Book Review - The Next Generation Leader

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The Next Generation Leader
by Andy Stanley

Book Summary

This is a short little book for the men and women who are rising up to be the next generation of leaders. Stanley covers 5 elements to being a good leader: competence, courage, clarity, coaching, character.

Book Review

Stanley writes well on the topic of leadership because he is one of the extraordinary ministry leaders of our day. This book is too small to be a very comprehensive treatment of leadership, but it is a good introduction to the topic. The book itself could actually be easily condensed down to a short booklet because it is filled with so many stories, much of which can easily be skipped over. Overall, a good quick read on leadership.

Next 3 books up
1. 10 Great Ideas from Church History
2. Made to Stick
3. Pierced for Our Transgressions

Reminder - AWANA Awards Ceremony

Just a reminder...

The AWANA awards ceremony is this Wednesday at 6:00pm in the Sanctuary. We want all adults to join with us reguardless of whether or not you worked in AWANA ministry. Please make a special note of the time. We are starting at 6:00pm.

Blessings...

Mark

Book Review - The Heart of Evangelism

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The Heart of Evangelism
by Jerram Barrs

Book Summary

Barrs has written a simple and straightforward book about evangelism and the principles involved in sharing the gospel with others. There are four sections to this book: Mission to the World, The Kindness and Perseverance of God, Barriers in the Way of Communicating the Gospel, Making the Gospel Known

Book Review

I like this book very much. It is Scripture-saturated from cover to cover. If you have been a Christian for long you probably already know the content of the gospel. This book will help you greatly, particularly the final section which deals with principles in sharing the gospel.

Many evangelism books will give you techniques of sharing the gospel. Many evangelism books give you a canned presentation of the gospel that you can just unload on anybody. Barrs does none of this. He is very big on the importance of the individual and the necessity of tailoring the gospel presentation to the person or group you are speaking to. Barrs gives us principles by which we are to work when sharing the gospel. Excellent.

Book Review - Biblical Foundations for Baptist Churches

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Biblical Foundations for Baptist Churches
By John Hammett

Book Summary

Hammett has written a thorough book outlining Baptist ecclesiology (doctrine of the church). Hammett himself is a member of the Southern Baptist denomination and teaches at Southeastern Baptist Seminary. The book is divided into 5 parts covering the basics of the nature of the church and then diving into Baptist specifics of who the church is, how the church is governed, and what the church does. Hammett concludes part 5 by writing about where we are headed.

Hammett spends significant time dealing with the weaknesses that have crept into 20th and 21st century Baptist churches. He writes at length about regenerate church membership and how Baptist churches can return to what has been a historic Baptist practice, but was abandoned in the 20th century.

Book Review

This is an excellent book. I would recommend that this book be read by anybody who is interested in seeing how a healthy Baptist church should function. Hammett makes no bones about the departures that the Baptist church at large has made from historic Baptist principles.

This is a hard read, but a good read. It pulls in at 354 pages, so buckle down.

Of particular interest should be parts 2 and 3. Part 2 answers the question, “Who is the church?” by addressing the issue of regenerate church membership and church discipline. These are practices that Baptists have abandoned and which have caused our churches to greatly weaken over time. Case in point with our own church…we have 650 members and about 180 average attendance. In centuries past, Baptists would have never allowed this to happen, but in our day it seems to be normal practice. Part 3 answers the question, “How is the church governed?” by stating that Baptists should be congregationally governed (ch. 6) with plural elder leadership (ch. 7) and served by a deacon body (ch. 8). Hammett provides excellent Scriptural and historical evidence for this model. Again, on this issue, modern Baptists find themselves to have departed from this pattern.

In conclusion, I would highly recommend this book if you have the desire to see how the Baptist church should properly function according to Scripture and history.