Category Archives: Books & blogs

Review: Night of the Living Dead Christian

Tyndale gave me the chance to participate in the blog tour for Matt Mikalatos‘ new book Night of the Living Dead Christian. They sent me a free review copy, as well as the chance to give away a copy to one of my readers. All you need to do to enter the contest is leave a comment. It’s possible too that the author himself may stop by to interact a bit, so if you’ve read this book or Imaginary Jesus, you may be able to ask him some questions about those books.

Now, about the book. Night of the Living Dead Christians is an ordinary story about monsters and monster killers roaming a neighborhood. It’s a light-hearted book that seeks to make some not-so-light-hearted points about transformation and the meaning of discipleship. Along the way, it also seeks to make Christians look at how we deal with those who are struggling with sin in their lives.

I like the concept, love the message and enjoyed reading the book. But I have to confess that all the way along, I had the feeling that I didn’t get the joke. I kept wondering if there was something more than what I was seeing.

In some ways, the story felt like a parable, where you aren’t really supposed to interpret each individual element, merely capture the main points along the way. Yet other parts of the story seemed allegorical, which made me wonder if I was supposed to be seeing something more in some of the descriptions.

For example, the central character in the book (besides the narrator) is a werewolf. Another character is a vampire. These seem to be just unnamed character issues that they are dealing with. Or was I supposed to realize that “werewolf” means ____? I wouldn’t have thought so, but there were two things that made me doubt. First, the werewolf’s wife had left him because he had struck her. OK, so something about being a werewolf made him violent. Does “werewolf” mean uncontrolled temper? Or am I looking for meanings that aren’t supposed to be there? Secondly, there are zombies in the book, and we are led to see exactly what that means. So if we know what it is to be a zombie, are we supposed to know what it is to be a werewolf and what it is to be a vampire?

There were lots of things like that in the book that left me with the nagging feeling that I just wasn’t getting it. Other things didn’t seem clear to me. In the initial scene, a mad scientist uses a device that seems to attract monsters. Or does it reveal them? Or does it do anything at all? The narrator had already seen the werewolf, so his coming seems unrelated to the machine. And does that machine represent something?

Sigh.

As I said, it was a fun book to read, and I loved the message. I’m just not sure if I caught it all.

I’m looking forward to others reading this book and clueing me in. Whoever wins the book today will be obligated to give me their view. To have your chance, just leave a comment of any sort in the comment section. And spread the word… maybe your Christmas gift to someone can be helping them win a free book!

Here’s a video from the author about his book:

[And yes, dear FCC friends, Tyndale did provide me with free books for this review and giveaway,
and the links to Amazon do generate referral fees]

Tour bus is coming!

All right, it’s a virtual bus on a virtual tour… a blog tour. I’m signed up to review books for Tyndale, and they gave me the chance to participate in the blog tour for Matt Mikalatos‘ new book Night of the Living Dead Christian.

So look for the virtual bus on Wednesday Thursday, December 15. I’ll be reviewing the book then. Besides giving me a review copy, Tyndale also gave me one to give away, so you can leave a comment on that day to have a chance to win. It’s possible too that the author himself may stop by to interact a bit, so if you’ve read this book or Imaginary Jesus, you may be able to ask him some questions about those books.

So circle the date and join us in the Kitchen.

[And yes, dear FCC friends, Tyndale did provide me with free books for this review and giveaway,
and the links to Amazon do generate referral fees]

Simply Christian by N.T. Wright

I’m way behind in my reading, so I haven’t done any book reviews in a while. I have been remiss, however, in not mentioning a book that I used this past semester at ACU: Simply Christian by N.T. Wright. It’s an attempt to present some extremely deep theology in simple terms. I was fooled by the easy-to-read style and pushed my students through the book at a fairly quick pace. It’s easy to read, but processing the ideas takes some time.

Wright points to four universal longings, four things present in all of humanity that he refers to as echoes of the divine. These are: longing for justice, longing for spirituality, longing for relationship and longing for beauty. Wright then uses these four themes throughout to tie together the biblical story (as fulfilled in Israel and as fulfilled in Christ) as well as our reaction to it.

Wright also spends time talking about the relationship between heaven and earth. He speaks of three options. The first option is seeing heaven and earth as being identical, as seen in pantheism and panentheism. The second option is to see heaven and earth as completely separate, view reflected in Epicureanism in the ancient world and Deism in the modern world. The third view, in Wright’s words, is that “Heaven and earth are not coterminous, in this option. Nor are they separated by a great gulf. Instead, they overlap and interlock in a number of different ways.” (Location 942 in the Kindle edition)

All of this theology doesn’t remain up in the air; Wright brings it to life in the last section of the book, describing how Christians are to live out the realities of the Kingdom. I can’t do justice to all of the material contained in this book, but I do want to recommend it highly. Just don’t be fooled, as I was. You may be able to read it quickly, but you’ll miss a lot by doing so. This is a book to be read and contemplated at a leisurely pace.

Rethinking Mission Work

On Fridays, I sometimes recommend other blogs that I think have some especially worthwhile reading. I want to steer you over to Mark Woodward’s blog today. He has done an insightful series called “Rethinking Mission Work.” It’s an analysis of how we in the churches of Christ have selected and funded missionaries and mission efforts. I don’t agree with everything he says, but I do find the discussion to be very timely. You can find the series here:

Besides reading the blog on Mark’s site, you can join in on a post-by-post analysis of this series which Jay Guin is leading over on his site. You’ll find more discussion on Jay’s blog:

Happy reading, folks!

For those keeping score at home, I lifted the image straight from Mark Woodward’s blog.

Short-term mission resources

I have a lot of hesitancy when it comes to short-term missions. Seems like everyone is doing them these days. Some churches have basically replaced long-term missions with short-term ones, which is a mistake, in my opinion. Many short-term efforts end up being little more than group vacations for those that go. While education isn’t always the answer, it can’t hurt, either.

That’s why I was pleased to find a number of resources from David LIvermore. He’s written several books on Cultural Intelligence that are generally helpful. He also has a book called Serving With Eyes Wide Open which is specifically about short-term missions.

While buying the book would be an excellent idea for everyone involved in short-term missions, there are resources on Livermore’s site that can be read for free. At the bottom of the page about this book, there are a number of articles. I especially recommend:
Leave Your Baggage at Home
Ten Things I Hate About STM
Head Over Heels for Short-Term Missions

We’ll get back to our pacifism discussion next week. Happy reading!