I know this is American football and as a result may not be understood by most Brits, but it’s a good play all the same. The Spartans needed 3 points (field goal) to tie the game, but they wanted to win with a touchdown. If you’re on an RSS reader you might not see the video, but it’s there!
Daily Archives: September 22, 2010
Untamed: Reactivating a Missional Form of Discipleship by Alan and Debra Hirsch (audio)
The title well describes this book. It presents a form of discipleship which is intentionally missional, and decidedly not ‘tame’.
I can’t make my mind up about this book. On the whole it is thoroughly biblical, and gives a healthy challenge to the western church, but there are some questionable parts.
At one point, for example, the authors say that there shouldn’t be any representation of God (including e.g. paintings of Jesus). I don’t agree with that. They also recommend a version of the Bible I’m not a fan of, The Voice. At one point they even suggest you should interpret the Bible in a different way to get yourself thinking, by losing the deity of the Holy Spirit (although not in so many words!). There are others as well.
The overall message is good, however, but I’m not sure who I’d recommend it to. Because of the odd parts I wouldn’t want to recommend this to a brand new or undiscerning Christian but at the same time I’m not sure a more mature Christian would be genuinely challenged by it.
The audio version of this book is presented nicely, but there are some weaknesses. The foreword, by Rick Warren, is read by the same narrator – I’d have preferred another – and the same is true of parts of the book written only from the point of Debra, which confused me sometimes. There are conversation starters for small groups at the end of each chapter which don’t work very well in an audio version.
But I want to finish by saying that the themes in this book are good, and important. If you’re a Christian and won’t read another book, read this one with discernment.
I got this book for free from christianaudio.com. I’m not required to give a positive review.
