TRANSFORMING MINISTRY
SOME RECOMMENDED BOOKS FOR LENT 2025

The Whole Easter Story

Author Jo Swinney
Publisher BRF £9.99
Format pbk
ISBN 9781800392694

Maybe you are looking for a book to study during Lent which offers an in-depth look at the relationship of God with His creation and His people; then at our response to God, our world and its inhabitants. If so, then this could be the very book for you! Jo Swinney moves us beyond a personal salvation within the Easter story, to an intense longing to preserve our planet and all its creatures. She has a passionate involvement with ‘A Rocha’ and its conservation programme, first in Portugal and now on six continents. She includes stories from ‘A Rocha’ in her book, along with forty Bible readings, reflections and prayers.

Jo has the ability to relate the profound truths of Easter in a fresh and readable way, sharing her own experiences and illustrating these with her pen-drawings of creatures and plants from around the world. There will be times you will smile, but also times of tearful regret as you soak up Jo’s poignant descriptions of the natural world, making it crucial to our Christian lives. This book comes at a critical time, propelling its readers to pray, to act and to discuss together how to make a difference. Included is a discussion guide for groups, extending over the six weeks of Lent. Here we have ‘The Whole Easter Story’; let’s embrace it and encourage others to do likewise, looking to the cross as it offers salvation to a struggling world and a needy people.

Reviewed by BETTY TAYLOR

Lent

Who do you say I am?

Author Joanne Grenfell & Adam Atkinson
Publisher Canterbury Press £13.99
Format pbk
ISBN 9781786225696

If a word were stressed in the title of this collection of fourteen ‘Lent and Easter Reflections for a Holy City’ as the subtitle defines it, it should be you. The authors share John’s Gospel’s conviction that Christ is a God of unconditional love: their meditations focus on the challenge of our response to that love, informed by the authors’ experience of living lives of faith in contemporary London. Each meditation on a section of John 12-21 consists of a sonnet and a prayer by Atkinson, a reflection by Grenfell and an intense illustration by Ali Mulroy. Shards of light in these images suggest a holiness already present in the city, and the extraordinary potential for its further transformation. Grenfell’s reflections confront topics like violence, abuse, racism and death, but also celebrate interfaith communities, liberation, transcendence and love. Some dwell more in the biblical text, others more in life experience; all are unflinchingly direct.

Atkinson’s sonnets are densely muscular, sometimes contorting syntax to fit the form, powerfully wrestling with the struggle of ‘what’s been a God-Almighty fight’ in Holy Week, whereas the prayers flow in lucid five-syllable poetic lines of often childlike appeals: ‘Dear Jesus, I ask, / Please listen to these / My supplications.’ The unadorned prose of the NRSV text of John chosen for the volume complements these prayers particularly well. The diversity of the elements of each meditation suggests the book’s capacity to appeal to readers of differing tastes, and this, together with its focus on communities, makes it a strong contender for group study during Holy Week and early Easter. Both individuals and groups, however, will be challenged by the title question and, the authors hope, inspired to voice their answer.

Reviewed by JOHN MOSS

Lent

Living to Please God

Author Lee Gatiss
Publisher IVP £10.99
Format pbk
ISBN 9781789745399

Subtitled ‘Life for a higher purpose and pleasure’, Lee Gatiss has written a book which is very thought provoking. How can our lives ‘put a smile on the face of God?’ By tackling the themes of God’s happiness, why please God, who pleases God, how we can rejoice in repentance, what delightful worship is, what is right or wrong about a life of pleasure and what might be the most treasured of gifts in the spiritual life, we have a series of thoughtful provoking chapters which could provide the basis for a Lent discussion group. Each chapter contains some stimulating questions which can help develop dialogue and reflection. There are many phrases in the text that stop you and make you think. Take this one – ‘True happiness is holiness.’ Many of us would not necessarily formulate a sentence like that, but Gatiss is right in drawing our attention to what life should be. The author is the leader of the Church Society and as an evangelical, he does draw upon Puritan thinking from authorities such as Thomas Manton. The book could benefit from some more up to date examples and quotations, as well as the wisdom of the ages that he gives us; but this is a thoughtful brief introduction to God’s holiness and how that should influence the way we live.

Reviewed by CAVAN WOOD

Lent

Holy Week in Luke’s Gospel

Author John Proctor
Publisher Grove £4.95
Format pbk
ISBN 9781788274296

Holy Week in 2025 is a good time to study the Passion in Luke. On Palm Sunday, the Passion reading is from Luke 22:14 – 23: end; and throughout the week the Morning Prayer lectionary repeats these passages, although we revert to the Passion in John on Good Friday. This book from John Proctor, subtitled ‘A Credible Jesus for the Real World’ is an ideal guide for the faithful Holy Week disciple. While it is focused on the narrative of Jesus’ arrest, trial and crucifixion, it demonstrates how Luke’s wider narrative within the whole of his gospel creates a deeper picture of his ministry. In the words of the author, ‘Luke’s Passion shows a Jesus of deep compassion and understanding, as he grieves for his people’s hurts, reaches out to strangers and bystanders and guides his disciples..

I was especially impressed by the first substantive chapter describing Jesus’ pilgrimage to the cross, from the moment he ‘set his face to go to Jerusalem’ (Luke 9:51). Describing this journey, Proctor draws out several allusions to the ‘suffering servant’ passages in Isaiah, especially from Isaiah 53:7-12. He shows Jesus to be the ‘leader of the new Exodus’ – after the Transfiguration – and also links him closely to the martyred prophets (e.g. Luke 13:31-35). On arrival in Jerusalem, he pays particular attention to the tears of Jesus over the city, rather than the triumphal entry. Proctor sees Jesus’ lament as a prophetic vision of the subsequent destruction of the Temple by the Romans in 70AD.

Other chapters deal with the trial of Jesus before Herod – unique to Luke’s account – and draw out other unique narratives: the encounter with the women of Jerusalem and the dialogue with the penitent thief – examples of Jesus’ compassion and concern at the height of his suffering. Proctor’s focus then suddenly reverts to the Last Supper, which seems oddly out of sequence, until we recognise that the whole Passion narrative is about the inspiration that Jesus will give, providing ‘strength and inspiration’ for his friend (and future disciples). The acts of the crucified and risen Jesus round off this helpful booklet – a chapter that could be left until the days after Easter.

I recommend this thoughtful and wise book which may be used individually, or in groups (for there are questions for discussion at the end of each chapter). It is excellent value for money, and has potential for wider use than a Holy Week devotional, for its scope covers many facets of Luke’s enthralling narrative.

Reviewed by LEONARD RICKARD

Lent

Living Hope: A Lent Journey

Author Cathrine Fungai Ngangira, Belle Tindall, Victoria Mason
Publisher CHP £2.50*
Format pbk
ISBN 978178405000

Living Hope: A Lent Journey for Children

Author Anon
Publisher CHP £1.99
Format pbk
ISBN 9781781405031

These booklets represent the Church of England’s theme for Lent 2025. The main version, comprises forty reflections, based on a series of Bible passages, together with a simple prayer to use throughout each week and a challenge linked to the daily theme.

The three authors have produced interesting and varied material around the weekly topics of hope, trusting, togetherness, noticing, courage and transformation. They have, by and large, wisely avoided the clichés and potentially over-familiar Bible passages of past booklets and have clearly worked hard to give ideas which are fresh, relevant and yet challenging. It was good, for example, to see unfamiliar passages from Lamentations and Ecclesiastes and that the prophets are well-represented. The daily challenges are original and occasionally demanding.

There is a section called ‘Introducing Lent’ which suggests there may be a focus on Christians new to the faith, or those for whom formal Lenten liturgy is unfamiliar; but all Christians may benefit from following the booklet faithfully through the Lenten season. It is, however, designed for individuals rather than home groups.

In contrast to the vibrancy of the main booklet, I found the companion for children rather mundane and unexciting and I felt that something more engaging was needed.

Reviewed by ELIZABETH STEPHENSON

Lent