Unleash!

This is Perry Noble's first book. If you know anything about Noble as a speaker, you can tangibly feel his passion on the pages of this book.

This book goes through the life of David, although makes some pit stops with other characters in the Bible such as Peter and Paul.

"As followers of Christ, our primary goal is not to be understood but rather to be obedient" (63).

"The more I read the Bible, the more convinced I am that Jesus is always asking us to take the next step... We can't follow Jesus and stay the same. As we follow Him step-by-step, He makes us into who we need to be and shows us what we need to do" (127).

"Jesus didn't ask us to pick up our recliners and follow Him. He asked us to pick up our crosses. And those who won't carry their crosses will always drop out. Don't misunderstand: following Jesus isn't going to be easy. But it's always worth it" (181).

I highly recommend this book.

Visioneering

I remember hearing about this book from my former boss, Rick Chromey, when I graduated college. It was in his insanely large book collection and I remember thinking, I'd like to read that someday.

Well, today's the day I can say I've read it!

I really like Stanley's writing style. He is clear and to the point. He does not beat around the bush and has great illustrations to make his point.

This book goes through the story of Nehemiah, who had a great vision for the city of Jerusalem.

"Without a clear vision, odds are you will come to the end of your life and wonder. Wonder what you could have done -- what you should have done" (kindle location 106).

Throughout the book, Stanley encourages us to dream dreams that are unique to us.

I related to Nehemiah a lot. Nehemiah was a "man with immense leadership ability who awoke every day to do a job that tapped little or none of those skills" (kindle location 358). Don't call me out for pride; I'm just relating to the fact that he was not living in a dream world with his dream job.

At the end of each chapter were simple exercises you could go through to help define and redefine your vision.

As with all of Stanley's books, it's worth a read.

I reviewed this book for Waterbrook Multnomah Publishers Blogging for Books. I received this book for free in exchange for a review of the book.

Deep & Wide

No, not the song, but if you grew up in church, I'm sure you'll have that song stuck in your head for a while...

Andy Stanley wrote this book and I have been reading it the last few months for our staff meetings.

It is a really great book that encourages people to think through how they've been "doing church".

One of the chapters that made me step back and consider how things are done is chapter nine. It was all about "the message before the message". Basically making sure that things are clean in appearance, putting yourself in the first timers' shoes and thinking through what they might be thinking if they came to your church.

I also really loved the conclusion chapter.

My heart is captured by those who are unchurched for whatever reason. I have a hard time with the status quo in church because I know there are people out there who do not know Jesus. There are people who are MY NEIGHBORS who do not know Jesus.

This book was challenging churches to look through the perspective of someone who has not been to church in a while and make it captivating. You do not have to dumb down the message, but we have made church about keeping church people happy for far too long and Stanley is calling us to go wide.

Church is for everyone.

The Invested Life

I heard about this book from our women's minister. She works right across the hall from me, so when she gave me a copy and highly recommended it, I started reading it.

It was a great combination of their personal experiences with discipleship as well as testimonies at the end of the chapter.

The main premise of the book is WHO ARE YOU INVESTING IN? and WHO IS INVESTING IN YOU?

Two very tough question to ask yourself.

My favorite part of the book was Joel's testimony. I could relate to him on so many levels, from being serious about my faith as a junior in high school to going overseas on missions trips that changed the course of life. We both know people that can look into our very souls and just know what is going on.

Another part that interested me was the life and legacy of Andrew. Over the span of two pages, they map out the disciples affected by Andrew's simple obedience in following Jesus. Andrew (went from disciple of John the Baptist to disciple of Jesus), got his brother, Peter, who was head of the Church. Barnabas, Paul, and John Mark follow... Paul goes on to disciple Timothy and Titus. Aquila and Priscilla, two of Paul's co-workers, take Apollos under their wing to take him deeper into the Word. All because one man, Andrew -- very likely an introvert -- was obedient and followed Jesus.

Tyndale offers the first chapter for free. They also have online discussion guides for leaders to print out.

I hope to really truly follow Jesus' command to GO AND MAKE DISCIPLES. This book was an eye opener as to how it could be done. It is a great tool and it's only $10!

The challenge now is to do something with what I have read about discipleship!

Confessions of a Raging Perfectionist

I am convinced I could be related to Amanda Jenkins, the author of Confessions of a Raging Perfectionist. Her writing style made her easy to relate to and I share some of her struggles with perfectionism. I laughed a lot throughout the book, thinking to myself, that is so me!

My favorite chapter was called "Diet Coke". While I am addicted to regular Coke, I understood her dependency on Diet Coke to get through the day. "I think He's convicting me to stop using [Diet Coke] wrongly. And by that I mean drinking in excess or as a coping mechanism or as my source of peace.... I'm pretty sure that's how I sometimes use it -- as my own little escape or twist on comfort food" (136-137).

Her stories were interesting and made me want to hang out with her and her friends. She pulled all the chapters together with Bible verses that fit the theme of each chapter. They tied it together well.

If you're wondering if this book is for you, consider her Q & A question number two:

Q: In your book, you talk about your addiction to perfection. What were the signs that this was an issue for you?
A: Little things. For a long time, I didn’t let my husband see me without makeup. I got really upset/frazzled when people dropped by unexpectedly. I got easily embarrassed when I messed up, and I wouldn’t admit to struggling. And I thought I had life pretty together—that I actually didn’t struggle/mess up/sin as much as other people did.

Still not sure you want to read it?
You can read Chapter One here. You can also read the entire Author Q & A here.

In exchange for this review, Tyndale Publishing gave me the book for free.

The Story

The church I work at is finishing up this book. Every ministry was going through it on age-appropriate levels. Our middle school students read the adult book (not much difference between adult and teen books).

I enjoyed reading this because it was done in a way that made sense while not being overwhelmed with reading THE ENTIRE BIBLE. It is 470 pages and sometimes paraphrases what happens (when they summarize, it is done in italics which is convenient).

It can be a quick, easy read, but our church went through it one chapter/week. There are maps and timelines which help frame what is being talked about in each chapter.

Overall it is a book of Good News. I am glad I went through it, but I am also glad to be done and start studying smaller parts of the Bible again.

The Hobbit

I have read The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien twice in the past few months.

I wanted to read it before seeing part one of the trilogy. I remember wanting to read it while I was in high school or something, but it was too visual for me (ok, I HAVE an imagination, but I just wanted to SEE all of the dwarves in their cloaks)...

I have been doing a Facebook conversation about The Hobbit with my former professor. I took his C.S. Lewis class in college and loved it. He put it out on Facebook that he was going to be doing an online book group about Tolkien's LOTR series. I have never read the LOTR trilogy (or The Hobbit before December), so I am still trying to figure out what all the names are -- what are buildings and what are people. Not only are there names, but several people have nicknames...

I am reading it via book on my kindle + cds from the library. I know that my kindle can read it to me, but it's monotone and I much prefer a British man reading me the story!

The Hobbit is a brilliant piece of literature.

As always with favorite characters, one of mine died in the end... so sad.

But I don't want to ruin it for those of you who have not had the adventure of reading through it!

Go get it NOW!