I've been working for the last few weeks on a new sermon series for this summer entitled, "Dollars and Saints: Living into God's Economy." To prepare I've been reading several books on the Bible, theology, and economics. One of the most accessible of the books that I've been reading is Make Poverty Personal: Taking the Poor as Seriously as the Bible Does by Ash Barker. I had not heard of Ash before but one of the perks of my publishing contract with Baker is that they send me a few of their new releases.
Ash is Australian and he and his family live intentionally among the urban poor in Bangkok, Thailand. As one reviewer writes, "The great thing is that Ash writes not from the hallowed halls of academia or the rose colored glasses of a church office, but he writes from an unairconditioned office in the middle of Klong Toey slum."
It is a nice, short study of the different biblical genres and their view of the poor. The book is designed for small groups to read together and dialogue and pray about. One of the nice parts of the book is Ash's reflections from his own life and from the lives of those who live around him. For those who would be interested in a book for your small group that is not a challenge to read but will nevertheless challenge your thinking, I recommend this nice study that encourages believers to make poverty a personal rather than a social issue.
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