Kingdom People

As you can see from the list here, 2007 was the year of books and book reviews for me here at Kingdom People. I can’t help but think about what an honor it is to live in an age when books are so accessible! 2007 has also been the first year that I have received books free from publishers in order that I might write about them on this blog. So, without further ado, here is my list of favorite books in 2007.

#1. THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV
- Fyodor Dostoevsky

2007 was a landmark year for me as a reader. I finally accomplished my goal of reading 100 books in a year. I reviewed the majority of these books here at Kingdom People. In case you’d like to catch a quick glimpse of the books I read and reviewed in 2007, here’s the list. Tomorrow, I’ll list my Top Ten Favorite Reads of 2007.

10 Things I Wish Jesus Never Said - Victor Kuligin
3:16 - The Numbers of Hope - Max Lucado
A Community Called Atonement - Scot McKnight
A Concise History of Christian Thought - Tony Lane
A Mind for God - James Emery White
A Reformation Debate - John Calvin, Jacopo Sadoleto
A Reformation Reader - Dennis Janz
A.D. 33 - The Year that Changes the World - Colin Duriez
Advanced Strategic Planning - Aubrey Malphurs
Ancient-Future Faith: Rethinking Evangelicalism for a Postmodern World - Robert Webber
The Apocalypse Code - Hank Hanegraaff
Baptist Sacramentalism - Anthony Cross, editor
Believer’s Baptism - Thomas Schreiner, Shawn Wright, others
Blink - Malcolm Gladwell
The Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor Dostoevsky
By Faith Alone: Answering the Challenges to the Doctrine of Justification - Guy Waters, Gary Johnson
Calvin for Armchair Theologians - Christopher Elwood
Calvinism in the Las Vegas Airport - Richard Mouw
The Chamber - John Grisham
Christ-Based Leadership - David Stark
The Christian and the Pharisee - R.T. Kendall, David Rosen
Colossians Remixed: Subverting the Empire - Brian Walsh & Sylvia Keesmaat
Confessions - Augustine (Summary Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5)
Disciplines of a Godly Man - R. Kent Hughes
Empowered Church Leadership - Brian Dodd
Engaging Unbelief: A Captivating Strategy from Augustine to Aquinas - Curtis Chang
The European Reformations - Carter Lindberg
Evangelical Feminism: A New Path to Liberalism? - Wayne Grudem
Evil and the Justice of God - N.T. Wright
The Future of Justification: A Response to N.T. Wright - John Piper
God’s Big Picture: Tracing the Storyline of the Bible - Vaughan Roberts
The Gospel of Thomas: The Hidden Sayings of Jesus - Marvin Meyer
Great Leader, Great Teacher - Gary Bredfeldt (Review Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4)
Inside Narnia - Devin Brown
The Irresistible Revolution - Shane Claiborne
Is Belief in God Good, Bad, or Irrelevant? - Preston Jones, editor
Is Jesus the Only Savior? - Ronald Nash
Jesus Mean and Wild - Mark Galli
Judas and the Gospel of Jesus - N.T. Wright
Leading from the Second Chair - Mike Bonem, Roger Patterson
Listening to the Beliefs of Emerging Churches - Mark Driscoll, Dan Kimball, others
Liturgical Theology: The Church as Worshipping Community - Simon Chan
Love is All Around: The Making of the Mary Tyler Moore Show - Robert Alley
Love Your God with All Your Mind - J.P. Mooreland (Review Part 1, Part 2)
Martin Luther’s Basic Theological Writings - Timothy Lull
Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community and War - Nathaniel Philbrick
The Narrated Bible in Chronological Order
Night - Elie Wiesel
Our Sufficiency in Christ - John MacArthur
The Preacher and the Presidents: Billy Graham in the White House - Nancy Gibbs, Michael Duffy
Readings in the History of Christian Theology: Volume 1 - William Placher
The Secret Message of Jesus - Brian McLaren
Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ - John Piper
Set Apart: Calling a Worldly Church to a Godly Life - R. Kent Hughes
Simple Church - Thom Rainer & Eric Geiger (Review Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4)
The Soul of Christianity - Huston Smith
Spiritual Leadership - J. Oswald Sanders
The Story of Christianity - Justo Gonzales
Suffering and the Sovereignty of God - John Piper, Justin Taylor, others
Surprised by Jesus - Tim Stafford
Taken By Communion: How the Lord’s Supper Nourishes the Soul - Dan Schmidt
Theologians of the Baptist Tradition - David Dockery, Timothy George
Theology of the Reformers - Timothy George
Tozer on Worship and Entertainment - A.W. Tozer
Understanding Four Views on the Lord’s Supper - Counterpoints series
The Uneasy Conscience of Modern Fundamentalism - Carl F.H. Henry
What Do They Hear? Bridging the Gap Between Pulpit and Pew - Mark Allan Powell
What is a Healthy Church? - Mark Dever
When God Builds a Church - Bob Russell
Words Fail Me: What Everyone Who Writes Should Know about Writing - Patricia T. O’Conner
Worship Seeking Understanding - John Witvliet

Here they are! The top most-visited Kingdom People posts during my first year blogging. Enjoy the very best of Kingdom People!

 

#1. How “Saving Bellevue” is Destroying Bellevue

February 8, 2007

I’m sad to announce that the most visited post at Kingdom People in the past year was about the difficult circumstances at Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis. After visiting the “Saving Bellevue” site, I felt compelled to offer some thoughts about how to handle church problems. Since February, more than 2500 have visited this post alone, most of them sidetracked in their search for the actual Saving Bellevue site. You can imagine the comments that this post generated - on both sides of the debate.

 

#2. How Well Do You Know the Words of Jesus?

January 18, 2007

Everyone likes a good quiz. If you haven’t taken this one, try it now. You know you want to.

 

#3. Is Rob Bell Going Soft on Homosexuality?

February 20, 2007

I used to listen to Rob Bell all the time. His current direction worries me. My post about his non-answer to the homosexuality echoes Ben Witherington’s concerns.

 

#4. Why “Saving Bellevue” Is Destroying Bellevue: Take 2

March 26, 2007

A month after first posting on the Bellevue discussion, I tried to redirect the discussion by asking the question: “What should one do if at odds with the church’s leadership?”

 

#5. Theron’s Story: Why I Left Evangelicalism for Eastern Orthodoxy

November 8, 2006

My first Kingdom People interview was with Theron Mathis, a former Southern Seminary student and recent convert to Eastern Orthodoxy.

Since Kingdom People is turning 1 this week, I’m taking a break from new posts and “rerunning” links to the top 25 most visited posts from the previous year. We’re in the Top Ten now… each of these are posts that created a lot of comments. Join in the discussion.

 

#6. Why “Limited” and “Unlimited” Atonement Debates Miss the Point

January 5, 2007

When asked on my Systematic Theology exam what I believed about the “extent” of the atonement, I answered by questioning the question itself. There’s no right answer, because it’s not the right question. Once my exam answer was posted on the blog, it elicited some good comments and feedback.

 

#7. Rethinking Our Vocabulary: Personal Relationship with Jesus

July 23, 2007

My earliest contribution to SaidatSouthern got people talking. Check out some good discussion about our Christian vocabulary.

 

#8. Paul Negrut Accused of Plagiarism

February 28, 2007

In late February, Corina and I were surfing a Romanian tabloid’s website and we found a news story accusing Romanian evangelical leader Paul Negrut of plagiarizing his Ethics course. I had taken the course in 2004 and knew the accusations were false. By telling the other side of the story, I managed to quell the furor that was soon to erupt once the ABP published the story.

 

#9. Newsflash! The Key to the 20Somethings is Not Musical Style

October 2, 2007

The most recent post to make the Top 25. My comments on the elusive 20somethings crowd quickly got linked all around the world by likeminded 20somethings (and some older Christians who were glad to see us speaking up).

 

#10. It Is Finished!

April 2, 2007

Some quiet and brief reflections on Jesus’ last words from the cross. Whoever said that only scandalous posts generate traffic? My thoughts on “It is Finished” remained in my Top Ten Post list for months.

In celebration of Kingdom People’s first birthday, we’re recapping the previous year by listing the twenty-five most visited posts of the year.

 

#11. My Interview with Caedmon’s Call

July 3, 2007

I know I wasn’t the only person excited to see that Derek Webb had rejoined Caedmon’s Call for their new album, Overdressed - one of the best Caedmon’s albums in years. A couple months before the release, I interviewed band members Todd and Garrett about the album, the band, and the future.

 

#12. On Reading Widely

June 28, 2007

Chances are, I’m always near a book. When talking to some friends about the benefits of reading “widely” and not only in one Christian tradition, I was struck by the idea: This would be a great post. Apparently, other big bloggers thought so too, and “On Reading Widely” became one of the most popular posts of the year.

 

#13. Sola Scriptura: The Dividing Line between the Orthodox and Evangelicals

November 10, 2006

The third post in a series of interviews with converts from Eastern Orthodoxy to evangelicalism and vice versa. This is the post where I analyzed the interviews and discovered sola scriptura to be the major dividing line, or as Theron put it: “the whole house of cards.”

 

#14. John’s Story: Why I Left Eastern Orthodoxy for Evangelicalism

November 9, 2006

This was the second interview in my series on Eastern Orthodoxy and evangelicalism. I sat down with a Romanian convert from the Orthodox church who is now a Baptist.

 

#15. Mohler on Asking Jesus into Your Heart

August 23, 2007

I actually posted this at SaidatSouthern and then linked to it from Kingdom People. Mohler’s answer to the caller’s question is worth reading.

Kingdom People turns 1 this week. In celebration, I am counting down the 25 most visited Kingdom People posts.

 

#16. The Baptist Diocese

March 15, 2007

In this article, I asked some tough ecclesiological questions regarding the recent move of some mega-churches to multi-site campuses. Since publishing this article, I have spoken with respected church leaders about my concerns. The answers I have received have only caused me more concern regarding the direction of the multi-site movement.

 

#17. Bruchko: The Story of Bruce Olson

December 28, 2006

This is the first of a two-part review of Bruce Olson’s autobiography, a fascinating missionary story that took Olson into one of the most violent South American tribes.

 

#18. Derek Webb and the Gospel of the Kingdom

August 15, 2007

Tony Kummer and I had the privilege of doing a SaidatSouthern podcast with Derek Webb. Shortly after the release of Part 1, a controversy erupted over Webb’s definition of “the gospel.” I came to Webb’s defense by showing how the New Testament writers spoke of “the gospel” and pleading for grace, instead of nitpickiness (is that a word?).

 

#19. Don’t Tell Me N.T. Wright Denies Penal Substitution

April 24, 2007

This is one of the posts I put the most work into (because it was originally an essay for my Systematic Theology class). In it, I lay out the view of N.T. Wright regarding the penal substitutionary model of the atonement. I have said it before and I will say it again: My stampeding theoblogian friends, be cautious when attacking people. Read authors well before you start disagreeing with them.

 

#20. The True Scandal in Warren/Obama Controversy

December 22, 2006

Put the words “Warren,” “Obama,” “scandal” and “controversy” into one title, and you’re bound to bring in some traffic from search engines. That’s what I learned, anyway, when I posted this article on Rick Warren inviting Barack Obama to speak at a conference. What is the true scandal? You’ll have to read the post to find out!

One year ago this week, my old blog (Red Letters) morphed into the current one: Kingdom People. Since the switch, I have watched the audience for this blog grow. It is humbling to me (as well as a weighty responsibility!) to know that hundreds of people find this site worthy of their attention every day.

 

In the blog world, posts come quickly and disappear just as fast. For those of you who may be new subscribers to Kingdom People, I hope that this week will introduce you to some of the top posts from the previous year.

 

All this week, I plan on counting down the 25 most visited Kingdom People posts. These are not necessarily the posts I would choose as my very favorites. But they are however the posts that have enjoyed the most “hits” over the past year. 

 

I’ll post links to 5 archived posts each day. I hope you enjoy “The Best of Kingdom People.” (Note to my blogger friends: I’d love to see some other blogs do this too.)

 

#21. My Favorite Reads of 2006: Top Ten Books
December 26, 2006

In 2006, I managed to read 86 books covering a wide range of topics. At the end of the year, I posted my ten favorite “reads” of the year. (This is not a blanket endorsement of these books, only that I thoroughly enjoyed each of them and found them helpful.) Several other bloggers linked to his post. Those links and the traffic from search engines made this one of the more popular posts during the early months of 2007.

 

#22. John Piper on the Prosperity Gospel
June 16, 2007

This brief video clip of John Piper preaching against the “prosperity gospel” elicited some good feedback and became the starting point for an interesting discussion about the nature of gospel blessings.

 

#23. Baptist Press Article on Paul Negrut and Plagiarism

March 5, 2007

This post included the Baptist Press article that quoted me at length regarding the plagiarism charges leveled against Emanuel University president Paul Negrut.

 

#24. God is Jesus

March 1, 2007

A post with a provocative title, but one that brought me some good feedback.

 

#25. Amazing Version of O Holy Night 

December 3, 2006

This YouTube video features David Phelps in one of the most incredible vocal performances of “O Holy Night” that I’ve heard. Around Christmastime, this post was bringing in dozens of hits a day.