The Church and the Surprising Offense of God’s Love
Reintroducing the Doctrines of Church Membership and Discipline Jonathan Leeman (Crossway)
Exclusive, divisive, even shaming—church membership and its less-popular sister, church discipline, can be all of these, writes 9Marks communications director Jonathan Leeman. Yet they’re also necessary channels through which God’s love upholds and binds together his people. Optimistic readers may wonder if Leeman’s diagnosis of the church’s ills is too broad, his prescription too narrow. Leeman would argue that our ecclesiology has been distorted by years spent in churches that haven’t functioned as churches at all.
The Male Factor (Expanded Christian Edition)
The Unwritten Rules, Misperceptions, and Secret Beliefs of Men in the Workplace Shaunti Feldhahn (Multnomah)
Most women already know to reserve crying (chapter 5) and low-cut blouses (chapter 10) for off-the-clock occasions. Still, mega-best-selling author Shaunti Feldhahn’s eight-year research project into men’s rules of the workplace is hard to put down. Like her previous guilty pleasures, For Men Only and For Women Only, this easy read taps into stereotypes and the endless fascination we take in the opposite sex. But it’s also practical and encouraging, and women in the workplace may find in it some helpful mid-course corrections.
Scripture by Heart
Devotional Practices for Memorizing God’s Word Joshua Choonmin Kang (Intervarsity)Formerly pastor of the 7,000-member Oriental Mission Church in Los Angeles, Joshua Choonmin Kang presents a spirituality that is anything but seeker-sensitive. His Scrip-ture memorization program veers from the touchy-feely—Kang calls his method memorization divina—to the highly demanding. “When should we read, pray, memorize? No less than fifteen minutes, no more than thirty minutes, a day.” For those willing to commit to it, though, Kang may have given us the best primer now available on the practice, significance, and hidden depths of “treasuring God’s Word in our hearts.”
Worshiping with the Church Fathers
Christopher A. Hall (Intervarsity)
The third book in IVP’s With the Church Fathers series quotes often and liberally from patristic sources—every chapter has at least 50 endnotes. The strength of the volume lies in Christopher Hall’s easy interpretation of mounds of data. His look at ancient Christian worship—the sacraments, prayer, and spiritual disciplines—is more of an invitation than an inspection, and readers will be hard-pressed to eschew its generous appeal. The fourth and final volume in the series will cover Christian ethics.
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Related Elsewhere:
Kathryn Whitbourne interviewed The Male Factor author Shaunti Feldhahn for Her.meneutics, the Christianity Today blog for women.
Christianity Today also has more book reviews.
