WordHurdle

The moment of Bass Pro Santa Claus joy worth waiting for

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This is Zach's "We get to see Santa!" face

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Review of Mark Batterson's newest book, Primal

I've been a Mark Batterson fan for several years now. I think I discovered Mark first when I listened through a series of CDs from a conference at Willowcreek focusing on churches that were operating in more than one site. The church that Mark pastors in Washington, DC, called National Community Church, had a handful of venues in Metro stations in the DC area. At that time, they were just launching a coffee shop serving Capitol Hill called Ebenezer's. From that time on, I've followed Mark and his church by visit his blog at evotional.com and following him on Twitter and Facebook. He attended Central Bible College here in Springfield, Missouri, and I will occasionally notice him (via his Twitter account) frequenting local restaurants when he's in the local area for speaking engagements.

Mark is a young, vibrant pastor who is setting the pace for innovation mixed with inspiration and vision within the evangelical community. It seems that every time I hear about an upcoming Christian conference, Mark is one of the featured speakers, teaching on leadership in the local church. He is full of organizational and leadership tips, and he seems to always have an inspiring one-liner to challenge you in your faith or your leadership or vision focus. He has written several books in the past few years, most of which I've read, including In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day: How to Survive and Thrive When Opportunity Roars and Wild Goose Chase: Reclaim the Adventure of Pursuing God .

I received a free advance copy of his latest book, Primal: A Quest for the Lost Soul of Christianity from his publisher Waterbrook Multnomah to read through and review. The book is officially available for purchase today, so I'm writing a quick review to give you an idea of what to expect.

Primal is a relatively short book that feels very readable when you pick it up, and what I found when I started reading through its opening chapters is that it really sucks you in quick. Mark's premise is that it is important to take time to step out of our daily lives of faith and get back to the roots of what we believe. He recounts the story of discovering a church in Rome that had catacombs dating back from the second century down below the current church building and the feeling of awe that overwhelmed him when he walked down those stairs into a place where the earliest Christians practiced their fledgling faith. He challenges the reader to get back to the original thoughts, the primal thoughts, the "burning bush" of their faith that was there when they first met God and reignite that fire and faith.

Mark lands on the Great Commandment from the Bible, the concept of loving the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, as one of the simplest, more straight-forward view of the Christian life, and calls us to dig deep into these concepts and pursue them deeply. He then creates some more pragmatic terms with those four element, describing the heart piece as a call to love God with a sense of compassion, the soul piece as a call to love God with a sense of wonder, the mind piece as a call to love God with a sense of curiosity, and the strength piece as a call to love God with a sense of energy. He then quickly dives into a discussion of each of these four elements and how to apply them in your love affair with God.

At this writing, I'm about halfway through the book. I've read completely through the heart/compassion section and I'm now well into the soul/wonder section. Mark keeps things moving, but really challenges you to step up in your walk of faith and really grasp an inspired life with God that erupts from the inside out. His writing is full of personal stories that bring his thoughts together and some practical moments where he throws a few ideas at you to help you move one step closer to the concepts he's placing before you. I would encourage you to read this book -- it's simple but pragmatic and challenging, and I've used the word several times now, but it fits this book very well -- "inspiring". Mark's writing style is easy to read and very approachable and casual, and I've found it an enjoyable read so far.

This book has 171 pages when you don't count the endnotes, and Mark has broken it down into 4 sections of 2 chapters each, along with an introduction and conclusion chapter. I could be easily used as a small group study for anywhere from 4-10 weeks, depending on how much the group wants to read each week. The book doesn't have group discussion questions included, but Mark typically publishes a small group guide for his books sometime after the book goes live. The book is very Biblical in its sourcing, and Mark quotes lots of verse directly to support his ideas plus adds endnotes of verses that connect as well. I would encourage using this book in a group where the individuals are stuck in a rote, textual view of God and may need some help stepping out into a more practically lived out, emotional and guttural sense of life with God.

Primal is worth the read, and if you've never read anything from Mark Batterson, it's a good introduction to his writing, and so far, I'm finding that this book has brought me in, kept my attention and challenged my status quo even more than his other books I've read.

You can buy the book from Random House directly or you can purchase it at Amazon.com , Barnes & Noble, BooksChristian and most other booksellers.

Is Obama really a Republican plant?

Is Barack Obama really just a Republican plant?  Has he spent his whole life to become a Democratic president all as part of a sinister scheme by Republicans to make Democrats look bad?  Bob Parks makes a strong tongue-in-cheek case for this notion. 

Stuff Christians Like #674: Treating our quiet times like magic spells

I get a kick out of Jonathan Acuff's blog "Stuff Christians Like". He does a great job of capturing the ironic elements of the evangelical Christian life in America without being negative and grumpy like some fall into.

Today's "Stuff Christians Life" post made me laugh as he discusses how we treat the "formula" with which we do our "quiet times" as if it's some kind of magic spell that will conjure up the God of the Bible.  Funny stuff and so true.  It's so easy to push aside time with God so we've mechanized the "quiet time" into its own standalone Christian concept, much like the "prayer form" of bowed heads and folded hands that someone has taught my children.

May we all pursue the God of the Bible wholeheartedly and do everything it takes and whatever it takes each of us individually to quiet ourselves enough to hear God's voice and come close to Him.

Brady lost a front tooth a couple days ago - that brings to mind a kids Christmas song

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Back in the US, hundreds upon hundreds of people in the customs line with 8 open booths

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