Pastor Stuff | Book Reviews | Randomness
Fresh off the press, Strange New World: How Thinkers and Activists Redefined Identity and Sparked the Sexual Revolution, is a profoundly insightful and helpful book. A revised and condensed version of the longer and equally helpful earlier work, The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self, it is accessible, powerful, and quickly cuts through the […]
Read More Strange New WorldSome books I buy just for the title, and this was one of them. The subtitle is even better “12 Hard Question for the World’s Largest Religion.” We need to be asking the hard questions. We need to be encouraging our people, especially our youth, to ask the hard questions. Why? Because unfortunately so much […]
Read More Confronting ChristianityAh yes…books! Some people hate them, some love them. Some have too many, some don’t have enough. Reading is essential for many reasons. On a mental, physical, emotional and intellectual level there are myriads of benefits to daily reading. [Google it! I’m not kidding!] But on a spiritual level, especially as it pertains to growth […]
Read More Pastor Mike’s top books of 2021It’s a pastoral task that happens fairly frequently – I was asked about another local church. I wasn’t familiar with them, so the inter webs I went I listened to a few sermons. Most of it was the garden variety false teaching = mega-church/prosperity gospel/word-of-faith man centered pop-psychology motivational feelings-fest, with a few out of […]
Read More Book Review: Understanding the Lord’s SupperI’m a fan of apologetics. I love well thought out, Scripturally grounded perspectives that incorporate the full orb of what Scripture actually says. Maybe it’s because I was a child of the 80’s and youth groups were all about pithy shallow sayings and don’t get me started on the worship music. OY. That’s why I […]
Read More Book Review – A Time for ConfidenceAnother book in the “Growing Healthy Churches” series by 9Marks, Prayer: How Praying Together Shapes the Church, both challenges and encourages us all to think more deeply on perhaps the churches biggest overlooked spiritual discipline. AND…perhaps the reigning world champion of the “Lowest Attended Event for Every Church on Earth” title – the prayer meeting. […]
Read More Book Review – Prayer: How Praying Together Shapes the ChurchAs stated previously, I’m a big fan of 9Marks and their missions to “equip church leaders with a biblical vision and practical resources for displaying God’s glory to the nations through healthy churches.” Personally, I’ve found them to be very helpful and insightful in thinking thru complex issues with remarkable clarity. They have also been a […]
Read More Book Review: The Gospel – How the Church Portrays the Beauty of ChristThis year, [well…actually LAST year as it’s now January] I wanted to read a dedicated Advent devotional. I also haven’t read much by Sinclair Ferguson, but have always found his teaching helpful. Enter Love Came Down at Christmas, which I snapped up during the Ligonier Black Friday sale. [Note for next year’s shopping…] If you’ve […]
Read More Book Review – Love Came Down at ChristmasSo…disclosure time. I didn’t do as well as I wanted to reading books in 2018. I managed to squeak out a few more than I did in 2017…and I was slightly less diligent in publishing reviews. Hence, I’ll have a few reviews that are stragglers of books read in 2018. That being said, here is […]
Read More Book Review – In His ImageIt’s not polite to talk religion or politics… …so let’s write a book on both. Yeah…I wouldn’t have bought this book, but sometimes being a book reviewer forces me to read things I would normally run away from, which is usually a good thing. I love to talk “religion” [note the intentional quotes], but truth […]
Read More Book Review – Letters to an American Christian
Mike Ruel 