Monday, July 30, 2018

Review: Leading Across Cultures: Effective Ministry and Mission in the Global Church

Leading Across Cultures: Effective Ministry and Mission in the Global Church Leading Across Cultures: Effective Ministry and Mission in the Global Church by James Plueddemann
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Although Plueddemann's CV would lead one to infer his great depth of experience, it somehow does not translate to how he writes. I felt that if Plueddemann could have injected a large dose of brevity into the book, it could potentially provide an engaging read. However, many substantives were repeated more than necessary, and the second chapter about his own lengthy leadership journey would not appeal to or interest readers who do not know him.

Having different contributors at the end of each chapter to provide their own commentary on the topic was a nice touch, but not enough to save the rather mediocre content of the book. The many case studies and personal accounts shared in the book were simply not as intense/gripping or insightful as those in the other excellent books I've reviewed on cross-cultural missions (namely Sherwood Lingenfelter's Ministering Cross-Culturally and Duane Elmer's Cross-Cultural Servanthood).

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Monday, July 16, 2018

Review: The Intimate Mystery

Intimate Mystery Intimate Mystery by Dan B. Allender
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The two authors are a dynamic duo - Allender provides the engaging narrative while Longman III oversees the content to be shaped by sound theology. The pacing of the book was fantastic, allowing for quick absorption and thoughtful reflection/application (with reference to the reader's own marriage life). The content and illustrations are highly relatable for the married couple, every one of which is bound to have marriage issues/problems.

No excess ink was spilt; the brevity of the material keeps it accessible to novice readers. In reading the opening chapter, I however was worried that this book appeared to deviate from Allender’s and Longman III’s popular-level pitching to the layman (the vocabulary used was more suited to intermediate to advanced readers). Thankfully, the usually easy-to-follow content soon resumed in the subsequent chapters.

It is a pity that the title did not provide a clue on how useful the opening chapters would be for a pre-marriage couple (though the closing chapters on sex are more appropriate after the wedding). How I wished that we had read this book to get some insight on how to deal with the intense stress, anger and quarrels of managing the demands of the in-laws from both sides of the family (who all wanted to insist on this and that for the wedding). And woefully this book sat on my bookshelf until a year and a half after the nightmarish battles; if I could turn back time, I'd have definitely tried to read this title together with my wife-to-be, to provide us with a theological and practical approach to the challenges ahead.

This is an excellent book and I heartily recommend it! I bought a handful of copies to give as wedding gifts to my newly-wedded friends whose weddings I would attend shortly! Perhaps this personal endorsement would make up for my desire not to spoil any of the content in this review!

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Monday, July 2, 2018

Review: Ministering Cross-Culturally: An Incarnational Model for Personal Relationships

Ministering Cross-Culturally: An Incarnational Model for Personal Relationships Ministering Cross-Culturally: An Incarnational Model for Personal Relationships by Sherwood G. Lingenfelter
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It's been a long time since I enjoyed a read so thoroughly! This is an easy 6 star rating from me. The author (and editor) provided an exciting and extremely informative read. It is amazing how concise the material is - I did not feel that more ink was spilt than necessary, and also I did not feel that the substantives were insufficiently developed - the length of the book is just right. This feels like a distilled gift to us from a lifetime of cross-cultural work in the mission field. Novice and advanced readers alike will find it a worthwhile read and I appreciated how the fields of cultural anthropology and theology formed the backbone of the material.

Although written primarily to a North American audience, even as a Singaporean living in an Asian culture interacts with a western worldview, there was much to learn from Ligenfelter. I had not been aware of how different the eastern and western cultures (or individualistic and collectivist societies) are, and how the people in each perceive the world and interact with each other! Although the real-life illustrations in the book are slightly dated (most are pre-1986), the issues addressed and the principles discussed are timeless. Perhaps the ultimate compliment I could pay to the authors is to reveal that as a bible school student who is not very much interested in missions, I found that I started to develop an attraction toward the topic and felt the desire to read more titles on it!

I heartily recommend this masterpiece of a book! A great companion to be read alongside this title would be Elmer's Cross-Cultural Servanthood (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2477980169).

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