Karl's Reading List

Published by Regal Books/Gospel Light: Ventura, California, 2005. Having previously read and enjoyed Matt Redman's 2004 book on worship, Facedown , I was happy to pick up the 2005 book he and his wife Beth wrote together, also on worship, entitled Blessed Be Your Name.  Anyone who has been in Christian circles for long enough will recognise that the title of this book comes from the song of the same name, that Matt and Beth wrote in 2002. It is a powerful song, in part because it not only focusses on worshipping God during the good times (eg. "When the sun's shining down on me... When the world's all as it should be" ) but also on worshipping God in the hard times (eg. "On the road marked with suffering...Though there's pain in the offering" ). The book itself - which is only five chapters long - has a similar focus; each chapter title comes from a lyric in the song, and focusses on the ways in which we can still worship God during each season of our...

Published by Regal Books/Gospel Light: Ventura, California, 2004. Part of 'The Worship Series.' This short book by Christian worship leader and song-writer Matt Redman is (appropriately) all about worship. Matt is a great choice to write a book like this; his own journey as a worship leader included a season where he laid the musical side of worship down entirely in order to re-focus his team on Christ. The message of Facedown ties into this attitude closely. Matt reminds his readers that God is Almighty, holy, beyond our comprehension, and that worship is an appropriate response before such a God. "Each time we gather together, we don't just journey to a church building - we journey to the very throne of God. To lose sight of this is to lose sight of the majestic in worship. Every kingdom has a king, and every king has a throne. And the kingdom of God is no exception. He is the King above all kings, and He has the throne above all thrones. There is no higher seat of a...

Published by Fleming H Revell Company: Old Tappan, New Jersey, 1970. Edited by Robert E Coleman. Near the start of the year I heard about what was being called a 'revival' at Asbury College in the United States of America. It was a short-term movement but quite impactful, with students from the campus being involved in a spontaneous ongoing prayer and praise meeting. One night, while visiting Elise's parents, I happened to mention 'the Asbury Revival' and Elise's mother gave me this book to read, which outlined a previous revival at the same campus back in 1970! The book is not an outline of events, but rather various chapters telling the different perspectives of those caught up in the movement, each highlighting different elements of what God was doing at that time. Having a book written at the time of a revival that has now finished is quite interesting; the book is simultaneously challenging and slightly melancholic to read. Melancholic in that the hopes tha...

Published by Zondervan: Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2004. This book is the second I have read in the Counterpoints series of theological/apologetic debates, and the first I have reviewed on my blog. In each of the Counterpoints books, a topic will be decided upon, and then contributors from the various viewpoints will submit a chapter about their perspective, following that up by writing a response to each of the other chapters submitted. In this particular volume, the contributors talk about six different styles of worship, and why they and their congregation hold to their particular style. These styles are: Formal-Liturgical, Traditional Hymn-Based, Contemporary Music-Driven, Charismatic, Blended (a mix of contemporary and liturgical) and Emerging.  What I appreciate about this topic is that, on the whole, each contributor is happy to acknowledge the strengths of the other viewpoints, and even applaud the heart of their fellow writers. There is no division here, no claiming that othe...

Published by Multnomah Books/WaterBrook Multnomah: Colorado Springs, CO/New York, 2003. This short book (even shorter than I realised as a section at the back is made up of 'group study questions' rather than being part of the book proper) is all about worship - what it is, why God is worthy of it, and some ways in which a person can engage with worship in their day to day lives. Louie Giglio is a fairly well-known speaker in Christian circles, and although he is not known as a singer he writes as the head of sixsteprecords, a worship-centric music label in the USA. Not that worship is about music per se. The book is intentionally a fairly easy read rather than a dense theological tome, and as such some of the insights Giglio shares are not 'new'... but they are good reminders. "We may say we value this thing or that thing more than any other," Giglio writes, "but the volume of our actions speak louder than our words. In the end, our worship is more about...