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A Lasting Promise: A Christian Guide to Fighting for Your Marriage is an excellent book for those considering marriage or already married.  The authors of this book present a very Biblical view of marriage alongside practical advice supported by clinical research.  While the credentials of the authors might indicate a more cerebral work, this book is very approachable and helpful for any married couple.  This book is not heavy on theory or philosophy but on reality and practice.  As soon as you pick this up you can start using it and applying it in your home.

This book is broken down into good sized chapters which focus on real needs couples have.  There are exercises in this book for a couple to practice.  Reading this book and following along its prescribed exercises is like going to a counselor and doing their homework.  While this book is definitely not a cure-all nor a substitute for counseling, a couple who practices the principles and techniques in this book will find it a great benefit.

Couples who need a tune-up in their relationship should read this.  Couples who are having conflict should read this.  Husband and wife should each read a chapter a day and then go through the practice portion together.  Doing so will greatly enhance anyone’s marriage.  I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for help in their marriage or looking to give help to those who are married, you won’t be disappointed.

Marriage Made in Eden challenges “Our culture’s version of marriage is not as God designed it to be. With a lot more emphasis on individualism and consumerism, today’s married couples tend to lose sight of God’s original purpose for marriage-a call for his people to take Jesus’ message to the heart of everyday life.”   Authors Alice Matthews and M. Gay Hubbard make a strong challenge to our culture’s understanding of marriage.  They also challenge the modern Christian view of marriage and show how our modern marriages are warmed over versions of a less than ideal Victorian era.  What Matthews and Hubbard do not do is, “Provide a radical alternative to today’s view of marriage, giving a glimpse into the historical and cultural aspects that have shaped marriage in America. With this insightful analysis you’ll learn how marriage has come to be in the state we now find it and about God’s model and purpose for a sacred Christian union”

Matthews and Hubbard don’t fully live up to these two descriptors from the books cover.  These two authors are primarily ministry and counseling trained.  As such they accurately described the condition of our cultures’ marriages and their historical roots.  They brilliantly show the drawbacks of the present marriage arrangements in America and the dangerous developments we have made in the last 200 years.  They chronicle marriages as team units during colonial times and the rise of neo-Victorianism.  What the authors do not do is develop from scripture a “radical alternative.”

Marriage Made in Eden asks more questions than provides answers.  Its exegetical work is lacking and their scriptural model is crammed into the very last portion of the book.  The “radical alternative” this book promises never fully forms.  As  a critique this book provides an excellent critical commentary on non-Christian marriage models, some of which the church has promoted.  While these critics provide no better model for our marriages, they certainly challenge us to evaluate our own understandings and force us to provide our own alternatives.

Timothy Egan’s Worst Hard Time is a history book that reads like a novel and chronicles the daily life of the survivors of the dust bowl.  Other histories of this time record those who fled from this great disaster but this book records the lives of those who stayed.  Timothy Egan is primarily a journalist and writes with a very contemporary and quick style.  He reports from his own interviews – the life stories of the survivors.  Egan weaves throughout the book personal stories, interviews, historical facts and scientific findings from this time.  Throughout the book Egan looks back to the cause of the dust bowl, severe human abuse of the earth and traces the human cost.  Egan keeps the reader’s attention with every chapter…I’ve never read a history so exciting.

I read Spiritual Leadership in a casual style, after my morning Bible reading I would take in a chapter of Oswald Sanders’ thoughts on leadership.  This allowed me to digest and attempt to apply his principles throughout the day.  What I liked most about this book was that it came from scripture.  Sanders is excellent at taking his many years of ministry experience and filtering them through the lens of the Bible.  This gives the reader a very clear view at some of the necessary spiritual qualities of leadership often omitted from other leadership books.  Sanders focuses a lot on character, sacrifice and staying in tune spiritually through prayer.  He goes through scripture and highlighting many leaders from the Bible gleaning from their recorded experiences.  This book is excellent for nurturing the soul and heart of a leader.  He prefers principle over the pragmatic and in many places lacks a tangible next step.

This book comes across as very dated.  Originally printed in 1967 it lacks present day leadership vocabulary and the enthusiasm normally associated with the leadership genre.  This is not a go-to book for problem solving or as a guide for forming a team.  While reading this book I was also reading Henri Nouwen’s Wounded Healer and when compared this book comes across as very modern. Nouwen’s insights seem to be more timeless and applicable in this post-modern world.  His approach was more mystical and yet in some ways more tangible for those in the pastorate.

Spiritual Leaderhip is probably best suited as a devotional and as a check for the leaders’ soul.  I found myself evaluating not my practice of leading but my heart and motive.  All things considered, I recommend this as a nightstand book for a church leader who wants to increase their level of self-awareness and spiritual sensitivity.