Jeff McLain

This is a review of Reflections on the Lord’s Prayer , a timeless faith classic series book released by Zondervan in 2015. Featuring 160 colorful pages, Reflections on the Lord’s Prayer compiles quotes and scriptures that pertain to each line of the Lord’s Prayer. While there are fewer quotes than verses under each line of the Lord’s Prayer, there are still some rich quotes highlighted throughout this book. It's worth noting that the included quotes are not comprehensive or a good representation of thought throughout church history. Though there are quotes from church history, they are few and far between, with relatively few insights from the earliest church teachings and fathers. The quotes largely come from later Christian writers and voices such as Charles Spurgeon, Martin Luther, John Wesley, John Calvin, and Oswald Chambers. Additionally, each line also features highlighted quotes from the Westminster Shorter Catechism of Faith and the Heidelberg Catechism. When I purchased

This is a review of Lord, Teach Us To Pray by John C. Purdy . Released in 1994, by the Kerygma program, this small group study explores the Lord’s Prayer, offering six studies on spirituality related to each line of the Lord’s Prayer.  Exploring the pattern for prayer outlined by Jesus in the book of Matthew, the author breaks up the Lord’s Prayer into six segments, each with a corresponding study. Each study unpacks that segment of the Lord’s Prayer, its theological contexts, and its related stories from both the Old and New Testaments. Each study gives readers valuable insight into Jesus’ intent, the depth of that segment of the Lord’s Prayer, what to visualize as we pray that line, and what it means to live this truth in our lives. In addition to these reflections, each study concludes with thought-provoking reflective questions and activities but also lists additional resources to study. From the beginning, Author  John C. Purdy  points out that in the six segments of the prayer

This is a review of Not In It To Win It by Andy Stanley . Released in 2022, into the politically polarized divides of the post-pandemic world, Andy Stanley addresses why choosing sides, no matter what the side, sidelines the church. Though  Not In It To Win It  is certainly contextualized in the conversations following the pandemic, the book reaches beyond this conversation into many other areas of polarization, division, and disunity in the church.  In  Not In It To Win It , Stanley helps pastors and followers of Jesus realize that they are writing their own pandemic story, that others are reading, and each response adds to it while people are watching. It is his hope to help the church write a good story in this divided and polarized world. Throughout the book, Stanley helps individuals realize that the uncertainty of our time isn’t the problem, nor is it what created problems, but rather it merely exposed what we value most as individuals, and exposed the mis-prioritized values of

This is a book review of How to Revive Evangelism by Craig Springer. Released through Zondervan Reflective (an imprint of Zondervan ) in 2021, How to Revive Evangelism includes a collaboration with the Alpha Course and insights and research from the  Barna Group . Craig Springer explores seven vital shifts to show we evangelize our faith. Overall, How to Revive Evangelism is a short read. It includes stories, research, and exegeting stories from the scriptures. This small book, just shy of 200 pages, features seven main chapters corresponding with the seven vital shifts needed based on the research from the Barna Group . In addition, there is a chapter on the book's front and back end to open and close the chapters on the seven shifts. I also appreciated the Forward from David Kinnaman . Known for his work as an author and the CEO of the  Barna Group , David Kinnaman shares that though we long to see “people’s hearts come alive to Jesus,” we realize that “so much stands in t

This is a review of Lord, Teach Us: The Lord’s Prayer & the Christian Life by  William H. Willimon  and  Stanley Hauerwas . Published in 1996 by Abingdon Press , the book thoroughly examines each line of the Lord’s Prayer, as taught by Jesus and revered by the church through the ages. As a resource, Lord, Teach Us: The Lord’s Prayer & the Christian Life offers unmatched historical, theological, and practical insights from two esteemed theologians who have been renowned for their collaboration and their collective work in academia.  Featuring an Introduction and ten chapters, Lord, Teach Us: The Lord’s Prayer & the Christian Life is just a little over 100 pages, but is an exhaustive look at the pattern of prayer taught by Jesus and instituted for the disciples and early church. In the Introduction, the authors state that this is a prayer “you must learn to pray,” because each line marks the journey of the Christian.[1] From the start they suggest, we pray the Lord’s Prayer,

This is a review of The Lord’s Prayers by Elton Trueblood. Released in 1965, on Harper & Row Publishers, Elton Trueblood’s classic work was developed after he gave a presentation at St. Paul’s Church in Richmond, Virginia, in 1964. Though he was supposed to present on another topic for the week, he felt nudged to announce a series on the prayers of Jesus. He shares that the book, The Lord’s Prayers emerged from that experience. After that week he shares that he was determined to “put my meditations on this important theme into book form,” and that presentation with “a number of weeks, mostly alone in the wilderness, have made the writing possible.”[1] This reflective book and work has, as he states, a universal appeal and application to more than just that singular context. Though theology is shared, this is not a theological book, and at the same time it is not a general Christian living book either. Elton Trueblood’s The Lord’s Prayers walks a fine line between those two wor