jesus conducts his kingdom ministry, he lays these stories on thick, seeding the alien nation of God with rumors of that other world, casting shadows of the realer reality like flickering images on the walls of Plato’s cave.” (Wilson, The Storytelling God, 35)

The Wonder-Working God: Seeing the Glory of Jesus in His Miracles (Crossway, July 2014)

Miracles are signposts, which is why the Bible also calls them signs. Signs point away from themselves to somewhere else. The arrow on the sign that says “Harrisburg—>,” tells me my exit is ahead. And when Jesus does a miracle, say feeding the five thousand, the miracle invites us in to point us on: Jesus is the bread of life.

A Favorite Quote: “The miracles are more than they’re cracked up to be but probably less than we often make of them. The miracles are not the smoking gun, in other words. But they are the bright explosions of the violent spiritual campaign against evil.” (Wilson, The Wonder-Working God, 13)

The Prodigal Church: A Gentle Manifesto against the Status Quo (Crossway, April 2015)

How would the way we “do church” change if we believed the saying, “What you call them with, you call them to”? Wilson argues that some of the silliness that takes place in church (like raffling away a car on Easter or performing pop songs during worship) would go away. And in its place, we’d have gospel ministry (like biblical preaching, genuine repentance, deep and authentic community, and robust discipleship).

(I used an extended quotation from this book in a post I wrote called, “Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth?”)

A Favorite Quote: “It’s the customary mantra of ministry that healthy things grow. And yet sometimes healthy things shrink. This is certainly true of our bodies, when we’re eating right and exercising. I mean, the formula doesn’t always work in every circumstance. ‘Healthy things grow’ sounds right. But cancer grows too.” (Wilson, The Prodigal Church, 40)

The Story of Everything: How You, Your Pets, and the Swiss Alps Fit into God’s Plan for the World (Crossway, Oct. 2015)

I’ll let the subtitle be the “review” for this one.

(I wrote an article for Desiring God titled “Sometimes God Just Closes Doors” where I used the below quote. I was flooded with emails by those who found the post and quote helpful.)

A Favorite Quote: “I have a problem with all the ‘chase your dreams!’ cheerleading from Christian leaders. It’s not because I begrudge people who want to achieve their dreams, but because I think we don’t readily see how easy it is to conflate our dream-chasing with God’s will in Christ. You know, it’s possible that God’s plan for us is littleness. His plan for us may be personal failure. It’s possible that when another door closes, it’s not because he plans to open the window, but because he plans to have the building fall down on you. The question we must ask ourselves is this: Will Christ be enough?” (Wilson, The Story of Everything, 122)

Unparalleled: How Christianity’s Uniqueness Makes It Compelling (Baker, May 2016)

This book, among the Wilson corpus, seems to be the most geared to an interested non-Christian or a new believer. But even as I read the book, I found myself reaffirming the truth stated in the subtitle: the uniqueness of Christianity does make it compelling.  

A Favorite Quote: “Christianity did not explode in growth in the first centuries because people had found in Jesus a new set of religious instructions. They had found, actually, that the perfection Jesus demanded he also supplied to those who trusted in him. They had found that the life Jesus promised he actually delivered.” (Wilson, Unparalleled, 126)

The Imperfect Disciple: Grace for People Who Can’t Get Their Act Together (Baker, May 2017)

This book is an accessible treatment of what it means to follow Jesus, and a faithful explanation of the grace that we all need, because even the best of us only follows Jesus . . . imperfectly. I especially appreciated the fresh reflections on the gospel that open each chapter. Readers should come away challenged to be better disciples, but more importantly, encouraged that Jesus is our savior and his perfection covers all our sin.

Oh, and that story on pages 36–37 about a marriage in his church falling apart and Wilson being accused of not “being there” and feeling all inadequate and stuff—yeah, me too.

A Favorite Quote: “Jesus wasn’t blowing smoke. His major contribution to the world was not a set of aphorisms. He was born in a turdy barn, grew up in a dirty world, got baptized in a muddy river. He put his hands on the oozing wounds of lepers, he let whores brush his hair and soldiers pull it out. He went to dinner with dirtbags, both religious and irreligious. His closest friends were a collection of crude fishermen and cultural traitors. He felt the spittle of the Pharisees on his face and the metal hooks of the jailer’s whip in the flesh of his back. He got sweaty and dirty and bloody—and he took all of the sin and mess of the world onto himself, onto the cross to which he was nailed naked.” (Wilson, The Imperfect Disciple, 47)

Supernatural Power for Everyday People: Experiencing God’s Extraordinary Spirit in Your Ordinary Life (Baker, Jan. 2018)

I don’t have this one because it’s not out yet, and because Jared didn’t give me a copy. Come to think of it, he didn’t do that for any of these.

* If you need more Jared Wilson like Christopher Walken needs more cowbell, check out his website, blog, podcast, and social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram).

Life-Giving Groups: An Interview with Jeremy Linneman

Jeremy Linneman and I both graduated from the University of Missouri. We met a handful of times over a dozen years ago. I’m excited to see how the Lord is using him.

He’s the pastor of the recent church plant Trinity Community Church in Columbia, Missouri. He’s married to his wife Jessie, and they have three boys. From 2010–16, he was a community and executive pastor at Sojourn Community Church in Louisville, Kentucky.

I recently had the privilege of interviewing him about his new eBook on small groups called, Life-Giving Groups: “How-To” Grow Healthy, Multiplying Community Groups.

You can listen to the 30-minute interview below.

These are some of the questions we discussed:

1. For those that don’t know who you are, can you introduce yourself?
2. Where do you see small groups in the Bible?
3. What are small groups for?
4. What are some of the significant hurdles to meaningful and healthy small groups?
5. How should small groups include (or not include) children?
6. What would you say to a person that has been in small groups before that were more hurtful than helpful to their process of becoming a mature disciple?
7. What role can small groups play in church plants?
8. If you and I were in a cycling race, how bad would you beat me?

Yesterday, I posted short reviews of all the recent ebooks from Sojourn Network. Here’s what I wrote about Jeremy’s book. If you think you’ll purchase his ebook, in December all of the profits go directly to those planting churches in their network.

Life-Giving Groups: “How-To” Grow Healthy, Multiplying Community Groups by Jeremy Linneman

If you’ve been in enough small groups, then you know not every small group is “life-giving.” Some are, to be frank, “life-sucking.” But participating in a group that “gives life” means that you need to be giving your life to others.

In this ebook, Jeremy Linneman explains how an individual group (or a small group ministry) can cultivate mature disciples. He sets forth a biblical vision for groups, as well as offering tons of practical insights for cultivating the health of these groups. If your church has a groups ministry but no established training plan for leaders, you’d benefit greatly by taking all your current and new leaders through the material.

A favorite quote: “Like Jesus, we exist for relationships. We are created in the image of this triune God. To be fully human means to live in relationships. If Jesus was the most ‘fully alive’ human ever, it shouldn’t surprise us that a person cannot become fully human without a community.” (Linneman, Life-Giving Groups, 10)

 

New eBooks from Sojourn Network for Christians and Church Leaders

When it comes to learning, sometimes you need a “deep dive” into a subject: you need a 12-week course that meets thrice weekly for 90 minutes. But other times, an office visit with a professor will suffice.

This difference is the difference between books and ebooks. Ebooks are typically quick hitters that don’t say everything but do say enough to bring clarity to a specific topic. This fall, Sojourn Network released a series of “How To” ebooks for Christians and church leaders. Sojourn Network is a group of reformed Baptist churches that band together for greater church health.

I recently read each of their ebooks and gladly recommend all of them. Below are a few specific reasons why I liked each. Also, if you think you’ll purchase one of them, I was told that in December all of the profits go directly to those planting churches in their network.

Filling Blank Spaces: “How-To” Work With Visual Artists In Your Church by Michael Winters

“When the earth was brand new,” writes author Michael Winters, “it was formless and empty . . . . [B]lank spaces were everywhere. Now they are rare.”

This means that if your church is going to begin a ministry that promotes art and artists, you’ll have to do some de-cluttering first. You’ll have to clear the sanctuary walls and stage, the foyer and welcome area, the café and restrooms. You’ll need to make room for paintings and sculptures and photos that give sight to the blind.

It’s in this mission—giving sight to the blind and freedom to captives—that Winters contends artists can play a crucial role. And when they do, they are doing what God did and does, taking the blanks spaces, those formless and empty parts of creation, and filling them up with the glory of God.

Winters is the Director of Arts and Culture at Sojourn and is himself an artist. In addition to the practical advice and theological reflection on the arts, one thing I appreciated about the book is the way Winters transparently shares some of his missteps and failures as he has sought to cultivate the arts. I enjoyed this ebook so much, I’d love to see Winters expand his reflections beyond the visual arts to the written and spoken word.

A favorite quote: “Everyone and everything contributes to your church’s visual culture, from the kid’s ministry coloring sheets to the preaching pastor’s hair gel. The visual culture of your church should not be an obsession of control and marketing-driven scrutiny. But when you make aesthetic decisions, they should thoughtfully complement the church’s vision. Major factors would include: the architecture of your space, its interior design, technologies, graphic design, along with decoration, furnishings, landscaping, and outdoor signage including parking lot demarcations.” (Winters, Filling Blank Spaces, 10)

Life-Giving Groups: “How-To” Grow Healthy, Multiplying Community Groups by Jeremy Linneman

If you’ve been in enough small groups, then you know not every small group is “life-giving.” Some are, to be frank, “life-sucking.” But participating in a group that “gives life” means that you need to be giving your life to others.

In this ebook, Jeremy Linneman explains how an individual group (or a small group ministry) can cultivate mature disciples. He sets forth a biblical vision for groups, as well as offering tons of practical insights for cultivating the health of these groups. If your church has a groups ministry but no established training plan for leaders, you’d benefit greatly by taking all your current and new leaders through the material.

A favorite quote: “Like Jesus, we exist for relationships. We are created in the image of this triune God. To be fully human means to live in relationships. If Jesus was the most ‘fully alive’ human ever, it shouldn’t surprise us that a person cannot become fully human without a community.” (Linneman, Life-Giving Groups, 10)

Healthy Plurality = Durable Church: “How-To” Build and Maintain a Healthy Plurality of Elders by Dave Harvey

Dave Harvey begins this ebook with a thesis: “The quality of your elder plurality determines the health of your church.” In my own experience, although far less extensive than Harvey’s, I’ve found his thesis to be true, especially over the long-haul of a church. This means working on the health of your elders is a nearly constant priority. As with healthy eating, you can take a break for a meal or two, or even a week or two; but bad things happen if you eat hot dogs and Cheetos and sticky buns and drink Mountain Dew and IPAs for a year.

Local churches mentioned in the New Testament always had more than one pastor. They always had a plurality of pastor-elders. Numerous passages in the Bible indicate this. For example, see Acts 20:28; Ephesians 4:11; 1 Timothy 4:14; 5:17; Titus 1:5; and 1 Peter 5:1–5 (see Appendix 1 for a complete list).

In the ebook, Harvey takes readers through the philosophy, principles, and process of creating and maintaining healthy plurality among elders. He’s also the author of When Sinners Say “I Do” (which we keep in our church bookstore) and Am I Called? (which I read just a few months ago).

At our church, we do not have a single lead pastor but rather co-pastors, where each of us shares the role of a lead pastor (weddings, funerals, vision casting, preaching, disciplining, etc.). This is a deviation from some of what Harvey advocates for in his ebook, but I’m not sure we are all that far off from his intent either in the letter of the law or the spirit. As with the other ebooks, any elder team would benefit from reading this together.

A favorite quote: “Humility is the oil that lubricates the engine of plurality. When one considers all of the polity options God could have chosen for governing churches, I theorize that God chose plurality because he loves humility.” (Harvey, Healthy Plurality = Durable Church, 19)

Before the Lord, Before the Church: “How-To” Plan a Child Dedication Service by Jared Kennedy with Megan Kennedy

I just loved this ebook. It was relentlessly practical, even including several options for liturgies when conducting a child dedication service; sample invitations a church can send to relatives; suggested resources to give away on the day of a dedication; and instructions about putting an “X” on the stage with masking tape to show families where to stand. This sounds like micromanaging, but it’s not. Church leaders need this kind of help. I need this kind of help.

If your church does child dedications, you need to read this book. Doing shabby child dedication services is not helpful or honoring to anyone.  

A favorite quote: “As I said, I don’t have any Bible verses to reference here. I can’t point to a passage which says, ‘Thou shalt have child dedication services.’ But I do know parents are tempted to think about their relationship with their kids as if it was a contract. And I also know nothing challenges consumer thinking quite like making really difficult covenant promises. It’s true for marriage, and it’s true for parenting too. The child dedication covenant confirms this reality: parenting is a higher, self-sacrificial commitment. The sacred public vow helps us teach parents to practice regular patterns of sacrificial love from the very beginning of their parenting journey.” (Kennedy & Kennedy, Before the Lord, Before the Church, 12)

* Your can purchase the ebooks here.

STRONG AND WEAK by Andy Crouch (FAN AND FLAME Book Reviews)

Andy Crouch. Strong and Weak: Embracing a Life of Love, Risk and True Flourishing. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2016. 192 pp. $20.00.

Before pastoring, I worked as an engineer for a construction company. When the demands of the job would spike, perhaps to meet a deadline or correct a mistake, one of the guys at our company had a saying he often repeated: “Learn to pass the buck, or else it will stop with you.”

My co-worker’s subtle twist on the common expression wasn’t entirely a joke. For him, avoidance of risk and responsibility were a way of life. Although a seemingly wise modus operandi (who wants to be blamed when things go wrong?), Andy Crouch argues in his book Strong and Weak that we were made for more than the easy life. God made us to flourish, to live “the life that is really life” (a beautiful refrain used throughout the book, adapted from 1 Timothy 6:19).

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But how do we get this good life, this life of flourishing? Additionally, if we were made to flourish, why do our lives so often not experience it? These are the two questions with which Crouch opens his book and seeks to answer throughout.

It’s impossible to review Strong and Weak without mentioning the idea Crouch comes back to again and again. It’s the idea that flourishing is not choosing either vulnerability or authority, but rather seeking both. He uses a 2x2 grid to explain this concept, with the target quadrant (Flourishing) in the upper right. The three other quadrants (Suffering, Withdrawing and Exploiting) depict falling short of flourishing because they represent lives missing either vulnerability or authority or both.

The book is easy to read and full of Christian themes and ideas, although light on explicit Bible verses. In this way, Crouch is like a confident tour bus driver who gently steers readers through the topics with his fingertips on the wheel, not clenched fists.

A question evangelical Christians might have while reading Strong and Weak has to do with the extent to which our flourishing occurs in this life or the life to come (especially in some sections of Chapters 4 and 5). This is probably another case where “and” is a better word than “or” (this life and the life to come).

Still, because the emphasis on the “now” is often front and center, a few times I found myself mumbling, to paraphrase Paul, If we are to flourish only in this life, we are of all people most to be pitied.

The book’s main challenge for me was to keep my fragile heart invested even after it’s been hurt. That may seem easy, but it’s not. A leader can quit without quitting. We might not only pass the buck but quit caring about it. And sometimes, when the demands of shepherding a church spike, I feel the temptation in our pastor-elder meetings to avoid sharing on a personal level, maintaining an air of indifference on agenda items when I’m actually not at all indifferent.

In short, I feel tempted to become an armadillo—having a soft, vulnerable underbelly that I keep hidden from even my fellow elders.

But this isn’t what we were made for—a life inside bubble wrap. We were made for risk and love and dominion and following God as He fills the earth with His knowledge as the waters cover the seas. This kind of flourishing requires Christians who neither withdraw nor exploit. Strong and Weak is a good book to move further in and higher up.

* This book review originally appeared at EFCA NOW.

[Picture by Casey Allen on Unsplash]

NOT YET MARRIED by Marshall Segal (FAN AND FLAME Book Reviews)

On a cold January night in 2003, I was in Denver, Colorado, for a Campus Crusade winter conference. All the cool kids wore Abercrombie and had flip phones, and under the influence of Joshua Harris’s book about relationships, I had kissed dating goodbye.

After dinner that night, I spoke with a girl named Brooke about dating—I mean courting—and whether God had marriage in our future. He did, and we’ve been married for a dozen years.

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A lot has changed in the last 15 years. Crusade is now Cru. Having a flip phone might be cool, but in a retro kind of way. Yet for all the changes, much stays the same. Whether you call it dating or courting or something else, the “way of a man with a young woman” (as Proverbs puts it) is still a beautiful, mysterious thing, like a ship sailing across the sea (Prov. 30:18–19).

But like the high seas, dating can be dangerous, leaving people with bitter and broken hearts.

Christian Living and Christian Dating

That’s why I’m thankful for Marshall Segal’s new book, Not Yet Married: The Pursuit of Joy in Singleness and Dating. Segal, staff writer and managing editor for desiringGod.org, is newly married, but he isn’t just another married guy telling singles what to do. “I wrote a lot of this book, and learned almost all of the lessons before I married my wife,” he explains, establishing his singleness credentials (16).

Not Yet Married has two parts. The first is “the not-yet-married life.” Here Segal channels many of Desiring God’s hallmark themes—passion and purpose, joy in mission, and the glory of God—and applies them to singleness. In the second part, “when the not-yet-married meet,” he deals with the particulars of Christian dating.

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[To read the rest of this post, visit The Gospel Coalition.]

THE IMPERFECT PASTOR by Zack Eswine (FAN AND FLAME Book Reviews)

Zack Eswine, The Imperfect Pastor: Discovering Joy in Our Limitations through a Daily Apprenticeship with Jesus. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2015. 272 pp.

The title of Zack Eswine’s book, The Imperfect Pastor, reminds me of a line from the movie A Few Good Men. During the iconic courtroom scene, Jack Nicholson’s character speaks about “danger.” To this, Tom Cruise’s character asks, “Grave danger?” Nicholson responds, “Is there another kind?”

The Imperfect Pastor, huh? I stare at this title and like Nicholson’s character ask, Is there another kind?

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There is, of course, just one perfect pastor, but you’re not it, and neither am I. Nevertheless, too often this doesn’t stop us from shepherding with the illusion that we are perfect, and when we do, we wear a harsh yoke and pull a heavy load, one never meant for our feeble shoulders. Balsa wood, no matter the color we paint it, will never be tempered steel.

Eswine is a pastor at Riverside Church in St. Louis, the author of several books, and a part-time faculty member at Covenant Theological Seminary.

Early in the book, he tells a story about meeting with a young pastor for lunch. The eager-beaver declared to Eswine his desire to “go all out for the ministry.” After some pauses, Eswine responded, “If the ministry is what we go all out for . . . then how we define ‘the ministry’ seems important, you know?” (p. 23).

In this conversation, we see the heart of the book: a book about definitions. And definitions are important, aren’t they? We evangelicals opposed the redefinition of marriage, and rightly so, but I wonder how many of us are as concerned about the redefinition of ministry. The Imperfect Pastor critiques the view that prizes all things “fast and famous” (a phrase used frequently), while offering a better, more biblical way to do ministry. “Christian life and ministry,” Eswine writes, “are an apprenticeship with Jesus toward recovering our humanity and, through his Spirit, helping our neighbors do the same” (p. 35).

Eswine uses the whole book to flesh out that definition, and as he does, I found it very convicting. I could list dozens of sections from the book that poked my pride and revealed my sinful misconceptions about ministry. Take this one for example: “To the important pastor doing large and famous things speedily, the brokenness of people actually feels like an intrusion keeping us from getting our important work for God done” (p. 28). Ouch. Someone hand me the sackcloth.

For Eswine, his own ministry and marriage have not been without a few bumps, some of them quite significant. As he talks about these struggles in the book, we believe him when he writes, “I know firsthand the beauty and arson of ministerial desires” (p. 19). In this way, we might say the book has translucence; he doesn’t hide his faults from readers. And speaking of readers, though geared towards pastors, any thoughtful Christian engaged in ministry shouldn’t feel left out.

After that young pastor had told Eswine he wanted “to go all out for ministry,” Eswine attempted to say a few things to expand his definition of ministry. To this, the young man responded, “I don’t know where to start with all that” (p. 25).

Where to start, huh? Perhaps you feel this way too. If so, reading The Imperfect Pastor would be a perfect place. In the years to come, I know I will certainly return to the book to throw off the yoke of perfection and find joy in my dependence upon Jesus, the only perfect pastor and the only one with shoulders of steel and a gospel of grace.

[Picture by Sam Carter / Unsplash]

THE WHOLE MESSAGE OF THE BIBLE IN 16 WORDS by Chris Bruno (FAN AND FLAME Book Reviews)

Chris Bruno, The Whole Message of the Bible in 16 Words. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2017. 160 pp.

Today, my favorite publisher (Crossway) released a new book. It’s The Whole Message of the Bible in 16 Words by Chris Bruno. He serves as the Director of Advancement at Trinity Christian School in Kailua, Hawaii. He is also the author of a book with a similar name.

The goal of Bruno’s book is to take some of the most important concepts of the Bible (to be exact, 16 of them), and then trace how these ideas are developed from the beginning of the Bible to the end of the Bible. This process of tracing themes is called “biblical theology.” Biblical theology is related to but different from “systematic theology.” Bruno explains it like this: 

The task of systematic theology is to gather everything the Bible says about a particular topic into one place. The goal of biblical theology is to trace the progressive development of a theme or cluster of themes in the Bible. (12)

Two weeks ago, I posted my review of Marriage and the Mystery of the Gospel by Ray Ortlund. That book is an attempt to do biblical theology on the topic of marriage. Bruno’s task—and it’s a tall order—does this for 16 different themes, and all in one book!

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I found the chapters on “The End,” “Temple, and “Land” to be particularly insightful. Perhaps, though, as you glance at the table of contents, it’s possible you might have selected a few different words.

Nevertheless, I feel about this selection the same way I feel about “chronological Bibles.” I love the idea of a chronological Bible, that is, a Bible arranged in the order of when events occurred. However, I would never want to be the one who decided what order to place some of the books. Sure, to a pastor who is familiar with things, a few choices are obvious. The book of Exodus comes before Ezra, and both of these come before Ephesians. But where do you place Joel within the Old Testament? And how do you arrange the gospel passages, especially when they are of parallel accounts? Not easy decisions.

And now, coming back to which 16 words to choose, I love that this book exists, but I’m also glad I did not have to choose which words to use! But Chris did a really good job of it.

This is a perfect book for those who are first beginning to grapple with theology and the overarching story of the Bible. As well, it would be helpful to those who have been around the Bible for a long time but perhaps have been overwhelmed by all the individual parts and thus have not grasped the coherence of the whole.

Without being simplistic, the book is very accessible. When Bruno uses words like “eschatology” (the study of the end times) and “ex nihilo” (creation made “out of nothing”) and concepts such as “already-and-not-yet,” he makes sure they are always well-defined. He also uses many helpful illustrations to dive into the topics. And for the most part, the book is not specific to any one theological viewpoint. Rather, to use the words of C.S. Lewis, the book is “mere Christianity,” or “mere biblical theology,” in the best sense of the phrases.

Again, The Whole Message of the Bible in 16 Words releases today. Love for you to pick it up here.

A Few Favorite Quotes

“The return of Christ and the new creation is obviously a big part of what we mean by eschatology. But I have something bigger in mind. When I talk about eschatology, it starts with God keeping his promises, forgiving sin, sending his Spirit, and reigning as King.” (19)

“As we take the gospel to the ends of the earth, we are actually doing what Adam and Eve failed to do—expand the boundaries of God’s temple so that it fills the earth. As the church is built, God’s presence fills the earth.” (68)

“But I think the community of the Trinity also helps us understand what it means to be made in God’s image. At the very least, we have to say that God has existed in an eternal community; when God says in Genesis 2 that man should not be alone, his desire is for his people to experience something like the community of the Trinity.” (81)

“At the cross, God doesn’t only judge sin. He doesn’t only save his people. Instead, at the cross, God judges sin in order to save his people. His justice is the instrument that he uses to display his mercy!” (105)

[Picture by Ben White / Unsplash]

MARRIAGE AND THE MYSTERY OF THE GOSPEL by Ray Ortlund (FAN AND FLAME Book Reviews)

Ray Ortlund, Marriage and the Mystery of the Gospel. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2016. 128 pp.

Besides following my wife on Facebook, of all the people I follow on social media—Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and, yes, even LinkedIn—my favorite person to follow on social media is Ray Ortlund on Instagram. Ortlund is the pastor of Immanuel Church in Nashville, Tennessee, and the author of several books, including The Gospel: How the Church Portrays the Beauty of Christ and Whoredom: God’s Unfaithful Wife in Biblical Theology. He has also written commentaries on the Old Testament books of Proverbs and Isaiah, as well as contributing to the ESV Study Bible.

But why is this guy, this Ortlund fella, my favorite person to follow on social media?

Well, I just like him. I really do. Perhaps because, according to Instagram, it seems . . .

He’s part goofball (here, here, here).
He’s part hunter-warrior (here, here, here).
He’s part pastor-author-scholar (here, here, here).
He’s part passionate pet owner of a black lab (here, here, here).
He’s part lover-of-his grandkids (here, here, here).
He’s part cultural- and spiritual-agitator, often posting on racial injustice (here, here, here).

Nevertheless, if Ortlund is these in part, it would seem he’s also completely in love with his wife. He’s always posting pictures of her on Instagram with captions that sing her praises (here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and many more). It’s because of this love for his bride that, when I saw Ortlund had written a book about marriage, I was immediately ready to hit “Buy Now.” Unfortunately, it just took me a few months to hit “Read Now” and post my review.

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Marriage and the Mystery of the Gospel is part of a series by Crossway called “Short Studies in Biblical Theology.” Biblical theology is the attempt to track the development of a theme in the same way the Bible develops the theme—from the beginning of the story to the end. Hence, Marriage and the Mystery of the Gospel has a progression from Genesis; to the books of law, wisdom, and prophets; to the New Testament; and then finally to the present day. And throughout the book, Ortlund writes with a sympathetic, yet firm awareness that the biblical view of marriage is not highly esteemed by all—sometimes by those in the church who find the biblical view of marriage too passionate, and sometimes by outsiders who find it too restrictive.

A major focus of his book is not, as you might have expected, the human romance between bride and groom, which is the chief subject of so many Christian books on marriage. Rather, Ortlund’s focus is on the divine romance between The Bride and The Groom, that is, the passionate love of Jesus Christ that compels him to woo and rescue the church. Ortlund writes,

I want to lead you on a brief journey of discovery from the beginning of the Bible to its end, because the Bible is a love story. It is not a hodgepodge of religious thoughts. The Bible unfolds as a complex but coherent narrative of God gathering a bride for his Son—and he found her on the wrong side of town, too. What a story! (13)

As I read Marriage and the Mystery of the Gospel, I found myself longing to be able to articulate the biblical view of marriage the way Ortlund does. It’s one of those books, that if I had let myself, I might have underlined more sentences than I didn’t. In my opinion, his writing achieved an ideal I strive for in my own writing, namely, “accessible yet riveting scholarship.” I’m not sure how often—if ever—I live up to that ideal, but it was wonderful to read an author who truly does. 

But not only, or even mainly, do I long to articulate the biblical view of marriage as well as Ortlund does. More than this, the book made me long to live the biblical view of marriage. I want to live the beauty and passion and commitment and long-suffering and intimacy of biblical marriage. I want this for my own marriage and the marriages of those in my church.

The Gospel Coalition, as they sometimes do for new books, published a post of their favorite 20 quotes from the book (here). I won’t repeat this feat, but here are just four of my favorites to whet your appetite.

“It is not as though marriage is just one theme among others in the Bible. Instead, marriage is the wraparound concept for the entire Bible, within which the other themes find their places.” (16)

“The head-with-helper dance of complementarity sprang from deep within the intuitions of God himself. We men and women today do not automatically know the steps to this dance. We must learn. But if we will receive it by faith, trusting in the goodness and wisdom of God, we can then explore its potentialities for joyful human magnificence.” (23)

“The key to a lasting romance is not endless sex but believing hearts.” (54)

“So [Jesus] not only believed Genesis 2:24 to be valid and relevant, but he publically taught it to be so—and not because he was a man of his times, echoing what everyone believed back then. What got Jesus into trouble was that he was not a man of his times.” (80)

If you are looking for a short, but stout book about marriage, I couldn’t recommend this book more highly. And if you’re looking for someone new to follow on Instagram, ditto.

[Picture by Anne Edgar / Unsplash]