Judging: a book verses a cover (Part 2)

I don’t think I’ve very good at titles. I won an award in journalism (in high school! hah!) for writing headlines. My talents have gone downhill ever since. Mostly because I get too in my head about it. I come up with an obscure inside joke that you’ll only get once you’ve read the entire book and then3 weeks later you’ll wake up with a jolt at 2am and you’ll go, “Oooooh! I see what she did there.”

That is NOT how titles should be.

Remember how I wrote about a book and how I judged the first 14 chapters, and how I refused to tell you the title just yet? Well, here it is: “There’s a Sheep in my Bathtub” by Brian Hogan.

In tiny letters underneath said title it says “Birth of a Mongolian Church Planting Movement”

Yup. Now THAT’S a title! And yes, while it’s clearly a joke you’ll get only once you’ve read the whole book, it’s also incredibly catchy. Turns out this title has a double meaning. The first meaning comes in those infamous first 14 chapters, but the second meaning comes later, it comes in the back half of the book. The half that makes me want to buy each and everyone one of you a copy. IMMEDIATELY. Actually, I have already bought it for one person and don’t tempt me, I might buy it for more.

Here’s a quote from the top of a chapter entitled “The Worst Christmas Ever”

“History has shown that throughout the ages, whenever the Kingdom advanced, someone first had to pay a terrible price.”- Phil Butler.

The gospel truth of the second half of this book has had me thinking on what I read ever since. It’s had me setting an alarm to get up early on Friday mornings just to pray for the things I read about in this book. This quote has me trembling in my boots, but also has me agreeing that yes, it is ALL worth it.

Basically, I’m telling you to go buy this book. I didn’t think a book I read in February would be the book of 2023. But I’m kinda thinking it might be.

Once you finish the book, shoot me an email, I wanna talk about it!