Soulprint - A Book Review

There never has been and never will be anyone like you. But that isn’t a testament to you. It’s a testament to the God who created you. The problem? Few people discover the God-given identity that makes them unlike anyone else.

As I've become more and more involved with the Christian book scene I ran across an opportunity to read a book by author and pastor Mark Batterson. I'm not going to lie. Before the opportunity to read "Soulprint" came along I'd never heard of Mark Batterson. However, as is often the case once I became aware of him I got very excited about this book. I checked the mail for it each day. It finally arrived and I put away everything else I was reading and dove in. As I completed the book I came away disappointed.

Batterson's primise and ideas are all valid, wonderful things that everyone needs to be aware of. However, he never seems to dig in and provide the ideas on how to discover your Soulprint. What he has done is define what a Soulprint is and why we need to understand it's existence in our life. By using 5 different well known moments in the life of David Batterson has given me a vocabulary to express the idea of God-given uniqueness to my students... which is worth reading the book. However, I was hoping for something that worked on another level to help me discover more about myself and this book didn't provide that.

I would recommend this book for anyone searching for purpose or anyone who is new in Christ. But, if you know and believe the basic premise that you are an individual masterpiece created by God for his special purpose then you might be able to skip this one.

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.

To Transform a City - Book Review

In 2007 the number of people who live in urban cities was larger than the the number of people in rural areas for the first time. This is an irreversible trend. Church and ministry leaders must now determine the best way to minister to cities. At least, this is the contention for Eric Swanson and Sam Williams in the book "To Transform a City". Swanson and Williams deal with transforming a city into a better place to live as a means to share the gospel using work they've done in the Boulder, CO area.

Initially, the authors make a great point as they open the book that the best way to transform any population is to love them unconditionally. Through loving on your city you can make things better for the least of these and share the gospel with everyone who asks why your doing these works. But this idea gets lost over the next 200 pages.

This book is a tough read. The writing is dry and the concepts are overcomplicated by the authors. Graphics in the book are simple and lack any pop much like the text. The information is useful as a study of how churches should interact as part of a city but I fear only the very dedicated reader will be able to push through and glean the best of the text.

Overall, I would recommend this for leaders of large churches of ministries. Lay leaders or smaller churches will find very little of this information useful and the text is not entertaining enough to recommend for these groups.

Sun Stand Still - A Book Review

What if God really wants to do the impossible in your life? What if the days of praying for the unimaginable and seeing God work in amazing ways aren't just relegated to the Bible? What could God accomplish through you life for His glory?

Steven Furtick's book Sun Stand Still is an call to the average Christian living the average Christian life to stop dreaming about the average and search out the huge things God can do with you willingness and faith. Your audacious faith. Furtick challenges you and I (and himself, for that matter) to live with the kind of faith that Joshua exhibits when he prays for the Sun to stand still in the sky. These "Sun Stand Still prayers" are not our wishes and dreams. (Oh Lord, provide me with a sports car and two new jet-skis. Well, they don't have to be new, just in decent condition...I don't want to be greedy.) But they can be amazing things that demonstrate the power of God and further the kingdom.

Furtick explains the process of finding a Godly vision. (he calls it a Page 23 vision) Then turning that vision over to God and following the leading of the Spirit step by step to see God accomplish great things for His glory.

At first blush I want to say the Furtick's claims are at best naive. He would tend to agree. But claims that being naive isn't always a bad thing. And ultimately he has a vision to pastor a thriving community that makes a change in the world for the glory of God and he's living it. Meanwhile, at the same age...I'm just getting started.

Furtick attempts to give the average Christian a kick in the pants to activate an audacious faith for the Kingdom. Should you feel the need for it I would recommend you give this one a read.