Broken

I'm not much a non-fiction type of guy. I usually wind up skimming a non-fiction book, even if it's one that I really, really want to read. Give me fiction any day! But I had been seeing a lot of posts about Broken: 7 ''Christian'' Rules That Every Christian Ought to Break as Often as Possible by Jonathan Fisk on Facebook from friends and colleagues lately, and so I thought I'd see what all the hub bub was about.

Basically, Pastor Fisk outlines seven "lies" that can infect modern Christianity and shows how, when left out of control, those lies can basically leave a person's faith broken. I won't do any spoilers here, but I will say that I've caught myself falling for some of these lies on more than one occasion.

In terms of substance, I can't fault Pastor Fisk for much. He and I are both pastors in the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, and while we may not agree on some matters of adiaphora, I found myself agreeing with almost all of what he had to say. I think this is a book that my non-Lutheran friends should take a look at, if for no other reason than to get an outsider's opinion on current trends in Evangelical Christianity. Fisk has some very potent criticisms for some trends that I think would help be a good balance to some excesses that are emerging.

My only complaint is that every now and then, Fisk really pours on the flowery rhetoric. He engages in some metaphorical storytelling that usually went over the top. It seemed to be too much of that.

But all in all, this is a thought-provoking book, one that has left me with a lot to mull over.