‘Zombie Church: Breathing Life Back Into the Body of Christ’ by Tyler Edwards – Book Review

It is not every day that a book is published that addresses the apathy of the Church of Jesus Christ. But the latest book on my list, ‘Zombie Church: Breathing LifeBack Into the Body of Christ’ does just that – by comparing today’s Christians to zombies from horror movies. The perfect book for the Halloween season, where the contrast between good and evil is prevalent in society at large.

Here is the synopsis of this book:

There Are Zombies Among Us. Liars. Hypocrites. Men, women, and children who attend church because it’s what they are supposed to do. Just going through the motions. These are the undead – people who are disconnected from the Spirit of God – who are spreading a virus of passivity, or worse. No one is completely immune.

Zombies can live. But they will have to fight. Fight for their lives.

In this challenging, culturally relevant book, Tyler Edwards spotlights the very real but often ignored lackluster attitude of today’s believers. An attitude that can infect an entire church. Using examples from popular zombie movies, Edwards will help you recognize the symptoms and show what you can do to awaken the undead. Your mission is to take life to a dying world by demonstrating what it means to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30 NIV).

The bride of Christ isn’t dead. But she is terribly sick. Zombie Church offers the keys to survival.

Here is the biography of the author:

Tyler Edwards is the lead minister of Cornerstone Christian Church in Joplin, Missouri. He graduated from Ozark Christian College in 2006 with dual degrees in Biblical Literature and Christian Ministries, and in 2007 married Erica, a journalism and broadcasting instructor at Pitt State University.

A speaker for retreats and men’s groups, Tyler taught a class on the life of Christ to local pastors in Mbale, Uganda. He works with Rapha House, a nonprofit organization that fights child slavery and works to help victims of sexual exploitation get the healing and help they need to live a free life. He was also on the board of directors for a video company that sought to create a global awareness of sex trafficking issues.

Tyler’s hope is to see the church regain an exclusively Christ-centered focus and learn to rise above its differences for the sake of the progression of the kingdom of God.

I love this reasoning in the Introduction explaining the use of zombie in this book:

Zombies do not produce anything. They do not accomplish anything. All they do is wander around aimlessly, consuming everything in their path (including non-zombies). They are a corrupt and destructive force that taints all they come in contact with. Zombies act like they are alive, but they are dead. They just don’t know it yet.

Yes, there are zombies in our churches. Not only that, but this seems to be a growing trend. The doors are open, the people show up faithfully, the songs are sung. But that’s it. So many American churches today are filled with people whose spiritual lives consist of little more than showing up to church on Sunday morning and, for the superspiritual, maybe once in the middle of the week. We have become experts at going through the motions, but these motions are all we go through. I can’t help but wonder if God didn’t have something more in mind for His church. It seems that something is missing. (pp. 13-14)

In the final chapter, entitled ‘Searching for the Cure,’ Pastor Edwards takes this important point about today’s church:

The church has focused its attention on a lot of things. It has jumped from rules to doctrines to causes and each time has come up short of the dynamic life-changing entity it was created to be. The biggest problem in the church is that we focus on lots of things that are not Jesus. There is only one Jesus and He should always be the focal point, the centerpiece, the gravitational center of life, the foundation of the church – which is good news for churches struggling with lifelessness, because getting back to life is as simple as making the focus of your life and everything you do Jesus. (pp. 208-209)

I found this book to be really interesting – not to mention extremely convicting. I am not necessarily a fan of the horror movie or book genre, but I am familiar enough with the concepts, having lived in the United States my entire life. It is hard not to have some familiarity with zombies and the comparable ilk. Although I do tend to avoid that genre of entertainment (due to the fact that it accentuates the demonic and the dark side of the spiritual battle we all are enduring on this earth), I was fascinated by the way in which Pastor Edwards uses it for the Glory of God. I certainly see elements of the zombie in my actions at times. ‘Zombie Church’ awakened me to my apathy, and for that, I am grateful!

You can order this book here.

This book was published by Kregel Publications and provided by the LitFuse Publicity Group. I am pleased to be part of the blog tour with these esteemed bloggers.

‘Route 66: A Crash Course in Navigating Life with the Bible’ by Krish Kandiah – Book Review

Whenever I run across a book that makes it easier to understand the Bible, I want to get the word out! The latest book that falls into that category is ‘Route 66: A Crash Course in Navigating Life with the Bible’ by Krish Kandiah.

Here is the synopsis of this book:

Route 66 is a book that helps you to discover how the 66 books of the Bible help us to know God and how to live for him. This book is a crash course in enjoying the breadth and depth of the Bible, packed full of practical help.
For many of us, there is a disconnect between the Bible we know we should treasure and the book we struggle to read. On the one hand, we know the Bible is a lamp to our feet, honey on our lips, the sword of the Spirit, and given to equip us for every good work. But sometimes the Bible feels more like a bizarre collection of ancient texts filled with obscure laws, irrelevant genealogies and incomprehensible prophecies with a few nuggets of wisdom, timeless stories and comforting promises mixed in. Using the analogy of a journey, Route 66 unfolds how different passages of the Bible can help us travel through different passages of our life.

Here is the biography of this author:

Dr. Krish Kandiah is a Director of the Evangelical Alliance. He is in demand as a Bible teacher and has written numerous books relating the Bible to everyday life. His books include ‘How To Save A Life: Understanding the Cross (Exploring Christianity),’  ‘Destiny: What's Life All About?, ‘Dysciples: Why I fall Asleep when I Pray and Twelve Other Discipleship Dysfunctions,’ ‘Yahweh: God in All His Fullness,’ and ‘Lifeswap.’ Krish is part of the Spring Harvest Theme Group. He is also a film buff, a fan of Liverpool FL, a husband, a father and a foster carer.

Here’s Dr. Kandiah, with his charming British accent, talking about his book:

Dr. Kandiah breaks the book down into 8 sections:

1.   Living faithfully (the narrative literature)

2.   Living distinctively (the law)

3.   Living poetically (the psalms)

4.   Living discerningly (the wisdom literature)

5.   Living prophetically (the prophets)

6.   Living infectiously (the gospels)

7.   Living purposefully (the epistles)

8.   Living hopefully (the apocalyptic literature)

At the end of the Introduction, Dr. Kandiah shares about the Bible, and his purpose for this book:

The Bible is more than a book. It is more than just a library. It is more than the number-one bestseller of all time. It is more than a priceless ancient literary artefact. It is more than just a useful guide to life. It is more than a precious collection of love-letters. It is more than a treasure-trove of truth. God created the whole vast universe with just a dozen words, and then 800,000 more words into our hands.

Each word was chosen for a reason. This is why reading the Bible and navigating life have to go hand in hand. As we look more closely at the beauty o the poetry, the precision of the law, the passion of the prophets and much more, it is my prayer than our all-powerful God would reveal himself to us and work powerfully in us, so that we can live to please him in every way. (p. 17)

I loved this section from Day 2 in Chapter 6 on Living Infectiously: The gospels and Their Application to Life (Week 6); it is a great example of Dr. Kardish’s writing style:

Jesus was a master literary artist, and his ubiquitous storytelling mode of preaching is anticipated in the Old Testament [Psalm 78:2] and highlighted in the gospels. Mark said of Jesus, “He did not say anything to them without using a parable” [Mark 4:34]. Jesus, with all his insight and intelligence and ingenuity, chose to teach predominantly with stories that were simple enough for children to understand but challenging enough to ensure that even sages struggle to live by them. Adrian Plass helpfully describes a parable as “a story that keeps the listener occupied at the front door while the truth slips in through a side window.” Pinning down the parables is trickier than it may first appear, and even the disciples had to ask Jesus for help. Today we are going to look at some principles for understanding and applying the parables. (p. 132)

In Week 8: Living Hopefully, which looks at Revelation, Dr. Kandiah summarizes this last book of the Bible very skillfully:

Revelation provides Christians with pictures of the future that are so vivid and powerful that God uses them firstly to develop patient endurance in us as struggles come, and secondly to put energy and passion into our step as we seek to be a foretaste of God’s kingdom. For example, imagine how it would have felt to small groups of Christians meeting secretly in houses to hear of the uncountable number of believers that were gathered around the throne of God worshipping the Lamb. It would have encouraged them to keep going, and inspired them to invite others to join them. (p. 183)

I highly recommend this book if you are looking for a personal study or if your Life Group is looking for a book to study this fall. It is clear that Dr. Kandiah has a deep love of the Lord, a strong intellect, and a great sense of humor. I plan to introduce this book to my husband, and study the Bible with him with Dr. Kandiah’s book as a great resource.

You can order this book here.

This book was published by Monarch Books and provided by Kregel Publications for review purposes.

‘How Huge the Night’ by Heather Munn and Lydia Munn – Book Review

One of my topics of great interest is the treatment of the Jewish people during World War II. My interest was spurred by the assigned reading of ‘The Diary of Anne Frank’ in sixth grade. So when I read the synopsis of ‘How Huge the Night’ by Heather Munn and Lydia Munn, my curiosity was piqued.

Here is the synopsis of this novel:

Based on Actual Events.

When Had God Ever Stopped A War Because A Teenager Asked Him To?

For fifteen-year-old Julien Losier, life will never be the same. His family has relocated to southern France to outrun Hitler’s menace. But Julien doesn’t want to run. He doesn’t want to huddle around the radio at night, waiting to hear news through buzzing static. Julien doesn’t want to wait.

Angry, frustrated, and itching to do something, Julien finds a battle everywhere he turns.

Soon after his family opens their home to a Jewish boy needing refuge, Julien meets Nina, a young Austrian who has fled her home by her father’s dying command. Nina’s situation is grave and Julien suddenly realizes the enormity of having someone’s life or death depend on…him.

Thrown together by a conflict that’s too big for them to understand, each one struggles to know what to do, even if it is not enough. Is there a greater purpose in the shadows of this terrible war? Or will their choices put them in greater danger?

Here are the biographies of this daughter/mother author duo:

Heather Munn was born in Northern Ireland of American parents and grew up in the south of France where her parents and grandparents worked as missionaries. She decided to be a writer at the age of five when her mother read Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books aloud, but worried that she couldn’t write about her childhood because she couldn’t remember it. When she was young, her favorite time of day was after supper when the family would gather and her father would read a chapter from a novel. Heather went to French school until her teens, and grew up hearing the story of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, only an hour’s drive away. She has a BA in literature from Wheaton College and lives in a Christian international community in rural Illinois with her husband, Paul, where they offer free spiritual retreats to people coming out of homelessness and addiction. She enjoys wandering in the woods, gardening, writing, and splitting wood.

Lydia Munn was homeschooled for five years because there was no school where her parents served as missionaries in the savannahs of northern Brazil. There was no public library either, but Lydia read every book she could get her hands on. This led naturally to her choice of an English major at Wheaton College, where she earned a BA in literature. Her original plan to teach high school in English gradually transitioned into a lifelong love of teaching the Bible to both adults and young people in southern France, where she has also been church planting, since 1983. Ten of those years were spent in St. Etienne, near the small town in the central mountains of France that provides the settings of How Huge the Night. She and her husband, Jim, have two children: their son, Robin, and their daughter, Heather.

Here is the trailer for this interesting book:

Several characters have a strong faith in God. Here is Julien, one of the main characters, early on in the story:

Julien looked up. The moon was gone, and so were the stars, and he was on his knees. “God,” he whispered. His voice was dry. “God. Please don’t let them get to Paris. Please keep…everybody…safe.” He sounded like a child – and God bless Mommy. When had God ever stopped a war because a teenager asked him to? The image came back, the tanks firing, the recoil, Vincent’s face grinning. He could never be a soldier. Never drive a tank.

It was unbearable.

I want to do something, God. Let me do something. Please. The word serve rose in his mind, the word protect, but he couldn’t even think them; it sounded stupid. What did he know how to do? Do the dishes, play soccer. Split wood. (pp. 16-17)

Another strong man of faith was Pastor Alex. He advocated action against evil:

        Then Pastor Alex spoke of evil.

He spoke of the Nazis and the things they did. He spoke of Kristallnacht, and Julien clenched his teeth. He asked if we must sit passively by while evil overcomes good. Julien lifted his head.

Pastor Alex leaned forward. Jesus didn’t say, “Don’t kill your enemies.” Would Jesus simply command us not to act in the face of evil, he who won the greatest victory, who conquered sin and death? No, friends, no. What did Jesus tell us to do to our enemies?

Love them.

“Jesus,” said Pastor Alex, and his voice almost shook. “Jesus, the only begotten Son of the Father, offers us this chance to be his brothers and his sisters and to fight as he fought; he gives us his weapons, the Father’s weapons, the weapons of the Spirit.” He sounded reverent, almost in awe. “The weapons of love,” he said. “Fearless love.”

Julien sat straighter. Fearless love. Even if he was never a soldier. Was that what Pastor Alex was saying? He could still fight. (p. 101)

There were two different storylines alternating through the book – that of Julien and his family, and that of the brother and sister, Gustav and Nina. It was interesting how the two stories converged toward the end of the book.

In the Historical Note (by Heather) at the end of the book, she explains how much of the history is based on fact. She also explained why she (along with her mother) wrote a book set in this time period:

One of the reasons this period of history fascinates me is choices. In France under the Nazis, people made all kinds of choices. Some got rich off the black market; some through collaboration. Some used the Nazis for revenge, feeding them true or false information against their enemies. Some followed Petain unquestioningly; some just survived, as attentistes, “wait-ists,” who chose not to get involved. Some vowed to fight the Germans to the bitter end and started the Resistance, which in those early days seemed completely doomed. And a few, like the people of a village in central France called Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, chose to focus on those in the deepest need and danger, and protect them from harm. (p. 302)

Heather closes out her Historical Note this way:

At the end of the book, Julien expects his country to be under Nazi domination for the rest of his life. This also is accurate. There was no good reason, then, to think otherwise. It is with no hope in sight that the people of Le Chambon trusted God and did what they could for the people they saw being persecuted. Sixty-five years later what they did is still remembered. I hope it always will be. (p. 304)

I really liked this book. It was interesting to get inside the mind of young people who lived in France in 1940. It must have been a scary time, both in terms of what was happening with Hitler and Germany, as well as the normal hormonal trials of teenagers.

Although this book is categorized as Teen Fiction, I think it appeals to all age groups. It is a terrific book to encourage a young person to read; they may not have previously been aware of the events of World War II and Hitler’s persecution of God’s Chosen People. This book would be a great introduction. And it is written in an interesting and engaging style, which would appeal to all ages.

You can order this book here.

This book was published by Kregel Publications and provided by them for review purposes.

Interview with Heather Munn and Lydia Munn, authors of ‘How Huge the Night’

Tomorrow, I will be posting a book review of ‘How Huge the Night’ by mother/daughter duo, Heather and Lydia Munn. Here is an interview with them to prime the pump before the review! The questions and answers help to understand the background behind the writing of this interesting novel.

1. What influence has living in France had on the writing of this book?

Heather: I grew up in France, from two years old to about seventeen. Up to ninth grade I went to French public school. The town I lived in was only about an hour’s drive from Le Chambon-sur-Lignon where the true story happened. So when I wrote about Julien living in a small French town, going to school there, and so on, it was almost like writing about my own childhood—except I had to keep asking my dad what it was like forty or fifty years earlier! But it’s more than just the school part—the love for the land that I hope comes through in the book is very much rooted in my childhood—that specific landscape, those hills with genêt bushes on them and pastures and stone farmhouses and little woods—and also the people, the French country people and their culture that’s very rooted in the land, that’s a side of France that Americans don’t get to see a lot, and I love it.

Lydia: When you live in a country for almost thirty years, you grow to love it and its people. I’m glad to be able to write something very positive about France, to counter the mostly negative opinions that I find when I visit the US. Living close to the area where the events happened also made it relatively easy to get a good sense of the context of the story. For instance, I used the actual home of friends of ours who lived in Le Chambon as the model for the Losiers’ home in Tanieux.

2. How much research was involved in writing about historical events? How did you know how much historical detail to provide?

Heather: This might be a really good question for Mom; she did almost all the research and my impression is that it was an enormous amount. She made a timeline that went week by week and included major events of the book, events of the war, the passing of repressive or anti-Semitic laws by the Vichy government, everything relevant. I would call her up whenever I had a doubt about anything, or even to ask her “This happened on this date, but how soon would they know about it?” I did do some research of my own when I needed some particular detail about the war, especially when trying to get a feel for what it was like to be there at that time, how people were thinking—what people’s feelings were about the surrender, how people felt about Marshal Petain and the Vichy government right after it was set up, and whether and how much that changed when they started collaborating with the Nazis. I have always had a sort of fascination for World War II and its stories and what you can learn from them about good and evil.

Lydia: I have always felt that wartime is a fascinating period to study, though difficult at times, because war is so ugly. War brings out the worst in many people. But it brings out the best in others. And that best shines all the brighter for the very dark context in which you find it. My own interest in this period of French history came about because I wanted to tell the Le Chambon story. I read all the primary sources I could find, visited the town and talked with a few people who lived through the events. I also read all that I could about World War II as seen from the French viewpoint. Knowing the details of the Vichy government, the laws put in place, and so on, enabled us to put some of them into the book. We tried to put in details that Julien would have known about and, sometimes, worried over.

3. ‘How Huge the Night’ is written for 14- to 17-year-olds, but your readership can certainly go beyond that. How did you get into the mind of a teenager to write this authentically, and yet manage to pen a book that would be of interest to all ages?

Lydia: Even though the main character is a fifteen-year-old, this book was, from the beginning, more than just his story. It’s the story of a family and of a town. The choices that these larger circles were making have an influence on Julien’s choices. There are earlier versions of the book in which some of the scenes were written from Mama’s viewpoint. These ended up being cut in the final version. But behind the story the reader senses Mama’s dread of war which stems from her experiences in World War I. And Papa’s sense of history and of what the invasion really means, as well as Pastor Alex’s clear sightedness—these all form a very real part of the story. I believe this larger picture is what appeals to older readers.

Heather: When I was writing my initial version (after Mom’s initial version) I wasn’t even necessarily writing it for teenagers. But of course the book was chiefly about a teenager, and I wanted him to be a real teenager. I think a real teenager confronted by hard realities is interesting to any age. I still remember very vividly being a teenager and I remember it as a time when everything was felt so deeply, everything had huge significance. You know, when a young child starts learning about the world around him, he sees everything with totally fresh eyes and so he really sees it; and the teenager or young adult is at the end of that journey, at the part where he learns for the first time the really hard realities of life. Pain, and war, and necessity, and death, and the fact that there is no guarantee in life that there will always be someone standing between you and the fear. Watching someone learn those things for the first time, really see their significance, is an awesome thing, in the old sense of the word. That’ll never be boring, and I think an adult to whom it is boring might’ve gone too far into adulthood.

4. What do you hope readers take away from reading ‘How Huge the Night’?

Heather: A lot of things. Maybe I shouldn’t say all of them in case I make it too obvious! I think one thing is the huge significance of our daily choices, and how heroism isn’t generally glorious or even clear-cut. The choices that people really made during World War II, the early years, the part I’m writing about, were mostly made in the dark. The usual stuff you see in books and movies—“Am I going to risk my life to save these people from certain death?”—that’s after 1943. In the early years nobody knew about the death camps, not in France anyhow, and under the Vichy government, especially, nobody knew what was going to happen to the Jews if they got arrested, or to themselves if they protected them—they just knew something might happen, and it might be something bad. So it was easy for a lot of people to think, “Oh, but they wouldn’t kill them or anything, right?” because they had enough to worry about already. There was a food shortage, life was hard. The people who did the right thing, a lot of it was just the daily choosing to keep their eyes open, seek out the truth, really take a look at the people in front of them and ask themselves how God was calling them to respond. Julien ends up doing some very good things, but they’re very hidden, not a lot of people are ever going to know about them. And the people who do the real, profound good in the world, that’s how they do it. In a confusing, terrible, messy situation they keep listening to God; and when they hear, they obey; and what they do changes things. But mostly, no one ever knows. 

‘Branded: Sharing Jesus With a Consumer Culture’ by Tim Sinclair – Book Review

The Metro Detroit area has a movement entitled EACH – Everyone A Chance to Hear - wherein 550 churches and ministries have joined together to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ. So evangelism has been at the forefront of my mind and the minds of many in this region. So I was intrigued by the debut book from Tim Sinclair, ‘Branded: Sharing Jesus With a Consumer Culture.’

Here is the synopsis of this interesting book:

How Do We Market Jesus? We sport “Jesus Saves” bumper stickers on our cars and “WWJD” bracelets on our wrists. We post Bible verses on our Facebook profiles and Tweet profound quotes from Christian thought leaders. But when it comes to sharing our faith verbally, we become tongue-tied.

What would life look like if we stopped mass-producing Jesus and started marketing our faith by sharing relationally, from person to person? Using examples from our consumer culture, Tim Sinclair shows Christians that sharing Jesus has nothing to do with our trinkets or our t-shirts. It has everything to do with being personally branded by Jesus. With being permanently marked by our Savior.

Witty but true, Branded offers motivation and inspiration to put our God above our gadgets and to share our faith in ways that are honest, authentic, and – most importantly – effective.

Here is the biography of this author:

Tim Sinclair is a husband to Heather, and father to Jeremiah and Elijah, and (for the past three years) a co-host to Pam on the duo’s daily radio show. “Mornings with Tim and Pam” is heard by hundreds of thousands of people in Illinois and Indiana on Family Friendly WBGL, and is one of the top Christian morning shows in the country. The two have been nominated for “Air Personalities of the Year” at the ECHO Awards in Orlando, Florida.

Tim is a pastor’s kid who briefly attended the University of Illinois before getting into radio and marketing full-time in 1998. Since then, he has helped write, voice, and produce commercials that have been heard on thousands of radio stations around the world. Some of his past clients include McDonald’s, Word Records, Moody Publishers, and KSBJ/Houston. Tim and his family live in Illinois.

To connect with Tim: follow him on Twitter, on Facebook, or visit his website.

I found an interesting video on YouTube of Tim; here he is auditioning for the Public Address Announcer job for the Chicago Cubs. Great voice!

In the Preface, Tim shares his reason for writing this book:

I’m convinced that when it comes to sharing Jesus to and with the world around us, it’s critical that we recognize our own unique situations, talents, abilities – and then effectively use them to reach people within our individual spheres of influence. Other than the boundaries and guidelines provided by the Bible, nothing else should create a game plan for us because there is no right way for anything. There is no one-size-fits-all methodology.

I’ll set the background, and you take it from there. (p. 10)

In the Introduction, he shares why it’s so important that we share Jesus with those we know rather than to strangers on a street corner:

Your impact (and mine) on our friends, family, and co-workers has nothing to do with the sayings on our bumpers or the symbols around our necks. It has nothing to do with the number of Bible verses we tweet or the biblical names we give our kids. It has nothing to do with how many times we go to church or how often we put our money in the offering plate.

Rather, sharing Jesus with today’s culture has everything to do with being personally branded by Christ. With being permanently marked by our Savior. I can’t promise you the process won’t hurt a little, but I can promise you that it will be well worth it. (p. 12)

Tim shares the reason he thinks we as Christians are failing to reach the lost:

What’s the bottom line? Christians often try to change a person’s culture rather than let God change her heart. We try to force others to act like us, with the hope that they’ll eventually believe live us. That’s entirely backward. Heart changes lead to changes in actions, not the other way around.

In many cases, I think these Christian tendencies are a form of self-preservation. We would rather bring people onto our turf (where we’re comfortable) than step onto someone else’s. We would rather alter their lifestyle, culture, and habits, instead of change our routine. Subconsciously maybe we fear we’ll be eaten alive if we venture outside what we consider safe territory.

Jesus is bigger than the Christian culture-bubble you and I have put Him in. He can reach people anytime, anywhere. Not just Sunday morning at 9:30. Not just when people have started doing or saying the “right” things. Not just once people have turned their back on their culture. (p. 45)

I have to admit that I used to follow that line of reasoning – that we needed to change the culture. It is now clear to me that Tim’s assessment is the accurate one. We need to present Jesus to people, and let Him do the work in their heart.

Clearly, Jesus is not the problem when it comes to sharing Him with others:

When it comes to Jesus, I think it’s safe to say the product isn’t the problem. Jesus offers comfort for the brokenhearted. Rest for the weary. Strength for the weak. Healing for the sick. Peace for the stressed. Hope for the hopeless. I don’t know of a person who couldn’t use these things once in a while.

So the evaluation process must move on to Jesus’ marketing team. Us. You and me. It’s hard to admit sometimes but Christians (as a whole) are ruining the world’s appetite for Jesus. We are often the ones standing in the way of Christ, despite our best efforts to lead people to Him. (p. 50)

Tim makes an important point about another reason why Jesus is rejected:

I firmly believe that at least 90 percent of life’s problems are a result of unmet expectations. We get the most frustrated, the most hurt, the most offended, when our theories don’t live up to our realities. And that’s exactly what happened with Tiger [Woods]. Because of the picture Tiger painted of himself, our society had high expectations for him, and ultimately those expectations were not met. (p. 102)

I admit I was extremely disappointed last week about a particular situation. The reason was that I had unrealistic expectations. We need to be so careful that we don’t paint an unrealistic picture of one’s life as a Christian. We still will have trials; however, Jesus will help us through them.

In the Conclusion, Tim makes this important point about follow-up:

While Branded has relied heavily on traditional marketing principles, it’s critical that we not be so focused on attracting people to Jesus (marketing), that we leave them fending for themselves once they show up (customer support). Christianity already has too many customers and not enough marketers. (p. 120)  

The back of the book includes insightful discussion questions for each chapter. 

I think this is a valuable tool for small groups, as well as individual study. I plan on contacting our small group leader to recommend this book for our fall study.

'Branded' is a fast read, but it also is very insightful. As Tim stated at the beginning of the book, he asked some tough questions. But they are important questions that need to be asked, and I am grateful to Mr. Sinclair for bringing them to us in this book.

You can order this book here.

This book was published by Kregel Publications. I am pleased to be part of the Litfuse Publicity Group’s blog tour with these other bloggers.

‘A Trail of Ink: The Third Chronicle of Hugh de Singleton, Surgeon’ by Mel Starr – Book Review

One of the interesting things about historical fiction is that the novels transport you back to another place in time. Such is the case with 'A Trail of Ink: The Third Chronicle of Hugh de Singleton, Surgeon’ by Mel Starr.

Here is the synopsis of this novel:

Some valuable books have been stolen from Master John Wyclif, the well known scholar and Bible translator. He calls upon his friend and former pupil, Hugh de Singleton, to investigate. Hugh's investigation leads him to Oxford where he again encounters Kate, the only woman who has tempted him to leave bachelor life behind, but Kate has another serious suitor. As Hugh's pursuit of Kate becomes more successful, mysterious accidents begin to occur. Are these accidents tied to the missing books, or to his pursuit of Kate?

One of the stolen books turns up alongside the drowned body of a poor Oxford scholar. Another accident? Hugh certainly doesn’t think so, but it will take all of his surgeon s skills to prove.

 “I have never seen Master John Wyclif so afflicted. He told me later that it was as onerous to plunder a bachelor scholar’s books as to steal another man’s wife. I had, at the time, no way to assess the accuracy of that opinion, for I had no wife and few books…”

So began another delightful and intriguing tale from the life of Hugh de Singleton, surgeon in the medieval village of Bampton, near Oxford, and bailiff of Bampton Castle. Hugh sets his cap at the delightful Kate, who proves equally resourceful in the search for the missing books. Some very determined adversaries are out to stop him, permanently if necessary – but are they motivated by greed, or more personal animosity? Then the corpse of a poor scholar, who had tried to sell one of the books, is found in the river; but he had not simply drowned….

Here is the biography of this author:

Mel Starr was born and grew up in Kalamazoo, Michigan. After graduating with a MA in history from Western Michigan University in 1970, he taught history in Michigan public schools for thirty-nine years, thirty-five of those in Portage, MI, where he retired in 2003 as chairman of the social studies department of Portage Northern High School. Mel and his wife, Susan, have two daughters and seven grandchildren.  Mel has studied medieval surgery and medieval English. He lives in Michigan. He is also author of The Unquiet Bones and A Corpse at St. Andrew’s Chapel.

I found it charming how Hugh approached his courtship of Kate:

I left the stationer’s shop with both joy and apprehension. The joy you will understand, or would had you seen Kate and spent time in her presence. I was apprehensive because next day I must begin a thing for which I had no training and in which I had little experience. While at Balliol College I was too much absorbed in my set books to concern myself with the proper way to impress a lass, and none of those volumes dealt with the subject. Certainly the study of logic avoided the topic. Since then my duties as surgeon and bailiff allowed small opportunity to practice discourse with a maiden. And there are few females of my age and station in Bampton. (p. 14)

Being that this story is set in 14^th century England, there are a lot of differences in culture and language between their lives and ours. Fortunately, Mr. Starr shares a Glossary with his readers at the beginning of the book. It came in handy with this particular paragraph:

We stood between the yard-spinner’s house and that of the cobbler as we discussed ladders and walls. While we spoke my gaze drifted over the town wall to the water meadow to the south and the willows lining the banks of the Cherwell. Two figures walked there; a woman dressed in a long cotehardie of blue, and a man wearing parti-colored chauces, a red cotehardie, and a cap ending in a long yellow liripipe. The couple were two hundred paces from me, and walking away, so I could not see their faces. I did not need to. (p. 45)

I loved Hugh’s perspective on life; here’s a great example – he is inspecting a patient:

It was as I expected. When I put my fingers to Aymer’s collarbone I felt the fractured end move under my touch. And the shoulder was swelling, turning red and purple beneath the skin. Aymer gasped as the broken bones grated against each other. I had used hemp and lettuce before, with good result. God provides much for men to ease their suffering in this world. But he had provided nothing which will end all suffering. So Aymer’s pain was less than might have been, but was real enough. Pain is God’s way of telling us not to do some things again. Surely Aymer, when he is next upon a roof, will take more care. (p. 57)

I also love how Hugh called on his Lord in times of trouble:

The gloom of my spirit matched the gloom of my cell. No friend knew of my plight, and those who put me in this place would not tell them. No, this was not true. There was a friend who knew of my affliction. I knelt in the rotten rushes covering the dirt floor of the cell and called upon the Lord Christ to free me from my unjust captors. Perhaps, I hoped, He had already noted my misfortune and set a plan in motion for my freedom. But it would do no harm to remind Him of my trouble in case others matters had captured His attention. An unwelcome thought came to mind. If the Lord Christ loved and served me only so much as I loved and served Him, where then might I be? (p. 70)

He also made an observation to that end later in the book:

I believe I am like most men. I call upon the Lord Christ when in need, but forget to speak to Him when my life is smooth and pleasant. I treat the Savior like a lawyer; I call upon Him only when I am in trouble. I vowed to amend my ways and prayed that some escape might appear before Arthur and I were made food for worms. I told him of my plight, and pointed out that, unless He intervened, I was likely to die soon. I concluded this prayer with that thought that, although he was surely occupied dealing with all the troubles men brought upon themselves and others, it would require of Him little effort to see us set free. (p. 177)

I found the ending to be very satisfying – and there is a fourth chronicle of Hugh de Singleton, surgeon, in the works; its title will be ‘Unhallowed Ground.’  

To be honest, I didn’t ‘get into’ this book until about page 50. It is set in Oxford, England in 1365, and it was hard for me to gain sympathy for the characters at first. Gradually, Hugh de Singleton, his cohort Arthur and fiancée Kate drew my interest. It was definitely hard going at the beginning, though. It was interesting to learn that this story included actual locations and real people in history. Mr. Starr shared with his readers that some of the locations still exist, and some are simply piles of rubble.

As has happened in previous novels I have read that are set in a bygone era, this book made me grateful for the era and the country in which I dwell. It is good to be a citizen of the United State of America in 2011!

You can order this book here.

This book was published by Kregel Publications. I am proud to be participating in the blog tour through the LitFuse Publicity form with many other bloggers.