Book Reviews

Book Reviews

Is Traditional Preaching Finished As We Know It?

This question seemed to be one of the premises behind a book I read recently, although I am uncertain as to the author’s final answer. Because I haven’t done a book review for a while I thought I would review this one which has been sat in my drafts box for a few months. In the course…

The Hard Corp

Anybody else remember the days when book launches were sedate things done in coffee houses and maybe a quick plug from the pulpit?  Not these days my friends! Here is the launch video of a book written by Dai Hankey, a friend of mine who is church planting in one of the toughest estates in Wales.  It look suspiciously like a Scene from, ‘Saving Private Ryan’.…

The Church & The Surprising Offence of God’s Love

I’ve been laid up in bed for a week after an accident and I pulled this book off my bookshelf, largely because I’m due to preach on the theme of God’s love in the coming week. Let me start by saying that this is quite a chunky book, considering the strap line: ‘Reintroducing…

The Church (The Gospel Made Visible)

So, I am just back from my summer holidays and I had a bit of a 9marks love fest when it came to holiday reading. I have just picked this one off the top of my pile and I shall be reviewing each book, in no particular order, over the coming weeks. For the uninitiated to this site, this is how I review books at Niddrie Pastor. 1. Content. Is it biblical? 2. Application. Is…

The Meaning of Marriage

I have had this book on the shelf for some time and recently got around to completing it. I was in NY when Tim and Kathy Keller were doing the promo work for the book. A certain Mark Driscoll was gaining headlines at the same time for his book on marriage but for altogether different reasons! The first thing I would say about any book on marriage is that I feel a sense of…

A Book Guaranteed To Improve Your Preaching 100%!

I picked this book up a while ago and recently got around to reading it. The subheading is: “With illustrations from the sermons of Thomas Watson”. The book was so good that instead of reading it in my customary speedy fashion I forced myself to read a chapter and then slowly digest it…

Atheism: An Opiate For The Masses?

“The atheist’s argument goes like this: you want there to be a God.  So you invent him.  Your religious views are invented to correspond to what you want.  But this line of argument works just as well against atheism.  Imagine an extermination camp commandant during the Second World War.  Would there not be excellent reasons for supposing that he might hope that God does…

Walking With The Poor

I bought this book with no little excitement given the list of theological luminaries that have recently been recommending it as a must read. Ron Sider, for instance, calls it: “probably the best book on how to do holistic community development.” There is no doubt that it is certainly comprehensive in its treatment of the issues, certainly far more than any…

Good News to the Poor: “Sharing the gospel through social involvement”

I recently got hold of a copy of this book by Tim Chester and have just finished it. Firstly, let me start by saying that at 170+ pages long it is a short, sharp read on what can be quite an involved topic. For those of us who have read anything written by Ron Sider, particularly, it is not going…

Church Planting Supersite!!

I am always on the hunt for good resources when it comes to church planting. The problem we have in the UK is the lack of quality material on the topic, relevant to our context. The problem we have in housing schemes is contextualising material written for a largely middle class demographic. However, if you can think on your feet and are able to work hard at this,…