Daily Archives: May 28, 2009
Letters To Malcolm: Chiefly On Prayer by C.S. Lewis
This book was published after Lewis had died. They are letters apparently to a fictional character called Malcolm, hence this book is listed as fictional. However, there is much of Lewis in here – from veiled references to past tragedy’s (the loss of his wife and even possibly his illness towards the end of his life) and his openness about prayer. There is much in here to chew on – Lewis’ defence of the liturgy as worship, and even his defence of the doctrine of purgatory (Dante’s not Thomas More’s). But most of all you see the human side of Lewis – the one who struggles in prayer as we do; but yet who also has those WOW moments when the Lord moves powerfully. A valued book to have on prayer.
New Book Review…
Missional Renaissance: Changing The Scorecard for the Church by Reggie McNeal
Mmmm, not sure what to say about this book. The best way I personally can describe it is that it is a book coming in on the back end of a conversation which began 9 YEARS AGO!. This book is out of date – by three years. What I mean by this is that people like Mike Riddell (The Prodigal Project , Deep Stuff , Threshold of the Future: Reforming the Church in the Post-Christian West), Gerard Kelly (RetroFuture: Rediscovering Our Roots, Recharting Our Routes) Eddie Gibbs (Church Next) Alan Jameison (A Churchless Faith) & Pete Ward (Liquid Church) to name but a fraction of the books on my bookshelf published between 1999 & 2003. Reggies book adds nothing to this conversation. Back in 2003-2005 we were involved with a fledgling missional church. I really struggled to finish this book or motivate myself to read it, which was disappointing. But this may not be old hat to you. If you are new to missional / emerging thinking then this is not a bad place to start.
Be Prepared to Be Convicted and Changed…Forever!
Watch this at your peril – HERE
