GROW Conference Reviews 2023

Rebecca McLaughlin 10 Questions every teen should ask and answer

Rebecca is an excellent apologist. I love this book. If you have a teenager, buy it and read it with them. If you’re a youth leader, buy a copy for Christmas for each of your youth kids. If you are a youth or a young adult, buy it and read it with other young people in your church. If there’s a teenager in your life, whether you’re a grandparent or an aunt, a mum, a youth leader, or a brother or sister in Christ. Buy this and read it with the teens in your church.

Kevin DeYoung The Hole in our Holiness

This book significantly shaped my life as a young adult, it’s about 10 years old now but I think it’s just as relevant today as ever. It was written in a time where the church was pushing so hard against legalism and into grace, that we swung the pendulum so far into grace, we stopped thinking about holiness. This can be a dangerous conversation, and Kevin starts off acknowledging that. We need to be careful that we don’t diminish or forget about grace. For it is by grace we have been saved, through faith, and it’s not of ourselves – it’s a gift of God. But the truth of the Gospel is that we’re not just saved from something but saved to something as well.

Full of Biblical truth and encouragement, this is a book that everyone should read, praying that God would grow us and shape us to be more like Jesus, as we draw near to Him.

This is a book for every believer, to be challenged to respond to God’s grace, in ways we can only do because of His grace, and praise Him throughout it all.

Paul Grimmond When the Noise Won’t Stop

I read this book pretty recently, and it’s my favourite book I’ve read so far on mental health. It doesn’t go deeply into all areas of mental health, it focuses a lot on anxiety, but has a lot of helpful and Biblical advice that can help shape other mental health struggles as well.

What I appreciate most about this book is how it addresses three ‘ologies.’ It looks at biology, psychology, and theology, and presents a helpful picture of anxiety, showing all the complexities involved with our bodies, our minds, and our hearts. And what I really appreciated was the author grappling sensitively and thoughtfully with sin, and how it impacts our anxiety. He stays away from the traps of claiming that all anxiety is wilful sin, or the trap of claiming none of it has anything to do with sin, and what he does quite beautifully is guides the reader through the discussion of how we, as sinful humans, can engage our anxiety, bringing it and submitting it to the Lord, even as we still continue to struggle with it in our lives.

There’s a lot of helpful practical advice about engaging our minds, caring for our bodies, relating to our environment, praying in light of our anxieties, and in applying the good news of the Gospel to our daily lives, remembering that sin, death, and decay don’t have the final victory – Jesus does.

This book reminds the weary that there is hope, and seeks to help those caring for and supporting others as they struggle with anxiety. It’s an easy read, and I recommend picking it up if any of what I’ve said interests you.

Rachel Gilson Born again this way

Written by a Christian who has sexual attraction and desire for her own gender. An excellent book that speaks to the fact that we are all born in sin, and yet when we come to Christ we are born again in Him. I really love the gentle reminder that sanctification and holiness isn’t a three step plan that everyone will follow in the same time frame, but that we can faithfully journey with each other through our lives as we seek to live for Christ in all we do.