Category: Reviews of Books & Movies

Book and movie reviews of Christian friendly content.

Movie Review: What If…

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date December 27, 2013

Reviewed by Peter DeHaan

Each day we make hundreds of decisions, such as getting on a bus or getting off a bus. Some of those choices have lifelong consequences.

Such is the case with Ben Walker (Kevin Sorbo) in the movie What If…. His bus ride sent him on a path in the wrong direction, away from his love Wendy Walker (Kristy Swanson) and the life they planned together.

Fifteen years later, Ben is given a look at the life and love he gave up because of that one bus trip.

What if…he had never gotten on that bus? Things would be completely different. He likes his life now, not the one he turned his back on and the family they could have had.

What if…he could do it over again? Would he? Should he? Can he?

What if… is a delightful tale of contrasting options between what seems attractive and what could be more satisfying. But is it too late to choose? You’ll need to watch What if… to find out.

[Read more reviews by Peter DeHaan of other faith-friendly videos and movies.]

Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.

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Tags family, future

Reviews of Books & Movies

Book Review: From Times Square to Timbuktu

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date December 13, 2013

The Post-Christian West Meets the Non-Western Church

By Wesley Granberg-Michaelson (reviewed by Peter DeHaan)

What does the future of the Christian church look like? The answer may surprise you. While Christianity is languishing in the United States and Western Europe, it’s growing in the rest of the world, especially the global south.

In From Times Square to Timbuktu, Wesley Granberg-Michaelson confirms this trend with well-crafted research that is both credible and accessible. Worldwide, the future of the Christian faith is indeed bright.

Granberg-Michaelson opens his book (prologue) with an enlightening story of a taxi ride experience in New York, near Times Square. Though Wesley and his cabbie share a common faith, they know little of each other’s spiritual experiences.

A huge gulf existed between them, a gulf between the faith practices of the global south and Christian systems in the United States. This book explores that gulf.

Statistically, almost 50% of Africa is Christian. More astounding, 70% of sub-Saharan Africa is Christian, with middle Africa’s Christian population now standing at 81.7%, up from only 1.1% just one hundred years ago.

This astounding growth is not just in Africa, but also in parts of Asia and Latin America.

Similarly, he closes his book (epilogue) with another illuminating narrative, this time in Ghana—the home country of the cabbie—where Christianity is flourishing. (A bit north of Ghana is Timbuktu, Mali, which is near Christianity’s statistical center.)

From Times Square to Timbuktu paints an encouraging picture of the growth and vibrancy of Christianity worldwide, albeit with the United States and Europe as exceptions.

But not all is lost for the former bastion of Christianity, as embedded in the book’s pages is hope for spiritual rejuvenation at home.

If you wonder about the future of Christianity, check out this book—and be truly amazed.

“Our call is to link hearts and hands across all that would divide us,” concludes Granberg-Michaelson, “and walk together towards God’s future,” (page 161).

[From Times Square to Timbuktu: The Post-Christian West Meets the Non-Western Church, by Wesley Granberg-Michaelson. Published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2013, ISBN: 978-0-8028-6968-5, 175 pages.]

Read more book reviews by Peter DeHaan.

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Tags Christianity

Reviews of Books & Movies

Book Review: Escaping the Cauldron

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date July 26, 2013

Escaping the Cauldron: Exposing occult influences in everyday life

By Kristine McGuire (reviewed by Peter DeHaan)

In Escaping the Cauldron, Kristine McGuire shares her rollercoaster ride with the occult.

What at first seemed like harmless play and entertaining experimentation, eventually progressed into a full-blown embrace of dark spiritual forces. Kristine became a witch.

For a time, she pursued her secret life in tandem with Christian practices. Then she turned her back on her faith, before attempting to integrate the two, as a Christian witch.

Kristine’s experience shows that spiritual forces are at work all around us, both good and evil. The good is from God, while the evil forces, though perhaps inviting at first, ultimately enslave and control those who let them in.

Kristine’s story ends well, having been freed by Jesus, she reveals truth about the occult, witchcraft, and magick, warning all who will listen to spurn society’s gullible embrace of the paranormal and avoid being sucked into its insidious pull.

Escaping the Cauldron is part memoir and part tutorial—and completely helpful in discerning fact from fake and wise practices from the unwise ones.

We need to be informed and alert, being spiritually perceptive of the supernatural forces in the world.

[Escaping the Cauldron: Exposing occult influences in everyday life, by Kristine McGuire. Published by Charisma House, 2012, ISBN: 978-1616386979, 240 pages.]

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Tags memoir, supernatural

Reviews of Books & Movies

Book Review: Multiply

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date June 7, 2013

Multiply: Disciples Making Disciples

By Francis Chan and Mark Beuving (reviewed by Peter DeHaan)

Many Christians—and the churches they attend—skip the part about making disciples. Though Jesus commanded us to make disciples and modeled how to do it, too often we neglect disciple-making altogether.

Even when we try to make disciples, we often reduce it to a weekly meeting. True discipleship is more. Francis says, “it’s living life together.”

His book Multiply: Disciples Making Disciples seeks to remedy the dearth of disciple-making efforts in the church today. Divided into five parts, Francis moves from living as a disciple maker, to living as church, to studying the Bible.

Then he covers how to understand the Old Testament and finally, the New Testament.

Ironically, the intent of Multiply is to cover the material in a series of structured weekly meetings, despite Francis’s initial criticism that discipleship is more than a once-a-week gathering.

Even so, Multiply is a great instrument to move people forward in the practice of making disciples. But the book is just one tool in the toolbox.

Supporting Multiply is a complementary website, complete with videos, a blog, and additional resources.

As Christians, we need to be disciples who are making disciples. Multiply can help us on our quest.

[Multiply: Disciples Making Disciples, by Francis Chan and Mark Beuving. Published by David C. Cook, 2012, ASIN: B009B246X0, Kindle edition]

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Tags church

Reviews of Books & Movies

Book Review: Dallas and the Spitfire

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date May 31, 2013

An Old Car, An Ex-con, and An Unlikely Friendship

By Ted Kluck and Dallas Jahncke (reviewed by Peter DeHaan)

With a sordid past and running out of options, ex-con and former addict Dallas Jahncke acquiesces to enter a drug rehabilitation program at a homeless shelter, one with a Christian perspective.

In addition to avoiding more jail time and becoming clean for the first time in years, Dallas also has an encounter with Jesus. To aid him on his journey, Ted Kluck is recruited to provide some ‘discipleship”—whatever that means.

Thirty-something Ted and twenty-something Dallas are about as unlikely a pair as imaginable. They emanate from different backgrounds, neighborhoods, social strata, and experiences.

Yet the two of them collaborate in life—and for this book, Dallas and the Spitfire: An Old Car, an Ex-con, and an Unlikely Friendship.

Discipleship, Ted discovers, is raw and unpredictable. Sitting in a coffee shop to pontificate faith or reading a book about God is not going to cut it. Dallas needs more.

Dallas needs a friend and a mentor. He needs acceptance and stability. He needs someone who will listen without judging, answer the phone at any hour, and pray at all times.

For their discipleship to work, they need an activity to do. So Ted buys an aging European sports car, a Triumph Spitfire, for them to coax back to life.

As Dallas teaches Ted about auto repair, Ted shows Dallas how to be a follower of Jesus.

Written as memoir, Ted’s story is interspersed with Dallas’s own words. The tale is gritty and honest. It’s a guy’s book about a guy’s world, avoiding pat answers or reducing discipleship to a methodology.

The result is a compelling read and an inspiring example. Truly discipling another person is not easy, but it is most rewarding.

Read Dallas and the Spitfire to vicariously live it—and then do it, if you dare.

[Dallas and the Spitfire: An Old Car, an Ex-con, and an Unlikely Friendship, by Ted Kluck and Dallas Jahncke. Published by Bethany House. 2012; ISBN: 978-0-7642-0961-1; 184 pages.]

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Tags memoir, mentor

Reviews of Books & Movies

Book Review: Quit Going to Church

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date May 24, 2013

By Bob Hostetler (reviewed by Peter DeHaan)

A book bearing the instruction to “quit going to church” might strike some church-going folk as a text to avoid, one surely full of disrespectful thoughts or even heresy.

This is not so with Bob Hostetler’s book. Bob pens his work, not as one who has dismissed church attendance but as one who desires more from it.

When he says “quit going to church,” this isn’t a bait-and-switch tactic or a marketing ploy to stir up book-selling controversy but a sincere recommendation.

God doesn’t want people whose relationship with him consists merely of going to church; he desires people intent on following Jesus.

However, this book isn’t only about Sunday service. Church attendance is just the beginning, an introduction, if you will. By the time he concludes, Bob reveals a dozen religious practices we need to stop doing.

His list is at first shocking, if not for the reality that he’s right. We do many religious activities out of habit, good intention, or simply because someone taught us to – and in the process we miss what God really desires from us.

I’d list these twelve behaviors, but sharing what to stop doing without offering an explanation is like a doctor proclaiming an illness and withholding the prescription.

You need to read the book to learn the diagnosis—and discover the cure. Don’t delay.

[Quit Going to Church, by Bob Hostetler. Published by Leafwood Publishers, 2012, ASIN: B0081SNX8O, Kindle edition]

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Tags church attendance, heresy

Reviews of Books & Movies

Book Review: Wrecked

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date May 17, 2013

When a Broken World Slams into Your Comfortable Life

By Jeff Goins (reviewed by Peter DeHaan)

Wrecked is what happened to Jeff Goins when God figuratively tapped him on his shoulder, causing him to turn around and actually see what he had been conveniently overlooking.

As a result, his self-centered, non-committed demeanor was pierced.

Other people were hurting and Jeff had to help. His once contented life was wrecked by God—and that was a good thing.

As the subtitle of Jeff’s powerful first-person story proclaims, being wrecked is what happens “when a broken world slams into your comfortable life.”

Even so, his transformation did not happen abruptly, but gradually as he became open and willing to engage it.

In an accessible style, Jeff relates his story and those he meets on his journey in an inviting manner, tangibly showing what a wrecked life is like.

It may not be an easy one, but it is a good one. Being wrecked is living to truly love, to give and not take, to show mercy and grace, and to promote justice.

Maybe you’ve already been wrecked and could benefit from vicariously walking with Jeff on the same path.

Perhaps you were wrecked once, but that was long ago and you’ve shoved it aside to do what was expected by others or considered normal by society.

Possibly, you’ve shut your eyes and covered your ears so God could not wreck your life. We each fit in one of these three categories and regardless of which one, Wrecked was written for us.

[Wrecked: When a Broken World Slams into Your Comfortable Life, by Jeff Goins. Published by Moody Publishers, Chicago, 2012, ISBN: 978-0-8024-0492-3, 169 pages, $13.99]

Read more book reviews by Peter DeHaan.

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Tags memoir

Reviews of Books & Movies

Book Review: Crazy Love

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date May 10, 2013

Overwhelmed by a Relentless God

By Francis Chan with Danae Yankoski (reviewed by Peter DeHaan)

Francis Chan’s Crazy Love opens by bravely stating what is self-obvious to many Christians, but is seldom voiced: “we all know something’s wrong.”

Chan unabashedly writes this book “for those who yearn for more Jesus,” for those “bored with what American Christianity offers,” “for those who don’t want to plateau,” and for “those who would rather die before their convictions do.”

If that doesn’t stir your heart, then this book is not for you.

The first three chapters of Crazy Love, while new to some and review for others, provide a foundation designed to move us to worship God more fully and passionately.

Upon this foundation the remaining seven chapters are built, challenging us to re-examine ourselves and our lives in light of who God is.

Francis Chan’s writing runs counter to the prevalent Christian cultural and is provocative in what he advocates.

This is exemplified by the chapter titles, such as “Stop praying,” “You might not finish this chapter,” and “Serving leftovers to God.”

Along the way, Francis talks about selfish living, about succeeding at the wrong things, about Christians who play it safe, about being “lukewarm,” and about loving God and loving others.

Overall, it’s about love, God’s crazy love for us and that it’s crazy for us not to love him back, completely and unreservedly.

In chapter eight, Francis provides thirteen convicting characteristics of people who are obsessed with God. He then proceeds to share the stories of some who actually lived that way.

Francis Chan wants our lives to match our talk; he wants us to pursue Jesus; he wants us to be filled with and follow the Holy Spirit.

He leaves us thinking about what we want to be found doing when Jesus returns.

[Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God, by Francis Chan with Danae Yankoski. Published by David C. Cook, 2008, ISBN: 978-1-4347-6851-3, 205 pages, $14.99]

Read more book reviews by Peter DeHaan.

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Tags spiritual growth

Reviews of Books & Movies

Book Review: Patron Saints for Postmoderns

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date May 3, 2013

10 From the Past Who Speak to Our Future

By Chris R. Armstrong (reviewed by Peter DeHaan)

In Patron Saints for Postmoderns: 10 From the Past Who Speak to Our Future, author Chris Armstrong examines the lives of ten extraordinary people whose examples transcend time and teach us today.

While they may have preceded us in life, their manner of thought and record of accomplishment seem most contemporary, resonating profoundly with the postmodern perspective.

Collectively, they are a people, seemingly born ahead of their time, who challenged the status quo, blazed new trails, thought unconventionally, and acted unorthodoxly.

Their acts encourage and inspire; their lives inform and transform.

Emanating from the prior two millennia, these oft-overlooked patron saints for postmoderns are:

Anthony of Egypt (251-356)
Gregory the Great (540-604)
Dante Alighieri (1265-1321)
Margery Kempe (1373-1438?)
John Amos Comenius (1592-1670)
John Newton (1725-1807)
Charles Simeon (1759-1836)
Amanda Berry Smith (1837- 1915?)
Charles M. Sheldon (1857-1946)
Dorothy L. Sayers (1893-1957)

While some from this list are recognizable, I suspect that many readers, like myself, will be unfamiliar with most, unaware of their courage and contribution, both to their time and place, as well as to ours.

Chris Armstrong writes of this group because of their lives “well lived in Christ.”

Though they are not saints in a traditional sense, they are in a practical way, having modeled “exemplary, transformative ideas, practices, and character traits.”

They cooperated with God to live what they believed, they modeled social and individual spirituality and morality, and the narrative of their lives can “work in us and change us.”

They truly are “ten from the past who speak to our future”—if we will but hear what they have to say.

[Patron Saints for Postmoderns: 10 From the Past Who Speak to Our Future, by Chris R. Armstrong. Published by InterVarsity Press, 2009, ISBN: 978-0-8308-3719-9, 249 pages.]

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Tags author, postmodern

Reviews of Books & Movies

Book Review: The Aedyn Chronicles

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date April 26, 2013

The Aedyn Chronicles: Chosen Ones

By Alister McGrath (reviewed by Peter DeHaan)

In tween fantasy book, The Aedyn Chronicles: Chosen Ones, Peter and Julia’s parents send them to live with their grandparents in rural England.

Amid their bickering, they discover a mysterious garden and its enchanted pool, which transports them to an ancient mythical island.

Once idyllic, corrupt leaders turned the land into a dreary place. Ruled by otherworldly creatures—at one time human, but no longer so—these tyrants oppress the people. Some fall under their control, while others flee.

Those who’ve escaped live in hiding, waiting for the fulfillment of an ancient prophecy that foretells the arrival of liberators.

Peter and Julia fall on opposite sides of this classic battle between good and evil. Which side will prevail? Will they remain apart? Can they ever return home?

Author Alister McGrath is both a theologian and Oxford professor.

The parallels between him and this book to C. S. Lewis and The Chronicles of Narnia are unavoidable. When comparing a book to a classic, the former almost always falls short.

With clear religious references, Chosen Ones may resonate with mid-grade readers and perhaps even more so when read to younger children.

However, older readers and those familiar with The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe will likely find it lacking and an unsatisfying substitute for the original.

Even so, Chosen Ones—abounding with spiritual references and void of objectionable content—is worth considering for a quick romp in a fantasy world.

[The Aedyn Chronicles: Chosen Ones, by Alister McGrath. Published by Zonderkidz. 2010; ISBN: 978-0-310-72192-5; 202 pages.]

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Tags author, C. S. Lewis, Christian fiction