Archive for July, 2007
James W. Thompson. Pastoral Ministry According to Paul: A Biblical Vision. Baker, 2006. 176 pp.
In the present era, the minister is ultimately measured by the ability to organize, build, and manage a complex organization. Congregations continue to assume that the minister will maintain the traditional roles of marrying and burying, but they believe that the ultimate goal of the minister is to take the congregation to a new level of growth. The minister must be both an effective communicator and an administrator. In a competitive religious marketplace, the task of the minister is to ensure that the congregation maintains its place among religious consumers. Often search committees no longer look for someone who conforms to one of these models. Instead they seek someone who is a combination of, for instance, Jay Leno, Lee Iacocca, and Dr. Phil.
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Andreas Kostenberger & David Jones. God, Marriage, and Family: Rebuilding the Biblical Foundation. Crossway, 2004. 448 pp.
Summary of Findings
We have come to the end of our discussion, and it is now time to briefly summarize the findings of our study of the biblical teaching regarding marriage, the family, and related subjects. At the outset, we noted that for the first time in its history, Western civilization is confronted with the need to define the meaning of the terms “marriage” and “family.” The cultural crisis that rages concerning the definitions of these terms was seen to be symptomatic of an underlying spiritual crisis that gnaws at the foundations of our once-shared societal values.
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John Piper & Justin Taylor, eds. Suffering and the Sovereignty of God. Crossway, 2006. 256 pp.
Why God Appoints Suffering for His Servants
Why did God appoint for Paul to suffer so much as the prototype of the frontier missionary? He is sovereign. As every child knows he could toss Satan into the pit today if he wanted to and all his terrorizing of the church would be over. But God wills that the mission of the church advance through storm and suffering. What are the reasons? I will mention six.
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Randy Newman. Questioning Evangelism: Engaging People’s Hearts the Way Jesus Did. Kregel, 2004. 240 pp.
Introduction
You may think that this book is just plain weird. When it comes to evangelism, I think differently than a lot of people. I ask questions that other people don’t ask. I come up with answers that many people don’t think of. And answers that a lot of people find knock-down-drag-out invincible, leave me unconvinced.
Maybe you think like I do. Or maybe you know people who ask the same kinds of questions that I ask. Or maybe our world has changed so significantly that we need to rethink evangelism. . . .
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John Piper. What Jesus Demands from the World. Crossway, 2006. 400 pp.
Introduction
The aim of this book is God-glorifying obedience to Jesus. To that end I am seeking to obey Jesus’ last command: Make disciples of all nations . . . teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you (Matt. 28:19-20). Jesus final command was to teach all his commandments.
The Impossible Final Command
Actually, the final command was more precise than that. He did not say, Teach them all my commandments. He said, Teach them to observe all my commandments. You can teach a parrot all of Jesus commandments. But you cannot teach a parrot to observe them. Parrots will not repent, and worship Jesus, and lay up treasures in heaven, and love their enemies, and go out like sheep in the midst of wolves to herald the kingdom of God.
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Jason Janz. Alone with God: A Practical Plan for Dynamic Devotions. JourneyForth, 2006. 156 pp.
Chapter 1: It’s All about a Relationship
During my college years, I took a year off to travel. During that year, I took a trip that changed my life. My best friend and I planned a three-month missionary trip to Africa. We spent six weeks in the jungles of the Congo and six weeks in Kenya, a more modern African country. Plans developed smoothly until just before departure. I fell madly in love with a girl named Jennifer.
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Walt Mueller. Engaging the Soul of Youth Culture: Bridging Teen Worldviews and Christian Truth. IVP, 2006. 239 pp.
In a world where the lost long to be found, Jesus still commands his followers to “go and make disciples of all nations.”
This is a book about obedience to the Great Commission in a rapidly changing culture. I want to help you think seriously about our responsibility to go to the unique “nation” of young people living in our current postmodern culture, as well as subsequent cultures sure to emerge.
Whether we admit it or not, we’ve become increasingly ineffective at the task. We haven’t kept up in our ability to listen to and understand our world and its cries for redemption. We need to take a fresh look at what it means to live and proclaim God’s will and way as we cross cultures into the mission field of youth.
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John Ensor. The Great Work of the Gospel: How We Experience God’s Grace. Crossway, 2006. 192 pp.
The washing away of shame and guilt is properly the experience of God’s Great Work that accompanies our faith in Christ. . . .
Experiencing Forgiveness
The punishment that Christ bore on our behalf—a complete punishment for all our sins and a just punishment for each of them—cleared the way for the free flow of God’s mercy. In terms of our human experience, putting our faith in Christ and his Great Work on the cross means that we experience this mercy as a clean conscience and a bold, expectant confidence in drawing near to God. That too is part of the Great Work. The cross and our trust in the cross are akin to a gate being opened and a gate being entered. . . .
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Wayne Grudem. Evangelical Feminism: A New Path to Liberalism? Crossway, 2006. 272 pp.
Introduction
I am concerned that evangelical feminism (also called “egalitarianism”) has become a new path by which evangelicals are being drawn into theological liberalism.
When I use the phrase “theological liberalism” I mean a system of thinking that denies the complete truthfulness of the Bible as the Word of God and denies the unique and absolute authority of the Bible in our lives.
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Douglas Jacobsen & Rodney Sawatsky. Gracious Christianity: Living the Love We Profess. Baker, 2006. 144 pp.
We have a gracious gospel. The good news that Jesus proclaimed is that God is graciously disposed toward us. God loves us, and, indeed, God loves everyone and every good thing in this wonderful world in which we live. We are expected to do the same. The gospel invites us to mimic God’s own graciousness in our lives. It calls us to become so enveloped in God’s graciousness that we become conduits of God’s grace and love for others. Graciousness is a nonnegotiable dimension of Christian faith. It goes to the very core of the gospel. It is what makes the gospel good news.
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