Book Review: Practical Christianity

A Fair Trade Book

Title: Practical Christianity

Author: Lavonne Neff et al.

Date: 1987

Publisher: Guideposts/Tyndale

ISBN: none

Length: 668 pages including indices

Quote: “when we are controlled by God’s Spirit, we beign to care about the things He cares about.”

Guideposts was Norman Vincent Peale’s magazine, a nondenominational, Christian-friendly collection of short, true, feel-good stories. Its contributors tended to be Christian preachers, and this was the incomplete collection of their preaching. they offer good general advice on almost every topic. Section heading include Christian growth, spiritual maturity, knowing God, becoming like Christ, living by the power of the Spirit, faith, hope, Christian love, difficult emotions, family conflict, spiritual discipline, suffering, church life, worship, the Bible, prayer, the dark night of the soul, the Christian lifestyle, sin, sex, determining God’s will, work, politics, service, friendship, sharing the faith, and “how to change for the better." Each section consists of 5 to 21 essays, some only one paragraph long, some two or more full pages. The editors promise that “the longest takes no more than ten minutes to read.”

Timed reading was a funny concept of the early twentieth century. There was an idea that if everyone concentrated on reading everyone would be able to read everything at a prescribed pace. I had a few books—only supplementary textbooks, thank goodness—that told students “Slow readers are poor readers” and told us exactly how many minutes we would need, if we were “good readers,” to read each of the short articles the editors had reprinted in the book. Echoes of this fad seem particularly weird in the context of a Sunday Book. Christian lectio can allow one sentence to take an hour, a day, or weeks to “read.” Well, that’s part of the point. These thoughts come from flawed mortals, most of whom would probably say, “Don’t choose my stuff for the discipline of lectio! Read the Bible! My writing was only ever meant to be introduction, commentary, or exposition on the Bible...”

Some articles contain Scripture references and some don’t. Some were written as complete articles, some as paragraphs within articles.

Neff and her fellow editors promised thoughts collected from “a hundred noted Christian writers and speakers,” all of whom were alive when these short pieces were printed in Guideposts. (Many are no longer with us, thirty years later.) Authors featured in this collection, whose longer work has also been discussed at this web site, include Luis Palau, Calvin Miller, J.I. Packer, Robert Schuller, William (Bill) Bright, Jill and Stuart Briscoe, Eugene Peterson, Evelyn Christenson, Hannah Hurnard, Janette Oke, Charles Colson, Lewis B. Smedes, Josh McDowell, David Seamands, Richard J. Foster, Anthony Campolo, and Madeleine L'Engle.

Sample thoughts: “The more I read Scriptures, the more I see of Jesus.”

“He sought out the Muslim leaders and asked them to teach him about their religion. they spent several hours explaining the tenets of Islam. Then they turned to Frank and said, ‘Now teach us about your religion.’”

“All I had to do to release the Spirit was to decline to gratify the desire of the flesh to set my wife straight.”

“American society...increases a man’s frustrations by making happiness and fulfillment seem impossible for anyone over thirty-five."

“We pray because we are commanded to.”

In a book of this size there’s sure to be something every reader will find helpful, and something every reader will find unhelpful. If you are a new Christian and seek guidance beyond what’s in the Bible, you can use this book.

To buy it here, send $5 per book plus $5 per package to Boxholder, P.O. Box 322, Gate City, Virginia, 24251-0322, or $5 per book, $5 per package, and $1 per online payment to the e-mail address you get from Salolianigodagewi, as shown at the bottom of the screen. This is a large book; only one more of the same size, or two standard-size book, will fit into the package. When you order Practical Christianity in support of this web site, we'll send $1 to Lavonne Neff or a charity of her choice.