Be the People

When I first received Be the People by Dr. Carol Swain, I did not really expect anything special. Sure, I expected to agree with most of what she said, but as for anything new and groundbreaking, I figured it had all been said before, which was exactly what I got for approximately the first half of the book.
However, starting with chapter five, the book is PHENOMENAL. Chapters three and four, dealing respectively with abortion and the family structure as a whole, also provide nuanced arguments with scriptural authority and scientific support, however I am so accustomed to these arguments that I wasn’t particularly informed by them. One thing Dr. Swain does not hesitate to say is that there were times in her life when she did not make the right decisions, and she is repentant for those. Chapters 5-7 address the topics that we don’t talk about often in the evangelical church—immigration and race. While some will obviously disagree with her, Dr. Swain describes reasons that Bible believing Christians, yes, including those who want to be “Christian” before “American,” can support enhanced border security, even addressing the “alien among you” laws that are often cited by evangelicals who take the opposite position on border security.
I would definitely recommend this book to Christians who are just starting to become interested in politics. It gives a great overview of many different topics, and with the extensive bibliography she includes, it makes a great leaping off point for any of the topics addressed.
I received a review copy courtesy of Booksneeze, but was not obligated to provide a positive review.

Wisdom From a Senior Saint

When I first started reading “As Silver Refined”, I really wasn’t sure about it. The examples on the back seem to relate most specifically to older, married women, and occasionally her tone is slightly difficult to take. However, please do not judge the book on its cover as I may have done were it not for this program. This book is full of beautiful scriptural insights which apply to anyone, as Christ clearly says “in this world you may have troubles.” Mrs. Arthur expounds upon the peace which He gives to help us not only survive but thrive through our troubles.
Mrs. Arthur takes the reader through multiple stages of dealing with disappointment, and gives Biblical examples for all of them, drawn largely from Psalms, but from the New Testament as well. Her constant way of bringing everything back to the cross differentiates this book from the myriad of books that merely attempt to add the Holy Spirit to the prevailing pop psychology of the day. Her writing is both in-depth but accessible, and both new believers and veterans of the faith will benefit from Mrs. Arthurs God-given, refined wisdom.
One strength of the book is her use of anecdotes that come from her readers, and thus a variety of experience. Similar books have used anecdotes that majorly come from the author’s life, effectively alienating readers who may be in a different life stage or gender than the author, but this wide use helps to emphasize the fact that God’s wisdom, written in the scriptures and compiled by Mrs. Arthur cuts across gender, generational, and even cultural lines.
A final note—do not be intimidated by the length of the book. While it is technically over 350 pages, the final 70 pages are a Bible study guide, which would be great for use in individual or small group study, but also not something that the reader would need to read to get the full experience of the book.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher (Waterbrook Multnomah) in exchange for writing a review, however I was under no obligation to write a positive review.

More Lost Than Found

More Lost Than Found: Finding a Way Back to Faith by Jared Herd
This book seeks in a small part to understand the problem–why teenagers and young adults are leaving the church, but spends the majority of space looking for a solution—helping this same age group fit their Christianity into the things in life that seem more real to them. It seeks to show young people that Jesus is the most real thing of all, and wants to shift the paradigm from culture war to a Pauline method of engaging the culture.
Normally, those last three words would make me nervous, as many young authors today who want to engage the culture do so by watering down the powerful message of the gospel. Herd does not, and one of his strongest chapters, “Having Faith in Faith,” gives a clear presentation of the gospel, which puts emphasis on the utter desperation of a world without Christ and reemphasizes the intensity of the crucifixion. The weakest area of the book may be his examples—when he alludes to U2 and A Walk to Remember, he is not addressing parts of the culture that are most vehemently opposed by the Christian culture, and does not give a good example about how to reach people that are more interested in, as one example, the hip hop culture, but this book is definitely a good start. I would recommend it to high school and college ministers as well as to those who are in that age group—it would be great for a small group!
I received a promotional copy of this book from the publisher through a promotion called BookSneeze.

48 Days to the Work You Love

Well, for starters, more than forty-eight days have passed since graduation–and my job search started in January at least. However, I picked up this book the other day at the library, and in some ways it has been informative. My expectations were relatively low–in many ways Samford’s CDC hadn’t seemed to share much good information besides “network, network, network”–though at a private school, it is probably easy to assume that your students are well set-up for networking.

I am not sure how many of these principles I will use during my own job search, but it has been great as an encouragement–this story is filled with anecdotes about people finding work they love. Now, this is a book that was originally published pre-recession, though this is the “revised edition” and I doubt that some chapters are completely relevant. However, it has given some great encouragement compared to what I see on the news (constant unemployment news) and on Facebook (constant status updates from people who seem to hate their jobs).

While thise books comes from a Christian perspective–the author actually attends the same church as Dave Ramsey–now THAT would be a great career services team! It is not preachy, but is very affirming, and states multiple times that even church professions are not fulfilling to all, and that not going into “professional church work” is not a letdown to God.