Teaching pastor at the influential New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado, Daniel Grothe explains the Bible's blueprint for becoming the kind of person who can deal with all of life's challenges.
Some people have learned how to live. They can handle all that life brings. They are composed. They radiate strength. They are whole, with lives worth emulating, and when they speak people listen. They are, in a word, wise. How did these people get wisdom? And perhaps more importantly, how can we?
In his long-awaited first book, Daniel Grothe of New Life church in Colorado Springs, Colorado, shows us how to get wisdom for ourselves by examining what the Bible has to say about it and by providing practical steps for acquiring it, among them:
learning to ask for help, loving Scripture, going to Church, living quietly, and, above all, seeking those who are themselves wise. Drawing upon Scripture and upon his own experience learning from his friend and mentor Eugene Peterson, Grothe shows how our lives can be secured by the resource that will keep us from collapsing under the onslaught of the difficulties of life. Wisdom is available to us. It takes work to pursue it. Chasing Wisdom reveals how.
What a timely book. The pursuit of wisdom is a slow practice...requiring stillness, thoughtfulness, intention, and a significant amount of time in listening spaces. Daniel offers some beautiful examples and practices that nudge us further into these places.
What a GREAT book! It was like a warm blanket and a gentle push in the right direction. It brought joy-filled tears to my eyes as I read each page.
The author is someone I worked with at New Life Church in Colorado Springs. He’s a great leader, pastor, and friend. I knew I’d like his book, I didn’t know how MUCH I’d like it.
He shares stories about his relationship with Eugene Peterson (who wrote the message bible).
This book answers the questions: How do we become the kind of people who know how to handle whatever life throws at them? How do we become wise?
What if you simply asked? So many times we are afraid to approach people we think either don't have time for us or would never answer our requests. However, pastor Daniel Grothe took the chance to send a letter to Eugene Peterson's publisher and started a journey of spiritual and personal growth that helped him through a traumatic time at his church and made him who he is today.
This is such an inspiring book and I highly encourage you to get a copy and ask God to lead you as you seek out wise counsel in your life.
My husband and I have been attending Daniel's congregation for over 3 years and have served on the leadership team.
This I know. Daniel Grothe is the real deal. In a celebrity culture, Daniel is a true gem with a humble heart.
Thank you for your obedience to contact Eugene years ago, Daniel, and to share this book full of wisdom with all of us so many years later. We love you and appreciate you!
This book seeks to share the wisdom of the Bible with us and show us how to live a more wise life. First we are shown how to ask for help and we are introduced to the sages in our life and reminded we need to work for wisdom. Then there are a set of chapters on the wisdom of the Bible.
We are introduced to The Wisdom of… Loving Scripture Going to Church a Quiet Life an Old Library Rest Holy Lament an Active Life
Following that is a chapter on the laying on of hands and where we go from here. The book was a nice light book with nice reminders about what the Bible says. It’s not a heavy book and won’t take you long to get through.
It would make a good gift book for a Christian friend.
This book was recommended to me by someone I met at a conference. A lot of the interesting aspects of this book were the stories he tells from being mentored by Eugene Peterson. The book explores the theme of wisdom and encourages you to ask for help/ mentoring by those content to be in the background, by those who refuse to be in a hurry, and by those who make their mentees work hard. It encourages you to seek wisdom by deeply dwelling in the word, going to church, living a quiet life in fields of obscurity, read books from the dead people of church history, practice sabbath, lament, exercise and practice the laying on of hands.
A refreshing read that celebrates many of the counter-cultural and ignored virtues of holiness.
Chapter 8 resonated the most with me, though Chapters 6, 7, and 9 weren't bad either. There's some great content in this book; little zingers that really made me stop and think; but it's surrounded by so much other stuff that didn't sit quite right. It felt a bit like some editing was in order. For example, don't call it a "conversation" you are having with the reader when it's clearly a monologue. And having an ode to your mentor is wonderful, but I'm not sure it added any value to this book's core purpose. If the author talked about himself less and distilled the core chapters into a smaller booklet, the content and message would have been unstoppable. But all the editorializing he included slowed down the momentum.
"'Chasing Wisdom" by Daniel Grothe is a non fiction Christian book. Daniel Grothe is the teaching pastor for New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado. This book guides us in how to get wisdom to help us face our daily challenges. He approaches his book with these topics: how to ask for help, loving Scripture, going to Church, living quietly, and, above all, seeking those who are themselves wise.He ties all of the topics into scripture. He also uses wisdom with each topic from Eugene Peterson who was his mentor. Eugene's insights are also very helpful. The book is very personal and practical. It is rich in guiding us how to live our lives . The book helps us in our decision making. and life choices. A book like this is so needed in our challenging world. These opinions are my own. Thank you to netgalley, the author , the publisher for allowing me to read and review this book. It is an excellent book and very personal.
I loved this book! What a worthy pursuit, to chase wisdom. Daniel Grothe suggests eleven beginning strategies: Learn to ask for help, introducing the Sages, learn to work for wisdom, the wisdom of loving scripture, going to Church, living a quiet life, the wisdom of an old library, of rest, of holy lament, of an active life, and developing a theology of the laying on of hands.
I love his respect for those who have more experience, the honor he shows to them as individuals who still have much to offer our society. I long to acquire wisdom and then, someday, have the opportunity to share it in quiet, humble ways.
I was really convicted by this book. Daniel’s central message of learning wisdom from the sages in your life is one that is really hitting me hard right now and this book really inspired me that those people do still exist and that if I ask for their help, they will help me. Definitely recommended!
Favorite Quote: “Eugene told me to “read the dead people” because their word has been “tested by more than one generation and been given passing marks. That means that what these Christians have written has been validated by something deeper than fashion or fad.”
I will give this five stars, because I want more books like this. Content-wise, it is uneven, but mainly because as in so many Christian books the author is a pastor - and pastors tend to have their own way of writing, the pastor's perspective, and I wish it were not so sometimes. It is, anyway, in every sense a great book that has a lot to give and has the potential to be a good guide in life. It is one of those books that just is good. It is not a profound classic, as it is not that deep, but it is great at the level it is written - and is thus very likable.
Chasing Wisdom is a book that was written to help Christians learn to be wise. The author is a pastor who had a crisis a few years ago when his church went through a number of traumatic events. Grothe states "Wisdom is found in seeking God; wisdom is acquired in face-to-face encounters with the sages". I very much agree with this quote. The book recounts wisdom from numerous Biblical passages as well as quoting a number of great thinkers from the past. There are a number of great ideas in the book, but for me, it did not hold together as a unified work. This book is more like the Proverbs: each chapter seems not to be connected to the others. Readers may be able to get some information from this book, but they likely could be better off reading the works that the author cites. I received a complementary copy of this book via NetGalley from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Reading a book written by my Colorado pastor was truly special to my heart. Daniel is one the most upstanding men I have ever known, who loves deep, and is himself a source of abundant wisdom. I'm so grateful to have been under his leadership for many years and will treasure his words and his teachings for years to come. Go grab yourself a copy and indulge!
Daniel has written a thought provoking, challenging yet encouraging book on our need to, and the how to, chase wisdom. The historical context mixed with the current application makes this a must read.
This is a book we all need to read these days. So often we forget the simple, yet complex task of the pursuit of wisdom and Grothe does a phenomenal job breaking it down into bite-sized, achievable snippets. This is a book I will read again and again.
An enjoyable book with some age-old wisdom and sage reminders. I would have enjoyed hearing more about Eugene Peters but did appreciate the peppering of different ideas and viewpoints throughout.
Chasing Wisdom! How profound in a world where everyone wants to toot their own horn, offer advice and “just do you” attitude. I am new to New Life Church, but what I have seen with the generational congregants of the Grothe family is that they have instilled this practice, “chasing wisdom” into their children, and their children’s children, and their families family. What an amazing thing to grow up learning how important the scriptures are, how to take care of “seniors”, learning how to “look people in the eye and really listen” and to “ask good questions”, to seek wisdom and to the elders to impart wisdom. Some may say that this is “brown nosing” and trying to be “teachers pet”, but this, what Pastor Daniel is suggesting IS NOT, it is a way to admit we don’t know it all, and it might be good for the future, for me to pay attention to the past. It is a very humble, good posture, for all of us to assume.
Pastor Daniel does a great job encouraging us to never give up on "Chasing Wisdom" I loved it, I am CHALLENGED by it, and inspired by it. Truly a gift. He has a very whimsical/lyrical style of writing that is beautiful! To heighten your reading experience, listen to "The Essential Church" podcast, episode 85 first, as Daniel sits down with some of the other pastors at New Life and talks about his book: https://theessential.church/episode-0...