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In this video, I interview Dr. Gary Tyra of Vanguard University regarding his new book, The Holy Spirit in MIssion: Prophetic Speech and Action in Christian Witness. You can purchase the book for $9.99 here.

In this video, I interview Doug Clay about his new book, Dreaming in 3D. Clay is general treasurer of the General Council of the Assemblies of God.

In this video, I interview Brian Dollar, author of I Blew It! The Biggest Mistakes I’ve Made in Kids’ Ministry…And How You Can Avoid Them.

In this video, I interview Dr. Craig S. Keener regarding his new book, Miracles: The Credibility of the New Testament Accounts (Baker Academic). The book (and the interview) ranges widely across New Testament studies, philosophy, contemporary field sociology, and systematic theology.

In this video, I interview Mark Batterson about his new book, The Circle Maker. (See my review here.) It’s a great interview, although we experienced some technical problems in the last few minutes. Enjoy!

Mark Batterson, The Circle Maker: Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest Fears (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011). $19.99, 224 pages.

In the First Century B.C., during a period of extreme drought, a Jewish man named Honi stood outside the walls of Jerusalem, drew a circle around himself, and prayed the following prayer: “Lord of the universe, I swear before Your great name that I will not move from this circle until You have shown mercy upon Your children.” Jerusalem’s religious leaders were appalled at this man’s audacity. Then it rained.

Mark Batterson opens The Circle Maker with this story and challenges his readers to pray like Honi. Utilizing biblical narratives, personal testimonies, and a gift for aphorism, Batterson challenges his readers to “dream big,” “pray hard,” and “think long.” In other words, he dares them to ask God for things only he can accomplish, to be persistent in the asking, and to think not of short-term, selfish gain but of long-term, far-reaching benefits for others.

Early on in The Circle Maker, I started to worry that Batterson was veering into “name it and claim it” territory. Like the Honi’s Jerusalem critics, I was forming the impression that Batterson was being presumptuous. But Batterson dispels this impression in a single paragraph: “God cannot be bribed or blackmailed. God doesn’t do miracles to satisfy our selfish whims. God does miracles for one reason and one reason alone: to spell His glory. We just happen to be the beneficiaries.”

But we cannot be God’s beneficiaries if we aren’t encircling our lives with bold, persistent, long-term prayer. That is the enduring lesson of this excellent. Indeed, isn’t that the enduring lesson of the Most Excellent Book: “The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective” (James 5:16)?

P.S. Batterson is releasing a Circle Maker Curriculum Kit, which includes “one hardcover book, one participant’s guide, one DVD-ROM containing four small-group video sessions, a getting started guide, four sermon outlines, and all the church promotional materials needed to successfully launch and sustain a four-week church experience.” Here’s a promotional video for the book and the DVD-based curriculum:

P.P.S. I’m interviewing Mark Batterson about The Circle Maker on Thursday, December 8, at 3:00 p.m. (CST) on MinistryDirect.com/live. You can email questions for Mark to questions@ministrydirect.com, tweet them using #MinistryDirect, or post them on the Facebook message board on the live page. (You must be logged into Facebook to use the message board.)

Tomorrow–Thursday, December 8–I’m interviewing Mark Batterson about his new book, The Circle Maker: Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest Fears. The interview will be webcast live on MinistryDirect.com at 3:00 p.m. (CST). If you’d like to ask Mark questions about his book, about prayer, or about other ministry topics, email your questions to questions@ministrydirect.com, tweet them using #MinistryDirect, or enter them on the Facebook message board on MinistryDirect’s live page. (You must be logged into Facebook to post questions on the message board.) I’ll do my best to ask Mark every question I receive.

If you’d like to know a little more about this book, watch Mark’s promotional video for it and the for the companion DVD-based small group series.

In this video, I interview Prof. John Fea about his excellent book, Was America Founded as a Christian Nation? Fea is professor of history at Messiah College in Grantham, Pennsylvania.

Interview with John Fea, Author of “Was America…, posted with vodpod

You can read my review of Fea’s book here.

If you’d like to skip ahead to a particular question, here’s the time code:

• 00:00 Introduction
• 00:56 How’s the weather today in Grantham, Pennsylvania?
• 01:44 Why did you find it important to write this particular book on this particular topic at this particular time?
• 05:08 What do historians do? How is their perspective different from other people who ask questions such as the one your book asks?
• 08:49 Name a few advocates and books of Christian nationalists and the secularists who oppose them.
• 14:01 Walk us through the varieties of Christian nationalism that have appeared in American history.
• 21:02 There are multiple ironies in the history of the idea of Christian nationalism. Can you talk a bit about those?
• 28:36 Chapter 7 is titled “The Revolutionary Pulpit.” You argue that patriotic preachers used the Bible to support the revolutionary cause, but their use of it seems tendentious. Can you talk a bit about the revolutionary pulpit?
• 37:42 The relationship between church and state is one of the biggest flashpoints in the contemporary debate between Christian nationalists and secularists. Can you address the issue of the so-called “wall” between church and state?
• 45:40 Tell us about the religious beliefs of these Founders: George Washington, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson.
• 50:35 How do we justify slave ownership by Founders who considered themselves Christians?
• 52:53 Tell us about the religious beliefs of these Founders: John Witherspoon, John Jay, and Samuel Adams.
• 55:28 What books on the Founding Period, including this topic, would you recommend?
• 57:43 Upcoming events on MinistryDirect.com/live

In this video, I interview Mike Clarensau about his new book, From Belonging to Becoming: The Power of Loving People Like Jesus Did. Mike is senior director of the Healthy Church Network. Prior to that, he was senior pastor of Maranatha Worship Center in Wichita, Kansas. From Belonging to Becoming charts a new pathway of discipleship. Instead of believing-belonging-becoming, Mike argues that Jesus practiced belonging-believing-becoming, putting relationship before the call to faith or the commitment to a new lifestyle. Indeed, the relationship with Jesus made both faith and holiness possible in the lives of Jesus’ followers. This is the model of discipleship we too should follow.

I reviewed Mike’s book here.

Here are the questions Mike answered with timecodes:

• 00:03 Introduction
• 00:28 The “assimilation process” at most churches looks like this: believing-becoming-belonging. In this book, you argue that belonging comes first: belonging-believing-becoming. How did you come to the realization that most churches’ “assimilation process” has things backward?
• 05:39 Throughout the book, you use the story in Luke 7 about the sinful woman anointing Jesus’ feet at the home of Simon the Pharisee. There are three main characters in the story. There are also two ways of responding to the sinful woman and two ways of responding to Jesus. What are those ways?
• 08:45 Why is so hard for pastors and church members to realize that their ways of responding to “sinners” are often more like the Pharisees’ than like Jesus’? What are the rationalizations we offer for our ways of responding, and why are they wrong?
• 12:28 What do you mean by “belonging”? Does it involve putting nonbelievers in positions of leadership at the church?
• 15:16 John Maxwell says that people don’t care what you know until they know that you care. Is that true? What do you mean when you say, “Once that people know that you care, they care what you know”?
• 18:00 Throughout the book, you share your own personal journey of discovery on this matter. How did your specific context in Wichita, Kansas, help you make this discovery?
• 22:02 Are you really saying that there aren’t moral absolutes or things that the church should be known for?
• 25:12 Isn’t it a lot more easy (and fun) to denounce sin than to redeem the individual sinner?
• 26:50 Is belonging-believing-becoming a methodological approach to helping people experience the wholeness of life Jesus offers?
• 28:36 All of this sounds like that “seeker sensitive” stuff. Doesn’t the Bible describe the gospel as an offense?
• 31:10 The book complexifies our thinking by forcing us to realize that much of what we do at church is more Pharisaical than Jesus-like. It forces us to ask, “What kind of Christianity am I actually practicing?” What’s the difference between becoming like Jesus as opposed to becoming like other church people.
• 33:31 Part 2 of the book describes the shift of thinking church leaders must experience to begin to welcome the “sinful woman” into their community as Jesus did. What does that shift look?
• 36:46 What can pastors do to begin to forming friendships with people outside of church?
• 39:19 What about the objection: |”We don’t want ‘those people’ around our kids”?
• 41:22 What can we do to be more friendly to people who begin to attend our church?
• 43:45 What should church leaders take into account in their “assimilation process”?
• 46:31 What is “congregational astigmatism”? How do we overcome it?
• 49:00 What is the Healthy Church Network? Where can people get more information about it?
• 50:32 Concluding remarks

In this video, I interview Pastor Rod Loy about his new book, “3 Questions: A Powerful Grid to Help You Live in the Grace of God.” Well, that was my intention. We actually ended up talking about the book as well as a lot of other topics. Enjoy!

Here’s the timecode on the video, in case you want to skip ahead to a specific question:

• 00:03 Introduction
• 01:11 How can a pastor wear a pink shirt?” & other crazy questions pastors are asked.
• 02:15 How do you protect your super-secret identity as Rocketman?
• 03:30 What are you doing Christmas Sunday morning? Are you having service? Why or why not?
• 07:12 What advice do you have on parenting?
• 10:30 Your book is called 3 Questions. What are the questions? What are they about? And what motivated you to write this book.
• 16:30 Which of the three questions was most difficult for you?
• 18:48 At this past General Council, you called the question on Resolution 20 to consolidate the Assemblies of God’s three national schools: AG Theological Seminary, Central Bible College, and Evangel University. Do you feel comfortable having called for the question, or are you worried that there are still unhealed wounds in our Fellowship regarding the GC decision to consolidate the schools?
• 23:57 How should a pastor use social media?
• 29:02 What’s on your heart regarding missions? Where do you see AG missions going?
• 31:17 What’s your biggest concern for the next generation of Christians? Non-Christians?
• 34:53 With your schedule as a senior pastor, how do you stay connected to the next generation?
• 36:42 What do you see as the biggest challenge facing the Assemblies of God?
• 38:43 What kind of book is 3 Questions? A discipleship book? A self-help book?
• 41:21 What advice do you have for people just starting out in vocational ministry?
• 42:35 What should I do to get a coach/mentor?
• 45:15 How doe please God in a people-pleasing culture?
• 46:55 Where do pastors and church leaders need to be more courageous?
• 48:33 What’s been your biggest surprise since becoming a senior pastor?
• 49:46 What’s been your biggest surprise about becoming an executive presbyter?
• 52:33 Announcement of future MinistryDirect.com interviews