The Best of the Best Around the Net

One of my passions is bridge-building, connecting, and highlighting other ministries and ministry resources—so that the Body of Christ is built up and Christ is magnified (Ephesians 4:15-16). My weekly post, The Best of the Best Around the Net, links you to blog posts that provide robust, rich, and relevant insights for living. Check out the following links you can trust.

Strategic Discipleship

Over at Church Matters, the blog site for 9Marks Ministry, Pastor Deepak Reju has posted a very helpful blog on “Picking Fruit Off of a Tree.” He explores practical principles for discipling leaders.

Scandalous

John Bird over at Discerning Reader reviews D. A. Carson’s Scandalous: The Cross and Resurrection of Jesus. “In his inimitable style, Carson returns us to where we must forever dwell theologically: Christ’s cross and resurrection.” Read the rest of John’s review here.

6 Views on Brian McLaren’s A New Kind of Christianity

I normally don’t post about my own post, however, this really isn’t “my” post. I’ve updated a post where I link you to six different views on McLaren’s A New Kind of Christianity. If you’re interested in what to make of this book, visit here.

What Is the Character of God and Why Does It Matter to Me?

Ed Welch of the CCEF has a very practical blog where he asks, “Is God Picky?”. How we see God is the most important thing about us.

Ingredients of Successful Blogs

Michael Hyatt is the leading Christian thinker about Web 2.0, social networking, blogging, ministry-based-marketing, etc. In this post, he invites a guest blogger to discuss “The Third Ingredient of a Successful Blog”. Also find the links to the first two posts in the series. What good does it do if you write a great blog, but nobody reads it? Or, put another way, “If a blog is written in the woods, does anyone see it?”

Join the Conversation

Of my Best of the Best Around the Net, which post impacted you the most? Why?

What blog posts have you read this week that you want to share with others?

Tags: Best of the Net, Carson, CCEF, Discerning Reader, Ed Welch

Interested in book reviews written by Evangelicals? Then look no further than Discerning Reader:

http://www.discerningreader.com/

“Doc. K” Writing for Them Now

Ever since I discovered the site, I’ve visited it regularly. When they read some of my reviews on Amazon, it became apparent that we were kindred spirits. So a month ago they added me to their select list of reviewers–I’m honored to play a small part.

Why They Are Unique

What I’ve always appreciated about Discerning Reader (DR) and their founder, Tim Challies, is that they are both loving and discerning. Far too many folks in the “discernment movement” are unloving and quite frankly, undiscerning. Tim and DR are not part of a “movement.” They show great wisdom and great grace as they review books from an Evangelical perspective.

About Discerning Readers

Here is what Tim Challies, the founder of Discerning Readers, says about the site. Enjoy.

Around the world some 120,000 new books are published each year. That adds up to ten thousand every month; over 300 each and every day. Americans buy over 4.5 million books every day, including many of these new titles. This adds up to over 1.5 billion books per year that are consumed within America. Yet even this totals only 35% of the books that are sold worldwide. While it might seem that television and the Internet are decreasing our love for reading, it is clear that books sell better today than at any other time in history.

As the number of books rolling of the presses increases, the discernment of Christians decreases. Local churches are finding it increasingly difficult (and tragically, increasingly unnecessary) to equip their people to discern good from bad, better from best.

We would like to help.

Discerning Reader is a site dedicated to promoting good books–books that bring honor to God. At the same time, we hope to help Christians avoid being unduly influenced by books and teachers that are not honoring to God.

We do not seek to be harsh or judgmental. Rather, we seek only to be discerning as we compare books to the written Word of God. We let the words of authors speak for themselves and simply hold the books up to the light of Scripture. In doing so, we are building a database of reviews which we feel cast a discerning light on the books that are found in Christians homes, churches and bookstores.

We invite you to browse around, to read the reviews, and to examine the features of this site. We think you will find it to be a blessing.

On behalf of the Discerning Reviewer review team,

Tim Challies