Groundhog Predicts More Winter Reading
At Linden Grove Ministries, we celebrate good reading and listening. Here are five more leadership-rich titles to help you survive the groundhog-predicted additional weeks of winter.
What Have you Read Recently? Five Suggestions to Answer the Question
For many of us, reading more is a resolution we make each New Year. Maybe these titles will inspire you this winter as you build your 2022 reading habit.
Advent Devotionals: Waiting for Christmas
Christmas is fast approaching: it’s time to choose this year’s Advent devotional. Choices abound. Some are centuries old; others with a 2021 publication date. Some last only until December 24/ 25: others continue through Epiphany. Some trace the Christmas story; others focus on the Incarnation. Some are for groups; others are for personal study. The point is: We await Christmas in many ways.
Reviewing Suffer Strong: How to Survive Anything by Suffering Everything
What do you pick up to read when your life has been shattered, when your 26-year old wife and mother of your 6-month old son has suffered a debilitating stroke, survived a 16-hour operation to save her life, and you are now sitting by her comatose body in the ICU? For Jay Wolf, the answer was the Book of Job. As he read, Jay was reminded that God provides healing hope.
Reviewing Priscilla: The Life of an Early Christian
When we misunderstand the cultures that birthed the Scriptures (whether Bronze Age, Mesopotamia or late first century Rome), we often also misunderstand the Scriptures themselves. In Priscilla, Prof. Ben Witherington of Asbury Theological Seminary helps us understand not only the Early Church leader Priscilla (of Priscilla and Aquila fame) but also the world in which she served. Witherington accomplishes this through the medium of good historical fiction—verifiable facts inside believable fictional narrative. To bolster narrative choices, Witherington’s book includes relevant illustrations, including archaeological photographs and Latin and Greek translations. Priscilla demonstrates that history is engaging, its details and explanations clarifying, and its perspectives and concerns relevant.
Reviewing “Winning the War in Your Mind”
Although he is a prolific writer, an internationally known leader, and a popular podcaster, Craig Groeschel found the success of his newest book surprising. Having garnered an Amazon five-star rating with over 3300 reviews, Winning the War in Your Mind speaks strongly about the why, what, and how of taking (as the Apostle Paul writes) “every thought captive to obey Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5b, ESV). The power of Winning the War comes from its meshing of vulnerability and practicality. Groeschel, the pastor of Life.Church (multi-site megachurch and source of the YouVersion app), discusses how dryness and depression threatened to shipwreck his focus and ministry. Discovering that long-held, erroneous thought-patterns were stifling both his progress and his hope, Groeschel looked for and found a pathway back to his joy-filled self.
Reviewing “Becoming Elisabeth Elliott”
Too often we lack backstories about our heroes and heroines: instead, they seem to arrive grown, as in the ancient myth where Venus escapes fully-formed from Zeus’ head. But biblical theology teaches us that heroic qualities mature in the soil of everyday life, in the learning to say “no” to self and “yes” to God within a world of frustration and failure, hope and dream.
Reviewing “Church Planting Thresholds: A Gospel-Centered Guide”
Clint Clifton aptly describes himself with five words: “family man, church planter, entrepreneur.” I’d add two more: “experienced mentor.” You see, in this Christ-centered, easily read, and eminently practical book, Clifton does exactly the kind of things that best-in-class mentors do—and he does them well.
Reviewing “Women Who Risk: Secret Agents for Jesus in the Muslim World”
Two thousand years after Christ, believers are still hard at work bringing his good news to every nation. In the twenty-first century, God has been moving with special power in the Muslim world, particularly among women. In Women Who Risk, Tom and Joann Doyle tell stories about women believers in places like Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Palestine. The Doyles, former missionaries, lead an organization called Uncharted Ministries; they are therefore well suited to write about Muslim-born believing women. We do well to learn the stories.