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Dear Reader,
Have you ever been lonely in a crowd?
There’s a big difference between the deep, interpersonal connections between friends and the casual contact we get from people we bump into in the world. Many of our interactions each week are superficial and transactional. We may interact with the cashier at a store or a coworker, but our minds are on the next task on our to-do list. We’re polite but distant.
Between food delivery services, remote work, and endless entertainment on our devices, there are people living in our neighborhoods who may not interact with someone face-to-face in a given week. That’s one of the reasons we wrote Scrolling Ourselves to Death last year. Physically healthy people in our midst are starving for real community.
Churches often talk about caring for shut-ins—the elderly and infirm who can’t make it to church regularly. But we also have a significant opportunity to care for a digitally isolated generation by inviting them into our homes and our churches. The problem is that young people are sometimes so comfortable with their digital devices that they don’t accept our invitations.
Shelby Abbott’s book Why We’re Feeling Lonely speaks to young people who feel disconnected from the world and don’t know how to change. It’s an encouragement to get into a church community, because we need to meet other people in the flesh. Gen Z needs the church, and we need them.
As Kate Stevens writes in her review, “We have two young adults in our small group, and the seasoned adults are consistently energized by their perspective and vibrancy, while the young believers benefit from the stability our family life provides.” God provided the solution to loneliness through the church. Sometimes people just need encouragement to get involved.
Happy reading!
Andrew Spencer
Associate Editor
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New from TGC
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Book Review
Kate Stevens
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“The church has a responsibility to welcome young adults into community life. This book addresses the other side of the equation by encouraging young people not to sit on the sidelines. ‘Why We’re Feeling Lonely’ can help Gen Z find their place in the local church even as it helps older generations understand what might be holding young adults back.” Read the review.
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Book Review
Obbie Tyler Todd
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“On the frontier, ‘Pilgrim’s Progress’ was sometimes the only religious work aside from the Bible that those of humble means could obtain. Other than classroom texts, Abraham Lincoln’s first books were those his stepmother brought from Kentucky. ‘Pilgrim’s Progress’ was one of the first books Lincoln ever consumed, and according to historian David Herbert Donald, the future president knew the book so well that ‘the biblical cadences of Lincoln’s later speeches owed much to John Bunyan.’” Read the review.
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Book Review
Simonetta Carr
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Book Review
Andrew Spencer
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Book Review
John F. Hanna
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Sponsored Ad
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Links for the Reading Life
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Tim Challies, “Three Marks of a Good Christian Book” (Challies.com)
“The best Christian books are those that combine truth, love, and beauty, and do so in equal measure. Yet such books are rare. Some books are written beautifully and perhaps out of a desire to love others, yet they are destructive because they teach what is false. Some books may be truthful and well-written, but reflect no love for brothers and sisters in the Lord. In the corner of Christian publishing I’m most familiar with, we tend to place a high premium on truth and love, but a relatively low premium on beauty. My continued hope for Christian publishing is that, over time, we will increase our focus on beauty without diminishing our focus on truth and love. In this way, we will be serving the church with truthful resources that are loving and beautiful—resources that are shining examples of the best a book can be.”
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Ivan Mesa and Kelly M. Kapic, “On My Shelf: Life and Books with Kelly M. Kapic” (The Gospel Coalition)
“I love books on church history or historical theology because they help me resist the temptation to allow the current moment to dominate my imagination. Along similar lines, I’m finding Grace Hamman’s volume Jesus Through Medieval Eyes to be stimulating and helpful. And if readers haven’t yet read Carlos M. N. Eire’s Reformations: The Early Modern World, 1450–1650, please immediately rectify that!”
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Brittany Dahl, “Passion Week Reading Guide for ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’” (The Gospel Coalition)
“Each night during the week leading up to Easter, we curl up before bed to read and talk about C. S. Lewis’s story of betrayal, sacrifice, and hope. We ask questions about Edmund and his selfish decisions, the Beavers’ kindness, and whether we can make Turkish Delight. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is a worthwhile read-aloud anytime of year, but if you’d like to introduce the tradition of reading it during Passion Week, here are tips for different age groups.”
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Joel Miller, “Publishing’s Little Secret: It’s All Gambling” (Miller’s Book Review)
“When people discuss the dollars and cents of publishing, they refer to the ‘business model.’ What they fail to realize is that there’s very little business and even less model. Publishing is, at its most basic, betting. What Dostoevsky did for a thrill at the gambling halls, I used to do for a living at Thomas Nelson. Once you see it for what it is, the whole enterprise makes a lot more sense.”
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The Gospel Coalition
8520 Allison Pointe Boulevard, Suite 220, Indianapolis, IN, 46250
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