Review- PostSecret: Confessions on Life, Death, and GOD

 Frank Warren has been called the world's friendliest stranger. Mainly because every week he gets anonymous post cards with people's deepest secrets (Sounds like something out of Stephen King). These secrets, usually on a creative post card, get posted on-line at his blog for all to see. For many, it fosters a sense of community and understanding, in knowing that there are others out there who feel like them-and that there is a place to express those feelings. Warren started the blog as an art project back in 2005. Since then, he has traveled the country with the cards as a traveling art exhibit.

In the case of "Confessions on Life, Death and God", the secrets were from an exhibit called: Every Faith Beautiful. Warren explains that one of the first cards he ever received was from a woman in Texas who's husband was a Baptist pastor. Her secret? No one suspected she was an atheist. The fact that a lot of the post cards are about issues related to faith, doubt, life, and death is what led to this book and the exhibit.

The cards are almost always creative with a lot of attention to detail. No wonder they can be a part of an art exhibit. Some are funny ("I don't hold my farts around you"), some are very revealing (a suicidal psychiatrist), and some-to Christians- are thought provoking and sad.

That's where the God part come in. One that made me think was from a woman who lost her unborn child at 16 week. "That was the day my baby, God and my heart died".

The cards make for a pretty fast read. However, some images in the book are very inappropriate (along with some of the content). Thus I would be careful with who you get this book for.

So why is this important? I think to those of us in ministry, this is the kind of research you sometimes can't get. It's a peek into the lives of everyday Americans. Maybe even the man next door. And since this book is specifically about faith issues, I think it's one worth looking at.

To finish I wanted to share some observations I made while reading the book:

1. People are desperate to communicate.

Even if it's telling a stranger their darkest secrets,people want to talk. The image of the God who is not silent, makes us want to communicate. Facebook, Twitter, etc.. are further proof of that  (See Ch.1 of James White's "Scripture Alone" for a great argument on this point). This leads me to the next point....

2. We must learn to listen.

I know it's been said before, and it bears repeating: James 1:19 reminds us to be "quick to hear, slow to speak". Many of us who are called to evangelism and apologetics, can get a little too eager to make our points at the expense of the person. We must learn to cultivate the discipline of listening.  If ever we needed the ministry of listening, it is now. I know I speak this to myself as well.

3. The arts are our friends.

A simple post card becomes a medium for communication and a work of art at the same time. Many people have noted (i.e. John Frame) there can be variety to our apologetic. In the Bible, this includes parables, metaphors, images, etc... Is it any wonder God speaks to us not only in language, but with literature? (A great resource for this would be the Literary Study Bible). And yet, many churches think it odd to try and include the arts in its worship and evangelism. This isn't the place to discuss arts and the church (but you're free to) so I will just say two things.  In the book, Warren, talks about visiting a Buddhist temple, and being attracted by a garden and pond there. He then went on to have a pretty interesting talk with one of the visitors in the temple.

The first thing I thought was: I wish my church had a garden! I know a lot of us are stuck with store front churches, but that shouldn't be reason to ignore the aesthetic possibilities our buildings can have. Neither should we ignore the value the arts can play in our worship and communication.

#4 People still have questions.

The classic questions of evil, exclusivity claims, and the nature of God keep coming up. People are looking for an answer. they're looking for a word from God. I have been of the opinion that our churces have been weak in teaching and preaching. At a time when people are asking the classic questions (in the face of personal and national troubles) we hide our bible to our shame and detremement. This is connected to my last obserevation...

#5 We need to teach our people

Many times while reading Confessions, I just kept seeing people who gave up on church or God because of a bad tradition, or interpretation of scripture. Whether it was tongues or the place of people with gay tendencies, God basically gets a bad rap sometimes. We must teach the whole counsel of God's word and help our people develop a robust world view. To give our people any less, is to put them in danger of not being able to answer the big questions that are being thrown at them by the man next door. Or without the means to minister to them.

How I review books-3rd update

[Note: I wrote this as my first post and have updated it over the year. I have added a few more ideas. Feel free to let me know what you would add. Thanks!]

 I did want to begin by sharing some ideas on how to judge a book before your read. Since many of you may be Christian, I will jump ahead and focus on how to get a feel for religious book.

1. Amazon!
If you are like me, you spend time on Amazon.com just browsing to see what's around, what's coming up, and what people generally think of books you either just bought, or are about to buy or read. Read the reviews. Does it have one, two, or five stars? Do the reviews seem fair? Are there any recurring problems mentioned? Many theology books are notorious for having bad binding. Are you better off buying it used?

2. Blurbs, or those personal endorsements on the back
Who blurbs the back of the book? Blurbs are the endorsements given to an author by other recognized authors, personalities etc.. this one can say a lot or a little. I once thumbed through a book that was endorsed by Donald Miller. He is the author of "Blue Like Jazz" which many of you know makes some interesting theological statements. I almost put the book away, but it turned out to be a great book on how to do church discipline today. If I could remember the title of said book I'd recommend it (Something like 10 mistakes churches make)! Of course, seeing well known, respected leaders recommend a book helps. But you must go deeper still. Does anyone who's opinion you trust like the book you are about to read?
3.Table of Contents
Yes, at some point you have to pop open the book and read what the author intends to communicate (you knew you were going to at some point) Is there a structure? What are the headings? Is there an apppendix? If it has a sripture index, does it have a lot of scripture? How long is the book? Who gets mentioned a lot in their bibliography or endnotes? I once had to read a book that had a lot of end notes referencing Carl Jung-it's still a somewhat decent book, but now I read it with caution.
4. Publisher
Who published it? I'm not too happy with Zondervan now that they are cashing in on the Emergent movement with an Emergent line of books. This doesn't mean that all Zondervan books are bad. And yes, to be fair some Emergent books are decent (sometimes). If anything Intervarsity Press is guilty of publishing many questionable books (the openess of God anyone?) Where as a company like Crossway is known to publish Reformed authors. Ditto for Christian Scholars Press and P&R Publishing.
5. Time
What year was this published? If this is older than a decade, their info maybe outdated. But, there are those few books that stand the test of time, so don't hold onto that too hard and fast.
6. Author Info
Who is this person that you are about to let into your thoughts? Thanks to today's world, you can find a ministry website for almost all Christian authors. Just be careful that their book isn't just an endorsement for even more (and more expensive!) material from them. What school did they go to? What is their testimony? What school do they teach at? Have they made controversial statements in previous books? Is their church a good place? Do they have a blog? Are there incriminating pics of them with Miley Cyrus?
7. Your own interest
Why do you want to read this? What is it that you need to know? Some books need only a quick glance and a read through a chapter or two to get whatyou need. Others demand a lot of time, and are worth every hour of reading. Pray, reflect, but for goodness sake tell people. We need to have more open discussions about books.

Later on I will write about how to read a book. Suffice it to say, my uncle once told me that you don't let books affect you. The only one that should affect you is the Bible. You must take a wait and see approach to books. That can be very hard if the book is really good. More on this later. Oh yes I expect you to tell what you think ofmy somewhat sage advice. Go ahead, I dare you.


** Update
A few more things to consider as you read a book;

8. Does your enemy hate or like it?
You either see this one or you don't.

9. What are the bloggers saying?
Tim Challie's page Challies.com is now THE place to get a good Christian book review. He truly is the Christian Uber-blogger/book reviewer. I trust him.

10. Author's intent?
Why was this book written? To inform? Persuade? Make a point? Share an experience? These are things you want to keep in mind. It will help you decide if you want to read the whole thing and if they are making substantial arguments or if they are being honest.

11. Would I want to own this?
Or would I be happy borrowing it from the library? There are a few books I wouldn't want to be caught dead with. Seriously.


3rd Update

12. What's the point?
So what are you going to get out of the book once you read it? What are you going to do about it?


13.The friend test
Ask your friends what they think about it (if they have read it). They may save you a trip to the bookstore.





14. Re-read factor
Is this one of those books you'll want to own long enough to read again? Granted some of those books are hard to spot at first, but some you just know you'll read again and again.


Ok there you go, READ. But think as well. I might also add, that I will talk about how to read a Christian book in the future.

ESV Study Bible!!!!!

It's almost here. On October 15th the ESV study bible will be released. I can't wait. Mainly because my pal Jonathan (AKA Soi Sauce to some of you) bought me one for my birthday this year. Of course, I get it in October, just like everyone else. Here's a vid explaining what it will look like. I'm sooooo excited.

PAGAN!!!!

No not us! Thanks to Chris Roseborough (pictured l-r: Glenn Leatherman, Odd Thomas, Chris, Stephen Macasill of biblicalthought and Fusion!:)) Lutheran extrordinaire at alittleleaven.com for this humorous piece. I have thumbed through the book. *sigh* Some books were not meant for human consumption. I might add, Barna's name is splashed all over the cover and he wrote a little bit of it. A bit misleading. (Wondering aside: who is he trying to impress or kiss up to? Someone like this? Gotta sell books to someone I guess)
Anywho here is Chris's piece. Enjoy.

Pagan Christianity (gasp)

We just finished reading a book written by George Barna entitled "Pagan Christianity". Aside from being one of the most poorly researched books we've run across, it's 'arguments' are probably some of the lamest that we've ever read (Barna and Viola literally cherry pick their evidence and ignore the large body of evidence that easily overturns their claims). The book basically argues that just about everything that we do in church is a form of paganism. Barna is not talking about things like praying to the saints. Instead he's literally arguing against anything that is 'institutional' including having a church building and a pastor who preaches sermons on Sunday. Many of Barna's arguments are just silly. The basic thesis is:

"The pagans did this type of stuff before Christians. Therefore, the church must have copied it from the pagans".

(See the list below of the pagan elements that are in church, according to Barna).


Well Mr. Barna, we have terrible news for you. We hate to be the ones having to break this to you. But, we have research that proves that pagans were writing books long before Christians were writing books. Therefore, it is clear that books are pagan. Therefore, Christians shouldn't be reading books, including (and especially) your books.
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Hope you enjoyed that. Here is a very cool review of the book from Ben Witherington III.

My book....and my broken heart....

My boss and I have not seen eye to eye on the book. It's my fault really. It's not my book. It's his. Booklet really. However, I'm even more resolved to write a book about our faith and our culture. When...... I don't know. And that breaks my heart.