As the Lenten Season(the 7 weeks between Ash Wednesday and Easter) approaches, many of us like to read a new book or do a special Bible study with our small groups. Pastors Garnett Slatton and Carol Rettew, along with Karen Corcoran(Director of Adult Discipleship), would like to recommend
Breaking the Idols of Your Heart, by Dan Allender and Tremper Longman. Allender (professor of psychology at Mars Hill Graduate School) and Longman (one of the world's best Old Testament scholars) have teamed up again to give us a good companion to our sermon series on the Minor Prophets. Using the book of Ecclesiastes, they lay out for us the Teacher's warnings and, after all his activities, his final conclusion: Meaning and purpose come only when we get free from our idols and make God the center of our life and the object of our hope. Using a fictional narrative at the start of each chapter to encourage reflection on our own life and the lives of family and friends, the authors help us recognize and exchange cheap pursuits (idols) for the only One worth pursuing.
