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Africa Church: World Reviews

When Charity Destroys Dignity

Overcoming unhealthy dependency in the Christian Movement. Glenn J. Schwartz. This is one of the books that I reckon should be read by everyone who has an involvement in cross-cultural mission work. The book is composed of a series of video scripts and some other articles and at times it would be improved by some […]

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Reviews

The Eyre Affair

Quite simply, the Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde is the silliest novel I’ve read for a long time. The plot is strange, the characters are unbelievable and the whole thing is absolutely wonderful. If you are happy to suspend disbelief for a few hours and imerse yourself in a cracking thriller with some of the […]

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Reviews

Plane Reading

Before I get to the reading, please excuse me while I rant about one of the films I saw on my flight yesterday? 300! What a turkey! How can anyone take such a good story and make such a rotten anachronistic movie? The idea that the Spartans (as nasty and blood thirsty bunch as ever […]

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Reviews

For the Glory of God

One of the books I read on holiday was For the Glory of God: How Monotheism Led to Reformations, Science, Witch-Hunts, and the End of Slavery by Rodney Stark. Subtitled, “How monotheism led to reformations, science, witch-hunts and the end of slavery” this is really a very worthwhile read. It is a scholarly book with […]

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Observations Reviews

Rock and Roll Mountains

Some Saturday evening in an the upstairs room of a pub in Sunderland in early 1977. The disco music stops, and wonder of wonder, those haunting guitar notes and the gentle sound of the flute starts up – and immediately the floor clears of people who just want to ‘strut their funky stuff’. Amongst the […]

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Church: UK Mission Reviews

Gospel-Centred Church

David Couchman has just reviewed Steve Timmis and Tim Chester‘s book The Gospel-centred Church, and I wanted to bring it to your attention too. It’s a short book, designed as a study guide for groups and as David’s review shows it’s full of pithy, challenging quotes. I thought I’d put a few of the conclusions […]

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Mission Observations Reviews

Exiles

I’ve just finished reading Michael Frost’s excellent Exiles: Living Missionally in a Post-Christian Culture and want to suggest that as many other people as can buy it and read it too. It’s a terrific book painting a very vivid picture of what Church life could and perhaps should be like in the 21 Century. It […]

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Reviews

Facing the Challenge of Other Faiths

Focus have just released the latest in their Facing the Challenge series. Facing the Challenge of Other Faiths is an excellent study guide for groups and individuals and I’d strongly encourage you to take a look at it. In eight fifty-minute sessions, the course covers: Only one way? What does the Bible say? Many faiths […]

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Mission Reviews

Christopher Wright on Mission

More Christians worship in Anglican churches in Nigeria each week than in all the Episcopal and Anglican churches of Britain, Europe, and North America combined. There are more Baptists in Congo than in Britain. More people in church every Sunday in communist China than in all of Western Europe. Ten times more Assemblies of God members in Latin America than in the U.S. …

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Christian Life Church: World Mission Observations Reviews

Early Church History: An Interview with Rodney Stark

There is a fascinating interview with the sociologist Rodney Stark on Al Hirsch’s blog, Forgotten Ways. Stark wrote one of the best books I’ve read in last few years, The Rise of Christianity, which gives fascinating insights into the way the early church grew and developed. You get a good flavour of the book by […]