Recent Reads: New Lenses by Jared Taylor

Jen Bradbury
Mar 14 · 5 min read

New Lenses

What the book's about: New Lenses: How I Met Jesus on MTV explores faith and culture. In each chapter, it's author, Jared Taylor, explores faith by introducing a principle rooted in pop - and in particular, music - culture. Jared then explores both faith and culture in tandem, integrating a wealth of Scripture in the process.   

Why I read this book: Jared and I attended grad school together at Huntington University. While there, I came to greatly admired Jared's love of Scripture and the ease with which he consistently wove it into conversations. I expected - and found - Jared's love of scripture to be readily apparent in his book. 

My favorite quotes from the book:

- "Ministry to self always leads to ministry with others." 

- "The true purpose of the church is soul business, not big business." 

- "Our job is to make disciples not only of specific demographics but also of the entire world." 

- "Whenever conflict exists, change is going to occur." 

- "Ministers are supposed to draw attention to Jesus. Nothing else."      

- "The indicator of the health & maturity of our relationship with God is our relationship with others." 

Who I'd recommend this book for: Ministry leaders interested in learning from culture. In particular, because this book's principles are drawn from the world of music, those involved in worship ministry of any kind will find it particularly interesting. 

Disclosure: I received a free copy of New Lenses in exchange for an honest review of it.