Archive for the 'Books and Authors' Category

Delusions of Emergent Utopia – A Review of Phyllis Tickle’s “The Great Emergence”

I’m no historian. You probably aren’t either. Fortunately, this fact probably won’t serve as a handicap when reading this short book of history.
“The Great Emergence” is a book that makes sweeping generalizations about large swaths of world history. Many conclusions are drawn from these generalizations, which leaves us non-historians in a bit of a bind: [...]

Author Kevin Abell on “100 Huntley Street”

My friend Kevin and his wife Barb recently appeared on the television show “100 Huntley Street”. Previous posts about Kevin include a review of his book (click here) and a follow-up on some of the sources of his writing (click here).

Michael Krahn (michael.krahn@gmail.com) is a husband, father, Pastor, writer, and recording artist who enjoys books, [...]

Review – “Vintage Church” by Mark Driscoll (and Gerry Breshears)

Mark Driscoll, the fearless and sometimes controversial founder and Pastor of Mars Hill church in Seattle, writes books the way he preaches: . In fact, his recent books are transcribed from earlier sermon series’. Sure, there’s some editing and polishing, but if you’re familiar with his preaching, the content of his books is no surprise.
In [...]

Review – “Fearless” by Max Lucado

A couple of weeks ago, a few hundred bloggers received a free copy of Max Lucado’s new book, “Fearless: Imagine Your Life Without Fear“. In exchange for the free book (which we find impossible to refuse), we agreed to read the book and post a review of it. Fair enough – it’s a deal I’ve [...]

Review – “Upsidedn” by Tim Bailey

Upsidedn (read: upside-down) is a book about community, honesty, humility, and authenticity. Considering the relative brevity of the book, author Tim Bailey manages to go deep with these ideas. He describes the book as “not a self-help book,” unless it “helps you fail miserably at being selfish.”
Throughout the book Bailey speaks in the voice of [...]

The Way Forward

 
(part 3 of a miniseries on the emerging church – see part 1 and part 2)
Unfortunately, both sides (Emerging and mainstream) suffer from rejecting the other. Some of the old guard resists new life, ensuring the continuation of their own slow death. The emerging generation discounts the contribution of the previous generation – largely on [...]

“Faith Undone”: A Tabloid Treatment of the Emerging Church

I was given a book recently called “Faith Undone: The emerging church – a new reformation or an end-time deception” by Roger Oakland. This is an “anti” book. By that I mean its sole purpose is to tell you, with a good amount of hyperbole, about the many, many things the author is against.  In [...]

A Detailed History of the Future 1 – McLuhan, Postman, and Source Material

 
 
 
 
 
 In the scope of things, Neil Postman is the layman’s version, or an interpreter of Marshall McLuhan. He is more than that of course – he’s a applicator and a developer too, but I don’t think the average person would connect with McLuhan and therein lies the value of Postman. I originally found Postman because [...]

Francis Schaeffer: “Aping the world’s wisdom…”

From a recent Crossway Books blog post:
Schaeffer’s following summary paragraph has been especially important (and convicting) to me — and something that I pray will always be foundational to the work we do at Crossway.
“Is it not amazing,” Schaeffer writes, “though we know the power of the Holy Spirit can be ours, we still ape [...]

Searching for Donald Miller

I think Donald is one of, if not THE brightest of “our” writers. Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality deserves a place on the highest shelf of that genre… I’m thinking of Madeleine L’engle and Anne Lamott here… and maybe a bit of P.J. O’Rourke. Honestly, Blue Like Jazz changed a few [...]