Distinctly Christian

Liturgy of the Ordinary / Tish Harrison Warren

Many American Christians have bifurcated their lives into the secular and the sacred. We have divorced divine meaning from our mundane tasks and everyday jobs. We have adopted the rhythms, beliefs, and postures of the world. As a result, there is little difference between how Christians and non-Christians live their lives. Americans of all ages are leaving the church while depression, hopelessness, and suicide continue to climb. Author and priest Tish Harrison Warren says it doesn’t have to be this way…..read our review.

God and Guns in America / Michael Austin | Whom Shall I Fear? / Rosalind Hughes

Few Christian books can integrate and appeal to Scripture without sounding preachy, pretentious, or perfunctory. Even more so when an author takes on a polarizing subject such as guns. And yet this is what Michael W. Austin‘s God and Guns in America excels at. Biblically rooted as well logically sound Austin’s approachable writing style is like sitting with a friend telling you how and why they arrived at a conclusion – in this case his view on guns/gun violence through a Christian lens…read our review.

As humans, most of the time we want complex issues to be solved easily. For instance, if individuals with guns are targeting churches, then members of churches should carry guns to counteract the threat. While on the surface that may seem like the logical thing to do, and certainly a good portion of Americans would agree, as Christians we must consider what the Bible has to say. In Whom Shall I Fear? author and pastor Rosalind C. Hughes doesn’t say whether a church should hire armed security or not, but invites the reader to take a step back and answer the question, “What is the church and what is its mission,” before deciding how to deal with the violent culture we live in…read our review.

Generous Justice / Tim Keller

What does it mean to do justice?  Is justice a primary concern in the Bible?  Can we separate justice and evangelism?  What characteristics should make Christians unique and distinct in the world? Pastor Tim Keller answers those questions and more in a thorough explanation of Biblical justice while making the case that justice and the pursuit of justice is a primary concern of the Bible and Jesus’ ministry on earth…read our review.

Compassion (&) Conviction / Justin Giboney, Michael Wear and Chris Butler

Humans are created in the image of God. That sentence is what Christians should build their framework around for political engagement. Not a political party, not a tribe, and not an ideology. Human dignity is one the major themes that flows throughout Compassion (&) Conviction…read our review.

Reading the Times / Jeffrey Bilbro

From newspaper fact checkers to evaluation methods such as S.I.F.T. to diversifying one’s news feeds, there is a tremendous amount of time and energy devoted to debunking lies and conspiracy theories. Despite the trend to provide more quality information to the public, according to a 2022 PPRI poll, 60% of white evangelical Protestants believe the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump while QAnon conspiracies ravage large swaths of churches in America. While fact checking methods and diversifying one’s news feed can be helpful, it seems to do little in the way of moving people from yelling at each other to holding a respectful conversation. How did the church get here? Is there a theological way of consuming the news? How can we think and act Christianly to the news?…read our review.

God, Technology, and the Christian Life / Tony Reinke

Within many Christian and non-Christian circles there is an underlying assumption that technology will outpace humans; that we will unleash an evil or divine secret we were never meant to uncover. Author Tony Rienke says hogwash….read our review.