Archive for the 'Baker' Category
D. A. Carson. New Testament Commentary Survey. Baker, 2007. 160 pp.
The purpose of this short book is to provide theological students and ministers with a handy survey of the resources, especially commentaries, that are available in English to facilitate an understanding of the NT. The mature scholar is not in view. On the other hand, commentaries that are written at the popular level are generally given less attention than more substantive works. Theologically I am an evangelical, but many of the positive assessments offered in these notes are in connection with books written from the vantage point of some other theological tradition: the usefulness of a commentary sometimes turns on something other than the theological stance of its author—assuming, of course, that commentaries are read critically, as they should be whatever one’s theological heritage.
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Gary McIntosh. Beyond the First Visit: The Complete Guide to Connecting Guests to Your Church. Baker, 2006. 192 pp.
We’re a Friendly Church
If you were to survey churches and ask them to list their strengths, almost every one would include, “We’re a friendly church.” . . . It’s interesting that in every one of the churches I coached, someone either wrote on a survey or stated verbally that they believed their church to be a friendly place. It did not matter if the individuals were attending churches in danger of closing down, in the midst of twenty-year-long plateaus, or bursting forth in growth. They all felt their church was a friendly one. . . .
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Alfred Poirier. The Peacemaking Pastor: A Biblical Guide to Resolving Church Conflict. Baker, 2006. 320 pp.
Christ is the reason many enter the pastorate. Conflict is the reason many leave. . . . Many young pastors enter their calling naïvely, believing that orthodox preaching, well-ordered worship, and a sufficient number of different venues for discipleship will be all they need to grow their members in faith and their church in numbers. Once in the pastorate, however, the reality of conflict and an inability to respond to it in a wise, godly, and gospel manner soon cripple both their effectiveness as pastors and their church’s witness. . . .
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Bryan Chapell. Praying Backwards: Transform Your Prayer Life by Beginning in Jesus’ Name. Baker, 2005. 208 pp.
Praying for Change
How would your prayer change if you began where you normally end? We habitually end our prayers with the phrase “In Jesus’ name, amen.” The amen means “truly” or even “I really mean this.” But what are we actually saying? We are supposed to be saying that everything we prayed for was offered “in Jesus’ name”—for his honor and purposes. When we pray “in Jesus’ name,” we pray for his sake more than our own. We still present our desires and concerns to God, but we do so in the context of yielding our priorities to Christ’s priorities. The final phrase of our prayer reminds us, as well as commits us, to submit all our requests to the glory of Jesus.
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D. A. Carson. How Long, O Lord? Reflections on Suffering and Evil. Baker, 2006. 240 pp.
A pastor is cutting his front lawn. He looks up from his task just in time to see a heavy dump truck back out of his neighbor’s driveway—right over the neighbor’s eighteen-month-old son, who had been squatting behind the huge tires. The pastor accompanies the hysterical mother and ashen father to the hospital in the ambulance. There is no hope for the little boy; he has been crushed almost beyond recognition.
Where is God?
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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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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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Mark Galli. Jesus Mean and Wild: The Unexpected Love of an Untamable God. Baker, 2006. 208 pp.
I once wrote an article for a leading Christian publication and in one part noted how “mean” Jesus was at times. My seminary-educated editor deleted the paragraphs, and when I asked why, she said I was taking the verses out of context, and it would take too much space to explain that Jesus wasn’t really mean. I replied that these were but a sampling of passages where Jesus seemed pretty intimidating. I gave two more examples. She stared at me hard. Then she blinked in seeming irritation as she said, “I can explain those too.”
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Emily R. Brink and John D. Witvliet, eds. The Worship Sourcebook. Baker, 2004. 848 pp.
A Worship Leader’s Reference Book
This book is something of a unique experiment. It is designed to be used by Christians who value free-church, low-church, nonliturgical, evangelical approaches to worship but who also want to learn from and draw on historic patterns of worship. At the same time, the book aims to be useful and instructive to congregations who practice traditional or liturgical worship and who may be looking for ways to adapt it or to rethink its meaning.
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Michael Duduit, ed. Preaching with Power: Dynamic Insights from Twenty Top Pastors. Baker, 2006. 256 pp.
It is hard to believe today that just a generation ago, many Christian leaders were pronouncing the “death of preaching” in the church. That notion seems so unlikely today not only because of the biblical foundations of preaching but also because the ministry of preaching has been enjoying a remarkable renaissance over the past two decades.
During the past twenty years, Preaching magazine has observed, encouraged, and reported on the state of Christian proclamation.
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