It is not a secret anymore: I read "weird" books.
Find proof here, here and here.
But again...
C.S. Lewis says that "It is a good rule, after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another two new ones till you have read an old one in between", which means as far as I am weird, I still consider the books below as "new" great books which I don't have to read with haste. A few are enough in a year, I guess.
NB: If you don't have a good ebook reader, I recommend this free one; PocketBook for Android devices. It's perfect. Throw anything at it and it works just fine. Click on link to download.
1. The Senior Pastor's Guide to Breaking Barriers by Paul Carrasco (www.churchfuel.com)
Genre: Leadership and Church Growth
Download the 24-page PDF e-book here.
I know you're asking: what is Morris doing reading a senior pastors' book?
Well, it should be my curiosity... and there is no rule that says I shouldn't read pastors' books. So my curiosity led me to reading it; which after doing it, I realized that the book can actually be very helpful to anyone in church leadership.
The book seeks to dig into three main growth barriers;
(a) Spiritual growth barriers.
(b) Cultural growth barriers.
(c) Structural growth barriers.
It's only 24 pages, so please read it.
2. 101 Questions to Ask Before You Get Engaged by H. Norman Wright
Genre: Relationships and Marriage
Download the 48-page e-book (epub) here.
(I'm still reading and evaluating myself through it by the way. No hurry with this one.)
The key point in this book is this: don't fear to ask a potential spouse the hard questions because it may just save you from a botched marriage.
The books addresses the following issues:
(a) Never marry or get engaged to a stranger.
(b) 101 questions to ask before you get engaged.
(c) What to do and questions to answer if you've been married before.
3. The Author of Sin by Vincent Cheung
Genre: Christian Apologetics and Christian Doctrine
Download this book here.
This book may (yeah, it depends with how you'll look at it) help you understand man's free will, God's will, sin, their origin, limits and the causative aftermath. The unique thing abot thing - apart from it being very complex to understand - is that Cheung directly opposes various views posed by Calvinists concerning compatilism and determinism. Not that this really matters, but just that he could do it sounds intriguing. You don't have to agree with everything Cheung says in this book, but he gives quite a batch of relevant Biblical support for each of his claims; including the most outrageous one like "man has no free will, God controls everything."
Tolerating him enough to understand his point of view can shed some real light on what you already know. Look at another statement he makes: "evil is not good... but God's decree and causation of evil are good." Think about that for a moment.
Cheung also argues that it is useless for a non-Christian to use non-Christian worldviews to describe, criticize or oppose the Christian worldview. They should not even talk about evil and its origin when they have no idea of what it is, where it came from or why it exists.
4. Fifty Crucial Questions About Manhood And Womanhood by John Piper & Wayne Grudem
Genre: Christian Doctrine, Relationships, Marriage and Christian Living
Download this book here.
First of all, this is more of an excerpt overview from a 500-page-plus book (Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood) written by a league of church leaders in the US in the 1980s (The Council On Biblical Manhood and Womanhood) on the same topic.
The writers encourage laypeople to tackle the issue of manhood and womanhood by considering arguments available to them, thinking for themselves, saturating themselves with Scripture and to pray earnestly for what the apostle Paul promised in Philippians 3:15: "If in anything you think otherwise, God will revel that also to you."
5. Expository Apologetics 101: Steps In Debating Well (from Expository Apologetics videos by Voddie Baucham, DMin)
This is not an ebook but a stream of videos on the above subject.
You can watch the videos from here.
Lessons you can learn from these videos are that while practising apologetics;
A. Listen Carefully
1. Don't assume you know what they're going to say.
2. Don't fill in the blacks > they said what they said and meant what they said.
3. Follow the logic in their argument.
4. Ask clarifying questions.
B. Summarize Generously
1. Repeat what you heard them say.
2. Be careful with sarcasm.
C. Oppose Gently
1. Show them the inconsistency in their worldview.
2. Show them where they are counterfeiting the Biblical worldview.
3. Show them what the real thing looks like. Apologetics is not a formula. It depends on grace to get people to believe the Biblical worldview.
Bonface Morris
Thanks a lot
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