Kim Gentes

After You Believe - NT WrightLike all NT Wright books, "After You Believe: Why Christian Character Matters" tackles a specific topic or area with an aim to provide scriptural and historical context as a foundation for the author's theological and philosophical positions on the topic. Wright always does his research and this book is no exception. "After You Believe" tackles the topic of character by looking at the ancient Aristotelian concept of virtue and how it was reimagined and reformed by the theology and practice of both Jesus and Paul.

The book is a treatise exploring a Christian virtue ethic in which the believer takes on the assumptions of character transformation through gradual surrender to God's kingdom concepts of worship and mission. More specifically, this is not a book about the "how-to's" of Christian practice.

What you find here is NT Wright continuing his conversation about how not only our theology, but our practice, must anticipate the full appearing of kingdom of God in it's action. That is to say, Wright's vision of a Christian virtue ethic is based on eschatology (where we are headed) and how full human flourishing occurs as we make the journey there, beginning in this world, not the next.

"After You Believe" is a subtle side-swipe of the standard "spiritual disciplines" talk that has come through in many popular Christian books. Wright has little patience for "self-help" Christian concepts, and debunks the "God-less do-gooding" as much as he deconstructs the popular notion of "cheap grace" - both of which he considers errant parodies of true Christlikeness. In fact, this book nods at Aristotle's astute observations of virtue, and yet, explains that Jesus and Paul answered the ancient Greek notion of virtue with the true answer to human flourishing - love-fueled Christlike character.

NT Wright has done with "After You Believe" what he has done with many other New Testament topics- re-addresses them in light of his creational theology that puts God's goal of rescuing humanity from it's sin stained condition and restoring the future of our created intention through Christ's work on the cross and the Holy Spirit's presence with the church through the ages.  This book is vivid, powerful and readable. But it is not simple. It requires you take seriously the concepts he brings to bear in his other books (though he leave you enough overview in this book, even if you haven't read the others).

The purpose of this book is pragmatic (explaining to Christians what they are to do in this life, while waiting for the glorious eternity in the next), but it has a powerful, perhaps eternal intent- to get us walking towards the future in the area of our character, long before the future fully arrives.

It is an excellent book on, as Wright puts it "how to think about what to do". Get it. Read it.  You will not be disappointed. A great book from a great thinker about a topic that is of great importance to all Christians.

Amazon Link: http://amzn.to/1sgmqsU

Review by Kim Gentes

[Free Devotional Download "5 'Makes' of Great Relationships" from writer Dan Wilt- see at the bottom of the review.]

 I've read a lot of books that deal with Christian topics, but many of them diverge into two camps:
A) theoretical advice that falls far afield from the reality of having to live here on earth, and
B) personal stories of victory and rescue that seem as foreign and contrived as movie fiction with no connection to what might actually help me.

What I love about Dan Wilt's book here is that he is our "everyman" talking about real life stories that meet you and I on the playing field of life, not some super-stardom miraculous happenings that never seem to happen to you and I. Dan talks about moms, dads, children, working, friends, struggles and real life- and shows the absolutely glorious rays of hope that shine into our lives from the source of true hope- God Himself. I won't share details of these stories because they are rich in their reading and well worth the individual time to digest one a day until you've filled up with the kind of life-giving inspiration Dan weaves with words. Dan's gift is story-telling, and judging from the 2 million listeners he speaks to each week, there is little doubt that his message is heard, loud and clear.

I've had plenty of tough times, personally, and the stories Dan tells are part of a diet of encouragement that our world is desperately in need of. And it's not just because they are clever stories. Rather, it is because the center of his hope-telling is the person of Jesus, in whom all Dan's stories source their glistening ray of light.

I love this book because I can read something reasonably sized for my busy day and just let it digest for 24 hours. Some times I feel like a story is good enough for a few days. But I like that the book is set up for busy people like me. The story is powerful but succinct. Each story has a theme, a real life application and a foundational scripture verse he ties things together with.

I can't recommend this book enough. Really, it is a great treasure.

Amazon Book Link:  http://amzn.to/1fYNCut

Review by Kim Gentes

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Free Devotional Download "5 Makes of Great Relationships" from author Dan Wilt

Personal finance books can sometimes sound about as exciting as an economic history textbook. But personal finance has a profound impact on the average person and family. Dave Ramsey is a radio show personality based in Nashville who has become successful as a speaker and author in the area of personal finance.

His first book, Financial Peace, has grown into a seminar, course and nationwide educational phenomenon having literally thousands of centers (mostly churches) that host the personal finance course called "Financial Peace University". The goal, as the title indicates, is to train people to gain peace in the area of finances.

In reading through this book, I started off with a fairly critical perspective. I am not the kind of person who likes listening to radio personalities that publicly berate callers on the topic of their “expertise”. I knew that Ramsey had a public persona of hard-nosed and I feared his book would be pompous and self-aggrandizing. I was wrong. “Financial Peace Revisited” is a pointed book, for sure, but it is tempered with the care of a person who has lived through real life. Some of the book relates Ramsey’s personal story of rags to riches to rags and back again- including growing a successful real estate business that crashed and burned, and his later recovery and learning process out of personal debt into long term financial “peace”. It is from this personal experience that Dave Ramsey tells not only his story, but the touch-stones of common sense that led him away from the common American family cycle of financial mismanagement.

In his book, Ramsey articulates compact truths that he calls “peace puppies” that are the foundational points of his thesis. One can’t say that the points are revelatory- but good advice rarely is. “Financial Peace” expounds the simple and clear truths of personal finance that many know, but few actually live. This is Ramsey’s main contention- we don’t live out the common sense items that would allow our money and careers to work for us. Instead, we allow the borrowing of money (normally to buy unneeded things) become the master and driver of our lives. It is this borrowing cycle that drives American personal finances into common and regular ruin.

Ramsey’s biggest and most salient point in this book is the belief that debt (all debt) is to be avoided and countered. There are plenty of other items, but they all serve to address this primary issue. But the brilliance of Ramsey’s approach is not just the common sense, but the emotional recovery of the debt-laden Americans who work Ramsey’s plan to come to financial peace. The biggest of the “smart moves” that fuel a “can-do” attitude in Ramsey’s followers is his recommendation that they pay the smallest bills first, and as those smaller bills get paid off the amounts used to pay those off get rolled cummulatively into the next largest bill. His “debt snowball” is genius, but almost counter-intuitive.

But it works. By paying off small bills first Ramsey knows that his customers will be feeling the emotional encouragement of seeing bills actually paid off. This heightens their awareness of the positive outcomes of their actions, giving them emotional fuel to continue paying off debt and working their recovery plan. In addition, the monetary power of those small debts being paid off cummulatively gets unleashed on larger and larger bills. Practically and mentally, the momentum is placed in the realm of those who follow his plan. In fact, he challenges people not to try to do too much too fast, for fear that this will only cause them to hit the emotional wall when the recovery from financial distress begins to drag on for many months and years.

There are literally dozens of great points in this book, and few errors. The only complaint I have with this book is its outdated, and somewhat unrealistic “positive” saving scenarios. In the book, Ramsey expounds that compound interest works powerfully against the consumers- and this is right. He says that if we save we can reverse this trend not only by not building up more debt (breaking the cycle of increasing debt) but we can use interest bearing savings options to let the money work for the consumer. But his oft-repeated examples are nowhere close to reality. The books cites, in a few examples, 8-12% return on compounding savings, which isn’t true in any consumer bank in America (and hasn't been in recent modern history). It isn’t true in money market funds and it is barely even true in mutual funds these days. There has never been an era lasting more than a year or two when most consumers could get a reasonable return on savings (especially when compared against inflation) without playing the stock market through mutual funds, but this is not how Ramsey says it. The point is, this detail could easily be updated and adjusted to reality to give the book more credibility- and it would be good if it were. To Ramsey's credit, he does get into details about how to invest later in the book, dealing with various investment vehicles that could give the reader the returns he talks about. Just a bit more differentiation between "savings" and investment I felt were needed for the scenarios presented in the first half of the book to make sense.

Beyond that, the book is very nice to read, quick to understand and support to those who actually want to “do it”!

One very nice feature is the regular end-of-chapter summaries by Sharon Ramsey (Dave’s wife) who takes a spousal perspective on how the main points of each chapter effected her life. This is a very nice contrast to the “go get it” approach of the author and gives the book some balance. Overall, this is a very good book, that contains not only great personal financial advice but seems to have proven itself worthy of the thousands of people who have taken Ramsey’s advice and gotten themselves out of financial struggles.

Amazon Link: http://amzn.to/17G2EiI

Review by Kim Gentes

Many of the works I have chosen to review have been deeper theological writings, some of which have been by revered biblical scholar, N.T. Wright. His work as both a historian and theologian has colored his books with a particularly powerful edge. Because of his scholarly bent, when thinking about a general book outlining Christianity and its claims to those outside of the faith (or new to it), I wouldn't have thought to consider a book by Wright. However, "Simply Christian" is just that. It is a book that presents the Christian faith in a clear and understandable format to any who might be interested.

Within its pages, Wright poses a thoughtful progression that examines the human experience to point to an unspoken awareness in ourselves, and our world, of something missing. Wright's "echoes of a voice" elements are justice, spirituality, relationship and beauty– all things which tell us that the universe (and our place in it) are meant for something different than we have come to. But more than a sense of lack, they point to something that exists that we can't name. And in his development of what that is, he names it. The Jewish God, YHWH.

Wright's use of these arguments and specific components (especially justice and beauty) echo clearly the arguments of CS Lewis' writings in both Mere Christianity (which uses moral code/justice) and his sermon/writing The Weight of Glory (which uses beauty and love). I mention Lewis and Wright in the same context, because their parallel books seem to be aimed at the same thing, and both writers are up to the task. Simply Christian, however, is a much more historical and technical exploration of how the world and context of Jewish monotheism brought about the person of Jesus, and how Jesus turned out to be not only the answer for Jewish religious hopes, but also the ultimate "Lord" of the entire human race.

Wright's basic premise is this– God created a good world, but man rebelled from him. God has set out on a plan to rescue his rebelled creation and that plan has come to embodiment in God himself coming to earth in the person of Jesus. Jesus announced this rescue plan of re-creation (putting the creation to rights) and now invites all people into that rescue– not only for their own sakes, but to join in as part of the solution. That solution is called the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is the realm/dimension of God's love and reign invading and reclaiming man and the earth for God's purposes. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, God continues to work through all those who join in (Christians) and through the church– the gathered Body of Christ.

As best as I can, that is how I would summarize Wright's preposition in Simply Christian. The problem with doing such a summary, however, is that I risk infraction of any number of logical, practical or theological arguments because, simply put, just as life is not simple, Christianity isn't either. And boiling Christian faith down to a few short lines of innocuous (and fairly un-actionable) statement is precisely what Wright avoids by taking on all the salient points in life-breathing detail. I want to make that point because this book is not "Simple Christianity", as if everything intelligent about it could be reduced to a set of polarized truisms. In fact, the author puts to use his own varied, and sometimes extended, metaphors throughout the book to help us grasp the nuance of key concepts and moving narrative of the story of God, creation, man, Jesus, and eventually, the church.

Simply Christian is a very well written book, but it also has significant historical and rhetorical ammunition in its muzzle. The author banters through classical references (Plato, Epicurus, Lucretius), extensive Jewish back-story (all the relevant biblical narrative, as well as apocryphal and historic characters such as Judas Maccabaeus, Simeon ben Kosiba), 1^st century Roman world (Caesar, the rise of Rome as a world empire), and plenty of 18^th to 21^st century (Nietzsche, Hitler, Oscar Wilde, 9/11 attacks) references as well. He does all of this as a way of providing proper context and flow to the presentation being made. It is all excellent, but it is not going to feel "simple" to say a 7^th grade student. Wright continues to be in good company, however, as Lewis' regular references to literary or classical world touch-points would likewise be foreign to many readers.

That said, Simply Christian is an excellent book with mountains of good points and very few detractions. The delightful surprises I found are the excellent highlighting he does in correcting the dozens of common misconceptions that people (Christians and non-Christians alike) have of what being Christian really means. His theological stature here helps immensely, as he grasps at "truisms" and debunks them cleanly. Playing with language and logic, he clarifies many incorrect and unhelpful misunderstandings of who Jesus is, what he said and (not the least important) what happens after we die.

Because the truth and explanation of Christianity is not ultimately "simple" (in terms of boiling it down to one-liners that can be defended), this book is not either. However, in the scope sense, it is a well-written exposition and recommendation on what it means to be Simply Christian.

Amazon Link: http://amzn.to/12WHEkd

Review by Kim Gentes

Church government is a topic that has as many opinions as there are churches. In fact, though the Bible talks little about church government directly, it is a main point of distinction among many Christian groups. This is both sad and telling of our fractured world and the bride of Christ. Because of this lack of cohesion, teaching and discussion among Christians on this topic, there are few writings on the subject that don't devolve into particularism.

One book I have recently read on this subject is Danny Silk's "Culture of Honor: Sustaining A Supernatural Environment". Silk is a senior staff member at Bethel Church in Redding California, most known for its popular leader, Bill Johnson. "Culture of Honor" is a different approach to church government than you might expect. It's main distinctive is embedded in the title of book- that the honor of people is the only way to true leadership of those same people. This is stated upfront in a succinct definition:

The Principle of Honor states that: accurately acknowledging who people are will position us to give them what they deserve and to receive the gift of who they are in our lives.1

Silk provides both strong points and excellent personal/church examples of those points throughout the book. The examples shine of the vibrancy of mercy, wisdom and faith that takes both God and people seriously. It is clear that Silk (and the book therein attributes this clearly also to Bethel) is looking to undermine the assumption of a business world influenced hierarchical church government and supplant on it primarily the pastoral care of mercy and wisdom within the context of a relational, not structure, based leadership. This is somewhat ironic because one of the main refutations that the book makes is actually a claim against the role of pastoral office as a primary overseer of the local church. But I will return to that later.

What I love about this book is it's common sense, and biblically based, understanding of its main thesis- that we are to honor people with the assumption of good in our hearts. Judgment is not an option, and even as leaders, we do not assume acts of "church discipline" are the first solutions to people's failures. In fact, Silk is almost masterful in his application of the Socratic method (guiding people through asking questions as a way of self-discovery) of pastoral counseling. He knows, like great leaders in history have always known, that people change only through internal acknowledgement and willingness to do so. This can often only come when those people are empowered through revelation of their own situation, failures, misunderstandings and sin. None of this can be imputed (and make a heart change) by typical "instructive" methods. Silk rightly leans on this key point:

Asking the right questions in the right way is one of the keys to creating a safe place.2

The author culminates a series of excellent examples into several poignant truths, debunking the need to chastise people into submission, and taking the message of Jesus mercy as the prevailing guideline for our actions, rather than the judgment and criticism so prevalent in many church governmental structures. He confronts this issue of judgment and its fallout head-on:

What offense does to you is it justifies you withholding your love. I get to withhold my love from you when you have broken the rules, because people who fail are unworthy of love, and they deserve to be punished. In fact, what punishment looks like most often is withholding love. And when I withhold love, anxiety fills the void, and a spirit of fear directs my behavior toward the offender.3

This brilliant statement is a cogent explanation of so many of Jesus teachings on leadership and sin, especially the specific lessons he was pointing to in his parables of the good Samaritan and the prodigal son. Silk, and Bethel, seem to have found an articulation for how to apply these deep truths that rises above the need to control people, based on their fear of "getting messy" with difficult situations and people.  The book pivots on the idea that "we are un-punishable"4, which is related not only as a core value but a culture changing reality for the church and the world- and who can argue with him! Silk has found in church government a place in dire need of the cross and Christ's work on it- the mercy of God, removing judgment from our realm to God's.

For these points, "Culture of Honor" is one of the best books you can read on church leadership and how to lead in relational grace rather than shaming or controlling people into "Christian behaviors". Interestingly enough, after recently finished reading Brené Brown's "Daring Greatly", I found that "Culture of Honor" is (at its core) a biblical exposition of the truths Brown discovers (through her research), that shame ultimately always fails as an effective motivator and leadership tool. An odd juxtaposition, to be sure, yet these books are linked in their foundational message of leaving shame-based methods and moving to forms of trust (in Brown's book vulnerability; in this book faith) that provide relational, not positional, power to influencing others.

Silk is expressive in his passion for his viewpoint and one can't argue with his experience for which he claims to be witness to the power of his model being operable- presumably, the church community he is a part of thrives in the leadership architecture of he describes in the book.  As I said, I enjoyed the book and found its primary points- honoring people, valuing their worth, Socratic-method counseling/pastoral care, creating safety in community and confrontation, the value of Christ's work making us un-punishable, avoidance of shame-based manipulation, faith/risk/vulnerability, reliance on the Holy Spirit, viewing the "on earth as it is in heaven" of Matt 6 as the primary perspective of God's kingdom intersecting and invading our real world, the inclusion of apostolic and prophetic ministries as essential components to local church leadership- to be excellent examples of the mercy-centered orthopraxy from which Jesus himself modeled ministry.

But to give this review its full treatment I must state where I felt the book falls short of what appears to be one of its main goals- to establish a new "order" of hierarchical rank in local church government. Specifically, Silk uses 1 Corinthians 12:28, which says "And God has appointed in the church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, various kinds of tongues."5 to attempt to justify this assumption about a hierarchical order of church government:

Paul clearly lays out an order of priority in this passage, and this order is related to the realms of the supernatural that correspond to each particular office.6

From this assumption, the author builds a lengthy argument and reasoning around establishing apostles as the current positions which should play the foundational role in church government. The problem is, he does not substantiate it well from scripture. One has to make the interpretive jump with Silk that "first...second...third" was implicit to authority and NOT to order of operation or a timeline. Further, the context of this entire section of Corinthians is actually the inverse point that the Silk is trying to draw from this single passage in a few ways.

View a detailed review of points that I felt were poorly made in this book.

This is disheartening, because (as I mentioned at the outset) this book has some excellent things to say. I love the main premise (and title) of the book, I agree with much of the foundational and grace-centered basis of the Bethel approach to leadership and conflict resolution, and I even like the important reconsideration of the roles of apostle and prophet into the local church government. However, the support and exploration of the church governmental theory is so poorly done as to undermine the value of the hypothesis. I am not even saying the hypothesis couldn't be true- I just don't think this book does a good job of doing that. Also, the tone of the book, at times, does not help endear the reader to give more benefit of the doubt to the author. At times, it sounds self-assured and perhaps even condescending to those who might not agree (a la "you might think you know, but listen, we've got this figured out").  I just think a bit more language of "consider this" throughout the book would have taken it from being a book that sounds sure of itself, to being one that church leaders might want to chew on and consider its points more seriously.

In the end, despite my long and detailed comments of frustration (mentioned above), I strongly recommend people read this book. Especially to any church leaders who are looking for insightful perspectives on church government. Struggle with this book, as I did. Read the stories, be inspired by them. And try to untangle the disconnected logic from the main ideas. As one church leader said "eat the meat, spit out the bones".  I initially read this book as an assignment, and when I was finished I thought "I could definitely serve at a church with that model". I'd use this book to explain the model- as it does that well- I just wouldn't try to use this book to defend it.

Amazon Link: http://amzn.to/11qULKf

Review by Kim Gentes

1. Silk, Danny (2009-12-28). Culture of Honor: Sustaining a Supernatural Enviornment[sic] (Kindle Locations 179-180). Destiny Image. Kindle Edition.
2. Ibid., (Kindle Locations 318-319)
3. Ibid., (Kindle Locations 1076-1079)
4. Ibid., (Kindle Location 1181)
5. Ibid., (Kindle Location 566-568)
6. Ibid., (Kindle Location 569-570)
7. Ibid., (Kindle Location 720-721)
8. The prophetic model of Old Testament scripture, that Jesus did come to fulfill, is one of a Godly criticism to the people of Israel. Unlike our idea of explaining the future, most of what is labeled prophetic in the old and New Testament is the balancing critique of Gods voice. Often confronting, correcting compelling and reframing people's expectations and worlds against the call of God. Again, prophetic certainly does have a revelatory nature of all its operation but its clear that scripture most often has it as a balancing voice of insight meant to keep the Israel/the church from become self focused.
9. Silk, Danny (2009-12-28). Culture of Honor: Sustaining a Supernatural Enviornment[sic] (Kindle Location 746-747). Destiny Image. Kindle Edition.
10. Ibid., (Kindle Location 1326-1328)