Book Reviews
Most of the books chosen for review were used, or have been examined
with the intent for Group Bible Studies.
Crazy
Love by Francis Chan. We used Crazy love in a
Wednesday night Bible study for our church recently. Several ladies
in the church had suggested it. We were enthusiastic due to all the
excitement about it in the Evangelical Community. Our church is
located next to a military base and is made up predominately of
young military families. My review is based on the response of the
young adults in our study. In addition to the book, we received the
DVD with short summaries and group questions for each chapter. We
also encouraged our students to visit the Website associated with
the book. I found both the website and DVD to be very helpful and
insightful. It was nice to meet the author and learn his heart for
writing the book.
Chapter One - Stop Praying - focused on the awesomeness of God and
encouraged students to consider who it was that we were praying to.
Chan discussed gave a general overview of the Attributes of God. The
group responded well to it, especially to the video. Chapter two
dealt with the frailties of life and the realities of death. It's a
sobering Chapter and was delivered well by Chan. The class got into
Chapter three - Crazy Love and Chapter three - Profile of the
Lukewarm (possibly my favorite) were also good chapters. Chapter
five - serving leftovers may have been the weakest chapter for our
group, not because it was in error, but because it didn't relate
well to military families. The chapter and video seemed to be
addressing middle to upper class, California white suburbanites. Our
group is made up of low income military. The chapter was asking for
sacrifices that would be impossible for this body. The rest was all
right, but seemed to have lost some of the enthusiasm of the first
four chapters.
Overall, I'd recommend the book. It's not deep, but pretty
solid. It works more on the heart than the intellect. Chan is
sincere. He doesn't seem to be teaching something he doesn't also
practice. It was a good study for our younger disciples.
Radical
by David Platt. I personally found the book challenging
and am considering the best context and time to use it for a group
Bible Study. Check out other reviews at Amazon. I'll give my review
after we have used it in a group setting.
This is an excellent book for anyone who has
ever struggled with the understanding of being a depraved sinful
creature and yet being created in God’s image. Mikalatos is able to
present deep theological questions in the guise of light hearted
fun. Surrounded by
zombies, werewolves, and vampires Mikalatos wrestles with: the
meaning of the word Christian, what is a transformed life,
difference of Bible translations and how do we determine which is
better, what is a human, transubstantiation, salvation thru works or
belief alone, what and who makes up the church, sanctification, and
the roll of baptism. The book is light hearted fun. By the end you
have laughed and cried your way through questions that haunt every
human who has ever wondered if there is more to life then a painful
past and an unpromising future. I recommend this book for teens and
adults alike. I am recommending that everyone in my youth group read
this book. Hope Griffin, Director of Ministries at Sunrise
Baptist Church, El Paso, TX. Hope is presently using the
book for a Bible Study with High School Youth.
My review is slightly biased. Robert Hicks was a teacher and close
friend when I attended Dallas Theological Seminary. I've also had the
greatest respect for him as a scholar and for his Pastor's heart. I'm
disappointed with some of the negative reviews given at Amazon.
Hicks basis his thesis of Six stages of development on six Hebrew terms
found in the Old Testament. I found that the biblical definition of each
of the terms did fit well with the definition for each of the
developmental stages. The order of the stages were structured primarily
around Hicks personal experiences and those he has observed of other
men. I must admit that my development into manhood fit the sequence like
a glove.
As a men's study, the book was very useful. Negative biases towards
psychology or previous attempts to force development into a mold may
hinder the usefulness of this book with some men. Those that actually
read it without preconceived negative biases reaped positive benefits
from it. I highly recommend this book and most of those written by
Hicks.
David Turner
