The Happy Rant: Wandering To and Fro Through Some Things That Don't Matter All That Much (and a Few That Really Do)

by Ted Kluck, Ronnie Martin, Barnabas Piper

Overview

From the creators of the popular Happy Rant podcast comes this collection of thought-provoking and often humorous discussions of Christian culture to help you gain valuable insight and clarity into the issues that frequently divide the church.  
 
Ted Kluck, Ronnie Martin and Barnabas Piper, hosts of the Happy Rant podcast, take their signature faith-based back-and-forth from the recording booth to the book page as they explore pastor trends, personality tests, political engagement, and more.
 
The Happy Rant crew have a lot of strong opinions, and occasionally, they even agree with one another! Candid and compelling, Ted, Ronnie, and Barnabas tackle everything from the divisive issues within the church to more lighthearted fare that reminds us not to take ourselves too seriously.
 
As entertaining as it is engaging, The Happy Rant will help you approach the world around you more thoughtfully and enjoy a laugh or two (or maybe three) along the way.  
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780736985321
Publisher:	Harvest House Publishers
Publication date:	08/02/2022
Pages:	208
Sales rank:	1,106,450
Product dimensions:	8.10(w) x 6.10(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Ted Kluck is an award-winning writer whose work has appeared in ESPN the Magazine, USA Today, and ESPN.com. He’s the author of several books, including Why We’re Not Emergent: By Two Guys Who Should Be, coauthored with Kevin DeYoung. Ted lives in Tennessee with his wife Kristin and their two sons, Tristan and Maxim. www.tedkluck.com

Ronnie Martin is an author, musician, speaker, and the lead pastor of Substance Church in Ashland, Ohio. He is also on the National Multiplication Board of the Evangelical Free Church of America.
He currently cohosts the Happy Rant Podcast with fellow authors and speakers Barnabas Piper and Ted Kluck.


Barnabas Piper is an assistant pastor at Immanuel Church of Nashville. He is also an author, speaker, husband, and the father of two daughters.

Table of Contents

Foreword 7

Introduction: How We'll Rant in Print 9

1 Evangelical Celebrity 13

2 Christian Fiction-the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly 25

3 Deconstructing Faith 37

4 Cool Pastor Trends 47

5 Doing Political Engagement Well 57

6 Dream Chasing and Disappointment 71

7 The Christian Addiction to Personality Tests 85

8 Evangelical Money Guilt 95

9 Thought Leaders-Neither Thinkers nor Leaders 107

10 At the Movies 117

11 Can Christians Be Funny? 131

12 Conferences, Why? 147

13 Church Holiday Shenanigans 163

14 Manly Men 175

The Happy Rant Dictionary 187

Appendix A Movie Rushmores 195

Appendix B Are Sports Dumb? (A Frank and Self-Indicting Discussion) 203

Editorial Reviews

05/23/2022

The Happy Rant podcasters Kluck (The Extraordinary Life of a Mediocre Jock), Martin (The Bride of Christ), and Piper (Help My Unbelief) hold court in these underwhelming dialogues on issues facing modern Christians. Presented as transcripts, the conversations cover such topics as evangelical celebrity, Christian fiction, and toxic masculinity while following the mantra “Take Jesus seriously, take our faith seriously, laugh at ourselves, and laugh at the absurdity in so much of Christian (and broader) culture.” The authors decry pastors who strive to seem hip, positing that truly “cool” people focus on humility and devotion to the Bible and the church. They also take on politics, lambasting the state of discourse: “Politics, in its current mutant form, has as much to do with issues of justice as Popeyes does with answering the question, Why did the chicken cross the road?” The humor, largely relegated to asides and footnotes, is more amusing than laugh-out-loud funny, and the authors’ aggrieved attitude comes across as bitter (“You’re white and north of 40, which means the only two ways to really be ‘okay’ culturally are to be either gay or British”). Aside from a few chuckles, this doesn’t deliver much. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly