A Review of

Start Here: Doing Hard Things Right Where You Are.
Alex and Brett Harris.
Paperback: Multnomah, 2010.
Buy now:  [ ChristianBook.com ]

Reviewed by Chris Smith.

Alex and Brett Harris are the authors of the recent book Do Hard Things, which they have described as “[countering] the Myth of Adolescence, which says the teen years are a time to goof off and have fun before ‘real life’ starts.”  They have now also released a followup volume, Start Here: Doing Hard Things Right Where You Are, which is a sort of practical guide beginning to explore the ideas offered in Do Hard Things.  Although admittedly,I have not yet read the first book, in reading Start Here I am inspired by these young men’s social critique of adolescence and their striking call for teens to step up and to put their energy to use imagining and doing meaningful work.  Start Here takes on many of the seeming impediments that would stand in the way; indeed the sort of “hard things” that the authors challenge youth to undertake.   Secondly, I deeply appreciated their advice not to do these “hard things” by oneself, but rather to invite others into our undertakings or even to engage ourselves in the meaningful and redemptive work that others in our churches and families are already doing.  Similarly, their encouragement to “move against the crowd” seem to resonate with the Gospel story and is an essential word for the maturing of teens beyond the social traps of popularity and “coolness.”

Start Here is essential reading for youth workers, as well as for churches in general.  It is exciting to think that the authors’ message is getting out there and I pray that it will continue to be used by God as a means of transforming both teenagers and their church communities.

[ A copy of this book was provided for review by the WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group.]

Thanks to Waterbrook Multnomah, we are giving away a copy of START HERE: DOING HARD THINGS RIGHT WHERE YOU ARE by Alex and Brett Harris!  (See our review of this book… )

How to enter to win this book:

1. Announce the contest on Twitter, Facebook or your blog: I just entered to win  START HERE by Alex&Brett Harris from The Englewood Review (@ERBks ).  You can enter too: http://ow.ly/1n5fZ
2. Post a comment to this announcement with your name and a link to your post for #1.
3. You may enter one time per day for the duration of the contest.
4. We will pick a winner at random from the eligible contestants and notify them this weekend.

The contest will end at 4PM ET on this Friday March 19.

Families at the Crossroads by Rodney Clapp has been essential for us as a church in thinking about how the role of our biological families fits with our calling to be the family of God together as the Church, particularly in light of Jesus’ difficult teachings about fathers, mothers, sisters and brothers.

I was excited to find that one can peruse most of this book on Google Books!

Families at the Crossroads:
Beyond Traditional And Modern Options.
Rodney Clapp.
Paperback: IVP Books, 1993.
Buy now:  [ ChristianBook.com ]

This is the second video produced by TheOoze.com on Brian McLaren’s newest book A New Kind of Christianity (BUY NOW from ChristianBook.com).

Click here to watch the first installment of this series.

A Brief Review of

Isaac Newton
(Christian Encounters Series)
Paperback: Thomas Nelson, 2010.
Buy now:  [ ChristianBook.com ]

Reviewed by Chris Smith.

Isaac Newton was undoubtedly a genius and essential to the development of Modern, Western thought – especially our understanding and experience of time and space.  His life and his thought, while historically of the utmost significance, was full of complexities.  Mitch Stokes begins to capture some of these complexities in his new biography of Newton, one of five volumes in the first installment of Thomas Nelson’s “Christian Encounters” series.  The picture of Newton that Stokes paints recognizes his profound genius and his preference to work in isolation, and yet seeks to humanize him. Stokes, for instance, begins the book with the story of a schoolyard fight that would inspire Newton to get serious about his schoolwork and eventually propel him to the top of his class.  Stokes’ biography goes beyond the basic narrative of Newton as a pre-eminent natural philosopher, touching on his inquires into alchemy, magic and theology. Stokes says:

Newton’s study of theology and alchemy comes as a shock to people.  But Newton was a great synthesizer; he didn’t merely want to master a few separate disciplines.  A command of mathematics and natural philosophy was only part of his goal.  Newton endeavored to a great, comprehensive system of the world – from the solar system to the fundamental nature of matter to God’s work in redemptive history (81-82).

Stokes has offered us here a fine introduction to Newton; however, it leaves one a bit perplexed about the question of why it was included in the “Christian Encounters” series.  There is some brief engagements here with Newton’s faith, the most interesting of which related to the nature of science as a naturalistic discourse (an idea that Newton rejected), but one would have liked to seen a deeper level of theological reflection on Newton’s work and its significance for the Church.  I recommend this biography for math and science folks who want to understand Newton’s life in its historical context or for students simply seeking to learn more about Newton.  However, for those desiring a distinctively Christian examination of Newton’s life and work, this biography leaves much to be desired.