Books to Note - Christianity Today

The Power of a Whisper

Hearing God, Having the Guts to Respond Bill Hybels Zondervan, 2010 272 pp., $13.79

Evangelicals are suddenly enamored with seeing "the sacred in a chaotic world," as one book subtitle puts it—or, in the language of Brother Lawrence, practicing the presence. Many thrill to find God in a cup of coffee or a walk through a forest. Hybels is more practical: he helps readers discern when and how God speaks to us. While encouraging a personal, experiential relationship with God, he grounds our discernment in something deeper than good feelings: Scripture and the wisdom of fellow believers.—Mark Galli

Unpoverty

Rich Lessons from the Working Poor Mark Lutz Compassion International, August 2010 220 pp., $10.19

Mark Lutz believes extreme poverty can be eliminated. But he proposes no silver-bullet solution. Instead, he believes that by listening to the poor, we can learn to help them help themselves. A child of missionary parents and an executive with a leading microfinance organization, Lutz records what he has learned from meeting the poor in the developing world's villages, slums, and garbage heaps. They show gratitude, persistence, ingenuity, and faith as they work to build up their families and communities. God loves the poor, says Lutz, so we dare not miss the opportunity to help them.—David Neff

A Climate for Change

Global Warming Facts for Faith-Based Decisions Katharine Hayhoe and Andrew Farley Faithwords, 2009 240 pp., $16.99

I don't know about you, but I'm tired of both the alarmist cries and defensive denials about global warming. I've wanted to read something that makes sense of the mountains of data on this controversial topic, and to do so from a uniquely Christian perspective. The authors, a professor and pastor respectively, have done just that. They avoid panic, guilt trips, and utopian and statist solutions. And while their charts, graphs, and photographs make a compelling case, they are more interested in encouraging a response grounded in Christian freedom and grace than in intellectual coercion and fear. A good book for study groups.—Mark Galli

Homosexuality and the Christian

A Guide for Parents, Pastors, and Friends Mark A. Yarhouse Bethany House, 2009 240 pp., $16.99

As debates about homosexuality rage in political and religious circles, Christians struggling with same-sex attraction often suffer silently. The gay community hands those with same-sex attraction a "script" that collapses sexual attraction, behavior, and identity into one label. Yarhouse challenges the church to provide an alternative script, one that makes identity in Christ central, and therefore carefully distinguishes between temptation, behavior, and the center of one's identity. By taking into consideration those with same-sex attraction who nevertheless reject the gay identity, Yarhouse shifts the conversation from the causes of homosexuality to the choices one makes regarding the will of God. —Trevin Wax