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

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.

Book Review - The Pursuit of Holiness

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The previous book reviews have been a little long, sorry about that. I’m going to try and keep them shorter.

The next 3 books I will be reading and reviewing are: The Heart of Evangelism, The Next Generation Leader, and Biblical Foundations for Baptist Churches

The Pursuit of Holiness
by Jerry Bridges

Book Summary

The Pursuit of Holiness is a short book on the topic of personal holiness. It is practically written with a focus on how to live it out in daily life. Jerry Bridges communicates the absolute necessity of holiness for the believer and the disciplines that will lead the believer into a holy life.

Book Review

YOU NEED TO READ THIS BOOK!!!!!!!!!

The Pursuit of Holiness is a short book (approx. 200 pages) with a really powerful punch. If you want to live a holy life then you need to allow Jerry Bridges to help you. Every page of this book is packed with the meat of the Word of God.

Go get it now. Click here.

Book Review - Arminian Theology

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Arminian Theology
By Roger Olson

Book Summary

Olson’s purpose is to defend classical Arminianism through refuting 10 common myths about Arminian theology. He feels that there is widespread misunderstanding of the basic teachings of Arminianism. He is correct (there is also widespread misunderstanding about the teachings of Calvinism). This book is organized in a way that each chapter is able to stand alone as an individual topic. So you could read chapters 2, 5, and 9 without having to read the rest of the chapters if only the topics of those three chapters interested you. Arminian Theology is not an exegetical defense of Arminianism based on the Scriptures. Instead, Olson has taken the route of attempting to clarify what Arminian theology is based on the writings of its’ adherents over the past 500 years.

Book Review

Olson is an Arminian (many Calvinists will write books about Arminianism), so it is good to read a book about Arminianism written by an Arminian. I think that Olson has written a good book, although his experience and perspective of Arminianism seems to be quite different than my experience and perspective. Let me explain.

Olson writes of many people who are looked down upon for holding to Arminian theology and how Arminian theology in general has a bad rap among evangelicals (pp. 20-21, 29-30). So he seems to write out of a defensive position of feeling attacked. This is fine as long as we understand the perspective he is coming from.

I grew up Southern Baptist. My observation of Southern Baptist life is exactly the opposite. Southern Baptist churches are known for firing pastors who hold to Calvinism (I’ve never heard of an SBC pastor being fired for being Arminian). Southern Baptist state newspapers are known for writing anti-Calvinist editorals (as our own TBC B&R has done). Popular Southern Baptist pastors and churches hold anti-Calvinist conferences. My observation is that the SBC views Calvinism as a threat and actively fights against it.

Although I have some basic disagreements with Arminianism, I enjoyed this book b/c it allowed me to learn a lot and to see an Arminian theology explained. Although it was not his purpose, I would have liked to have seen some exegesis by Olson to explain some of the basic beliefs of Arminianism. In pages 15-39 (part of the introduction) Olson lays out what Arminians believe. I have marked these pages up left and right with the same questions, “What Scriptures proves this?” “Show me?” “Where does it say this?”

Recommendation: good book if you are comfortable in theological dialogue/debate, but not for beginners b/c there is no exegetical work to defend positions

Book Review - Chosen But Free

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Hey folks...I've read several books but have not gotten the reviews posted. I'll be posting several reviews over the next week. I messed up my listing of the books in the order I was going to read them, so I'll be posting a new order of the next 5 books. Sorry about that if you're trying to read along.

Chosen But Free
By Norman Geisler
2nd edition

Book Summary

Chosen But Free (CBF) enters into the world of the centuries long debate between Calvinism and Arminianism. To be brief, these are two systems of theology with differing views on the process and outworking of salvation in our lives. They can be summarized in this fashion. Calvinism affirms the following 5 things and Arminianism denies them…

• Total depravity – humanity completely dead in our sins
• Unconditional election – God elects unto salvation based on his will
• Limited atonement – Christ died only for the elect
• Irresistible grace – God will save those he intends to save
• Perseverance of the saints – the elect persevere to the end, thus proving their salvation

The subtitle of CBF is “A Balanced View of Divine Election.” Thus the purpose of the book is to try and forge a middle ground between Calvinism and Arminianism. Geisler claims to hold to a position he calls “Moderate Calvinism” (more about terminology below).

Book Review

CBF is a poorly written book for such a notable author. I will list what I consider to be two of the more significant problems for the book.

1. Terminology. Geisler introduces so many terms that it is practically impossible to know what he’s talking about sometimes. Geisler uses all of the following terminology without explaining what he means: Calvinist, Extreme Calvinist, Strong Calvinist, Less-strong Calvinist, Staunch Calvinist, Moderate Calvinist. Nobody knows what each of these terms means so it makes reading the book incredibly difficult.

The only one of the above terms that Geisler defines is “extreme Calvinism.” On page 47 he defines extreme Calvinism as, “God’s predetermination…independent of His foreknowledge of human free acts.” This is not extreme Calvinism. This is the position of historic Calvinism which flowed out of the Reformation and from Calvin himself. Calvinists believe in unconditional election. That is, election is not based on anything that God foresees in us. It is based only on his will.

He does the same thing again on pages 56-57 where he calls 5-point Calvinism, “Extreme Calvinism.” He is simply redefining terms.

So, my understanding of what Geisler is doing in the book is that he is trying to label Calvinism as “extreme Calvinism” in an effort to make it easier to dispatch of. Think about it, labeling something as “extreme” makes is sound like only crazy people would believe this.

2. Ripping Scripture Out of Context. This was by far the biggest disappointment of the book. Geisler is a well-known scholar, but his exegetical work in CBF is terrible. Biblical scholars with Ph.D.’s know better than to try and prove theological points by taking verses out of context. This makes me think that Geisler’s overarching commitment in this book is not faithfulness to Scripture but rather the maintaining of a theological point-of-view that he has.

The book is chalked full of Scriptures that are ripped out of context, so I will point out only one example to suffice. In pages 32-36 Geisler uses 66 verses in a section titled “What Saith the Scriptures?” in an attempt to show that we have libertarian free will. There is not one lick of exegesis of any of those 66 verses.

On p. 34 Geisler is trying to show that we have libertarian free will before God (what he calls “vertical free will”). Under these auspices he quotes 4 words out of 1 Peter 5:2 as part of his proof. Now in the ESV 1 Peter 5:2 has 27 words. What happened to the other 23? Here is Geisler’s sentence, “Peter describes what is meant by free choice when he says it is ‘not under compulsion’ but ‘voluntary.’”

Any idea what Peter is talking about there??? He’s telling pastors how to relate to their congregations. He’s not talking about whether or not we have free will before God in choosing or rejecting salvation. Here’s 1 Peter 5:2 in its whole, “shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly”. Now here’s the question…if Geisler had put the entire verse in his book would it have supported his point??? NO!!! So, therefore, he rips a few words out of context to make it say what he wants it to say. Completely unacceptable.

This type of handling of the Scriptures makes me want to be so careful every time I preach and teach. I want to handle the Word of God correctly. Pray for me church that I can do well in this.

Recommendation: Save your money, don't buy.

Book Review - Christless Christianity

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Christless Christianity by Michael Horton

Book Summary

Michael Horton offers up a crushing diagnosis of contemporary American Christianity where Christ is abandoned in favor of some other form of man-centered pseudo Christianity. The solution he points us to is the same solution that the church has been abandoning for the entirety of its existence…the true gospel of Jesus Christ.

Horton calls the main problem “moralistic, therapeutic deism.” We’re not that bad. God’s not that great. Christianity is about this life. The problem the contemporary American church faces has an ancient name: Peliganism. Peliganism is a heretical system of theology that exalts the ability and nature of man to do and be good and ultimately make the right choice to save himself, although salvation is not that great because sin is not really that big of a problem. Horton exposes this system of theology in the current trends of the prosperity gospel that the popular Joel Osteen and Joyce Meyer preach and the emergent church movement led by the likes of Brian McLaren.

Horton issues a call for the American church to return to a Christ-centered Christianity. He issues this call as a “call to resistance” because it will ultimately go against our very human nature to be Christ-centered. If we are Christ-centered, gospel-loving, God-exalting then we cannot go with the current of human-centered ministry.

Book Evaluation

This was a timely book for me, as a pastor trying to evaluate all that is going on in the current landscape of American evangelicalism. I think Horton’s critique is very accurate and that our human nature is to always leave Christ-centered ministry in favor of some form of ministry that exalts us and tries to make us feel good about ourselves and our plight in this world.

I recommend you read this book with the following understanding…

This book is not an easy read simply due to the target level of readership. The assumed knowledge of advanced Christian vocabulary and the assumed knowledge of Christian history (early history, reformation history, and 2nd great awakening history) make for a more difficult book if you do not have the assumed background knowledge.

Mark’s Related Commentary

I strive to have a Christ-centered ministry but I know that I / we can do better in many areas at First Baptist. It is my thought that Christ-centered ministry is often absent in churches and the people of the church do not even know it b/c they are fed a steady diet of “do this” “do that” “live this way” without grounding all of the exhortations in the gospel. It seems and feels like Christianity, but it is really a moral improvement program with a Christian wrapper. We don’t need to do more ministry…we need to be ministered to by the Son of God, the one who, to our own objection, gets on his knees with a towel wrapped around his waist and serves us. Church, let’s have Christ as our center in all that we are and do!!!

Book Review - If You Take My Hand, My Son

Book Summary

This book sets forth a model for Christian parents to follow in raising their sons to be men of God. This book is focused particularly on boys, although large parts of it could be applied to girls as well. The book covers various character traits that we want to see developed in our sons at a pace of one per chapter (e.g. the title of chapter 5 is “Leading a Boy to Be a Man of Grace”, chapter 10 is “Leading a Boy to Be a Man of Discipline”, etc.). In each chapter the author shows the biblical necessity for the character trait and then gives practical advice about developing this type of character in a young boy so that he will own it when he becomes a man.

Book Review

Overall, I would recommend this book because I think that it correctly focuses on character formation. This is important. So much is written about behavior and how to get children to act right and grow into good citizens. Character formation takes care of behavior.

There were a few drawbacks to this book. I’ll just mention one. I think what was written in 220 pages could easily have been scaled down to a more manageable 130-150 pages. There’s just a lot of extra stuff in the book that didn’t need to be there. This is not a big problem.

Let me leave you with a few quotes that were memorable for me.

“Wisdom does not suddenly overtake our sons.” – p. 45

“We need to remind our sons, every day of their lives, how much we love them. We must convey that they are wonderfully and fearfully made. They are created in His perfect design, in God’s very image. They are significant just on the basis alone.” – p. 64

“Church is the hub of our social life and we made it clear to our children that church was important to us. Please hear me loud and clear parents: If you make church a priority, your children will see that priority and come to understand its importance. If you yourselves whine about it or try to make excuses for not attending, so will your children later on in their lives.” – p. 116

Book Review - The Tipping Point

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Book Summary

This book is a study of how epidemics are started. The title “The Tipping Point” comes from the idea of what causes something to “tip” from being a localized phenomenon to a large-scale movement. The focus of the book was to discover how epidemics (disease, social, ideological, behavioral, etc.) are spread in hopes of gaining insight into the ability to purposefully start your own epidemic for your product, idea, etc.

The discovery was that word-of-mouth epidemics are highly dependent upon just a few critical types of people: connectors, mavens, salesmen. Word-of-mouth epidemics are not initially about how many people you can tell, but about who you can tell. A connector is a person who has relationships with large numbers of people (“that person knows everybody”). A maven is a person who collects large amounts of information and wants to pass it on to others because he or she likes to be helpful (think about the person who loves to tell you about good shopping deals). A salesman is a person who has the ability to persuade others to certain action. These three groups of people are key in starting word-of-mouth epidemics. You want to get your message into their hands.

Book Review

I had seen this book recommended by several pastors and thought it might be a good read. I like to mix some business books in with my other reading because all truth is God’s truth. Many business books have excellent application for ministry leadership.

I was not, however, particularly impressed with this book’s usefulness for general ministry purposes. I loved the stories and data and examples and research…all very interesting. The idea of the book is that we need to find the few who will start a word-of-mouth epidemic. For the Christian church we are not looking for the few who can spread the word, but we want everybody to be spreading the word.

That said, it could be useful for ministry if we were desiring to have a large event or start some huge ministry and wanted to spread the news by word-of-mouth. It was a good read but not so useful for day-in and day-out ministry.

Book Review - The Shack

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Here's my first book review of the year. It's will also be the shortest review of the year.

I won't be posting a review. I will be discussing The Shack on Sunday night, Jan. 11th.

We start at 6:30pm. See you there.