Murray Milner Jr. Wipf & Stock, Eugene, 134 pages Reviewed by David K. Garth Explanations and antidotes for the decline of mainline church membership abound, although few of them attack the problem frontally on theological grounds. Murray Milner starts with the premise that some modern Christians have given up on church simply because they cannot believe basic doctrines. “Understanding the Sacred” is his attempt to give classical Christian doctrines – such as the Nicene Creed – the kind of understandable language current in today’s world. Three things make his effort attractive to pastors, congregations and theologians. First, he writes as an insider, a lifelong lay Christian personally committed to the church’s worship and culture. Almost incidentally, he reveals his stance as a progressive in social causes. References to God move casually between male, female and neuter. This book is neither an attack nor a replacement for the language of the last 2000 years, merely an … [Read more...]

Ann Voskamp Zondervan, 240 pages I was gifted the book “One Thousand Gifts,” which made its way into my vacation reading this summer. A thought-provoking read, it invites the reader to experience a life of joy. The book offers a unique perspective on gratitude as Ann Voskamp presents a practical guide to living a life of joy in the midst of deadlines, debt, drama and daily duties in poetic form. The book invites its readers to awaken to God’s everyday blessings as well as God’s “all-pervasive grace.” Voskamp writes from her personal journey on farming, parenting and writing. However, before she arrives at this part of her journey, she reflects on the brevity of her first name “without the flourish of an e” and its meaning – full of grace. Following the accidental death of her younger sister, she struggles with what it means to live full of grace, or to “live fully alive.” Voskamp found in the innocence of her early childhood days that she was more open to the gifts of God. … [Read more...]