Book Reviews

"About every 50 years, American preaching has a nervous breakdown," asserts Thomas Long in the introduction to his new book Preaching from Memory to Hope (Westminster John Knox). "What happens is that trusted structures and strategies of the pulpit suddenly seem to lose their potency; and worried preachers, their confidence shaken, begin to scramble for the next, new thing."

According to T. David Gordon, "less than 30 percent of those who are ordained to the Christian ministry can preach an even mediocre sermon." That may be the nicest thing he has to say about today's preaching in his brief book Why Johnny Can't Preach (P&R).

Bryan Chapell's superb book Christ-Centered Preaching (Baker) has become one of the standard texts on preaching in evangelical seminaries. Church leaders now can welcome a parallel volume in Chapell's newest contribution, Christ-Centered Worship (Baker).

The pastor is also resident theologian of a local church, but many pastors rarely if ever consider "theologian" to be part of their job description. The Power to Comprehend with All the Saints (Eerdmans) is an interesting and substantive exploration of the formation and practice of pastor-theologians. The articles are written by a variety of authors who participated in a decade-long project sponsored by the Center of Theological Inquiry in Princeton, New Jersey.

Preachers use the Bible on a daily basis, yet many know little about the Bible translations they use regularly. In Understanding English Bible Translation (Crossway), Leland Ryken takes the reader on a tour of the background and process of translating the Bible into English.

Wondering about the trend toward multi-site churches? Then hop on board A Multi-Site Church Road Trip (Zondervan) for an enjoyable and informative survey of what's happening across the American church scene. Subtitled Exploring the New Normal, the book is written by Geoff Surratt of Seacoast Church (with at least 10 sites at last count), and Greg Ligon and Warren Bird of Leadership Network. Don't consider that second site before reading it.

There is much discussion today about the emergence of house churches as a significant movement. The House Church Book (Tyndale) is a very sympathetic treatment of the phenomenon by Wolfgang Simson. The book advocates house churches and offers counsel on developing such gatherings. The book was originally published in the UK, and this is a revised work.

Marvin McMickle is a frequent contributor to Preaching, and his newest book, Shaping the Claim (Fortress), is a valuable resource for pastors. McMickle discusses how the sermon's claim - the core message - speaks to listeners at the levels of intellect, conviction and response. He offers useful insights into the development of messages that will impact hearers.

Scientist and theologian Alister McGrath is one of the most gifted thinkers in the church today, and his new book A Fine-Tuned Universe (Westminster John Knox) is a significant contribution to the contemporary conversation about science and faith. Based on his 2009 Gifford Lectures, McGrath talks about what science knows about the natural world in the 21st century, and draws out the implications of such knowledge for the debate about the existence of God.

Leith Anderson's newest book is The Jesus Revolution(Abingdon), an exploration of the Book of Acts to discover how the first band of Christians transformed the world. This will be a useful resource for those teaching and preaching the Book of Acts.