Confessions of a Recovering Pharisee

I was asked by Wade Burleson and and Smith and Helwys to review Wade’s new book Harball, Feeling the Fury of Fundamentalism. I was excited to do so. I must tell everyone up front that I may be biased because I consider Wade and his family my friends.  I spent time in Greensboro with Wade and Rachelle and they are gracious people.  Wade’s father Paul has done two revivals at my former church and he did an amazing job.  I also spent a day’s adventure trying to meet Billy Graham with Wade and Marty Duren a few years back. I believe Wade is misunderstood by those who haven’t had the privilege of meeting him and talking with him. I don’t believe I could have taken the path that Wade has but that is why I enjoyed this book so much.

Wade is a unique individual who has the backbone to stand up for what he feels is right. He is a conservative, Bible believing pastor who dared to ask questions of those who were running his denomination, The Southern Baptist Convention.  I began reading Wade’s blog Grace and Truth to You in 2005 after Marty Duren had pointed to me it.  I had been one who had stayed away from SBC politics and tended to believe what I heard from the Conservative leaders because my theology is Conservative. But as I read Wade’s blog I began to question and investigate myself.

Hardball is a chronological journey with Wade from how he became a Trustee for the International Mission Board of the SBC, to his audacity of daring to ask questions as a “rookie” Trustee, to his beginning to blog, to the Greensboro SBC convention, to the San Antonio Convention, to many Trustee meetings, to his being censured by the IMB Board of Trustees, and finally to his resignation last year. 

Now to be fair, this is Wade’s side.  There will be many who say that Wade has an ax to grind.  I don’t believe that because I know him.  I believe Wade truly has a heart for the missionaries oversees. He is a crusader against what he sees as the narrowing of parameters of what it means to be a Southern Baptist. If what Wade details is true then this should be a wake up call for those who care about Foreign Missions and their denomination.  Many have accused Wade of trying to destroy the SBC. I believe he is trying to save it from what he feels is the extreme.

I highly recommend this book whether you believe Wade or not. It is a must read for anyone who is going to serve on staff at a church because it gives a glimpse of the politics that occur.  I give Hardball 4.9 Hockey Sticks.

You can order the book here:  http://www.helwys.com/books/hardball_religion.html

My friend David Phillips who founded Missional Press asked me to review this book some time ago.  I’m sorry I just now am doing the review but the last 4 months have been rather different for me. I have not been in my usual routine of going to a coffee shop in the morning to journal and read.  

Anyway, I finally finished reading Free to Be You by Dr. Fred Antonelli.  It is funny how God puts some books in my path at a time that I need to read.  I wouldn’t say I learned anything I had not heard before but the book was a reminder that God uniquely made each one of us to be who we are.  The book is about 174 pages long and is an easy read.  When I finally got made time to read it, I finished in two sittings.  

Dr. Antonnelli talks about out our identity in Christ which is something I’ve been hearing a lot more about in the last year.  I really like the section where he said we have to figure out the coding in our self that we get from childhood and how many of us have to de-code and re-code based on past experiences.  

The last part of the book was timely for me because it talked about discouragement and how we can overcome it.  Sometimes it is just getting rest. But we also have to remember that Satan wants us to be discouraged and we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.  

I think this is a good book for anyone who struggles with self doubt and those in ministry who give care to those who deal with that.  So, this book is for all of us!

I give Free to Be You 4.5 hockey sticks out of 5.

Yesterday I finally finished reading Peppermint-Filled Piñatas: Breaking Through Tolerance and Embracing Love by Eric Michael Bryant. I’m sorry it took me so long to finish it but I was working on my own book proposal and well LIFE.  

Anyway, I brought the book home a few weeks ago and Cassandra (my beautiful wife of 20 years) stole it from me.  I had finished the first two chapters but the title caught her attention.  Then she read the entire book within 24 hours!  So, I had pencil underlines all through out the book!  So yes, she liked it.  Or should I say it challenged and convicted her about building relationships in our community.

Eric Michael Bryant is a pastor at Mosaic Church in Los Angeles, CA.  For those of you who don’t know Mosaic is pastored by Erwin McManus.  Mosaic is a unique church in that it is truly multi-racial. Eric is one of the few white people on staff.  He and his wife purposely moved to an area in LA where they are in the minority.  

The title of the book comes from when he went out to get candy for their child’s birthday party.  He wanted to save money so he bought peppermint candy.  But his wife knew that children wouldn’t want the cheap stuff they wanted the good candy.  He compared that to life.  People don’t want cheap relationships they want the good stuff.

He said the invention of the garage door has probably hurt relationships as much as anything.  I would tend to agree.  We just wave at our neighbors and push a button and go out of site.  He said as believers we need to quit hiding from the world and get in the world.  We have to get messy and dirty with people.  Not their lifestyles but we have to be involved and life is messy.

Eric is very transparent and doesn’t preach at us through this work.  But it was very convicting and confirming to both me and Cassandra that this is what church should be about.  Church is being the hands and feet of Jesus not a building, or a choir or band or the best pageant in town, etc….

I highly recommend Peppermint-Filled Piñatas and give it 4.8 hockey sticks out of 5.

Kitty Foth-Regner asked me to review her book Heaven Without Her.  I’m so glad she did.  I didn’t know what to think about this book when I received it.  Kitty was a self-titled Feminist and an Atheist for most of her life.  She was raised in a faith filled home, however Kitty chose another path.   As a child of the 60’s she headed off to college in the early 70’s and found herself immersed in the “hippie” movement.  

Kitty is a copywriter so it is no wonder this book is so well written.  There are very few books I can say that were hard to put down but this one was.  Had I been able to spend one day reading I would have done so because it is a story of her journey from being a Feminist Atheist to a follower of Jesus Christ.

The story begins in May of 2000 when her aging mother is dying.  It is almost like a “24″ story.  She starts the chapter telling about her mother’s last moments on earth and how she flashes back to what made her an Feminist Atheist.  Then she moves ahead and explains why her mothers last moment made her re-examine the faith she had been raise in. 

Kitty did not have an instant conversion.  She was a full fledged Feminist Atheist.  All of her friends were the same as her.  But as she began to examine Christianity she started to find the claims true.  But this scared her so she began looking at every religion to see if they were true too.  But as she continued to research it became apparent to her that Jesus was now her Savior.  

Her new faith caused her to lose many of her old Feminist Atheist friends because she told them about her new faith.  Here is a quote that sums up the book for me:

As a feminist, I was concerned exclusively with myself ‘I want,’ ‘I need,’ ‘I have the right’–that’s pretty much all I thought about.  Whereas Christianity teaches me to say, ‘What can I do for you?’” 

I would highly recommend reading this book.  I give it 4.75 hockey sticks out of 5.

I was asked to review the book Not the Religious Type: Confessions of a Turncoat Atheist by Dave Schmelzer.  Dave is the pastor of the Vineyard Christian Fellowship of Greater Boston. He and his wife, Grace, have five children. Before participating in the founding of the Greater Boston Vineyard, Dave worked as a playwright and saw two of his plays professionally produced on the west coast. 

Dave was an Atheist through college (or at least an agnostic).  The book is written in a similar manner to Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller.  I’m not saying it is like BLJ but it has that same feel to me.  But Dave wasn’t searching for God by any means.  This book details his decision to follow Jesus after years of being a skeptic.  He thought he was a good person so he didn’t really need God. Then as he says he discovered he really was a “jerk.”  

After finding the love of his life, God called him to start a church in of all places Harvard.  He had inherrited some money so he and his wife asked a man to invest it in the riskiest stock possible.  Either they were going to make a lot of money to start a church near Harvard or they would lose it all.  God blessed and they started reaching professors and skeptics at Harvard and surrounding areas.  Their church started growing so much that the local media started taking notice.

He writes often about prayer, faith and how Baywatch caused 9/11. (you’ll have to read to understand) His daughter almost died and God answered their prayers and she made it through.  He is very transparent and vulnerable as he discusses his life of faith.  It is 179 pages long and it is available tomorrow.

I highly recommend this book and give it 4.5 hockey sticks out of 5.