Category Archives: Book Review

Book Review – The Sound of Gravel by Ruth Wariner

Book Review, Uncategorized

Book Review template[1]

During the last year, I have gotten involved with helping authors launch their books onto the market. It’s a lot of fun to get chapters and even whole books to sample, and the best part is the wonderful people I have met through this work. One of these women, Anna, has an incredible life story, and I was honored to hear her tell her tale at a retreat this fall.

Anna grew up in a violent polygamist cult. Her father and uncle were leaders of the group, and she grew up surrounded by her mother’s sister-wives and over 50 siblings. Anna escaped the cult as a teenager, and for years she has been healing and telling her dramatic tale. She’s writing a book about her experience, and hopefully I’ll be helping to launch that one very soon!

Through her research, Anna discovered a cousin who grew up in the same compound and who also escaped and wrote her story. That book, The Sound of Gravel by Ruth Wariner, was due to come out soon, so Anna put us to work helping Ruth launch her book. Bloggers in the group were offered first dibs on the advanced copies of the book, but I hesitated. My blog, as you know, is specifically geared toward the cause of global hunger. But Anna shared with me that hunger is actually a big part of their story. So I ordered a copy, waited impatiently for the release day, and devoured it in two days (and it only took that long because I had to work!).

Ruth’s memoir is beautifully written. She paints a vivid picture of her life growing up in a little shack in a cult compound in Mexico. She faced a lot of uncertainty, years of abuse, and devastating losses, yet she looks back and remembers the good times as well as the bad. As evidenced by the powerful title, The Sound of Gravel is rich with sensory language. Ruth’s love for her siblings and her mother radiate off every page.

And Anna was right, hunger is a very present character in Ruth’s story. Several of her siblings suffered mental disabilities probably linked to the malnutrition they faced as babies and young children. Ruth relates the shame she felt using food stamps to buy groceries for her siblings, and the challenges she faced as a child caring for her younger siblings and trying to make them something filling to eat. There are a lot of rice and beans dinners in Ruth’s story, and vivid memories of cornbread and cakes whose rarity made their appearance memorable.

Ruth’s story reminds us that although poverty can be caused by bad choices, it is often the innocent children who suffer the most. Adults can handle periods of scant provisions, but the physical and emotional damage done to a growing child can last a lifetime. If you want to read a beautiful story of one girl’s struggles and overcoming, I highly recommend this book. It reads like a novel while exposing great truths about polygamy, poverty, and the triumph of the human spirit.

Book Review: Barefoot Church: Serving the Least in a Consumer Culture

Book Review, Uncategorized,

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I’ve written before about Jen Hatmaker’s new book, For the Love, and the incredible community I found after getting rejected for her launch team. The surprises and blessings of this keep on coming. Recently Jen’s husband, Brandon Hatmaker, contacted the reject crew (AKA #the4500) and invited us to serve as the launch team for his second book, A Mile Wide, which is coming out in September 2016. This got me thinking that I should probably read his first book, Barefoot Church, which has been sitting on my Kindle forever. (Grad school kind of cramps my reading style…) I knew the only way I was getting through another book during the holiday season and end of the semester was to buy it on audiobook.

If you’re keeping score, I have now purchased this book twice. And after listening to it while I commute, I know I’m going to have to buy it again. I need a paper copy that I can reread, highlight, and mark with notes. Barefoot Church is so clear and practical, a how-to guide for pastors and lay leaders who want to make service not just a program, but an integral part of their lifestyle as individuals and as a church body. Hatmaker encourages us to overcome our own agendas and pitch in just to serve as Jesus commanded, not to build our attendance numbers or gain a reputation – or even to win people for Jesus. Of course we hope for open doors to share the gospel, but the church has gotten caught up in serving only so we can preach to those we help. We think of ourselves as better than the poor. We made better life choices and have it all figured out – in our own minds. The truth is that we don’t have all the answers, Jesus doesn’t call us to determine who deserves help, and we’ve done a lot of damage with these attitudes. He just calls us to help and serve in love. And that kind of selfless, compassionate service will open more doors to share the gospel than any “constructive criticism” or sermon can.

“They will know we are Christians by our LOVE” (John 13:35)
When you don’t know what to do, says Hatmaker, choose love…

 – Can’t decide if you should give? Choose love.
     – Can’t seem to swallow your pride on a foolish matter? Choose love.
     – Having a hard time forgiving someone? Chose love.
     – Rather keep your time for yourself than help someone in need?
        Choose love.
     – What would Jesus really do? Choose love.
         One of the reasons I believe in a barefoot church is because I believe
     in the power of love. Not just as a feeling, but as an action. Jesus was
     clear that we are to serve the least, and he was clear that it should
     always be an act of compassion. Our love should extend toward one
     another as well. And through that love, people will see God, not us or
     our actions.

The Hatmakers planted a church based on the premise that the Church can both gather people together and send them out to be salt and light in the local community. I want my worship to be more than just holding down a pew with my lazy backside. I want to be the active, serving hands and feet of Jesus. If you and/or your ministry want to live that life, I highly recommend Barefoot Church as a guidebook on your journey.

Teach a Man to Fish: Microfinance Loans

Book Review, Microfinance, Service Projects

microfinance

One of the best books I’ve read about hunger and poverty is Ronald J. Sider’s Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger. Sider takes apart the myriad roots of poverty and hunger and analyzes the solutions that various individuals, charities, and government programs employ to try and combat poverty and hunger. Sider’s top method for poverty alleviation is microfinance loans. But what is microfinance?

It’s kind of like the old saying – give a man a fish and he eats for a day; teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime. Charitable handouts, welfare programs, and emergency relief measures fill gaps to help people get back on their feet when they have that opportunity. For example, if a family’s chief breadwinner loses his or her job, welfare programs might help the family make ends meet until a new job is secured. If a natural disaster wipes out a family’s possessions, emergency relief programs meet their needs until the crisis is over. But for situations of chronic poverty and hunger, a short-term solution just won’t cut it.

The key to battling chronic poverty is to create jobs and economic opportunities. This is the idea behind microfinance loans. Developing world citizens who need small loans cannot get them from banks. They usually don’t have any collateral, and there may not even be banks near them. So microfinance organizations connect prospective borrowers and donors. This allows average people to invest in the lives of others, and borrowers use the little loans to do things like start or expand businesses, or buy livestock. As the borrowers succeed, they repay the loans (which have really low if any interest). It’s not a handout, it’s an opportunity for long-term success. With the loan repaid, the donor or the organization can make another loan.

I haven’t personally invested in microfinance, but I’m curious about it and have done some digging online. Charity Navigator rates microfinance organizations, so with just a little research you can find a reputable place to donate. Once you select your organization, you pick your loan recipient. You can find projects with an environmental component, look for female-owned businesses, or pick a project in a part of the world you’re drawn to. Most of the projects I saw in my brief look around were about $1000, and they broke that up to involve donors of modest amounts, like $25.

I love the idea of making an investment in an individual. It’s kind of like an adult version of sponsoring a child through Compassion International. You can pray for your people and their business, and you get to see updates of how your little investment is paying dividends in the life of an individual or family.

Stopgap programs serve an important function, but for long-term community change, the jobs and economic opportunities created by access to capital can feed a person or family for a lifetime.

Have you ever made a microfinance loan? What organization did you donate through? What was your experience like? Share in the comments!

Book Review – When Helping Hurts by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikker

Book Review, Ministry, Resources, Service Projects

When Helping Hurts

I read a story in one of Jen Hatmaker’s books about a school in Africa visited every summer by a group of American teens on a short-term mission trip. Every year the local leaders sent kids to muddy the walls of their school in preparation for the Americans coming in. The building didn’t need painting, but they needed the Americans’ support, so they had to give the missions team something to do to feel useful. Clearly the Americans thought they were helping, but the local people didn’t have the heart (or possibly the power) to tell them they were wasting time and ridiculous amounts of money. Having been on a short term missions trip and part of outreaches, it made me wonder how often I have reinvented a perfectly good wheel and gotten in the way of what really needed to be done.

A few years ago I heard about the book When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor and Yourself by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert. I’ll admit it paralyzed me. Until I read the book, just knowing that it was out there made me afraid I would find out that the mission trip and outreach programs I had participated in were full of mistakes that had done more harm than good. As we prepared for the Convoy of Hope event, I decided that it was time to read the book. Maybe it would give me some guidance as we planned the outreach.

I didn’t love it. There are some good points, for sure. But I feel that it lacks focus. Some parts are for average people who want to help, and some parts are like a policy manual for people starting a non-profit or establishing benevolence policy for a church. Not being a pastor or policy maker, I became frustrated with the advice about things I can’t control, and bored with the technical financial jargon. There are a ton of acronyms and technical financial concepts (not my particular skill set). I feel it should have been two books – one for minimizing the mistakes of average people involved in charitable work, and one more technical manual for pastors and policy makers.

Least you think I hated the book, let me share with you some of the good parts:

“Our relationship to the materially poor should be one in which we recognize that both of us are broken and that both of us need the blessing of reconciliation. Our perspective should be less about how we are going to fix the materially poor and more about how we can walk together, asking God to fix both of us.” (p.79)

There is a necessary emphasis on helping the poor in a way that empowers them and restores dignity. The authors encourage people to start their charitable programs by taking an inventory of what a community has to work with, rather than what it lacks. “…the very nature of the question – What gifts do you have? – affirms people’s dignity and contributes to the process of overcoming their poverty of being. And as they tell us of their gifts and abilities, we can start to see them as God does, helping us to overcome our superiority, that is, our own poverty of being.” (p. 126)

“Pouring in outside resources is not sustainable and only exacerbates the feelings of helplessness and inferiority that limit low-income people from being better stewards of their God-given talents and resources.” (p. 126)

“The money spent on a single STM (short term missions) team for a one- to two-week experience would be sufficient to support more than a dozen far more effective indigenous workers for an entire year.” (p. 173)

So you see, there are valuable practical insights throughout the book, but I’m afraid they’re lost on the less business-minded. I found it hard to keep reading when the authors spent several chapters on banking details and interest rates, as that’s not likely something I’ll ever make decisions about.

The other problem I have with this book is the way the authors encourage us to judge people in need to determine not just what type of aid will be most beneficial, but whether we should help at all or let people learn from consequences. In my experience, most people are more than happy to blame the poor for their plight and use that excuse to not help. A Christian engaging in relief work should look first and foremost to the Bible for direction, and the Bible tells us “judge not.” On the other hand, if you’re a policy maker for a church or non-profit, there are judgments you have to make to efficiently and responsibly manage your organization. Separating this into two books would have made this clear and allowed the authors to go into greater detail for the different audiences.

So I give this book a mixed review. On one hand it has many thought-provoking insights, and on the other hand, it spends too much time on technical financial issues and encourages judgment over mercy. If you’re in a position to be making benevolence policies for your church or non-profit, it’s worth a read. If you’re just an average volunteer who wants to avoid making blunders, don’t let the knowledge that this book exists stop you from getting involved. A little compassion and respect is what you really need to make sure your help doesn’t actually hurt.

Finding Community: Dauntless Grace Ministries and For the Love by Jen Hatmaker

Book Review, Ministry, , , ,

dauntless grace and for the love

Gather ‘round kids, and let me tell you a tale. It’s a tale of being wrecked in a good way, finding your tribe, and learning what it means to be real…

Like a lot of Christian women of my generation, I am a big fan of Jen Hatmaker. I follow her blog, Twitter, Facebook, etc. A few years ago I bought her book 7, and absolutely devoured it. I highlighted half that book and have read and reread passages. Here is one of my particular favorite parts:

In Chapter 3, Jen is offloading possessions (the theme of the book is “an Experimental mutiny Against Excess”), and she does it in a very personal way. First, she cleaned out her closet and gathered everything she didn’t need. Then she personally gave the things to people who need them. She didn’t dump her rejects at Goodwill or hold a garage sale, she actually went out and handed things to the people who needed them. This is a time consuming way to unload your excess possessions, but she got to see with her own eyes how God used her stuff to provide for others. On Easter, the Hatmakers’ church was doing an outreach to the homeless, and Jen brought her purse collection for the ladies to take what they want. At the end, there was one little, cute, impractical pink purse left, one she almost didn’t bring because it wasn’t practical, but she included it last minute because she felt like she was supposed to.

So I stood there with my one little purse, when its rightful owner, the one for whom I daresay that purse was stitched together, made a beeline for me.
She had on her Easter finest, tights included, though it was ninety degrees. Flouncy dress with – what else? – hot pink flowers. Hair done in sections with matching beads, pink floppy hat on standby. Leather dress shoes polished to a sheen. Dainty ribbon necklace and rings on four fingers.
She was six-years-old. Her name was NeNe.
Never has a purse better matched its owner. She slipped that hot pink number over her arm and never put it down, not even to eat. Her mom looked at me and no words were necessary; mothers speak a silent language. I took her picture and fussed over her beauty and breathed a thank you to Jesus for the nudge.
I serve a Savior who finds a way to get pink purses to homeless six-year-old girls.

Every time I read that passage I tear up. 7 sits like a rock in my shoe, poking me whenever I think my comfort is the key to happiness. So after 7, I read Interrupted. They actually go in the other order, but that’s how they came to me. Both books were beautiful, authentic, funny, and unsettling in a good way. In the end they led me closer to Jesus and more focused on serving others.
So imagine my enthusiasm when Jen opened the launch team for her new book, For the Love, to her fans. I applied. I figured why not. The fans selected got a free advance copy of the new book. I love free books, Jen Hatmaker, and social media. My entire life is changed because I took that shot.

First of all, I got rejected. I know that doesn’t sound like a life-altering moment, but for me it was, because in not being selected for the 500 member launch team, I found a tribe of 4500 other rejected fans. One woman tweeted about us with the hashtag #the4500, and we started finding each other. Soon we had a Facebook group. Then we had spin off groups reading books together, doing scripture journaling, and more. And what we discovered together was real, authentic, supportive, Christian community – the kind many of you have in your church and the rest of you wish you did. My church’s women’s ministry is great, but my work and school schedule have often kept me out of the loop. I miss it. This group brought all of us together on social media, where I could interact with the ladies when it worked for me.

We began to have really great conversations about faith and family and even things nice church ladies just don’t talk about at mother-daughter teas. We decided that we can’t just keep this authentic community of support to ourselves, so we’re launching a public group called Dauntless Grace Ministries. DGM is still in the embryonic stages, but overnight (literally) we had 400 people on board. If you’re looking for honest, supportive Christian women who are not afraid to talk about real, complicated, messy things, like DGM on Facebook and join the conversation.

So in addition to this life-altering new tribe of women, Jen and her publishing people gave the #4500 the gift of four chapters (and later a fifth) from the upcoming book. It’s called For the Love: Fighting for Grace in a World of Impossible Standards. It hits on that uneasiness we all have trying to balance work and home life, “Pinterest perfect” and “good enough.” The four chapters we got to sample were on fashion, school, the supper club that the Hatmakers and friends started, and the church. The fifth chapter we got via Facebook later and it is about balance. Each chapter can stand alone, so it’s going to be a great bible study book. It’s witty and true, cover to cover. You will laugh for sure, and you might cry. Here are a couple of gems…

“A good parent prepares the child for the path, not the path for the child.

“I am suggesting this, pastors: Offer less, empower more, validate nontraditional ministry, and set a new standard from your pulpit. Preach this, teach this, celebrate your unconventional servants from the stage, band the drum for simple missional lives, and if the machine is killing you, stop feeding it.”

“I think many church folks feel this way about pastors. We perceive them as experts in everything, superspecial and somehow different (better) than us; and we suspect they are always certain when we sometimes doubt.”

The point of this book is to tear down the superficial junk that we put up to look good: the fashion, the fancy school lunches, the church day façade, etc. and to get back to the basics of grace and authenticity. I know that you will love this book. If you think bible study has to be fussy and proper, you’ll be surprised by the humor and imperfections revealed in For the Love. I’m even going to put this out there – I commit to hosting a women’s bible study where we read this book together.

If you want to preorder For the Love, you can find it at For the Love: Fighting for Grace in a World of Impossible Standards” target=”_blank”>Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Books a Million. And this week if you like Food Shelf Friday on Facebook you can enter to win a copy. I’ll have it delivered to your house the day it comes out.
So let’s get real, people. Let’s live in authentic community instead of hiding behind our facades. If you don’t have real life people that you can be real with, come find us on DGM. However you get there, just go. Find a place where it’s safe to be real and honest and imperfect and loved anyway.
Thoughts? Leave a comment!