Category Archives: Reviews

Book Recommendation: What Happens When We Worship

Book Recommendation: What Happens When We Worship

Every so often a book warrants the thought in my mind, “I wish I would have written this book.” Such is the case with What Happens When We Worship by Jonathan Cruse, pastor of Community Presbyterian Church in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Cruse’s primary concern is Christians who find worship boring; the solution to this problem, Cruse… Continue Reading

A new book from Calvin Johansson

A new book from Calvin Johansson

I’ve always appreciated Calvin Johansson’s books on church music, Music and Ministry: A Biblical Counterpoint and Discipling Music Ministry: Twenty-First Century Directions. I especially find helpful his emphasis upon accomplishing our God-given mission of making disciples through the music we choose to use in corporate worship. Johansson’s insights into the goal of Christian maturity necessitating the… Continue Reading

Review of The Worship Pastor by Zac Hicks

Review of The Worship Pastor by Zac Hicks

Recently an increasing number of voices from among contemporary worship leaders have arisen to challenge the common performance mentality and encourage a ministry mindset. Zac Hicks, Canon for Worship and Liturgy at Cathedral Church of the Advent in Birmingham, AL, adds his contribution to this growing list with The Worship Pastor: A Call to Ministry for… Continue Reading

Review Article: You Are What you Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit

Review Article: You Are What you Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit

For several years now James K. A. Smith has been helpfully speaking and writing on the subject of liturgical formation in education and worship. His first two volumes on this subject, Desiring the Kingdom: Worship, Worldview, and Cultural Formation (Baker, 2009) and Imagining the Kingdom: How Worship Works (Baker, 2013), have reintroduced several important biblical… Continue Reading

The Benedict Option for Education

The Benedict Option for Education

Being familiar with some of Rod Dreher’s other works like The Little Way of Ruthie Leming and How Dante Can Save Your Life, I was excited to read his newest book, just out on Tuesday, The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation. While the whole book is both accessible and informative (see Scott’s review… Continue Reading

The Benedict Option: The Christian Option

The Benedict Option: The Christian Option

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about Rod Dreher’s much anticipated book, The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation, is how unremarkable his proposal really is. Yet it is a profoundly necessary correction for an American Christianity that has lost its biblical moorings and become just as secular as the culture around… Continue Reading

My favorite parts of Measuring the Music

My favorite parts of Measuring the Music

I announced yesterday the publication of the Third Edition of John Makujina’s classic analysis of the Contemporary Christian Music movement, Measuring the Music. If I remember correctly, I first encountered Measuring the Music the year after it was first published in 1999. Since then, I have read the book several times through, consulted it often, and assigned… Continue Reading

A Homeschool Mom Reads: January-April (2016)

A Homeschool Mom Reads: January-April (2016)

So, I feel like I’ve been in a huge reading (and blogging) slump. I’m blaming it on the pregnancy. When I would normally be reading or writing I’ve been…sleeping (or working on projects for the baby). But I did read a few things over the last several months, and I’m determined to do better once… Continue Reading

Review: Just Like Jesus Bible Storybook

Review: Just Like Jesus Bible Storybook

Today I’m reviewing the Just Like Jesus Bible Storybook by Stephen Elkins, published by Wonder Kids, a division of Tyndale. This retails for $14.99 (currently $10.95 on Amazon). A few notes about the format: Comes in a padded hardback with 173 colorfully illustrated paper pages Scripture verses taken from the NLT (and a few from… Continue Reading

A Homeschool Mom Reads: August and September

A Homeschool Mom Reads: August and September

August: August was back to school month for us as well as me getting ready to speak at a conference, so, while I didn’t get much read, two out of three of my books were excellent. Caught Up in a Story by Sarah Clarkson I bought this after listening to Sarah on a podcast at… Continue Reading

Book Review: Bonding with Your Child Through Boundaries

Book Review: Bonding with Your Child Through Boundaries

Since reading a highly recommended secular parenting book earlier this summer out of curiosity, I’ve been on a bit of a parenting book binge, looking for intensely practical parenting advice like that book offered, but from a biblical perspective. Bonding with Your Child Through Boundaries by June Hunt, with Peggy Sue Wells, was released by Crossway this summer, and… Continue Reading

Review of A Neglected Grace by Jason Helopoulos

Review of A Neglected Grace by Jason Helopoulos

A Neglected Grace: Family Worship in the Christian Home, by Jason Helopoulos. Ross-shire, Scotland: Christian Focus, 2013. 119 pp. $10.00. “Family worship in the Christian home” is a neglected grace according to author Jason Helopoulos. Helopoulos, Assistant Pastor of University Reformed Church in East Lansing, Michigan, laments that many Christian families have given into the… Continue Reading

Gospel-Shaped Worship: A Review of Recent Literature

Gospel-Shaped Worship: A Review of Recent Literature

This article first appeared in Artistic Theologian 2 (2013). Books reviewed: Christ-Centered Worship: Letting the Gospel Shape Our Practice, by Bryan Chapell (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2009); Story-Shaped Worship: Following Patterns from the Bible and History, by Robbie F. Castleman (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2013); Rhythms of Grace: How the Church’s Worship Tells the Story of the Gospel, by Mike Cosper (Wheaton:… Continue Reading

Review of Worship in Song by Paige Patterson

Review of Worship in Song by Paige Patterson

Worship in Song: A Biblical Approach to Music and Worship, by Scott Aniol. Winona Lake, IL: BMH Books, 2009. Worship in Song: A Biblical Approach to Music and Worship, published by Scott Aniol in 2009, marks the advent of still another work in the conflicting genre of books on music and church. Aniol acknowledges the… Continue Reading

Advice on Reading the Bible in Public

Advice on Reading the Bible in Public

Charles Haddon Spurgeon said, A person who can read well is seldom met with now-a-days. The public reading of the Bible is oftentimes not worthy of it being called reading. There once lived a boy in the Highlands of Scotland who presumed to read a newspaper with a twang similar to that which characterised his… Continue Reading

Charity and its Fruits by Jonathan Edwards

Charity and its Fruits by Jonathan Edwards

Although I have been writing this series of posts intermittently for two years now, I have yet to recommend a book by the man who inspired the name of this ministry. Jonathan Edwards’ book Religious Affections is indeed a book you ought to read. But that’s not the book I want to recommend now. In… Continue Reading

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

This entry is part 18 of 18 in the series Books Every Conservative (and Liberal) Christian Should Read You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

I agree with Peter Leithart—real men read Jane Austen. It’s too bad I didn’t know this before I became a man. It wasn’t until after I was married that my wife convinced me that Austen’s books were worth reading. Why in the world would I want to spend my time reading romances? I wondered. Alas,… Continue Reading

Another Beautiful Journey, Another Wrong Destination

Another Beautiful Journey, Another Wrong Destination

Unceasing Worship: Biblical Perspectives on Worship and the Arts by Harold M. Best. 2003, InterVarsity Press. I had just finished my review of Best’s first book, Music through the Eyes of Faith, when I decided to go ahead and pick up his next book. Unceasing Worship is a logical continuation of his work, expanding it into the area of worship.… Continue Reading

Music through a sinless lense

Music through a sinless lense

Music through the Eyes of Faith by Harold M. Best (Harper Collins, 1993) is not a heavy read, but it’s not light either; the author is obviously well trained in both music and logical thinking. The book is a little dated (1993), but in terms of foundational philosophy, it is an excellent example of what a… Continue Reading

Letters of Samuel Rutherford

Letters of Samuel Rutherford

This entry is part 5 of 6 in the series Invitation to the (Devotional) Classics You can read more posts from the series by using the Contents in the right sidebar.

It is strange what comfort can be gained from reading other people’s letters! Certainly this is true of many books of the Bible, and it is also true of much correspondence from one Christian to another. The Letters of Samuel Rutherford are justly celebrated as a rich devotional feast. Much of their value comes from the… Continue Reading