Book Reviews from Around the World

By Doug Fields (Saddleback's youth pastor)

I can honestly say that I have learned a lot from this book. Fields writes from the experience of 23 years in youth ministry and his many stories and illustrations gave me a better picture of what this next season of our life is going to be like as youth pastors. He must have a memory like a steel trap because it seems like he thought of every detail that you could possibly want to know about youth ministry from dealing with student leaders to recruiting a solid team of volunteers.
The chapter that I took the most away from was on how to deal with parents of the students. His insight as a parent and pastor was invaluable, especially for someone who knows practically nothing about teenagers, other than I was one at one point in life. This chapter on working with parents of students alone was worth reading the entire book for. It was a fresh look at youth ministry from the approaches that I have exprienced so far in life.
I didn't agree with everything in this book but it did cause me to think about lots of areas that I hadn't even considered about youth ministry. My discrepancies with the book were minor and not enough to discredit the wealth of insight and stimulated thoughts that I took away from it. I would highly recommend this book to anyone involved in youth ministry or headed in that direction.
Fields propagated his book as the Handbook to youth ministry and while I probably won't keep it on my bookshelf and reread it every year, it was definitely worth reading through at least once. For me, the book sparked thoughts and ideas about how we will operate uniquely inside of youth ministry rather than being a how to manual for youth pastors everywhere.

George Muller's life story is a story of a life lived by faith and not by sight. The book tells of a young German who, more than just doing great things for God, spends a lifetime knowing God and truly living for and with Him. Every miraculous occurance, provision, and worldwide fame in the late 19th century flowed from an intimate relationship with Almighty God.

Muller was an anointed preacher who broke from the traditions of the day and followed wholeheartedly after Jesus. He refused any sort of regular income, and together with his first wife Mary, committed to never ask a single soul for anything, but to lay their requests before God alone, trusting Him to supply their every need. After a number of years full of miraculous provision, the Mullers set out on an endeavor to prove to the world the reality of God - the same yesterday, today and forever. They began an orphan-house (old school orphanage) to care for children and to show that the principle of provision they learned in their private lives would also work for a ministry that would eventually care for thousands of children at a time.

The book shares many detailed stories of God's provision, citing Muller's journals and other witnesses who had a part in the miracles. Many times, the children would come down for lunch with nothing on the table, every resource having been exhausted. They would call upon God, and before the prayer was over, someone would knock on the door with food. These and many other kinds of miraculous provisions incited the world of the 19th century to trust in God for salvation, for everything.

Many insights into the life of the man are presented - principles of prayer, trust in God, faith, etc. But many minute details of little interest must be waded through to find these. I loved the story of George Muller, but I may pick up his autobiography, or a biography written closer to his time. Roger Steer was intrigued by the Muller story and wrote a biography about him, but I don't know that this would be the best one to read.

I think our American pursuit of a great fast paced tale full of miracles on every page (each one greater than the last) leads us to get bored easily of reading about real people who live real lives marked by faith and trust in God. We like to hear crazy things, and deceive ourselves into thinking that we know how to live like that. May we hear and do and live as God desires in our short time here on the planet.

By Ted Haggard

If you are an analytical person like I am, you will love this book. Ted Haggard is an apostle to the church of America and has a healthy, strong church that gives authority to everything he says. Reading his philosophies and convictions about church ministry has been invaluable to me. It has stirred up thought processes and ideas in my mind and heart about the way we do church currently and the way my generation will do church in the future.
My favorite part of this book was how Haggard systematically went through every major area of ministry in the church, explaining how his church has structured that particular area. I grew passionate about each category as I genuinely felt the passion that Haggard feels for it. It was obvious to me that he loves his job as a senior pastor and absolutely loves his staff and congregation.
This book has definitely impacted my thinking about how to structure a church as well as encouraged me to dream about how we can become more like Christ and better serve people through our local churches. If you value hearing from men of God who have been successful in their personal relationship with God as well as in their family and ministry, you cannot pass up this book. It is a little older, written in 2001, but it's message is just as pertinent today as it was 5 years ago. I am convinced after reading this book that the counsel of Ted Haggard can make the difference on whether you simply do ministry or are a minister of the life of God in the lives of the people around you. This one is going on my book shelf as a must read for up and coming leaders after me.

By Dutch Sheets

Praying for America was written and published in response to the terrorist attacks on September 11^th. I thought the book (judging from the title) was going to be Sheet’s strategy for how to pray for America following this crisis. That wasn’t really the focus of the book…in fact it wasn’t really about prayer. Maybe Dutch Sheets has become so well known for Intercessory Prayer and Watchman Prayer that his publishers make him name all of his books about prayer.

This book included some thoughts about prayer for the nation but it definitely was not the focus. Sheets open up with one of his famous word studies on “crossing over” including what it means to be a true Hebrew (in heart). This took about up about half of the book and was really enjoyable. After finishing this portion of the book, I decided that Sheets will forever be one of my most respected Bible teachers. He is so good at exploring the Greek and Hebrew and finding revelation that we can apply to our lives.

The word study was followed by a great chapter on true repentance. This was my favorite chapter in the book. He talked about how repentance is more than turning and going another direction. He taught about a three step process – revelation (seeing your life from the divine perspective), repentance (changing your mind to join God’s mind), and turning (living differently based on the first two steps taking place). It was a great teaching – one that I’ll reference in teaching on repentance in the future.

The last 5 chapters of the book were spent railing on problems that Sheets sees in the charismatic and Jesus people movements of the last 20 years. His criticism was given in love and from a position of authority (saved in the Jesus people movement, he pastors a charismatic church). He didn’t point fingers at individual ministries or anything…just overall problems he sees in the church of America that he believes God is endeavoring to correct. He had great revelation from the scriptures to go along with each problem he sees in the church. It was some of the best confrontational writing about the state of the church that I’ve read – it didn’t come across bitter yet carried a strong message. Maybe it came across so well because it’s a prophetic word from God to His church. I’ll take it as such.

Bottom line – this is not a teaching book about prayer. But it is a prophetic word to the church of America and would be worth reading even if you’re called to build the church in another nation. I’ll give it 4.5 stars and recommend it to all.

By John Bevere

Wow. That was my most common response at the close of each chapter of this book. Drawing Near ranks up there with some of my favorite books of all time. It was fabulous teaching from the Word of God. It was so clear from reading this book that John Bevere lives the life that he teaches on. Many of his concepts are things that I’ve thought about in prayer but couldn’t quite articulate. This is a message from God to the church and is very close to my heart.

Drawing Near is all about the presence of God. It’s a book about living in His presence and being intimate with the Lord. It’s not really a step by step or “How to” kind of book. Instead, it contains Biblical keys to the presence of the Lord and is designed to stir a passion in your heart to seek Him. Bevere makes it clear that there isn’t a step by step process when drawing near to God. Each individual has a relationship with the Lord that looks entirely different. But there are some things that scripture teaches that can either help or hinder us from entering His presence.

Some of the keys that Bevere teaches on include guarding your hunger for God, cultivating a heart that desires God above all else, the fear of the Lord, humility, obedience to His Word, being filled with the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues, and approaching God in faith and expectation. Understanding these principles and putting them into practice will lead to a life of intimacy and true relationship with Almighty God.

This book gets five stars. It’s a phenomenal book that will definitely be on Danny’s most recommended list. There aren’t all that many books out there that literally change the way you interact with the Lord. This book is one of them. Home run John Bevere.