Cairo: Jesus in Egypt & God's Unusual Leaning
God seldom gives us all we need to understand, but He always gives us what we need in order to obey. The story of Jesus in Egypt as a boy offers a...
I once led a church small group where I had fallen behind in preparation. To buy some time, I asked each participant to purchase a certain book, read the first chapter, and we would discuss it. Big mistake.
(Photo by Photodune)
We sailed through the first part of the chapter until we slammed into a wall. A theological wall. This well-known author took potshots at a theological position we held as a church.
What was my mistake? I hadn’t read the book before.
Here’s what happened.
I had heard a lot about the book and its well-known author, so I just assumed it was a great book. But I had never read the book and—even worse—I had never ready anything by the author.
Although we could have plowed forward and changed our purpose for the group, we chose instead to read something else. Something I could really recommend!
I discovered it’s important to know why you’re recommending a book (or anything). It could be:
There’s nothing wrong with reading writers who hold a different point of view. In fact, it’s essential at times so that our thinking broadens and sharpens.
But it’s unwise to recommend a book we’ve never read. When we do, the blind lead the blind.
(Photo: By Thomas Fisher, Rare Book Library. Flickr: Stacks view. CC-BY-2.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
I learned some valuable lessons that cost me more than the price of a book. It cost me some credibility, as I had to admit to the group I hadn’t cracked the book before we all bought copies.
If you’d like to see some books I actually do recommend (and that I have actually read), here are some recent ones.
Tell me what you think: Have you ever recommended a book you haven’t read? To leave a comment, just click here.
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