Churched, by Matthew Paul Turner

If you grew up in church, especially in a church on the conservative/fundamentalist/Baptist end of the spectrum, you will laugh out loud in recognition at some of Matthew Paul Turner's stories in Churched: One Kid's Journey Toward God Despite a Holy Mess.  Turner grew up in an Independent Fundamentalist Baptist church in the south, so his experience is a real-life caricature of most people's church experiences.  But like a good caricature, it sheds a humorous light on reality.

Some of his stories and recollections are really hilarious.  I can relate to his self-diagnosis of narcolepsy.  He saw a Phil Donohue show segment in which the disease was discussed, and determined that he has sermon-onset narcolepsy, a diagnosis that he never could convince his dad of.  (I can relate, Matthew.  I have sermon-and-work-meeting-induced narcolepsy, for sure.)  He recalls the tactics used to scare him into heaven, or, more accurately, away from hell, like the time the Sunday school teacher set Barbie on fire.  (By the way, he remembers WAY more about his pre-adolescent years than I can remember about my own.  I suspect there's a good bit of "creative remembering" going on here. . . .)

Amid the fun and laughs, Turner writes very little about his journey toward God. His humor is insider humor that doesn't reek of arrogance, judgmentalism, or mockery, as you might expect from this sort of book.  Turner has the ability to make fun of himself and of some of his religious background without being disrespectful.  But I was hoping for a bit more redemption and "what I learned amid all the silliness."  Sure, he says he prayed a sinner's prayer out of fear--many times--but he doesn't talk much about putting aside childish things.  Still, it's a fun book to read.

Thinking Differently, by David Flink

Some kids think and learn differently.  That is what David Fink experienced as a child.  With the assistance of his school, teachers, and parents, he managed to succeed in school, pick up a couple of Ivy League degrees, and start a national organization to support children with learning disabilities.  In Thinking Differently: An Inspiring Guide for Parents of Children with Learning Disabilities, he tells his story and provides information, resources, and information for parents and educators.

In Fink's case, he struggled but found a place in a school dedicated to helping students with learning differences.  He did well enough in high school to earn acceptance at Brown, then graduate school at Columbia.  But even in college he had to continue to work with his teachers of accommodations.  During his college years, he started a program called Eye to Eye through which people with learning disabilities can mentor younger students with disabilities.

Besides this model of mentorship, Flink also provides parents and educators with strategies and basic information about schools, IEPs, and navigating special education.  For parents especially, this insight is invaluable.  The best insight, though, is the theme that runs through the book.  As Flink writes: "make sure you avoid seeing learning and attention issues as failures, flaws, or weaknesses an strive to view them as simply differences.  Remember: Different doesn't mean less than.  It may even mean absolutely fantastic!"  Amen to that!


Thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!

Executing Grace, by Shane Claiborne

No one likes the death penalty.  Some see it as a necessary evil or a critical component of justice, but no one (perhaps apart from sociopaths) likes it.  In light of the continued use of the death penalty in the U.S., Shane Claiborne has written Executing Grace: How the Death Penalty Killed Jesus and Why It's Killing Us.

Claiborne, a death penalty abolitionist, is strongest when he personalizes the death penalty, which is what he spends most of the book doing.  When we see people on death row as people, like Claiborne does, anyone's enthusiasm for killing them diminishes.  Claiborne also talks about the people who work in the prisons.  Many of them testify about how difficult it is to participate in the execution of someone whom they have come to know personally over their weeks and months living on death row.  Many former prison workers have become death row abolitionists.

The most powerful stories are the stories of forgiveness.  Claiborne tells story after story of friendships that spring up between the families of the condemned and victims' families and, in some cases between the families of murder victims and their convicted killers.  The example of Jesus and the New Testament demands no less from us.  We are to forgive and to pray for redemption.  Even a convicted murderer has the potential to become a follower of Jesus. 

Claiborne's target audience is Christians who defend the use of the death penalty.  As he points out, the death penalty is used most in the south, where Christian influence tends to be strongest.  And Christians have long defended the death penalty as a reflection of biblical justice.  He makes a strong argument, but he leans far to the emotional side, and spends much less time on questions like deterrence.  Even so, I'm not sure any practical arguments can counter questions like racism in the application of the death penalty, the rate of mistakes (where an innocent person is convicted), and the scriptural calls for forgiveness and reconciliation.  If you are in favor of the death penalty, Executing Grace will force you to reconsider.


Thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!

Love Where You Live, by Shauna Pilgreen

When Shauna Pilgreen and her pastor husband were praying about where to plant a church, they ended up in a not-so-obvious place, a place that was foreign to both of them in many ways: San Francisco.  In Love Where You Live: How to Live Sent in the Place You Call Home, she writes about many of their experiences, life as urban church planters, and attitudes and actions we can all live out wherever we live.

I love Pilgreen's commitment to getting to know her neighbors, investing in and participating in community events and institutions, and contributing to the overall health of the neighborhood.  Whereas for many who look to move out of an area when school quality, public services, or living conditions decline, Pilgreen writes "Now's not the time to bail on your city but to be the people, the families who make it better, more stable, and more grounded in the truth of Jesus Christ."

She tells story after story of people whose lives have been changed by their joining in with their church's fellowship and an encounter with Jesus.  A good bit of her narrative dwells on the nature of living in San Francisco specifically, and more generally on living in a densely populated urban center.  Her tone seems to assume that most of her readers are from little six stoplight towns, like the one in which she grew up, or a midwestern suburb.  She reminded me of some of my friends who moved to inner-city neighborhoods and, with thinly disguised glee, talk about the "exotic" things they experience.  Pilgreeen does this as she talks about the characters and behaviors she sees on the streets.

Beyond the reports of inner-city tourism, Pilgreen lays out lifestyle and relationship choices that support the call to "live sent."  This theme is the strength of the book.  We are missionaries where we are, we have natural connections in which we can spread our influence, and should cultivate other connections through which we invite people into relationship with Jesus.  We can live as connector, storyteller, grace giver, intercessor, and caretaker.  Whether you are rooted in a place for decades, or if God has called you to a new and difference place, Pilgreen's book and her example will inspire you to live sent.


Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!

Saturate, Jeff Vanderstelt

Jeff Vanderstelt was working at one of the most influential churches in America, Willow Creek Church in Illinois, when he felt God calling him to something different.  So he moved across the country to Washington to plant a church.  In Saturate: Being Disciples of Jesus in the Everyday Stuff of Life, Vanderstelt describes his shift from the "church on Sunday" mentality to a lifestyle of full-life discipleship.

For Vanderstelt, life is a mission.  Jesus "lives for us and, by his Spirit, he lives in us and works through us."  Our lives should be saturated with Jesus so that we can saturate our communities with Jesus's love.  Throughout the book, Vanderstelt tells stories of people whose lives reflect this perspective, believers who "engage in the everyday stuff of life with the goal of seeing Jesus saturation for everyone in every place."

To Vanderstelt, "all of life is mission and everyone is a missionary.  Life is the mission trip."  I love his vision.  I love this model for the church.  In rare moments in my Christian life, I have been in communities like this.  This attitude and these communities are all too rare.  Vanderstelt gives fabulous examples and provides a model for living on mission, but, as inspiring as he is, he doesn't sufficiently address some of the mundane "everyday stuff of life." 

Sometimes with long commutes, long work days, and several evenings a week with family commitments, even the most missional believer is worn out at the end of the day with little reserve for missional living.  Maybe this is the topic of the next book, making life changes that free up your mind, spirit, and calendar for missional living.  Or maybe my focus is off.  I was just left with a sense of "Wow, I wish my life were like that, but it just isn't and I don't see it happening for me."  With this in mind, please don't hear me saying I disagree with Vanderstelt or don't value his teaching.  I'm just saying some people like me might need more than this book, we need a life coach to help us figure out how to carve out time and rearrange priorities. 


Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!

Sourpuss, by Merricat Mulray

Sourpuss, a new novel by Merricat Mulray (which is actually two sisters), is a bleak look at the underbelly of college life.  It's billed as dark comedy, but it's not very funny.  The story centers on track star Mallory, who is expected to run in the Olympics.  After an injury, she is assigned a student trainer, Graham, a fraternity president whom she abhors, but who will help her rehab.  Of course they fall in love.  But both of them are such miserable jerks that the reader is never convinced that they aren't just manipulating each other.

Both Graham and Mallory are self-centered, unlikable jerks.  Actually, every character in this story is completely unlikable.  The other frat members, Mallory's teammates, her coach, her gay roommate, and on and on.  It's like they're living in the world of the despicable.  Every character is a caricature.  In fact, the whole book is a caricature of college life.  I don't know if the Mulray sisters went to college.  Either they didn't, and they take every college life stereotype and blow it up larger than life, or they did go to college and created this story to lampoon every person they hated. 

Just as I thought the story would redeem itself a little, that maybe some of the characters had grown through the tough lessons they learned, and just as I thought the story might have something positive to say about reforming the misogynistic, debauched frat culture, the story abruptly ended in a most unsatisfying way.  I know they're going for satire, they're going for dark comedy, but the overall result is overwrought, disturbing, and unenjoyable.


Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!

The Jihadi Next Door, by Kimberly Mehlman-Orozco

Kimberly Mehlman-Orozco has written extensively about human trafficking. As she looked into recruiting by terrorists and compared human trafficking, she found many similarities. In The Jihadi Next Door: How ISIS is Forcing, Defrauding, and Coercing Your Neighbor Into Terrorism, she draws parallels between the techniques of human traffickers and terrorist organizations.

Both criminal groups target vulnerable, lonely populations.  They promise belonging, fulfillment, and escape.  And in both cases, the promise does not measure up.  Human traffickers promise glamour, job opportunities, or escape from poverty.  Terrorist organizations promise much the same, but with a veneer of religion.

This last point ends up being the focus and, in my mind, the downfall of Mehlman-Orozco’s book. She wants to make the point that Islamic terrorists are all about power, and not about religion.  A sampling:

“Religion is the veneer used by war profiteers to recruit disposable people into terrorism.”
“A terrorist uses religion or social movements to give them the facade of legitimacy.”
“These terrorist organizations have no genuine affinity or interest in the causes or religions they latch on to, they are simply used as a tool to rationalize and legitimize their criminality and self-interest.”
“This isn’t about Islam. These terrorists are not practicing Muslims, despite what they profess.” “
“Ultimately, when we think of ISIS there should be absolutely no association with religion because that is nothing more than the facade they want everyone to believe in.”
ISIS’s “ criminal organization has nothing to do with Muslims or Islam.”

I completely buy her premise that, like human traffickers, terrorists target the most socially and psychologically vulnerable.  But she hammers the “Islamic terrorists are not Muslim” point so long and hard that it sounds like she's trying to convince herself of it.  Seriously, how can anyone who reads the news or sees ISIS or Al-Qaeda coverage seriously believe there is no association with religion, that they have nothing to do with Muslims or Islam?  A minority sect, maybe.  Violent dissenters from the mainstream of their faith, sure.  But not driven by religion?  It just sounds ridiculous.  I don't buy it.  I think this emphasis really weakened her argument.  Even many of her personal examples, in which she tries to distinguish between the social reasons for Westerners joining up with Muslim terrorists, as opposed to religious motivations, ring hollow.

Are there good, peaceful Muslims in the world?  Of course.  Most Muslims are peaceful, decent people.  Do some Muslims believe their faith compels them to make war on non-Muslims?  Obviously.  To believe otherwise is total denial of reality.


Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!