Rick Krug and Jessica Knapp. “Tombstones to Cornerstones: Hope and Help for Churches in Stress and Decline.” Xulon Press. 2022. 192 pages. $23.99.

To kindle our interest, Rick Krug and Jessica Knapp first evoke fond memories from a golden age of church growth animated by singings, frequent meetings, evangelism, fellowship and Bible studies.

After skillfully compressing many precious recollections, the book contrasts this glorious past with confusion and hopelessness among churches confronting decline.

The authors use a life cycle model based on meaningful research applicable to thousands of organizations. Their frequent theme is to recognize warning signs and make corrections prior to decline.

A pivotal point involves sustained growth, after which potential decline can be averted by applying renewal strategies through resetting goals and future vision. That is, without critically timed intervention plans and anticipating pivotal points, a shocking decline is likely.

The authors frequently honor faithful members and leaders who struggle and are stressed when encountering loss. Sadly, however, the harsh truths of cultural change, membership decline and program defeat spool up in anger and misguided blame.

Decline reactivity occurs in identifiable patterns of attitude:

1. Dumbfounded and worried (“weary and need help”).
2. Optimistic, work harder, only just a cycle (“the hurt but hopeful”).
3. Victimized, as in “we are under attack” (i.e., cultural shifts, social forces, etc.).

In further response, churches deny or pursue incomplete plans to forestall loss only to discover they missed the hidden causes.

Even sincere attitudes unknowingly foster platitudes blunting reality. The authors commend self-evaluation, reimagination and vision casting as grounding to avoid decline. The goal is action for congregational transition planning. It begins by reviewing successful history.

These powerful memories lead to the evocative “tombstone” metaphor galvanizing prayerful principles and converting loss into a future new form — a “cornerstone,” representing past threads living on in hope and “finishing God’s work.”

The authors empathize with any negative reactions regarding decline and its conversational awkwardness. They insist the discussion is not fatalistic but realistic, merging messages of warning and encouragement, sprinkled with effective directions into a helpful pathway.

This important book stimulates thoughts about future volumes, bolstering statistical data and case studies. It is a courageous text — a must read addressing an imminent need!

CARLEY H. DODD is professor emeritus in the Department of Communication and Sociology at Abilene Christian University. He has authored numerous academic articles and books and serves as an elder of the Southern Hills Church of Christ in Abilene, Texas.

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Of course, most who lead those groups have significant background in the study of Scriptures. Many, however, are much less familiar with the geography and history of most of the sites.

W. Scott Sager. “Bible Land Adventures: The Essential Travel Guide for Serious Disciples.” Marshal Press. 2023. 288 pages. $27.99.

W. Scott Sager, who serves as vice president for spiritual development at Lipscomb University, has over 30 years of experience traveling to those biblical sites and has produced a resource that will be of significant value to tour leaders and travelers to the Bible lands.

“Bible Land Adventures: The Essential Travel Guide for Serious Disciples” is composed of one-page descriptions of 85 different sites in Israel, Palestine, Jordan and Sinai. These are arranged in alphabetical order for easy reference.

Each of these includes a short summary of the geographical location, the historical significance of the site and the connections to the biblical narrative, with Scripture references if appropriate.

There is space allotted on each page for travelers’ brief notations on the dates the sites were visited and other “quick facts.” The book also offers 18 maps and 70 captioned charts and illustrations, as well as a selected bibliography of other helpful resources.

The guide is organized logically and contains a wealth of information that a traveler could use to get the most out of a visit to this part of the world. The book is not designed to be read from cover to cover but to serve as a resource for the traveler.

Tour leaders or trip hosts could use it as a planning guide for developing an itinerary for a future trip to the Bible lands or as a resource for developing comments to be shared at stops along the way.

Tour participants could use this book to familiarize themselves with the sites before making the journey, as a companion volume while on the trip, or as a means of debriefing the trip after they get home.

Even those who never travel to the Bible lands would find this to be a great resource to aid in the study of Scripture due to the descriptive information about sites mentioned in the biblical narrative.

Scott Sager has produced a helpful and enjoyable resource for those who wish to maximize the impact of a visit to the lands of the Bible. The book is easy to read and understand and provides a significant amount of information without being overwhelming.

“Those who are fortunate enough to enjoy a trip to the Bible lands frequently remark that it has ‘made the Bible come to life.’”

It does a great job of exploring the geographical, historical and biblical intersections that one will encounter on a journey to these significant places without being too heavy or encyclopedic.

Those who are fortunate enough to enjoy a trip to the Bible lands frequently remark that it has “made the Bible come to life.” This book is a useful guide to help prepare travelers for that journey and provide supplemental content to increase the impact of that experience on their lives.

MARK A. BLACKWELDER is a professor of Bible and missions at Freed-Hardeman University in Henderson, Tenn. He has led groups on more than 15 trip to the Bible lands.

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“In his early twenties, he was too young to be a preacher,” French writes. “But the hiring criteria for country Church of Christ preachers was a car salesman’s enthusiasm, a firm handshake, and baptism by immersion. He preached at a rural church down the road but came to our church for midweek or evening services. His dad was an elder at our church, so he was like church royalty.”

French details how the preacher, whom she identifies only as Conrad, sexually assaulted her and changed the trajectory of her life.

Nancy French. “Ghosted: An American Story.” Zondervan. 2024. 288 pages. $29.99.

Churches of Christ figure prominently — and generally not positively — in the life story of French, a best-selling author and ghostwriter for celebrities and conservative politicians.

The book also recounts French’s less-than-perfect time at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tenn. 

Unresolved trauma from her abuse explains part of her negative experience at the Christian university. Theological differences play a role, too, as the writer favors a style of Christianity with a more direct manifestation of the Holy Spirit.

But Lipscomb provides one major blessing for French: The university connects her to her future husband, David French, a conservative lawyer who later earned a Bronze Star as an Army attorney and now works as a New York Times columnist.

“Ghosted” focuses on how the Frenches lost friends and colleagues alike when they became critics of Donald Trump, the twice-divorced billionaire who won the Republican presidential nomination in 2016 and ascended to the White House. 

“I was a Christian Republican, too, after all,” Nancy French writes. “But why was the party of ‘family values’ rallying behind the guy who made a Playboy cameo? Hadn’t Trump bragged on video about doing to women what the preacher did to me so many years ago?”

Along with her serious exploration of sex abuse and Trump-era politics, French offers a few lighter moments — such as when the newly married couple, freshly arrived in New York City, ended up with the old phone number for David Lee Roth, lead singer for the rock band Van Halen.

“But why was the party of ‘family values’ rallying behind the guy who made a Playboy cameo? Hadn’t Trump bragged on video about doing to women what the preacher did to me so many years ago?”

Undoubtedly, not everyone will appreciate French’s book. 

Those easily triggered by theological or political ideas that might not match their own (based on my inbox, a fair number of such folks exists) probably should avoid it.

So should those who, like the leaders in French’s childhood congregation, favor protecting pedophiles and shunning victims of sex abuse over shining light on evil.

But for those open to learning better ways of dealing with predators in the pews — and for those willing to entertain the rationale behind the “Never Trump” movement, even if they disagree with it — French shares her perspective in a gripping, relatable way. 

I found “Ghosted” both haunting and helpful.

The Christian Chronicle’s Erik Tryggestad even makes two cameo appearances, as The Babbler student newspaper editor during French’s Lipscomb days.

BOBBY ROSS JR. is Editor-in-Chief of The Christian Chronicle. Reach him at bobby@christianchronicle.org.

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Her restlessness grows when, from the realm of humans she is observing, a young man catches her attention.

From the immortal life she leads in the Control Room to walking the human realm alongside the boy, she has to make a choice that will lead her down two distinct paths.

Will she do what’s asked of her? Or what is right?

Sara Watterson. “This Dreamer (The Chronicles of the Marked).” Inevah Press. 2022. 354 pages. $12.99.

Sara Watterson’s “This Dreamer” is a wonderful experience to live through and tells a rather daring story through its lovable and relatable characters.

While an easy read, the depth behind some of the writing is worth taking extra time to dive into!

The Maker offers a soft insight into the omnipotent being who created the book’s universe — and plays the role of the God we know in our reality.

While the story is an odd take on how heaven works — and definitely not an accurate description based off of biblical literature — the morals and lessons presented in the characters’ journeys are nothing short of what a parent would want their child to learn throughout life.

The hardships Evie, Adan and others go through are not overlooked by their Maker but are not as grand as they perceive them to be.

A gentle line in the beginning of the story sets the tone for the demeanor we can expect from the Maker: Evie arrives after some troubling events and is called to meet the Maker, whom she is extremely intimidated by, and is met with a simple statement: “Please don’t break my rules again.”

Listen to an interview with Sara Watterson in Episode 52 of The Christian Chronicle Podcast.

Similar to our Lord, the Maker is a kind, gentle, patient and forgiving being over all of the universe.

This is a good reminder of our God — the maker of our universe who sent his son for us. The entire story is about finding yourself in his work — “his” being the Maker’s, but also our God’s.

The overall question of “What is my purpose?” strikes both Evie and the young man she follows, Adan.

As their paths cross and separate, readers can relate to Evie’s attempt to regulate her new human emotions as well as understand Adan’s desire to find something greater within his current talents.

Struggles of sticking out, following impulsive decisions and fighting for and protecting the people you care about seep throughout the pages of this book.

It’s a wonderful read for anyone who experiences an out-of-place feeling at some point in their life.

This exciting adventure brings us to the revelation both characters have in finding their purpose and strength in their Maker’s universe.

I read this book with an optimistic and hopeful attitude that did not waiver thanks to the nature of the characters’ faith and strength through their trials.

Watterson’s tale brought out many wonderful emotions in me as a reader, and it is definitely on my reread list!

It will serve well those looking for a hope-filled adventure and is a perfectly fun, clean read for anyone — especially in the tween to teen years.

NINA BIGHAM is a member of the North Tuscaloosa Church of Christ in Tuscaloosa, Ala., and a sophomore marine science major at the University of Alabama.

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However, it is imperative for the health and future growth of our churches that leaders confidently take a stand on what Scripture says about what it means to be male and female.

Renée Webb Sproles and Bobby Harrington. “Five Conversations on Men and Women for Church Leaders.” Renew.org, 2023. 79 pages.

“Five Conversations on Men and Women for Church Leaders” by Renée Sproles and Bobby Harrington was created as a companion for the book “Male & Female: A Biblical Look at Gender,” edited by Sproles. But this workbook also is an incredibly helpful tool all on its own.

For church leaders who don’t have the time or inclination to delve into lengthy books on the subject, “Five Conversations” is an accessible resource. The short workbook seeks to equip church leaders to make biblically-based, informed decisions for themselves and those they lead.

Sproles and Harrington masterfully lead their readers through five challenging but necessary conversations, beginning with a question that the reader must eventually answer.

The authors help church leaders examine their beliefs on equality between genders, the pitfalls of traditional stereotypes and cultural influences, what it actually means to be male and female image-bearers of God, how churches can empower women and stay within biblical “guardrails,” what Scripture really says about what it means to be a leader at church and in the home and why gender roles matter.

Each of the five conversations offers three options for consideration. But prior to delving deeper into the options, Harrington and Sproles challenge readers to pause and take an honest self-assessment before moving into the study portion where they provide helpful tools to explore the influences of church tradition and secular culture on how we interpret Scripture.

Immediately following the study is a section specifically designed for church leaders to spend time in God’s Word working through each topic as they seek to faithfully interpret for themselves how God defines what it means to be male and female.

“Snapshots,” personal stories from everyday disciples of Jesus, appear at the end of each conversation, making the abstract more concrete. It’s a refreshing addition that brings the Word to life and shows Scripture in action.

Sproles and Harrington end every conversation with a brief review of the main points and provide thought-provoking questions to encourage self-reflection and group discussion among leadership.

“Study the Scriptures to make sure we are using all of the talents and gifts that God has given us without being hindered by old stereotypes or overly influenced by the egalitarian-at-all-costs thinking of our cultural moment.”

While written mainly to men, I found these conversations to be very helpful as a woman. Men and women should study the Scriptures to make sure we are using all of the talents and gifts that God has given us without being hindered by old stereotypes or overly influenced by the egalitarian-at-all-costs thinking of our cultural moment.

I recommend this workbook for those who would like to think more clearly about what it means to be male and female as well as for church leaders seeking to honor the clear teachings of Scripture.

LINDSEY RUSSELL has master’s degrees in education and is a former researcher at Vanderbilt University and social services assistant at Irwin Army Community Hospital in Fort Riley, Kan. She is a stay-at-home mom married to Seth and the mother of twin girls.

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Rubel Shelly. “Male and Female God Created Them: A Biblical Review of LGBTQ+ Claims.” College Press. 2023. 433 pages. $29.99

We may choose to accentuate one to the neglect of the other by leaning into unloving condemnation or compromising acceptance. Perhaps more often, the cultural complexities leave us paralyzed with fear and an inability to engage the conversation constructively.

A new book, “Male and Female God Created Them: A Biblical Review of LGBTQ+ Claims,” says there is a better way.

It is a way marked by clarity, wisdom, grace and truth.

Rubel Shelly writes with the heart of a scholar and a pastor. He writes with great sensitivity to others and a bold commitment to follow truth wherever it leads. He also writes comprehensively, attempting to address this minefield biblically, historically, culturally and practically.

Shelly writes to bring clarity to Christ-followers. He is not interested in joining the culture wars, pitting the church against the world or promoting some political agenda. He is interested in the church being the church, modeling God’s plan for sexuality and marriage, and being a transforming presence of grace and truth.

This book addresses many pertinent and pressing questions:

What was God’s original plan for sex, gender and marriage? Is that plan a prototype for the kingdom of God today? Have Christians consistently misread Old Testament texts all these centuries? Why did Jesus not talk explicitly about homosexuality — or did he?

Did the New Testament texts prohibiting homosexuality refer to abusive and exploitative behavior only? Did biblical writers not know about or address committed and loving same-sex relationships?

Rubel Shelly preaches to the Harpeth Hills Church of Christ in Brentwood, Tenn.

What did Paul really say on this subject? Can his letters be trusted as authoritative, or did he merely reflect the thought patterns of the time?

Do personal experiences take precedent over biblical teachings and commands? Should we update our ethical codes in light of modern sensitivities? If traditional Christian claims are true, how can we expect people to live up to the standard of holiness presented in Scripture?

How can people struggling with same-sex attraction find loving, supportive and transforming community?

Here are a few personal observations:

First, Shelly provides a very helpful cultural analysis.

Second, his treatment of Old and New Testament texts may be the best I have seen.

Third, his thorough research into the Greco-Roman World undermines key LBGTQ+ claims that committed homosexual relationships were unknown in New Testament times.

Fourth, the chapter on “Questions People Ask” is a great reference and summary for the average Christian to possess.

Chris Seidman, an Abilene Christian University alumnus and lead minister for The Branch Church of Christ in Farmers Branch, Texas, speaks during Holy Sexuality Week at ACU.

“Male and Female God Created Them” is written with a conviction that LGBTQ+ issues present a critical juncture for the church. It is urgent and critical, not because it is the most important topic for Christians per se but because how we respond to these questions will have such an enormous impact on our view of Scripture, authority and sexual questions and struggles of all kinds.

Shelly also writes to provide a positive alternative to our world of confusion. This book paints a beautiful picture of a kingdom community where there is welcoming love and healing transformation. He believes our world is weary and hungry for another way – a way that embraces both moral clarity and gracious love. Shelly calls us to model what it means to be God’s faithful people in our generation.

“This book paints a beautiful picture of a kingdom community where there is welcoming love and healing transformation. … Shelly calls us to model what it means to be God’s faithful people in our generation.”

Scholars will value the excellence of Shelly’s research and critical thinking, and the average Christian will value this book as a reference work to understand and respond to LBGTQ+ claims.

Shelly has also released a shorter and more popular-level version on this topic entitled “The Ink is Dry: God’s Distinctive Word on Marriage, Family, and Sexual Responsibility.”

JIMMY ADCOX has retired after 44 years as preaching minister for the Southwest Church of Christ in Jonesboro, Ark., where he now serves as discipleship minister. He is also a partner with Hope Network and a regional learning community director with Renew.org.

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Butts masterfully encourages a rethinking of how Scripture is approached, emphasizing the importance of engaging with the Bible not just as a text to be studied but as a dynamic narrative that invites active participation in God’s ongoing mission.

K. Rex Butts. “Gospel Portraits: Reading Scripture as Participants in the Mission of God.” Wipf and Stock. 2022. 172 pages. $25.00.

The book is organized into four parts, each addressing a different aspect of reading and understanding Scripture in the context of God’s mission.

In Part One, “What’s Up With the Bible?” Butts explores the often-overlooked centrality of Jesus in scriptural interpretation and highlights the risks of reading the Bible in ways that inadvertently hinder the mission of God.

This section sets the stage for the subsequent chapters by underlining the need for a missional hermeneutic – an interpretative approach that aligns with the overarching narrative of God’s mission as revealed in Scripture.

Part Two, “Discipleship and the Church,” delves into the concept of the church as the embodied story of the Gospel. Butts convincingly argues that the church, when correctly understood and practiced, becomes a living testament to the gospel message, dynamically engaging with the world in a Christ-centered manner.

This section reinforces the idea that the church is not just an institution but a community of believers actively living out the gospel narrative.

In Part Three, “A Missional Reading of Scripture,” Butts advocates for a narrative reading of the Bible, encouraging readers to see the Scriptures as a unified story that culminates in Jesus Christ.

This perspective is refreshing and empowers readers to find their place within the biblical narrative, thus participating in the mission of God in a more informed and authentic way.

Finally, Part Four, “Christ-Formed and Spirit-Filled,” focuses on the practical implications of a missional hermeneutic for the church. Butts discusses the transformation that occurs when a church aligns itself with the mission of God, emphasizing the role of the Holy Spirit in guiding and empowering believers for this task.

Throughout the book, Butts combines theological depth with practical insights, making the complex topic of hermeneutics accessible to a wide audience. His writing style is engaging and thought-provoking, often challenging readers to question their preconceptions and to reevaluate their approach to Scripture and mission.

In sum, “Gospel Portraits” is a must-read for anyone seeking to deepen their understanding of Scripture and its role in the Christian life.

“Butts offers a compelling vision of how engaging with the Bible can transform not only individual believers but also entire church communities, aligning them more closely with God’s mission.”

Butts offers a compelling vision of how engaging with the Bible can transform not only individual believers but also entire church communities, aligning them more closely with God’s mission.

This book is a valuable resource for preachers, church leaders and all Christians, providing a fresh and challenging perspective on the enduring relevance of Scripture in today’s world.

ORPHEUS J. HEYWARD is the minister for the Renaissance Church of Christ in Atlanta.

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Allisa Charles-Findley. “After Botham: Healing From My Brother’s Murder by a Police Officer.” Chalice Press. 2023. 195 pages. $19.99.

It symbolizes their flight into a fateful future marked by Botham’s absence and the holding pattern they had to maintain as they sought the runway of healing before they could be cleared for safe landing. Allisa’s writing skillfully invites readers aboard, allowing them to witness the various exchanges she and her mother had with flight attendants, even down to the simple choice of whether or not to add sugar to her tea.

As the narrative unfolds, it prompts the reader to ponder whether she will ever taste the sweetness of life again after being thrust into such a bitter event. The recollection of Botham’s joyful smile raises the question of whether she will ever find happiness to ever show her own smile again.

The book excels in providing readers with a first-class seat to witness the raw and painful outpouring of a heart shattered by a senseless tragedy. Allisa’s evocative storytelling transports readers into the depths of her grief, inviting empathy and understanding of the profound impact of loss.

She describes this horrific event as the most formidable trial she had ever encountered. She reflects on how it relentlessly probed her faith, her sanity and the very essence of her existence.

In the midst of it all, she came to acknowledge that this would be an enduring, lifelong examination with no discernible conclusion in this mortal existence.

This realization stirred within her a profound contemplation of whether it was indeed the will of God and if she possessed the inner strength required to confront this unending ordeal.

Allisa vividly recalls the deep love that her beloved Botham held for singing and how he ardently sought to share the boundless joy of music with her and countless others. She reminisces about those cherished moments of singing and dancing at joyous occasions like weddings, moments that opened a window into the genuine treasure that an off-duty police officer cruelly stole from Botham’s family and from the entire world.

In a world starved for positive voices, yearning for the kind of jubilation that music and dance bring, Allisa invites the reader to step into that festive moment. Through her words, she allows us to feel the raw pain and heartache, to witness the devastating loss that silenced the sweet melody of Botham’s life far too soon.

It is a haunting reminder of a young man who deserved to let his life’s song play on but whose tune was tragically cut short, leaving an indelible void in our hearts and a lament for a world robbed of his joyous spirit.

JERRY TAYLOR is director of Abilene Christian University’s Carl Spain Center on Race Studies and Spiritual Action. Reach him at drtaylor@carlspaincenter.org.

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A longtime African American minister, Shabazz has served churches in Memphis, Tenn., Detroit, and currently, the Harlem neighborhood of New York City.

O.J. Shabazz. “Excellence in Ministry: A Guide to Protocols and Etiquette for Church Leaders.” O.J. Shabazz Ministries. 2023. 153 pages. $19.97

To assist in mentoring younger ministers, Shabazz has compiled this book of practical guidance for ministry based on his extensive experience, including 23 years at the Harlem Church of Christ. While not a lengthy piece, the book contains numerous helpful tidbits, particularly for a minister starting out in a new church setting.

Shabazz frames the book using the words “etiquette” and “protocols.”

Etiquettes would be ministry principles that are expressed or inferred from Scripture, while protocols would be the appropriate practices or norms that a minister should follow.

Both frameworks are needed if a minister is going to do his work in excellence, Shabazz suggests.

Various ministry topics are discussed, including determining the best context for ministry, the first year of ministry, navigating relations with the previous minister, dealing with change, leadership dynamics, guest speakers and even officiating weddings and funerals.

For each subject, Shabazz presents guiding principles and proper practices to follow — if the minister desires excellence in his ministry.

Throughout these chapters, helpful snippets abound. For example, do not make changes during your first year of ministry, manage the relationship with the previous minister cordially and respectfully, and beware of passive-aggressive leaders who do not oppose you publicly but sabotage you privately.

O.J. Shabbaz

One favorite highlight was Shabazz’s description of the “spend down.” When a new minister arrives at a new church, he has a honeymoon period. Then, as the minister begins to make changes, the leadership will go along, at first. But the minister is spending down his favors.

If he continues to make changes too quickly, eventually the honeymoon will be over because he has spent all his goodwill and the relationship between the minister and the church leaders is now rocky. Do not move too fast as a young preacher, urges Shabazz.

Administrative matters are touched on as well: navigating IRS regulations for churches, delegating as a leader, upholding sexual integrity and handling criticism. Shabazz cautions about controversy.

People often avoid worship assemblies when negativity is present, so rather than create controversy, seek to cultivate stability, as stability is important for growth, Shabazz advises.

The book offers time-tested tips for a young minister who is starting a successful ministry. I was particularly pleased to see this book because few ministry books exist from an African American perspective.

Shabazz has done the church a great service by capturing key lessons that he has learned from a lifetime of ministry, organizing them and writing them down for the next generation. Hopefully, that means more churches will be experiencing excellence in ministry.

STEVE CLOER directs the Doctor of Ministry program for Harding Graduate School of Theology in Memphis, Tenn. Cloer preached for 15 years for the Southside Church of Christ in Fort Worth, Texas.

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Following the life of Phil Robertson (Aron Von Andrian) and his relationship with Miss Kay (Amelia Eve), the film tells the story of the Whites Ferry Road Church of Christ elder and the challenges he faced before founding his successful business Duck Commander in 1972.

The movie opens in a duck blind in a Louisiana swamp, a scene familiar to audiences used to seeing how members of the Robertson family unwind since their rise to fame in 2012 on the hit A&E show “Duck Dynasty.”

But the story that follows is far from the familiar family that drinks sweet tea over shared meals viewers may be used to seeing on TV.

Home troubles and alcohol abuse are quickly introduced as a young Phil takes to the woods to escape his tumultuous childhood. Duck hunting wasn’t just a passion — it was a means of providing for his family despite poverty.

Setting the story up initially as a rags to riches tale, the film quickly pivots to the foundation for a faith testimony as Phil finds himself led astray by bad company.

Marital fights, uncontrollable rage and drunken spirals dominate the majority of the movie, with repetitive bar scenes as he quickly succumbs to alcoholism as a young adult.

The film doesn’t shy away from putting his struggles fully on display – or “what happens when Satan controls a man,” as Phil says later in the film.

Aron Von Andrian and Amelia Eve play Phil and Marsha “Miss Kay” Robertson in “The Blind.”

“It’s embarrassing and shocking,” he adds. “Y’all saw the initial me.”

Narration — the voice of a future, sober Phil — reconstructs events and provides the audience with direction as drinking scenes blur together.

Unfortunately, the same narration that provides clarity also hinders many of the characters’ development on screen.

Phil’s siblings, who play a crucial role in his eventual decision to come to Christ, are largely absent from the film except when appearing to make emotional pleas. Other moments fall flat as the audience is left to connect with secondary characters and lackluster acting.

However, the overall story holds the audience’s attention despite the production quality detracting from the film in certain scenes. While it may not connect with all audiences, the film serves as a powerful testimony for families who have members struggling with alcoholism and addiction.

The film is ultimately a realistic and triumphant story of Robertson’s past struggles with a compelling plot.

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However, the response has too often been an overreaction, treating the entire gender as a disease. The Washington Post ran an opinion piece in 2018 simply titled “Why can’t we hate men?”

Into this fray, Nancy Pearcey, professor at Houston Christian University, offers her case for a healthy, Christian masculinity in her new book, “The Toxic War on Masculinity: How Christianity Reconciles the Sexes.” 

Nancy R. Pearcey. “The Toxic War on Masculinity: How Christianity Reconciles the Sexes.” Baker Books. 2023. 334 pages. $24.99.

Pearcey, heralded by The Economist as “America’s preeminent evangelical Protestant female intellectual,” is also the author of “Love Thy Body” (2018), which addressed a variety of issues including gender identity. 

More important than her publishing credentials, Pearcey comes equipped with the experience of masculinity at its worst. In the book’s introduction, she recounts the physical abuse she received from her Lutheran father and how it drove her to become an agnostic feminist early in life. She does not need to be told that masculinity can go horribly wrong, even in a perceived Christian environment.

Pearcey disarms her readers by acknowledging concerns on all sides of the topic of masculinity. Her main argument from the start is that there are two scripts for masculinity in our culture. 

The “good man” is a compassionate protector, a sacrificial giver and a servant-hearted leader. But when our culture speaks of “the real man,” we refer to brute strength, silent endurance, stubborn resolve, competitive fire and assertiveness. In short, one of these looks like Jesus, and the other looks like an action hero.

Pearcey argues that the nominally Christian man who follows the “real man” script actually becomes worse than his secular counterpart. Armed with just enough male headship language to be dangerous and no gospel-informed character to shape it, this sort of man is statistically the most destructive man in our society.

However, anywhere the “good man” script is followed, healthy masculinity follows. Christian men following this script see Jesus as their model, and statistically, Pearcey shows that the engaged Christian husband/father is one of the brightest spots on the otherwise dismal masculine landscape. 

“Research has found that evangelical Protestant men who attend church regularly are the least likely of any group in America to commit domestic violence,” she notes.

The remainder of the book is a historic study of how these two scripts came into existence. Pearcey begins in the Industrial Revolution, when men left the home for the factory and mothers began raising children alone. 

Her work is thought provoking and thorough, examining the literature on masculine norms in various eras of history to paint a full picture.

Her work is thought-provoking and thorough, examining the literature on masculine norms in various eras of history to paint a full picture. 

Her conclusion is that men — especially Christian men — have an opportunity to rewrite the narratives by returning to the Christ-shaped template for masculinity, one where virtue is of greater importance than virility and self-sacrifice is cherished above social success.

BENJAMIN J. WILLIAMS is the senior minister for the Central Church of Christ in Ada, Okla. He is a contributor for So We Speak ministries and specializes in Christian worldview, apologetics and faith-science dialogue.

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Loretta Lynn and Kim McLean. “A Song and a Prayer: 30 Devotions Inspired by My Favorite Songs” Worthy Books. 2023. 208 pages. $24.00.

The late singer of hits like “Coal Miner’s Daughter” and the Conway Twitty duet “Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man” had, not long before her death in October 2022, worked with Nashville-area pastor and musician Kim McLean to create a set of devotional readings “inspired,” as the book’s subtitle indicates, “by my favorite songs.”

The entries in “A Song and a Prayer: 30 Devotions Inspired by My Favorite Songs” follow a consistent format, making the volume readily accessible and easy to use as the basis for a solo, family or group daily devotional practice. Each chapter includes a selection from Scripture, a brief (roughly two pages long) devotional thought, a prayer and the song lyrics that inspired the day’s message.

McLean notes in the introduction that “a sad country song is its own kind of prayer,” and a number of the selections do fall into that category. But there is more variety here than one might expect.

Sixteen of the songs come from Lynn’s back catalog, while eight originated with the songwriting sessions that helped lead to the book’s creation. Five of the other six entries spotlight classic hymns, and one takes as its subject the Lord’s Prayer.

Loretta Lynn discusses her decision to be baptized in her 1976 autobiography “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” which became the basis for an Oscar-winning film.

A few key themes run through the month’s worth of devotionals — the presence of God during times of difficulty and the importance of prayer among them — though the thoughts range across many different topics, including patriotism and country music culture.

The book as a whole is credited to both women, but Lynn’s voice is the more apparent in the devotional messages themselves. She speaks in several places of her friendships and collaborations with other country musicians, as well as of her nearly 50-year marriage to Oliver “Doo” Lynn.

“Me and Doo got married young and we both had so much to learn about life, ourselves, and each other,” Lynn reminisces in a devotional on Ephesians 5:28. “Marriage is about serving one another. It’s about love and respect for each other.”

Some songs lend themselves to spiritual insights more readily than others, and there are several Lynn fan favorites that did not make the cut — the itinerary does not include a trip to “Fist City,” for instance.

Most of the songs co-written by Lynn and McLean were previously unreleased — 10 of them are included in McLean’s recent album also called “A Song and a Prayer,” which came out Aug. 25 — meaning that readers will not have any prior connection to a number of the featured tracks.

Still, Christians looking for spiritual encouragement, country music fans eager for a final word from one of the all-time greats, and members of Churches of Christ with an interest in their fellowship’s pop culture connections will enjoy the book and benefit from its wisdom.

JOHN YOUNG is an associate professor in the Turner School of Theology at Amridge University and runs the “Church of Christ Celebrities” blog.

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Holly Catterton Allen, professor of family studies and Christian ministries at Lipscomb University, provides helpful guidance in doing just this in her newest book “Forming Resilient Children: The Role of Spiritual Formation for Healthy Development.”

Holly Catterton Allen. “Forming Resilient Children: The Role of Spiritual Formation for Healthy Development.” InterVarsity Press. 2021. 200 pages. $24.00.

Children’s well-being is constantly threatened by upheavals and trauma around them. They need to develop resilience to handle these difficulties. This book seeks to prove that nurturing the spiritual life of a child is the key to developing resilience.

First, Allen defines spiritual formation as “the lifelong, intentional, communal process of growing more aware of God’s presence and becoming more like Christ, through the Spirit, in order to live in restored relationship with God, ourselves, and others, in every dimension of life.”

Allen proposes that when children have a healthy spiritual understanding of self, their relationships with others and their relationship with God, they will become resilient.

The book provides a section for both churches and parents with examples of how each can foster spiritual resilience in children. For parents and grandparents, Allen explores the ideas of fostering religious conversation, participating in religious activities with children, modeling spiritual life and parenting firmly, yet lovingly.

Allen then moves from families fostering spiritual formation in children to the church’s role. This section would be highly beneficial for all children’s ministers and those teaching youth Bible classes. Allen highlights ways to craft Bible studies that are intentional about developing spiritual resilience in children. While not every example will work in every congregation, there is much to be taken from the suggestions.

The book has a good balance of scientific data, biblical concepts and practical application. Each chapter includes an illustration of what this looks like or why the concept is needed for spiritual formation and resilience.

Allen also includes a section that addresses children who have gone through severe trauma and grief. Even if the children in your youth program have not faced such trauma, these chapters would be helpful in preparing you and your children’s program for if and when such trauma happens.

The book is written at a popular level and is accessible to everyone. Those looking for a more scientific study in children’s resilience will desire more data and less illustrations. Yet, Holly Allen has provided a useful book that could be read by church staff, small groups or parents of children.

Children listen to a Bible lesson during a Vacation Bible School hosted by the East End Church of Christ on the island of Grand Cayman. The Pawlit family — Jousha, Jessica, Jackson, Addison and Emerson — coordinated the event.

Everyone will walk away with a better understanding of the importance of spiritual formation in children and feel better equipped to help develop resilient children.

CHRIS KEARNEY is the preaching minister at the Windsong Church of Christ in North Little Rock, Ark., and is married with two small children. He has earned a Master of Divinity from Harding School of Theology and is currently a doctoral student in preaching at Baylor University’s George W. Truett Theological Seminary.

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What a blessing it would be to have a guide who has been through the messiness of sin-induced pain and brokenness and has found the way to reconciliation.

Steve Ridgell. “Wounds Into Scars: Turning Your Sin Wounds into Spiritual Scars.” 21st Century Christian. 2022. 152 pages. $14.99.

You don’t want someone who has never been through hard times and certainly not someone who thinks sin isn’t a big deal. You want someone who has fallen and found their way back again to walk alongside you.

Steve Ridgell is exactly that person because he has some deep-seated and (apparently) self-induced spiritual wounds from which he was able to recover.

In “Wounds Into Scars: Turning Your Sin Wounds Into Spiritual Scars,” Ridgell never tells you exactly what he did, but he does demonstrate that he has been through the hard work he recommends in the book and has come out on the other side.

Ridgell has helped many others go through healing the wounds of sin to produce the spiritual scars that characterize the healed. Here is the good news: He can help you too!

Who would find this book useful? Three groups come to mind: First are those who have unresolved sin (addiction, past sin that never got addressed, etc.).

The second group are those who are trying to understand the sinful choices of a loved one — maybe a spouse or a friend at church. This book can help put into words what you may be struggling to understand and articulate.

The third group are those who are actively helping people resolve the mess of their sin. Each chapter ends with a section called “A Word to the Helpers” to give advice on aiding those who are trying to find reconciliation.

This book is scripturally informed and highly practical. Many books are good at one or the other — this one is exceptionally good at both. There are Scriptures and stories from the Bible used throughout to help us understand what the Bible has to say about resolving the impact of our bad decisions and sins and finding healthy resolution.

Last, there are lots of stories of people in the book to help you connect with the principles being shared. These real, raw stories show what is being taught lived out. You will begin to see that no matter what you have done, you aren’t the first, and there is always hope!

“You will find yourself in this book. There were many times I thought to myself, ‘That is exactly what I needed to hear today.’”

You will find yourself in this book. There were many times I thought to myself, “That is exactly what I needed to hear today. Thank you God for this book and for Steve!”

A book of this size (152 pages) would be a pretty quick read for many people, but it will most likely cause you to slow down, take in what is being said and reflect on areas of your life of unresolved conflict and brokenness.

If you need help putting your sin in perspective or helping others do the same, I hope you will pick up a copy of this book to read and share with others. It will undoubtedly save someone’s life, marriage and ministry.

MATT DABBS is a disciple maker and church planter at Backyard Church in Auburn, Ala. His mission is moving people to prayer, making disciples and planting house churches.

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Gary Holloway identified some outliers in his 1989 work “Saints, Demons, and Asses: Southern Preacher Anecdotes”; one might also point to Gary Freeman’s 1969 novel “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Heaven” or his “Balaam’s Friend” column in Mission as prominent examples of how humor has shaped our history. But still, these are exceptions proving the rule.

Perry C. Cotham. “Everyday Christianity: Theology with Common Sense, Practicality, and a Touch of Humor.” AuthorHouse. 2022. 370 pages. $20.99.

Fortunately for us, Perry C. Cotham’s numerous interests include the relationship between the comic and the Churches of Christ, as shown most clearly in his 2020 book “Please Don’t Revive Us Again! The Human Side of the Church of Christ.”

In the wider-ranging “Everyday Christianity: Theology with Common Sense, Practicality, and a Touch of Humor,” wit is only part of the equation, but readers will still recognize Cotham’s sense of humor amid the often- serious topics of the book.

Inspired, in a sense, by his reading of the late 1990s doorstop “The Complete Book of Everyday Christianity,” Cotham has set a more manageable target here: “taking a select number of biblical and theological topics and then interpreting and applying them in a way that makes sense in both our thinking and in our everyday life.”

Cotham has largely succeeded in this endeavor.

He acknowledges that readers will likely disagree with some of his conclusions (which was the case for this reviewer), but the journey remains a valuable one all the same.

Addressed along the way are subjects as varied as the purpose of prayer, the relationship between the testaments, aging and the interchange between theology and philosophy.

What ties the topics together is Cotham’s consistent approach to asking tough questions despite the possibility of finding even tougher answers.

“Doubting can be a sign of strength instead of weakness,” he observes in the introduction, “a sign that we are willing to probe and ask questions rather than simply accept what’s been pre-packaged and handed to us as unquestionable.”

Where the book is somewhat less successful is in the technical execution.

“Everyday Christianity” checks in at roughly 350 pages, which might undercut the book’s effectiveness in providing encouragement to some readers. Numerous typographical and minor factual errors also have the unfortunate cumulative effect of drawing the reader’s focus away from the content.

Page 9, for instance, both describes Aaron as Moses’ cousin (they were brothers) and lists Cecile (actually, Cecil) B. DeMille as the director of “The Ten Commandments.” These kinds of small mistakes continue throughout.

Even so, “Everyday Christianity” is a valuable read, precisely because it is so wide ranging.

One might not agree with everything Cotham says or find every topic equally relevant, but there is likely something here for everyone, and we could all do worse than to follow Cotham’s lead in thinking critically — and, yes, comedically — about our common convictions.

JOHN YOUNG is an associate professor in the Turner School of Theology at Amridge University.

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And whether you’re looking for Bible study aids, ministry advice or just wholesome entertainment, you can find podcasts hosted by members of Churches of Christ. Once you’re caught up on the new Christian Chronicle Podcast, here are six more podcasts you can tune into to keep you connected with our fellowship and faith.

1. Dear Church

Chris McCurley, the preaching minister for the Walnut Street Church of Christ in Dickson, Tenn., addresses the whole body of Christ, not just his congregation, to discuss “deeper questions” facing all Christians, from mental health and marriage to church culture and faith and politics. In this down-to-earth podcast, McCurley also dissects familiar passages to offer practical applications and talks with preachers across the country about their lives and experiences.

2. The Authentic Christian

In this podcast overseen by the well-known Gospel Broadcasting Network in Olive Branch, Miss., hosts Aaron Gallagher, Scott Ingram and Tucker Wallace cover a range of topics on everyday Christian life, from simple-but-tough subjects like sharing Jesus at a coffee shop and dealing with criticism to controversial subjects like homosexuality and abortion to more in-the-weeds subjects like legalism and Armageddon.

3. Sunday Lunch

Three friends and members of the Brentwood Hills Church of Christ in Nashville, Tenn. — Katie Culberson, Kerry Stiles and Amy Bowman — look to create human connections among themselves, their guests and their audience as you would around a Sunday lunch table. While this is not a directly Christianity-focused podcast, the trio often bring on guests from our fellowship and touch on faith and Christian life.

4. The B-Team

John Young, a Restoration Movement historian and professor based in Tuscaloosa, Ala., and producer Jordan Campbell host this podcast aimed at bivocational, part-time and volunteer ministers. Leaning on their own experiences with ministry and those of a swath of guests — from backgrounds including interim, youth, college, young adult, pulpit and other ministry roles — they offer insights for the many Christians engaged in ministry on the side.

5. Life on the West Side

Nathan Guy, preaching minister for the West Side Church of Christ in Searcy, Ark., and former president of Mars Hill Bible School in Florence, Ala., shares some of his sermons from the pulpit, interviews and study/research resources meant to inspire spiritual formation. Topics covered in the podcast range from Christian identity and the presence of the Holy Spirit to the depth of the Gospel and the worthiness of faith.

6. Minister in the Making

B.T. Irwin, who now hosts our own podcast and is a member of the Rochester Church of Christ in Michigan, interviews one man over 37 episodes — his father, Travis — on his experiences as a Christian and preacher of nearly 50 years. The life story of this podcast begins with Travis’ childhood in the 1950s and continues until his death last year. While it’s no longer in production, the life lessons shared here are still well worth a listen.

CALVIN COCKRELL is media editor for The Christian Chronicle and the young adult minister for the North Tuscaloosa Church of Christ in Alabama. Contact calvin@christianchronicle.org.

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The detailed book merges the style and substance of memoir, academic treatise and, at times, self-effacing story-telling. More than half of its nine chapters are written as case studies describing Casey’s work as the founding director of the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Religion and Global Affairs, an appointment he began under former Secretary of State John Kerry.

Shaun Casey. “Chasing the Devil at Foggy Bottom: The Future of Religion in American Diplomacy.” Eerdmans. 2023. 269 pages. $30.

The office was shuttered under the Trump administration and has not been reestablished under the Biden White House. But the mission remains one the theologian and diplomat is committed to and a primary motivation for writing the book.

In it, Casey builds his thesis around three questions: Why is it important for American diplomacy to have a capacity to understand global religious dynamics? How does one do this sort of work? And how do you institutionalize and expand innovation in a change-resistant bureaucracy like the State Department?

He argues that to be effective, American diplomacy must “have the capacity to interpret religion” and that ignorance of religion can be costly. And he believes that through repeated policy failures, the cost in both dollars and lives has been enormous.

Casey built the office on a set of values both surprising and attractive to his team members: Find joy in your work. Treat others with dignity. Continue learning. Support a flexible workplace. Do collaborative, creative work. Drive out fear.

Accommodating personal and family obligations was not the department’s norm, Casey told his audience, but over four years working with 40 different people, “life happened.” And he sought to recognize that.

That human touch extended to the style of diplomacy Casey describes in chapters that detail work with the Vatican, the global refugee crisis, armed conflicts on several continents — including deep involvement in Israeli-Palestinian diplomacy — and a chapter called “Responding to the Universe,” which he says could have been called “Surprises.” Its stories include 36 hours in Havana and in-depth conversations with religious leaders in Nigeria in an effort to fight corruption.

A diplomatic conversation with a Palestinian theologian took a productive turn because Casey knew the man had attended Hardin-Simmons University, a Baptist school located in Abilene, Texas. Casey told him he had attended Abilene Christian University.

“He told me that in 1958 the best soccer game in Abilene was on Saturday afternoons at Abilene Christian,” Casey writes. “It scrambled my brain to imagine a Palestinian Anglican playing soccer there back in the day.”

Shaun Casey

If the depth of knowledge in theology and public policy can be attributed to his intellect and education, Casey’s personal, pastoral touch finds root in his family background and early years spent in local ministry. Casey grew up in the bootheel of Missouri and in Paducah, Ky., attending the local Churches of Christ, which he describes as playing an “outsized role” in his childhood.

“I grew up in a family with parents who were first generation college grads — five kids, loud dinner table conversations,” Casey said, describing his family. “We read two newspapers every day — there was a premium for learning what was going on in the world.”

That hunger for learning led him to a Bible degree at ACU and eventually a doctorate in theology at Harvard University.

Along the way were years spent preaching at local congregations in Mississippi and Massachusetts and 13 years on the faculty of Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C.

In a chapter titled “Male, Pale and Not Quite Yale,” a reference to the State Department demographics, Casey recounts his upbringing against a backdrop of the civil rights movement and Vietnam War, including a moving retelling of registering for the draft. Casey’s Southern, lower middle class roots and undergraduate degree from a small Christian college in West Texas were atypical in the sprawling bureaucracy of the State Department.

So who is the devil of Foggy Bottom? He explains that in the final chapter. For now, suffice it to say he draws on his Hebrew training to explain it.

Devil aside, he concludes that by nature he is both hopeful and realistic — realistic in his fear that the State Department “will go back to its ill-educated reticence” about religion but hopeful that “we made a compelling case in our short tenure” for greater recognition of the critical role of religion in global diplomacy.

CHERYL MANN BACON is a Christian Chronicle contributing editor who served for 20 years as chair of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication at Abilene Christian University. Contact cheryl@christianchronicle.org.

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The Lionsgate movie juggles the story of three men — Chuck Smith, Lonnie Frisbee and Greg Laurie — and their involvement with the Jesus movement, which captivated the nation in the late 1960s and early 1970s as hippies converted to Christianity and proclaimed Christ as the truth they’d sought in substances and spiritual philosophy.

Listen to our podcast: We talk to ‘Jesus Revolution’ filmmaker Brent McCorkle

A cinematic retelling of the book co-authored by Laurie, the movie emphasizes themes of acceptance and love, encouraging Christians to reach across the aisle to welcome people who both outwardly look different while internally having a different worldview. 

With a tagline espousing, “When you open your heart, there’s room for everyone,” the film follows Laurie (played by Joel Courtney) as he avoids an unstable home life by seeking “truth” — first in drugs and later in his newfound faith at Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa, Calif., under the guidance of Smith and Frisbee. 

Relying heavily on pathos, viewers are likely to feel moved by the end of the two-hour film — but may find themselves disappointed when learning the reality of Smith and Frisbee’s stories later. For a film that preaches “truth,” it is disappointing that the plot ends up raising more questions about the reality of the Jesus movement than it answers. 

Certain conflicts are alluded to — power struggles between Smith and Frisbee, marital issues between Frisbee and his wife, disgruntled church leadership at Calvary Chapel — without fully addressing the facts or outcome. 

The poster for the film “Jesus Revolution.”

Rather than engaging with topics that are equally prevalent in the religious environment of today, the producers chose to skirt around these themes, watering down what might have been a compelling example of the challenges and struggles faced by religious leadership.

Instead the movie focuses on the positive drama, which is ultimately resolved in an uplifting way, like Laurie’s ministry and his relationship with his girlfriend, Cathe.

It is an effective public relations piece for Christianity, illustrating the ideal form of faith without addressing the societal criticisms that often follow churches. 

While likely to inspire Christians in need of encouragement, the film sanitizes the complex reality of the movement, shying away from theology and human fallibility to make the overall message more palatable.

To listen to an interview with Brent McCorkle, filmmaker and director of “Jesus Revolution,” tune in to The Christian Chronicle podcast.

AUDREY JACKSON is The Christian Chronicle’s associate editor and a 2021 graduate of Harding University. Contact audrey@christianchronicle.org.

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We may feel that reaching others with the Gospel is a hill too steep, like the one in Watty Piper’s classic story of the little train engine pulling a heavy load.

Mark Mittelberg. “Contagious Faith: Discover Your Natural Style for Sharing Jesus with Others.” Zondervan. 2021. 256 pages. $18.99.

We may tell ourselves, “I think I can’t, I think I can’t,” and abandon Jesus’ mission to seek and save the lost and give up on his commission to make disciples.

Perhaps it is time to look for help, like the little engine did. This is where Mark Mittelberg’s book, “Contagious Faith,” comes along to help us see how God can use our own personal style to share the Good News of Jesus.

It might just be the help you need to conquer the hill.

“Contagious Faith” provides tools, examples and motivation to move from “I think I can’t” to “I think I can” by strengthening our trust that God can use us to spread his Good News with the gifts, personality and faith we already have.

“Contagious Faith” describes five personal styles for sharing the Good News, presents biblical illustrations of each, looks to Jesus as an example and caps each style with key skills that can apply to anyone.

This consistent format makes the book very readable and easy to follow. It guides us throughout to identify our own personal styles for sharing the Good News of Jesus, reminds us of resources God uses to move people toward Jesus and presents a variety of ways to reach out so that we can be our authentic selves as we share Jesus with others.

The book seems to lean heavily on inviting people to church events as a means toward introducing them to Christ. Given our current post-Christian culture, a more helpful approach might address how to reach skeptics and former church adherents — groups who are not likely to attend a church event.

Perhaps a chapter or so on how to offer a simple invitation to a personal Bible study or what discipleship looks like on a day-to-day basis would have been beneficial.

Also concerning for us, Mittelberg does not include baptism as part of the response of believers toward salvation. However, his book does provide simple ways to make connections so that the Good News of Jesus can be shared.

When all is said and done, “Contagious Faith” does a good job of describing specific ways to use our own giftedness to share the good news of Jesus.

If you are in the mode of “I think I can’t, I think I can’t” when it comes to sharing the Good News of Jesus, “Contagious Faith” may be the help you need to shift to “I think I can, I think I can” and become “The Little Engine That Could” to scale the hill and allow God to use you to spread his Good News with the gifts, personality and faith you already possess.

ANDY AND ROSLYN MILLER are co-leaders of Reclaimed missional community in Orlando, Fla., where Roslyn is also an instructional designer for the University of Central Florida. Reclaimed is supported by the North Boulevard Church of Christ in Murfreesboro, Tenn.

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He ends with a call to a different, and unexpected, option.

Michael F. Bird. “Religious Freedom in a Secular Age: A Christian Case for Liberty, Equality, and Secular Government.” Zondervan, 2022. 224 pages. $18.99.

That’s a great deal for a relatively short book to tackle, but Bird provides a concise guide to the problem and some intriguing solutions.

On the first point, an embrace of secularism might seem off-putting to religious readers. But Bird’s concept of secularism is closer to what I would call “confident pluralism,” to quote John Inazu.

To Bird, secularism is “not antagonism toward religion … but a place where everyone could cooperate and work together on this-worldly concerns.”

Bird’s vision is a government that is not controlled by any one church but gives people of different faiths a place to come together.

Bird contrasts this beneficial secularism with “militant secularism,” which seeks to vanquish religious ideals and is probably what most believers have in mind when they hear “secularism.”

On this point, Bird is a sharp observer of current events, noting that militant secularism is not so much a rejection of religion as the embrace of politics and ideology in the place of church: “In a godless age, there will still be gods.”

As an academic dean in Australia, Bird brings an intriguing perspective on the current American political situation.

His stories from Australia are a bracing reminder of the importance of defending religious freedom and the value of our constitutional protections.

If you’d like to know where militant secularism in the United States could go in the short term, Bird’s discussion of current events there is a useful guide. As an outsider to the American political system, Bird has strong words for both religious conservatives and secular progressives and is sure to ruffle feathers on both sides.

Read “Court expands religious freedom”: Kenneth Pybus analyzes four cases involving expressions of faith that came before the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022.

On issues of religion and LGBTQ rights, Bird summarizes current political debates in both the U.S. and Australia and makes a strong argument for the importance of allowing religious people and institutions to live out their faith. He also highlights the importance of Christian love and service.

While I believe some of his legal proposals would be problematic in practice, I appreciate his overall approach to explaining to outsiders just why religious freedom matters.

The book’s final section sketches out a “Thessalonian strategy” for relating to an often-hostile world.

Bird argues for a “grand age of apologetics,” encouraging believers to make their case.

“We need good arguments, good character, and good manners. Our business is not to score points in debates, but to win people to Christ,” he writes.

Here, Bird’s book is at its best, responding to common modern critiques of Christianity and arguing for a version of apologetics that is less focused upon proving the historical accuracy of Scripture and more upon defending Christianity against its cultural critiques.

His call to have a “a ready answer” will resonate with many believers, and it adds an oft-ignored component to discussions over how we handle issues of religious freedom.

Bird’s book is a brief, engaging discussion of current religious freedom issues. It will be valuable to those who are interested in seeing a new perspective on American religious liberty debates and thinking about both the legal and cultural responses.

LORI WINDHAM is a constitutional lawyer in Washington, D.C., who specializes in religious freedom cases. She is a member of the Fairfax Church of Christ in Virginia.

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Hughes, now in his late 70s, weaves essays, blog posts and a lecture from a lifetime of scholarship into the story of what it means for him to live as a disciple of Jesus. He calls his book an “intellectual memoir.”

Richard Hughes. “The Grace of Troublesome Questions: Vocation, Restoration, and Race.” Abilene Christian University Press. 2022. 352 pages. $24.99.

At age 16, Hughes decided to host his West Texas high school buddies — good Baptists, Methodists and Presbyterians — to watch evangelistic filmstrips. His mom was supportive but sensed a teachable moment.

“If you want to convert your friends to our church, that is entirely up to you,” she told him. “But if you discover that they are right but you are wrong, then you must be the one who is willing to make the change.”

That encouragement led him to seek answers to “troublesome” questions that would emerge as a student at Harding University and Abilene Christian University and through the rest of his life.

At Abilene, a book recommended by renowned early church historian Everett Ferguson brought questions surrounding a pillar of Church of Christ belief: restoring the New Testament church.

“The Anabaptist View of the Church” introduced Hughes to a Christian tradition that sought to restore not the worship and organization of the early church but the first Christians’ nonviolent ethics and sense of discipleship.

“What, after all, should be restored?” Hughes asked himself. That question would take him deeper. How do we view history itself? Did Churches of Christ “spring full-blown from the biblical text”? Or do they have a human history we must acknowledge and understand?

Turning to the origins of Churches of Christ, Hughes stresses the countercultural dimensions of Barton W. Stone’s “apocalyptic” worldview emphasizing “a radical sense of estrangement and separation from the world … and a keen allegiance to ‘the kingdom of God.’” The ethical values of that transcendent kingdom, Stone believed, could unite believers.

Stone’s countercultural vision supports Hughes’ view that Churches of Christ are fundamentally at odds with the individualistic theology and political aspirations of American evangelicals.

Reading the Bible through the lens of culture rather than culture through the lens of the Bible, we “allow the American nation, its values, and its dominant culture to take the place of … the biblical vision of the kingdom of God.”

Hughes’ critique is pointed. By reading the Bible through the lens of culture rather than culture through the lens of the Bible, Hughes says, evangelicals “allow the American nation, its values, and its dominant culture to take the place of the only reality to which, as Christians, they should pledge their allegiance: the biblical vision of the kingdom of God.”

This misplaced focus enables a malaise that becomes a key theme in the book: America’s struggle with racism.

Hughes recalls a pivotal moment that changed the direction of his life and scholarship at a 2012 conference where he had spoken about “Myths America Lives By,” his 2004 book about five fundamental ideas that shape American identity.

Afterward, a fellow panelist and scholar of African American Christianity leaned over and whispered, “You left out the most important of all the American myths — White supremacy.”

Hughes was taken aback. But, like his mother had told him, he paid attention. The result was a second edition of his book, the 2018 “Myths America Lives By: White Supremacy and the Stories That Give Us Meaning.”

Hughes concludes with some of the most tender autobiographical reflections of the volume: How he met his wife, Jan, in the Harding cafeteria line. Visiting renowned historian and friend Sidney Mead just four months before Mead died. And his Black friend and mentor, Charles Wayne Baxter, who taught him “it’s all about relationships.”

“The King of the Universe gathers together the people of earth and divides the sheep from the goats. … The King is concerned about one thing — how we treat our neighbors.”

The personal stories cap readers’ journey with Hughes during a lifetime devoted to difficult but authentic questions about who God calls Churches of Christ to be.

“There is only one passage in the entire biblical text that paints a panoramic view of both the final judgment and the meaning of the kingdom of God,” Hughes writes. “There, the King of the Universe gathers together the people of earth and divides the sheep from the goats. … The King is concerned about one thing — how we treat our neighbors.”

TED PARKS is a Christian Chronicle correspondent. A native of Chattanooga, Tenn., he is a graduate of Lipscomb University, Harding School of Theology and the University of Texas at Austin. Before moving to Nashville, Tenn., in 2004, Parks taught at Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif., for 12 years.

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McDonald — the late poet laureate of Texas, Air Force pilot, rancher, professor, and disciple of Jesus — has bequeathed to us a remarkable work: a collection of over 500 poems, lovingly selected and arranged by the author himself.

Walt McDonald. “The Essential Walt McDonald.” Texas Tech University Press. 2022. 608 pages. $39.95.

In McDonald’s poems, the sacred is seldom overtly named, but rest assured, Christ is near. “The foundation of all my work is Christ,” he once declared. “Not one poem would have come without that rock.”

McDonald’s mission is similar to C.S. Lewis’ — to do one’s best to pay attention, to see what is squarely set before us and discover a world crowded with God’s presence. “Keep your eyes wide,” he counsels in one poem. “Find what’s in the skies.”

Religious verse is notorious for sometimes turning cloyingly sweet or maudlin, for putting on airs. McDonald travels a more direct, warts-and-all path devoid of obscurity and pretention. He is honest about humanity’s flawed and fallen state.

Whether the subject is a near-bankrupt farmer pleading for rain, a grandfather praying for a dying granddaughter, a cowboy fixing fences, a couple savoring their morning coffee or a father waiting on news from the war front where his son serves — grief, desperation, hope and joy are treated with equal candor and compassion.

Even when answers aren’t forthcoming, McDonald reassures that God’s grace is sufficient: “Nights, / you turn for me to hold you, faith and hope / and love, if not the answers, enough for us.”

McDonald is a love poet, enamored of the Word and words, of natural beauty and people, his ordinary saints. “Those who overcome the everyday with simple faith are my heroes,” McDonald said. In memorable scenes of graceful realism, ordinary folk perform simple acts of goodness — without fanfare or expectation of reward.

He especially delights in family and friendships. Scenes of parents and children, aunts and uncles, rural neighbors and war buddies appear often. But he is at his finest celebrating married love.

Like the singer in the Song of Solomon, McDonald soars when he recalls time spent with Carol, his beloved wife (an Abilene Christian University honor graduate and graphic artist). “The blaze of lavish hours together … the swift and playful nights like wild / hosannas dangling on a string. I love the halo / of your hair, the simple mystery of your eyes.”

The psalmist used ordinary material things — a starry sky, a shadowy valley, a green pasture, a deer seeking water — to convey spiritual realities. McDonald similarly finds truth, beauty and the sacred in human relationships, nature, and the smallest of things.

Few poets from Churches of Christ have ever achieved national recognition for their literary excellence. Walt McDonald is the exception, authoring over 20 books and 2,000 poems and receiving numerous awards. We owe him and his memory a great debt for leaving us his last, best work — a masterwork overflowing with hope, love, wisdom and beautiful, honest faith.

DARRYL TIPPENS is a retired University Distinguished Scholar of Faith, Learning and Literature at Abilene Christian University and former chief academic officer at Pepperdine University.

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Andy Stanley. “Not in It to Win It: Why Choosing Sides Sidelines the Church.” Zondervan Reflective. 2022. 256

In “Not in It to Win It: Why Choosing Sides Sidelines the Church,” Andy Stanley discusses how this attitude is damaging to effectively demonstrating the love and unity we should have toward fellow believers. Stanley, an author and minister of an eight-church network in the Atlanta area, provides Scripture-based evidence showing how Jesus’ ministry and actions run counter to what many Christians today believe should be the focus of their time and energy.

The idea of “needing to win” too often guides our attitude toward people with whom we disagree. Such an attitude is also diametrically opposed to Jesus’ approach to reaching the lost and making disciples. Stanley writes, “The Gospels and Epistles are unmistakably clear. We are not in it to win anything. Jesus already won it. Jesus will win it again. In the meantime, we are to love one another and the people around us in such a way that we are winsome whether we win anything or not.”

“Not In It to Win It” discusses how an attitude of winning demonstrates itself in national culture wars. Taking sides on cultural issues is viewed as essential to “save America” from some perceived evil or threat. Stanley suggests that engaging in a fight over such issues never produces winners, only casualties.

“Any admonition that declares that we must rule should be checked with the immediate reminder that Christ did not.”

Saving America is not the mission of the church; saving Americans is. Quoting David French, Stanley writes, “Any admonition that declares that we must rule should be checked with the immediate reminder that Christ did not. It is the cross — not the boardroom, not the Oval Office and not the box office — that is the absolute center of the Kingdom of God.”

“Saving America is not the mission of the church; saving Americans is.”

Jesus was aware of cultural problems and challenges impacting the people of his day, yet he often refused to publicly support one view over another. Why? Stanley suggests that Jesus’ purpose and his focus precluded him from doing so. Addressing such issues was not why he came to live among mankind.

Stanley believes the true enemy of the church is division resulting from Christians dividing along political or cultural sides. According to Stanley, “Unity is not a ‘nice to have’ — it is ‘mission critical.’” We cannot truly love each other and be effective in reaching the lost if we allow division to weaken our efforts.

What should be our focus as Christians? Jesus said, “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you” (John 15:12). Stanley suggests this command should inform our consciences and “govern our responses, actions, reactions and priorities.”

Stanley holds nothing back and clearly shows how our need to win — politically or culturally — casts the church in a negative light. He concludes by saying, “Our responses and reactions say more about the sincerity and authenticity of our faith than anything else, certainly more than our sermons, songs and creeds.” In moments when you are uncertain how to respond, “ask what love requires of you.”

DAN ARNOLD is a graduate of Lipscomb University. He worships with the Church of Christ on Fishinger Road in Columbus, Ohio, along with his wife, Lori, and daughter.

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Are we Catholic? No, but we believe in one apostolic church.

Are we Protestants? Not exactly, but that seems closer to the mark.

Are we the first-century church restored after a 17-century hiatus? We often say so, but it feels like amnesia to pretend the intervening years never happened.

Leonard Allen. In the Great Stream: Imagining Churches of Christ in the Christian Tradition. Abilene Christian Press. 2021. 240 pages. $17.99.

This question is the riddle Leonard Allen tackles in his latest book, “In the Great Stream: Imagining Churches of Christ in the Christian Tradition.”

Allen, dean of the College of Bible and Ministry at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tenn., brings his extensive knowledge of church history to the task of articulating a historically meaningful identity for the Churches of Christ. He began this discussion in “Discovering our Roots: The Ancestry of the Church of Christ” (1988).

Allen’s repertoire is deep and wide. “In the Great Stream” draws from church historians such as Jaroslav Pelikan, Thomas Oden and Everett Ferguson as well as philosophers like Charles Taylor.

The result is three nuanced conclusions: First, Churches of Christ do not neatly fit into the historical Protestant category. Second, we cannot ignore the historical context of our identity. And third, we must embrace our larger Christian heritage to maintain any identity.

Allen portrays “tradition” as a living voice rather than an iron shackle. Christian tradition (or orthodoxy) is equally threatening to both conservative and progressive voices among Churches of Christ.

For conservatives, Christian history reminds us that the status quo developed a few decades ago is merely a blip in the two millennia story of Christianity. It is hard to insist on “the way we have always done it” when “always” accounts for only 3 percent of the total.

For progressives, history reminds us that orthodoxy has stood largely unchanged in its core tenets until now. Thus it is hubris to redefine Christian thought radically and cancel the faithful voices of the past.

Check out this related series for articles on the identity of Churches of Christ.

By way of critique, I would mention that Allen is narrowly focusing on the earliest centuries of church history. Like the old motto Anglican theologians often recite, Allen is influenced by one canon, two testaments, three creeds, four general councils and five centuries.

Medieval Christianity is a difficult period, but it seems unfair to root our heritage in Irenaeus and Tertullian (“near the head of the stream”) without hearing Aquinas, Anselm and Francis.

That said, I wholeheartedly recommend “In the Great Stream” to anyone wanting a better grasp of the shape our identity might take. Taking a look at our past will give us courage and insight into the murky future of Christianity, specifically Churches of Christ.

As Allen explains, our churches must learn to be confessors of the ancient faith. “Such confession, in a culture of lightness where truth is mostly private and personal,” he writes, “is deeply counter to the dominant spirit of our times and deeply formative to our faith.”

BENJAMIN J. WILLIAMS is the senior minister for the Central Church of Christ in Ada, Okla. A contributor for So We Speak ministries, he specializes in Christian worldview, apologetics and faith-science dialogue.

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Rudy Taylor. A Kind Remembrance. Independently published. 2022. 67 pages. $7.

“A Kind Remembrance — Stories about a small church in the Oklahoma hills where a brush arbor meeting touched the hearts of future generations,” gives a century-old history of the Timber Hill Church of Christ, located four miles west of Bluejacket.

The book is only 67 pages in length but tells the story of a young, self-taught evangelist, A.C. Williams, who came to the farming and mining community in 1921 to hold a gospel meeting in a country school yard. There were no members of the Church of Christ in the community, so the 21-year-old Williams saw the fields as white unto harvest.

At the end of two weeks, dozens of people had made the 2-mile trek to the Big Cabin Creek where baptisms were performed. Williams’ teenage brother, Lawrence, helped by leading singing and doing his share of immersions.

After A.C. Williams left the community to preach in congregations throughout Oklahoma and Kansas, Lawrence stayed at Timber Hill and became the preacher. Two of the converts, Les Taylor and Charles Walker, constructed a small building that was the meeting place for the congregation until lightning set it ablaze in 1962 and burned it to the ground.

A new building was constructed a mile away, and it remains today. Services are held weekly, led by various part-time ministers.

But the story that Taylor tells in his book is one that leads to legends in the Church of Christ fellowship. The two carpenters, Charles Walker and Les Taylor, were parents to Ross and Grace (Walker) Taylor, who sent their children to Central Christian College and Oklahoma Christian College.

With those spiritual roots, their children sent their children to Harding University, Abilene Christian University, Pepperdine University, Freed-Hardeman University, Bethel College and many other colleges where they branched into many avenues of church leadership, missions and other elements of the Lord’s work around the world.

Had the brush arbor experience at Timber Hill not happened, then Ross and Grace Taylor might never have become Christians — nor Donna (Taylor) Mitchell, Terrel Taylor, Rudy Taylor, Shirley (Taylor) Helms and Karen (Taylor) Harmon.

Rudy Taylor

Add their childrens’ names to the church ancestors, and the list surely numbers into the hundreds.

Author Rudy Taylor’s reason for penning the book was to help celebrate the congregation’s 100th anniversary, and to give younger members of his family, and many other church members, a dot on their timeline for spiritual and family reference.

Although he kept a few of the books for personal distribution, they are not for sale. Taylor gives them to anyone who might point back to this hilly community of northeast Oklahoma as their spiritual basis: where their parents, grandparents or great-grandparents were baptized after hearing the gospel preached in a 1921 brush arbor gospel meeting.

Taylor is a former OC student from the 1960s, as is his wife, Kathy. They now reside in Caney, Kan., where they publish newspapers with two of their adult children. They can be reached at rudykathy@cox.net.

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Benny Tabalujan. Renewal Through Restoration, An Uncommon Call to Christian Discipleship. Klesis Press. 2021. 246 pages. $10.99.

Two thousand years later, cultural transplants from three different continents have been called by God to live as spiritual exiles. “Renewal Through Restoration: An Uncommon Call to Christian Discipleship” shares the common commitment of these men to restore, not just the letter, but the spirit of early Christianity.

The contributors are Benny Tabalujan, an Asian Australian who lives in Melbourne; Steve Wilson, who grew up in Sydney, Australia, met his wife in Florida, worked with churches in Tasmania and lives in Brisbane; and Allen McNicol, a Queenslander who studied at Abilene Christian University, Yale and Vanderbilt and is a longtime resident of Austin, Texas. Each of these Australians has served as an elder of a Church of Christ and knows what it means to be “sojourners and exiles.”

The book ponders “what returning to the habits and ethos of Jesus and His earliest followers may look like in our day,” the authors write. Their primary topics are renewal through restoration, being in Christ, living as God’s people and engaging the world. The book calls us to restore the spirit of the early church by restoring a Christlike spirit of discipleship in our personal relationships, in our spiritual communities and in our relationships in the world.

Tabalujan writes two chapters on each of the four topics, followed by responses by McNicol and Wilson. Part three concludes with a thoughtful discussion by biblical scholar Everett Ferguson on the identity of Churches of Christ, extending the discussion of the communal aspect of disciples living as God’s people.

The book is well written and easy to read, flowing like a spiritual, Socratic dialogue among friends from three different generations. Each writer contributes thoughts on the four discipleship topics from their distinctive spiritual and cultural perspective.

One of the unique storylines of this book is the reflections of spiritual and cultural transplants who have lived on three different continents. Each author shares a common commitment to answer Jesus’ invitation to “follow me” in our generation.

Peter would be pleased to know that, 2,000 years later, these sojourners would write in a kindred spirit of his book. Each of these writers is calling spiritual exiles to the true spirit of discipleship. They challenge their readers to truly “sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts” (1 Peter 3:15).

DALE HARTMAN and his family spent twelve years as missionaries in Sydney, Australia, before returning to Oklahoma to serve as minister for the Eastside Church of Christ in Midwest City, Okla., in 1991. He now serves on staff for the North MacArthur Church of Christ in Oklahoma City.

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When a tornado, flood or other disaster occurs, so-called faith-based FEMA organizations typically play a crucial role in the relief effort.

“Usually, a bunch of church folks and other religious folks show up,” explained Smietana, a Religion News Service national reporter. “They cook meals, they clear trees, and they help people rebuild their houses and put their lives back together.”

But given the decline of organized religion in America, might those helpers — at some point — disappear? And if so, what might that mean for the nation’s social fabric?

Such questions came to Smietana during his “aha!” moment.

“Something in my head went, ‘Oh, wait. All those people doing this faith-based disaster relief are usually older church folks, and most of them are White,’” he told me, noting the shrinking proportion of White Christians in America.

Reflecting on the hurricane volunteers, he realized, “There’s no one in the pipeline to replace those folks when they’re gone.”

The veteran Godbeat pro shared that anecdote as we talked about the ideas behind his insightful new book, “Reorganized Religion: The Reshaping of the American Church and Why It Matters”, which releases Tuesday.

Here’s how Worthy Publishing describes Smietana’s book: “A look at the ways the Christian church has changed in recent years — from the decline of the mainline denominations to the megachurchification of American culture to the rise of the Nones and Exvangelicals — as well as a hopeful vision for reimagining what the church might look like going forward.”

My own take: The 200-plus pages of “Reorganized Religion” certainly are timely, delving into long-term demographic trends while exploring challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic and post-2020 political division.

Throughout the book, Smietana mixes expert analysis of the big picture with revealing stories about real people in the pews — and even personal experiences that help illustrate his points.

“I realized I couldn’t try and convince people why they should care about organized religion in churches without saying, ‘Here’s why I care about it,’” said Smietana, who has reported on religion since 1999 and previously worked for The Covenant Companion, The Tennessean, Christianity Today and Facts & Trends.

One of Smietana’s personal examples: “When my little brother died unexpectedly, he was 39. That was a real blow. And we had these close friends from church who just rallied around us. They brought us meals, and they paid for plane tickets for us to go to the funeral. … And this happens all the time to people. When their lives fall apart, it’s congregations that rally to them.”

In my half-hour interview with Smietana, we discussed minichurches and megachurches; how, if at all, the Holy Spirit fits into church growth models; and the author’s specific takeaways from his years of research and reporting. Watch the full interview.

It’s fascinating stuff. Really.

Read the rest of the column.

BOBBY ROSS JR. is Editor-in-Chief of The Christian Chronicle. Reach him at bobby@christianchronicle.org.

“Weekend Plug-in,”  featuring analysis, insights and top headlines from the world of faith, is produced each week by Religion Unplugged.

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Anyone following the recent work of Stan Granberg knows Churches of Christ are not immune from these alarming developments. Though congregational exceptions to these trends undoubtedly exist, they are outliers.

Stanley E. Granberg. Empty Church: Why People Don’t Come and What To Do About It. Excel Book Writing, 2022. 150 pages. $19.99.

Conservative and liberal. Urban and rural. The average membership of congregations is aging and declining. Young people are leaving. Churches are closing.

Discouragement and resignation to our seeming fate seems inevitable. But there is another option.

Granberg, a longtime professor and founding director of the Kairos Church Planting Support ministry, offers an alternative. In “Empty Church: Why People Don’t Come and What To Do About It,” he gives readers useful tools for evaluating their congregation’s situation, practical steps to effectively respond and even hope when congregations must close.

“Empty Church” begins with the belief that churches, like people, have life cycles lasting 70 to 100 years. This cycle unfolds similarly to our own life cycle: growth, vigor, reproduction, effectiveness, stability, maturity and reduced capacity.

The good news for churches is that they have the ability to reverse the cycle.

With the heart of a missionary and church planter, Granberg explains cultural and historical shifts leading to our present circumstances. He then shows how these shifts impact Churches of Christ specifically, with an understanding of our history and dynamics.

Click for more information about this series.

Having explained how we got here, Granberg then turns his attention to the life cycle of churches, providing helpful metrics for understanding where our own congregations are in their own lifecycle. The typical lifecycle works its way from accelerating to booming before decelerating and, ultimately, tanking.

Rather than accept deceleration, Granberg suggests revision and renewal. He offers the possibility of redeveloping and repurposing. Doing so requires proper leadership, evangelistic mission, service and discipleship, each of which receive their own chapters filled with practical insights.

“Empty Church” applies to churches of all sizes but shows particular concern for churches over 50 years old with fewer than 50 members, with most attendees over the age of 50. These churches are considered most at risk to closing.

Despite our best efforts, some congregations may need to close. Once again, Granberg offers important advice — primarily through his work with the Heritage 21 Foundation. Granberg is vice chairman of the organization, which seeks to help Churches of Christ navigate difficult choices as they consider renewal or redistribution of their assets to further Kingdom growth.

The book largely avoids traditional hot-button and often contentious issues that divide churches into “liberal” or “conservative” camps. Instead, Granberg provides workable insights and solutions across the spectrum. Although some of his suggestions may appear superficial at times (shifting from podium to stage, improving church signage and creating marketing plans), each reflects an important mindset and footing that moves past the status quo and attempts to connect to people and communities in practical ways.

The time has come for the church to move beyond our “sky-is-falling” mindset and get to work. “Empty Church” is a welcome resource to help get us moving.

JEREMIE BELLER is opinions editor for The Christian Chronicle. He is congregational minister for the Wilshire Church of Christ in Oklahoma City. Contact jeremie@christianchronicle.org.

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Anna Salton Eisen, Jewish author and daughter of Holocaust survivors, takes the risk of looking back in her recently published book, “Pillar of Salt: A Daughter’s Life in the Shadow of the Holocaust,” written in collaboration with her son, Aaron Eisen.

Anna Salton Eisen and Aaron Eisen. Pillar of Salt: A Daughter’s Life in the Shadow of the Holocaust. Mandel Vilar Press, 2022. 192 pages. $19.95.

Like most survivors of horrific tragedy, Anna’s mother and father preferred leaving the horror of their experience in the past.

Accepting the reality that their loved ones and hometowns were destroyed, George and Ruth Salton married and began rebuilding a family, first in New York and eventually the suburbs of Maryland.

Jewish lives were so devastated, survivors believed they were like Adam: “Nothing came before me. Everything and everyone is gone, and it all starts over with me!”

Their children, and all children of Holocaust survivors, are labeled the “Second Generation.”

“Pillar of Salt” takes readers through Anna’s own journey of helping her parents remember that they were not Adam and helping them journey back to their identities. That journey unfolds in three parts, with part one tracing Anna’s American childhood.

As the Second Generation, Anna and her three brothers grew up in a traditional American setting. Aside from their parents’ accents and their Jewish traditions, their childhood was similar to their non-Jewish neighbors.

“Though her parents rarely spoke of their dark past, glimpses of their nightmare came in small bits — discovering her father’s vivid paintings, overhearing conversations or listening to the occasional story from her dad’s past.”

Though her parents rarely spoke of their dark past, glimpses of their nightmare came in small bits — discovering her father’s vivid paintings, overhearing conversations or listening to the occasional story from her dad’s past.

Anna’s own curiosity increased as she learned of the Holocaust in middle school and college and as an eventual volunteer in a Holocaust museum.

After confronting her father about his silence and her desire to know her family’s story, part two travels with Anna, her parents and siblings back to Europe.

The late George Lucius Salton, a Holocaust survivor, is pictured with his daughter, Anna Salton Eisen, in 2002. Anna Eisen has written a new memoir.

George Salton’s nightmare began as a 13-year-old boy as he entered the first of 10 Nazi work camps.

With his family beside him, Mr. Salton returned to once-familiar towns, family homes and camps in search of a past to share with his family. Each stop brought memories of transports, hunger, brutal winters, roll calls and selections determining who lived and who died.

In part three of “Pillar of Salt,” Anna takes readers through the process of helping her father write his memoirs and the connections that came after its publication.

Through interesting events, Anna and her father met the widow of an American soldier who helped liberate the Wöbbelin concentration camp where Anna’s father last stayed. They also met children from two of George’s closest friends and fellow prisoners through the 10 different camps.

With each new story and connection, Anna’s father slowly realizes he was not Adam; he was not alone.

Of particular interest is the role of Christians in the story of Anna’s family. As the Nazis entered towns and began their evil work, many Christians remained silent and did little to defend their Jewish friends and neighbors. But not all were silent.

Anna’s mother, 13 years old when Germans stopped a train she was riding on, was protected by a Polish railroad conductor who quietly led her away to a Jewish safehouse for women and children.

Readers interested in history will appreciate “Pillar of Salt” for its insights into Jewish life and experience through a devastatingly tragic moment in history.

Christians will find an insightful look into the pain and generational impact of evil.

Hopefully, all readers will be reminded of our shared calling to love our neighbor and work toward the fulfillment of God’s kingdom.

JEREMIE BELLER is opinions editor for The Christian Chronicle. He is congregational minister for the Wilshire Church of Christ in Oklahoma City. Contact jeremie@christianchronicle.org.

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Online extra

Read more about Anna Salton Eisen and a “reunion” of Holocaust survivors’ family members that she organized. This Associated Press story was a freelance feature written by Bobby Ross Jr., The Christian Chronicle’s editor-in-chief.

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Monty Lynn, Rob Gailey and Derran Reese. Development in Mission: A Guide for Transforming Global Poverty and Ourselves. ACU Press, 2021. 224 pages. $20.99.

Lynn and Reese are on the faculty of Abilene Christian University, and Gailey is a faculty member at Point Loma Nazarene University. All three have served on the mission fields of Africa, Asia, or Europe, and all three teach university-level courses in missions or global development at their respective universities.

In Luke 4, Jesus reads from Isaiah 61 and announces that “today, this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

Professors Lynn, Gailey and Reese remind us that Jesus saw his work as not just bringing “good news to the poor,” but also “release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, (and) to let the oppressed go free.”

These words are explored within the concept of missio Dei, that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit send the church into the world, not just to promote belief in Jesus, but to bind up the wounds and heal the brokenness of the world.

In developing their concept of holistic missions, the authors suggest that the aim of evangelical Christianity has become much narrower than the missional spirit of the first century church.

The “Bible testifies to a more holistic vision of redemption ­— one of justice for the widow, orphan, and stranger; of welcome for the child; of giving shelter, drink, and food; and of taking on the mind of Christ as we consider others and humble ourselves.”

The second and third sections of their book seek to provide a variety of ideas churches can use to develop more holistic missions.

They do not propose that a church try to do everything suggested, but through extended prayer and self-examination, each congregation should seek to determine the best fit of its missions by considering the calling, capability, context and commitment of the congregation.

The authors make several specific suggestions for maximizing the impact of mission efforts, including assessment of mission effectiveness.

The final chapter is one that we should all read, as a reminder that the global church is dynamic. Just as the church globally is significantly different today than it was a half-century ago, the church by mid-century will be much different than today. In particular, the church in the “global South” will continue growing even as the church in the “global North” continues its decline in numbers and influence.

Let us not become an anachronistic diminishing American church, but rather let us embrace the growth of the worldwide church with awe and humility. Let us be strategic partners with God in its growth. “Development in Mission” offers helpful counsel toward this goal.

LEN FEUERHELM is emeritus professor of physics at Oklahoma Christian University and serves as a deacon over missions for the Wilshire Church of Christ in Oklahoma City.

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