Get Ready for Reviews

Here are quick reviews of 5 books I’ve recently finished in a word-for-word fashion.

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The Grace of Giving

Stephen Olford

Baker Book House, 1972 (124 pages)

Olford’s book is a series of seven short sermons presented on the subject of giving. Olford, a Baptist “pastor,” shares many verses in each sermon.

While I disagree with Olford on the concept of the tithe, I found the rest of the book to basically be very well done. If you are planning a series of lessons or classes on giving, this would be an excellent little book to have as one of your resources. In each lesson, there are very helpful sermon outlines, and some of the lessons could easily become more than one lesson if you chose to do so.

For your information, the book was republished in the year 2000 and can easily be found online for less than $10. The picture above is of the cover of the 2000 version of the book.

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Encouraging Elders

Thomas Holland

Barnabas Books, 1996 (105 pages)

Elders have a tremendous work, and they need encouragement! Brother Tom Holland, in this little volume, offers some of that encouragement to the pastors of the flock of God.

As a minister, I found this book helpful as a reminder of just how strenuous the work of an elder really is. When we see elders doing their job, and doing it well, we need to offer encouragement in any way we can. But preachers are not the only ones who will find this volume helpful. Anyone would benefit from this book, because it is not easy to get a “sense” of what elders go through on a regular basis unless you happen to be an elder.

The book is very simple and Biblically-based. It can be read in a couple of hours, but it will offer the reader a great deal of helpful information as we all seek to honor our elders (cf. Hebrews 13:7).

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How to Reach Your Full Potential for God

Charles F. Stanley

Thomas Nelson, 2009 (237 pages)

Stanley’s book started out very helpful, but ended up reading more like a self-help book after some time. The premise is to do all things as best we can, so that we can serve God fully and so we can find our specific area of service.

That premise is good and helpful, but Stanley takes far too much time, in my opinion, on areas that should have only needed a few paragraphs. For example, there is page after page about eating properly. That is good, and it is needed, but it was not helpful to read that much on this subject in this book.

If you wish to own this book, my recommendation would be to read the first couple of chapters and get the main idea. The rest of the book basically tells you how to “live out” that main idea, but it gets quite redundant after awhile.

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Encouraging Deacons

Thomas Holland

Barnabas Books, 2002 (149 pages)

Much of what I said a moment ago under the book Encouraging Elders is appropriate here, too. Deacons, though, are very often overlooked in our prayers and in our encouragement. If they are serving well, they need us to lift them up and be proud of the great service they render in God’s kingdom.

Due to the fact that they often work behind the scenes, deacons can be upset and discouraged. Don’t let that happen! We now have 24 deacons at Lebanon Road, and I bought this book as a way to remind myself of their great work and, hopefully, to instill in my mind the need to encourage them. I highly recommend this simple book.

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Wild at Heart (10th Anniversary revision)

John Eldridge

Thomas Nelson, 2010 (256 pages)

I reviewed this book recently for Booksneeze.com. Click here to read that review.