The Spring List – Book Recommendations

This is going to be a great spring for Christian book lovers. Here are seven books that will challenge your thinking, deepen your understanding and inspire your soul.

Strong and Weak: Embracing a Life of Love, Risk and True Flourishing by Andy Crouch
Andy Crouch is one of my favorite Christian authors and an incredibly important thought leader for this generation. His previous two books, Culture Making and Playing God, were revolutionary for me. In this new book he says that “Flourishing people are strong and weak.” Two common temptations lure us away from abundant living―withdrawing into safety or grasping for power. True flourishing, says Crouch, travels down an unexpected path―being both strong and weak. We see this unlikely mixture in the best leaders―people who use their authority for the benefit of others, while also showing extraordinary willingness to face and embrace suffering. We see it in Jesus, who wielded tremendous power yet also exposed himself to hunger, ridicule, torture and death. Rather than being opposites, strength and weakness are actually meant to be combined in every human life and community. As a leader who strives to serve others well, this may be the most important book I read this year and I have been looking forward to digging into it ever since I heard about it.

Good Faith: Being a Christian When Society Thinks You’re Irrelevant and Extreme by Gabe Lyons and David Kinnaman
Lyons and Kinnaman are two of the most important younger evangelical voices in the world today. Their previous collaboration, unChristian, was one of the most influential books of the last decade in Christian circles and deeply influenced my own thinking. Now they turn their data-driven insights toward the thorny question of how Christians talk with people they know and love about the most toxic issues of our day. They help today’s disciples understand what they believe and why, and how to keep believing it without being judgmental and defensive. Readers will discover the most significant trends that offer both obstacles and opportunities to God’s people, and how not only to challenge culture but to create and renew it for the common good. Perhaps most importantly, David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons invite fellow Christians to understand the heart behind opposing views and show them how to be loving, life-giving friends despite profound differences. This will be the go-to book for young adult and older believers who don’t want to hide from culture but to engage and restore it.

Create vs. Copy: Embrace Change. Ignite Creativity. Break Through with Imagination by Ken Wytsma
I have always been fascinated by innovation. At a time when change occurs at a speed that can take our breath away, we are often tempted to embrace the tried and true rather than consider new options. The reality is that today’s leaders simply can’t succeed without putting creativity in their toolbox. This short, punchy book explores various aspects of creativity and imagination and leads us toward a healthy, confident, more innovative life mindset. It celebrates the good news of our God-given capacity to create and helps us harness it to take charge of our lives, navigate changing times, and ultimately, flourish and succeed. Having traveled to dozens of countries, founded the leading international conference on justice and theology, and collaborated with scores of nonprofits, Wytsma is uniquely fit to help us be culture-shapers in a world of global change. He blends theology, history, and cultural observation to show us what being God’s creative image-bearers might look like today.

Living Forward: A Proven Plan to Stop Drifting and Get the Life You Want by Michael Hyatt & Daniel Harkavy
I usually hate books like this that can seem formulaic and simplistic. Having just read nearly half the book, I was pleasantly surprised and greatly challenged. While some of this content can be found in other books like Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Hyatt and Harkavy present their ideas in a fresh and compelling way for this generation. I have to confess that with so many distractions around me, I can tend to drift through my day if I am not careful and I am excited about the possibility of living more purposefully. In this book New York Times bestselling author Michael Hyatt and executive coach Daniel Harkavy show us how to do it: to design a life with the end in mind, determining in advance the outcomes we desire and path to get there. Watching Mike Hyatt leave the top job at Thomas Nelson to craft a life of joy and inspiration to so many others made this an easy choice to add to my list.

Trouble I’ve Seen: Changing the Way the Church Views Racism by Drew Hart
Drew Hart is the son of my dear friend and ministry partner Tony Hart. Tony and I will be travelling to Africa together in March and I am sure we will be discussing this book. Drew is also a graduate my alma mater, Messiah College and is an influential blogger, writer and speaker. At a time when the conversation about race in America and racism in the church is growing louder and louder, this book should be an interesting and important resource for Christian leaders. In this provocative book, theologian and blogger Drew Hart places police brutality, mass incarceration, anti-black stereotypes, poverty, and everyday acts of racism within the larger framework of white supremacy. Leading readers toward Jesus, Hart offers concrete practices for churches that seek solidarity with the oppressed and are committed to racial justice. He asks the question, “What if all Christians listened to the stories of those on the racialized margins? How might the church be changed by the trouble we’ve seen?”

Life’s Too Short to Pretend You’re Not Religious by David Dark
So I have not read anything by David Dark before, but this book comes highly recommended by my trusted friend Byron Borger whose “Booknotes Blog” is a must read resource for me. At a time when the concept of “spiritual but not religious” has become a part of the pop culture lexicon, this books seems very necessary. Dark writes: “If what we believe is what we see is what we do is who we are, there’s no getting away from religion.” Both incisive and entertaining, Life’s Too Short to Pretend You’re Not Religious combines Dark’s keen powers of cultural observation with candor and wit. With equal parts memoir and analysis, Dark persuasively argues that the fact of religion is the fact of relationship. Looking hard at our weird religious background (Dark maintains we all have one) can bring the actual content of our everyday existence―the good, the bad and the glaringly inconsistent―to fuller consciousness. By doing so, we can more practically envision an undivided life and reclaim the idea of being “religious.” I am looking forward to reading a book that does not mock the idea of being religious and gives us better ways of framing our conversation about this important topic

You Are What You Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit by James K A Smith
I am a passionate person and know that the content of this book is going to impact me in significant ways. Already a fan of his earlier book, Desiring the Kingdom, I am looking forward to this fresh, bottom-up re-articulation that creatively uses film, literature, and music illustrations to engage readers and includes new material on marriage, family, youth ministry, and faith and work. In this book, award-winning author James K. A. Smith shows that who and what we worship fundamentally shape our hearts. And while we desire to shape culture, we are not often aware of how culture shapes us. We might not realize the ways our hearts are being taught to love rival gods instead of the One for whom we were made. He explains that worship is the “imagination station” that incubates our loves and longings so that our cultural endeavors are directed toward God and his kingdom. This is why the church and worshiping in a local community of believers should be the hub and heart of Christian formation and discipleship.

Ducking Under

I love swimming and going to the beach. This may have something to do with growing up in the Caribbean and being near beaches much of my youth. It was not always that way. As a small child, I had lots of phobias. I enjoyed going to the beach with my parents and playing in the shallow waters, but was terrified of big waves. As I grew, I began to wander out further and further into the water, but was always frustrated that the waves broke so violently before I could get out to the “calmer” water. It was great to have my dad take me past the break point and out to a place where I could stand and gently bounce around as the water undulated around me. Eventually, though, I wanted to go out on my own and I had to deal with the waves myself.

At first, I tried the method that most of us use when dealing with waves. I simply jumped when the wave came my way and hoped that I could jump high enough to get over the wave and find my footing again. While that worked for a while, inevitably, a huge wave would knock me down and I would lose my footing and become disoriented. On a few occasions, I was mildly injured on rocks and coral formations that I bounced into as the wave crashed over me. I am not sure who suggested it first (probably my father), but there was another way to deal with those huge waves. It involved holding your nose and ducking under the wave when it arrived. At first, this seemed like the dumbest thing I could imagine. Besides, that meant putting my whole head under the water and that was something I dreaded almost as much as the big waves.

At long last, I got frustrated enough about being beat up by the waves and decided to try this “crazy” method myself. It was like nothing I had ever experienced. As I held my nose and ducked under the wave, I experienced the beautiful sensation of the wave simply rolling over me and then it was gone. I popped up right where I had been standing and I wasn’t any worse for the wear. It was almost an enjoyable experience. Now I could go out to the deeper water without fear. Not long after that I learned an even more important lesson. If I stood in just the right place and watched the wave arrive and then jumped out just ahead of it, I could almost become a part of the wave as it washed me ashore. I was actually riding the wave to safety.

Life is a lot like the beach. For most of us, we have to deal with waves of one kind or another almost all the time. Some we can see coming from afar off and others catch us unawares. There are seasons of life, when it feels like we are in the middle of a storm and the waves keep rolling in one after another and we cannot see any end in sight. Occasionally, we are dealing with a tsunami and feel like we are going to drown. It is a points like this that I have to remember my other father who took me out past the breakers. He also taught me how to duck under, how to hold my nose and to choose to get my whole head wet rather than trying to jump over the wave. It was also that father who taught me that I might have to jump out in front of a wave every now and again and actually let it propel me to where I needed to go.

My heavenly father knows every wave that I will ever face. He has given me all the wisdom I need to deal whatever may come my way and he stands ready to pick me up when I forget and try to jump when I was supposed to duck under one more time. Because I am so forgetful and tempted to do things on my own, I have found it helpful to memorize His words so that I will be prepared when the next wave hits. I would like to think that I have better vision now and can see more of the waves as they approach. The reality is, however, that problems in my life have a way of sneaking up on me like the wave behind the wave that nobody anticipates in time. At moments like that, all I can do is to call on His name and he brings to mind all that He has taught me – “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man”, “No weapon formed against you will prevail” and “For you do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with your weaknesses, but you have one who has been tempted in every way, just as you are”. What a great God we serve.

Feeding the Soul

I entered the exhibit hall and saw one of my favorite things. Just past the main doorway was the largest selection of Christian books that I had seen in a long time. Three years to be exact. The Urbana Student Missions Conference takes place every three years in St. Louis and Intervarsity Press runs the bookstore for this event. I look forward to this place for so many reasons. The books are well curated, there is an incredible selection and all of them are on sale from 30-70% off. Inevitably, despite my busy schedule during the week, I will visit the store several times and more often than not I will buy something. It is the beginning of a new season of soul feeding.

This may seem like a very odd thing coming from a person who has worked in and around books for most of his lifetime and helps to lead a publishing house. Somehow, though, I don’t think so. We book people are a strange breed and tend to love any opportunity to see a collection of books that someone else took the time to select for our consideration. In this particular case, Jeff Crosby and the IVP team did a superb job of selecting books that mattered to the thousands of students that were coming through the doors every day of the event. IVP is known for publishing academic and thoughtful Christian books written by people who have great credibility about whatever topic is in their book. They do not shy away from controversy and have published authors on various sides of theological issues while remaining committed to an evangelical heritage and worldview.

Like many busy people I often find myself falling into a fatal trap. Somehow, I assume that my reading habits will automatically remain intact even if I do nothing to develop them. Unfortunately, this is a lot like assuming that I will lose weight without going to the gym. Worse, I even forget that I have an enemy who is just as concerned about my mind and my soul and who has no desire to see me reading books that edify and inspire. I will allow my circumstances to dictate my actions and choose to ignore how long it has been since I read a book that really mattered. I subsist on the gruel of magazine articles, blog posts and internet stories that are often pallid and very unsatisfying. As I ignore this important aspect of my spiritual development, I can almost feel my soul beginning to atrophy. Something is just not right and I know it.

Intentionally feeding the soul is a discipline and an important exercise. It takes hard work to sort through the many reading options that are available when hundreds of thousands of new books are published every year. Even more challenging is selecting books that will be worth reading. That is why I value the choices that people like Jeff Crosby and others make on a regular basis to help me with this part of my spiritual journey. It is such a blessing that Byron Borger, Tim Challies and Chris Smith all post regular books reviews and suggestions for my consideration. While I may not agree with everything they say, it gives me a great starting point for choosing books that will make a difference in my life. Christianity Today, the Gospel Coalition and World Magazine also produce excellent lists and book suggestions on a regular basis that are worthy of consideration.

Sometime in mid-January I could feel the soul atrophy setting in. Everywhere I turned, something was vying for my attention. So many new TV shows to watch, so many new blog posts to read, so many e-mails to respond to. It was at that moment that I remembered my agency in all of this. I had a choice to make. It was my time and I could choose to spend it lots of different ways, but some were better than others. Once again, I shut off all my devices and picked up a book. It was like the return of an old friend who I had been missing. The physical sensation of picking up the book, turning the pages and even smelling the paper was like a jolt of electricity to my soul. Why had I not done this earlier? Fortunately, I had lots of good books to choose from. The selection at the Urbana bookstore had been exceptional once again and I had brought several new books home with me. Like a good meal, they were just waiting to be devoured and my soul was hungry

A Better Future

She looked to young to be a mother. I was at an ESL (English as a Second Language) Conversation Café this past week and had just met the people at my table. Two of the women were immigrants from Albania and two were from China. Fortunately for my sake, this was a level three class and they all spoke enough English that I could understand them and we had a great conversation. The woman sitting across from me that looked too young to be a mother was from Albania and actually did have a child, a husband and a strong desire to learn English. She also had a very winsome smile.

As the conversation got going, I learned a lot about these ambitious women. All of them had families and most of them had jobs. Some had immigrated to the USA quite recently, but most had been in America for a few years and had just heard about this program or had just gotten up the courage to give it a try. They seemed to be enjoying themselves and were not annoyed that these classes added onto what was already a long day for most of them. Instead, they were almost competing with each other to practice their English with me and to understand the things that I was saying. At one point we discussed how much harder it was for the Chinese women to learn English as their language is so different and the written language looks nothing like our alphabet. One of the Albanian women asked a Chinese women to write her name in Chinese and then tried to copy the writing herself, but could not get the hang of it.

It was clear that many things motivated these women to study English, but as I asked them why they had come to America in the first place, the answers were remarkably similar. All of them had come for a better future. For some this meant their children and grandchildren and for others this meant themselves as well. Already this desire was being fulfilled as one women who had been in the USA for a while had a daughter who had recently graduated from a prestigious university in Washington D.C. and a son that had gotten into the best high school in the city. She was clearly proud of both of them. She herself worked at Subway, but did not see that as a hardship. Instead, she was grateful for the opportunity for work with her limited grasp of English.

As I reflected on these conversations later in the week, I could not help but remember the hundreds of cars parked by the side of the road in Trinidad to watch the bodies being burned in the traditional Hindu funeral ceremony. Each of those people and even the ones who had died had a similar hope and desire. They wanted a better future and were going to do everything to make sure their relatives had a proper cremation with the goal that they would be reincarnated as a better person in a higher caste with more opportunity and status. What a sad state of affairs to be locked into an endless cycle of reincarnation where one wrong step could lead to the opposite.

Truthfully, it is easy to cast aspersions on other religions when some of us Christians have similar misunderstandings. We come to faith in Christ and assume that our lives will improve, things will get better and our future is bright. While on one level this is true – our future in eternity with Christ is something to look forward to – our life on earth is not guaranteed to improve. In fact, as we grow in our faith, we begin to see that often we are called into a life of suffering and sacrifice just like the one who died to save us. This can be very disheartening and even faith shattering for some.

As I spoke further with these women around my table, I realized that I shared a lot in common with them. I am a striver, I want a better future and I am often doing whatever it takes for that to happen. In a great irony, Jesus is calling all of us to the same future – to put our complete faith and trust in Him. This can be frightening, overwhelming and even seem quite foolish to those who eyes have been blinded like mine once were. His call is to a life of surrender, not striving, to dependence not self-improvement. As the conversation came to a close, I could not help but notice that English was not the only thing these women were learning. They were interacting with Christ followers every week and their eyes were being opened little by little to the only lasting hope that truly exists and an ultimate future better than they could have imagined.