Fruitful Leaders

One of the big bottlenecks in the growth of anything is leadership.  The church needs leaders but where do we get them from, how do we grow them, what ought to we teach them?  It was thinking about questions such as these that lead me to buy and start reading 'Fruitful Leaders' by Marcus Honeysett.  I'm 4 chapters in so far and really enjoying it though I do have a number of questions about it.

The book starts off by reminding us of the love of God for the church.  He also reminds us that churches are communities for making disciples who impact the world with the good news of God's grace.  Marcus then moves on to look at what Spiritual Leadership is (servanthood among God's people whose goal is for Jesus sake) and how we can clear, dig and nurture leaders in the church.  Chapter 4 then turns to asking key questions of those in spiritual leadership because we can't nurture other leaders unless we ourselves are being fed and nourished by God and increasingly desire God.  Appendix 1 with its questions for self examination are absolutely brilliant and very thought provoking, it would be well worth using them for a time of reflection as an eldership or PCC.

However, I'm left with a few question so far.  Fundamental to Marcus book is the belief that God gives us leaders in our congregations because God wants to us our churches.  But interestingly I don't see this model happening - normally we get leaders from outside of our existing congregations.  And increasingly in the UK, as I've blogged before, Christianity is strong in university towns and cities and weak in other parts of the country.  This also applies to potential leaders - university churches often have a wealth of potential leaders whilst churches in other towns are struggling.

The answer is for us to be reaching the lost and from those we see come to Christ developing new leaders.  But I wonder if hand in hand with that we need a missionary mentality from our well resourced and potential leadership rich churches.  A mentality that trains leaders specifically to send to towns and churches which have fewer potential leaders.

Marcus' book is well worth reading for a local church.  We need to be developing and resourcing leaders.  But I think nationally and certainly regionally we need to be looking at leadership as wider than our own congregations.

Does Love win?

Rob Bell has published a new book (he is well known for the Nooma videos and other books such as Velvet Elvis), its called 'Love Wins' and it has provoked a storm of publicity both good and bad, and I am troubled by much of what I have read about it. I have yet to read the book itself but Dave Bish has and you can find his thoughts here.

Books

We had www.10ofthose.com with us on Sunday to encourage people to buy Christians books, there was a great range of books on all sorts. I ended up limiting myself to Mahaney's The Cross Centred Life, Respectable Sins by Bridges and The Trellis and the Vine, all of which I have read very positive reviews of recently.

The 10 of those website is well worth checking out - great deals especially on books to give away to your friends to explain the gospel.

Symphony of Scripture

We have nearly finished reading through Mark Strom's 'Symphony of Scripture', it is a helpful Bible overview which pulls together many of the Bibles strands and threads. I guess in terms of technical language and ideas it sits in between Goldsworthy's 'Gospel and Kingdom' and Vaughan Roberts 'God's Big Picture'.

I've been particularly encouraged with chapter 20 'Lifestyle of the Kingdom' especially its call to us as Bible teachers to teach and apply the gospel as a community not just as individuals.

"But we need a third dimension to our concept of self worth. We need to see ourselves more as people in community than as individuals... The gospel is not a purely personal matter. It has a social dimension. It is a communal affair. We need to deveop a sense of community where together we can wrestle honestly with the Bible and with life."

The loudest voice

Its very rare that we enjoy quiet. We live a world of noise, where background music is the norm, where silence is a rarity.

Amidst all that noise there are lots of voices competing for our time, attention, love, desire and money. Advertising is only the most obvious form of this, but there is also the subtle pressure exerted by TV programmes, films, newspapers to live up to their ideals and share their values. It is then refreshing and challenging to come to Psalm 1

Which exclaims 'O blessedness of him who...' does not live as those opposed to God but who treasures and lives by God's word. In thinking about the central truth of this introductory Psalm it is striking how real and hard the battle is to treasure God's word, to meditate on it day and night as the Psalm calls us to.

And yet we live in an age when we probably have more tools available to us to help us with the Bible than preceding generations. So why do we find it so hard? I think one of the problems is that we fear what society will think of us if they see how highly we view scripture, how it sets the tone of our living, how it excites and captivates us. The result of that fear is that we don't allow it to do those things, but Psalm 1 calls us to recognise the danger in that and repent. To make the Bible our delight and central to our living, thinking and decision making.

Part of doing that is spending time reading it then taking time to work out what it means and finally viewing life in the light of it and changing what needs to be changed in the light of grace.

Books on the reading list for this term

You Can Change, Tim Chester
The Symphony of Scripture, Mark Strom
The Revelation of God, Peter Jensen
Dominion and Dynasty, Stephen G Dempster
Dig Deeper, Beynon and Sachs
Good News to the Poor, Tim Chester

Paper Pastors

I came across this article this morning as I was browsing a blog. It challenges us about who our paper pastors are, who we hold up as the ideal pastor and unfavourably compare our own with. I found it a challenge and a rebuke to my sinfully adopted habit of creating evangelical celebrities. It is well worth a read: http://teampyro.blogspot.com/2009/04/porn-and-paper-pastors.html

Questions answered

Steve Hayes has just republished last years e-book of interviews with a number of leading scholars in which they answer the following questions:

1. Have you been a Christian from Childhood?
2. Did you convert to the faith? If so, please describe your experience.
3. Why do you believe in the existence of God?
4. Why do you believe in the inspiration of the Bible?
5. How do you deal with bible criticism?
6. How do you deal with scientific objections to the faith?
7. What other challenges to the faith would you like to comment on?
8. At this stage of your spiritual journey, would you now give different reasons for your faith than when you began your pilgrimage?
9. Looking back over your life as a Christian, how would you say that your faith has evolved over time? How, if at all, does your lived-in faith differ from when you were younger?
10. Unbelievers often point to the elusiveness of God. In your personal experience, including your experience with other Christians, can you point to any examples of God’s providential presence?
11. Since you’ve been a Christian, have you undergone a crisis of faith? If so, how did you work through it?
12. In your observation, why are most unbelievers unbelieving?
13. In your experience, what’s the best way to witness to unbelievers?
14. Christian apologetics tends to settle into certain stereotypical arguments and formulaic emphases. Do you think there are some neglected areas in how apologetics is generally done today?
15. What do Christian parents, pastors, seminary and/or college professors most need to teach our young people to prepare them for the walk of faith?
16. What devotional or apologetic reading would you recommend for further study?

I have only read the first interview so far but will be back to read the others. Click on this link to read more: http://www.triapologia.com/hays/Love_the_Lord.pdf

Finally Alive ch1 and 2

The first part of Piper's book is composed of two chapters examining what it means to be born again. Piper reminds us of the assumption that the need to be born again makes, that we are dead before God, which he unpacks more in a later chapter. He then goes on to show us what happens at new birth: new life not new religion, experiencing the supernatural. He also helpfully shows that the spiritual life the Holy Spirit brings is by connecting us with Jesus Christ through faith.

In the second chapter he continues to examine what happens at new birth. We are made a new creation. He helpfully examines why he believes it is wrong to equate water in John 3 with baptism as so many do by taking us back to the text of John 3. Key to it is Jesus assumption (v10) that Nicodemus ought to know what he is talking about, therefore the answer must be in the Hebrew scriptures of which Nicodemus is a teacher. In Ezekiel 36 we see that water and the spirit are closely linked in the new covenant promise, as God promises to cleanse his people and give them new hearts. It is a helpful chapter which examines what it means to be born again and the changes that should be apparent as a result of being reborn by water and the spirit.

Reader beware

Thabiti Anyabwile has drawn attention to a sticker appearing on books in a Christian book chain in America:

"We want you to know that the authors of books marked Read with Discernment may have espoused thoughts, ideas, or concepts that could be considered inconsistent with historical evangelical theology.However, we are making these titles available to our customers (along with the background and additional insight offered here through Read With Discernment) because we believe the books do present content that is relevant and of value to Christians and/or because pastors, seminary students, and other ministry leaders need access to this type of material, strictly for critical study or research to help them understand and develop responses to the diversity of religious thought in today's postmodern world. Our prayer for you is that in whatever you read, you place the material under the magnifying glass of scripture and read with discernment, asking God to reveal His truth to you so that, as Paul wrote in Philippians 1:9-10, "...your love will keep on growing in knowledge and every kind of discernment, so that you can determine what really matters and can be pure and blameless in the day of Christ..." (Holman CSB).

It is an interesting development, it should remind us to test with the scripture what we read even when it is bought from a Christian bookstore. But we also need to be careful to test what we listen to, in fact we need to be discerning full stop.

Lessons from the Past

I don't make New Years Resolutions largely because I can't keep them. However this year I am going to make a concerted effort to read more Christian biographies and autobiographies. I began on holiday by reading A Man in Christ a biography of Hudson Taylor. I have found it profoundly challenging on a number of levels.

I think however that first and foremost it challenges the comfort in which we live and serve. For us it is a shock if someone dies young, when we send out missionaries we do not expect them or their family members to die as children or in their prime. But it was common place for Hudson Taylor and others. Their approach to such loss has also been a challenge - am I too wedded to this world. Upon the death of his beloved daughter Gracie aged 8 of Meningitis Taylor is able to praise God for taking her home. In fact that realisation of glory is what sustains the family in the midst of each of their losses, heaven is tangible for them.

Is it tangible for us? Am I too wedded to this world?

It has also been interesting to note the opposition Hudson Taylor faced often from within the church, and the godly way he dealt with it. As well as his desire to see others trained up and sent as missionaries, specifically looking for and training young men and women to go take the gospel to the Chinese. We need to look and learn from such a man in so many ways.

But I think what stands out most is his godliness, his concern for God's concerns namely the lost. May God give us something of his burden for the lost we rub shoulders with every day.

Holiday Reading

Preparing for next weeks holiday by getting some books to read whilst relaxing - when not swimming/ playing with the boys.

Neither Poverty nor Riches by Craig Blomberg, published by IVP

Explores a Biblical Theology of possessions. Looking forward to reading it especially as Don Carson's endorsement if so positive: 'On a subject as sensitive as this one, it is extraordinary to find balance and propehtic voice rolled up in one. In my view, this is now the best book on the entire subject.'

The other is:

What is a Healthy Church Member? by Thabiti Anyabwile, Published by Crossway

Examines what kind of community the church should be and outlines Biblical priorities for the church member.

Stocking fillers

Here are some great books that would make good stocking fillers:

And now let's move into a time of nonsense, Nick Page
Created for Worship, Noel Due
Experiencing the Spirit, Graham Beynon
Foxes Book of Martyrs
Jesus @ Work, Graham Beynon
Knowing God, J I Packer
The Because Approach, Andrew Baughen
The Busy Christians Guide to Busyness, Tim Chester

The Deliberate Church, Mark Dever

The Goldsworthy Trilogy, Graham Goldsworthy

The Radical Reformission, Mark Driscoll

The Reason for God, Tim Keller

The Word Became Fresh, Dale Ralph Davis

Total Church, Steve Timmis and Tim Chester

The Shack some final thoughts

I finished reading The Shack last night, I'm going to try to give my thoughts on the book and why I think that way.

This book has generated a lot of heat (as ever) in Christian circles, by some it has been welcomed as having "the potential to do for our generation what John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress did for his." Whilst others have labelled it heresy. So what are we to make of it.

I want to begin by giving a word of caution. This book is a work of fiction, it is a made up story and we need to read it as such. However, it is also a fictional story which is about things which we hold dear; the god head, atonement, Jesus Christ and salvation. As a story it engages us and weaves a tale in which we find ourselves eager to know more, yet at the same time it also challenges us and our beliefs, not just our assumptions. It is a book to be read with discernment because it does seek to teach us about God even if it does so through a fictional story.

The book does challenge our assumptions about God, some will never get past God the Father being portrayed as an African American Woman - indeed some have said this is akin to goddess worship - but as you read the book it is clear that God the Father is not a woman, he remains 'Papa' throughout and finally appears as a man at the end. It is a challenge to Mack's assumptions and ours of God as an elderly white bearded man. Similarly with the character Sarayu (wind) the Holy Spirit. Part of me thinks this was unnecessary but as a literary device it works - theological it is questionable.

The biggest challenge in the book is in the way you see the godhead relating - laughing, having fun, being moved, loving one another, knowing each other. It is an interesting thought which then impinges on how Mack is to relate to the godhead. Mack is anti-established church (a common emerging church trend) and very anti-religion, and God is the same the stress instead from the godhead is on relationship, though Jesus description of being in love with a woman - his people - is biblical and a good corrective. Such things we would do well to search the Bible for and rediscover ourselves, though we must ensure that we establish biblical principles behind relationship and a biblical view of church.

However, in the book holiness and awe are not sufficiently dealt with. Yes, Young contends that Jesus gives himself so that we can enter relationship with God and we want to live every day in the light of that truth, however there is also the issue of our response to a holy God which is not fully unpacked. In fact there seems to be little awe in the book which does not reflect the biblical emphases of both New and Old Testaments.

The Shack also seems to downplay the significance of the Bible whilst exalting the place of experience, yet the Bible is God's word given to us so that we might know him and where we stand in relation to him. Such a heavy emphasis on experience is dangerous, though many of us would do well to think biblically through the challenge to be less independent and listen more to what God says to us.

I also have one or two questions about the way the gospel is presented in the book. Young makes it very clear that it is only in Jesus Christ we can be reconciled to God by faith. He makes it clear that all religions are not the same, but that people from all backgrounds need to be saved by faith in Christ and I want to say Amen to that. However his view of sin is not biblical; describing sin as punishment enough in itself and questioning therefore whether God needs to punish it. Teachings which go against the Bibles teaching about a holy God and sin.

The biggest area of debate has been surrounding the portrayal of the Trinity, too much of what is in the book is speculation and blue sky thinking. The book does challenge us about our preconceptions of God, that we just make him in our image with our limitations and it challenges us to understand that God is inherently good. However there are large parts of the book which go against what the Bible teaches: Young teaches that there is no hierarchy in the Trinity and that all hierarchy is wrong, this is clearly not biblical.

He also teaches that God the Father ('Papa') is fully human in Jesus Christ incarnate, even going so far as to have the Father suffering the wounds in his hands and feet and saying that at no point did God leave or forsake Jesus even on the cross. He also makes other statements and suggestions about the Trinity which have no scriptural support and therefore are just conjecture. The Trinity is complex and Young does have God saying that man cannot understand it, but overall the books teaching on it leaves me concerned. If I want to know God and understand and be amazed at the nature of God and the godhead the Bible has to be the book that amazes, teaches me and draws me to my knees to praise so great a God.

However the book does grapple with the idea of God and suffering, it teaches that we have rejected God's rule and turned to independence and that we dragged the world with us. It challenges Mack's putting of God in the dock for what happened to his daughter, something which we so often do too.

So what to say in summary? This is not a brilliant piece of literature as writing goes, though it is a very emotive and engaging story, it will challenge our thinking and make us long to know God. But the big issue is will it make me long to know the God of the Bible? I my opinion this book is no Pilgrim's Progress. There are just too many areas of questionable theology, too much extra-biblical surmising. It is not a book I would recommend Christians to read to deepen their faith unless they were to exercise considerable discernment and read it with their bible open next to them or in a discussion group, though it has its uses when used like that - challenging our preconceptions and forcing us to check biblically our view of God, his word and salvation.

However, I do think The Shack has its uses: It shows us that there is a spiritual hunger in the world by the very fact that it has been in the best seller lists - there are those in our workplaces, at the school gates, in our neighbourhoods who will have read the book and been challenged about their view of God. We need to be ready to answer their questions about what God is like, about suffering, about Jesus and what he has done for us, about redemption and salvation not in terms of The Shack but in terms of the Bible - God's word.

The Shack II

The book continues to challenge my assumptions about God and the Trinity. It does so by showing a loving familial relationship between the godhead with laughter and fun and love. It does not do so in a way that is biblical but by showing something so different from how we think about God. The difficulty is that this makes it hard to weigh biblically, though I think the challenge is needed, the way we think about the trinity often lacks warmth and misses that idea of relationship.

It also challenges us on our independence from God, the fact that we often hold things back from God. That actually God is good and is loving and we should live dependent on him.

But there continue to be things that are a concern. Why does the Father have nail marks in hand and feet? The emphasis that the Father suffered at the cross too, the challenge as to what the cry "My God, my God who have you forsaken me." Young maintains that we misunderstand it and that God never left Jesus.

It is a book that challenges us and our perceptions but not by using the Bible but by painting a fictional story. I find myself so far torn about the book - I can see friends of mine reading it and longing for a relationship with God, but there are things here that worry me about the God they would long for relationship with.

The Shack

'The Shack' is a novel written by William P Young, it is a fictional story which has achieved phenomenal popularity. It is being hailed as our generations Pilgrims Progress. With that in mind I bought it at the weekend and began reading it, as I continue to do so I'm going to post some thoughts here and then when finished examine it more thoroughly.

The first point that has to be made is that this is a fictional story but which, through that medium, teaches theology. Mack, the main character, is invited to The Shack of the title in a note signed by Papa - the families private name for God. The Shack is significant because it is where the bloodstained clothing of his youngest daughter Missy was found four years previously after her abduction during a family holiday though her body was never found.

We first meet Mack as he lives with 'the great sadness' that is the result of that loss. Having received the note Mack goes to the shack where he meets with the Godhead and what follows is largely dialogue between the Godhead and Mack.

The nature of the book makes it hard for us to be discerning as we examine it as the Bible exhorts us to do with everything. It is emotionally very touching, as a dad I found myself empathising with Mack and his grief, the great sadness that marked everything after the loss of his child. I found myself aware of my idolatry of my children, that actually they are the one thing I am not sure how I would live without. It made me turn to God and pray thanking him for his blessing but also praying that he would help me not to make my children idols.

There are a number of issues that the book has covered already about which I am uneasy however; as Mack meets the Godhead he meets God as a matronly African American woman - why is the big question, though the story maintains it is to challenge our preconceptions about God. The Holy Spirit is an Asian woman and Jesus is a young Jewish male. I was and am uneasy about such personifications of the Godhead.

The book does challenge us about our preconceptions of God, that we just make him our image with our limitations and it challenges us to understand that God is inherently good. However there are large parts of the book so far which seem to go against what the Bible teaches:

Young teaches there is no hierarchy in the Trinity and that all hierarchy is wrong. He also teaches that God is fully human in Jesus Christ incarnate. He also makes other statements and suggestions about the Trinity which have no scriptural support and therefore are just conjecture. The Trinity is complex and Young does have God saying that man cannot understand it, but overall the books teaching on it leaves me concerned.

More thoughts as I read on.

New Year New Books

Every year I try to read as many books as possible, here are the ones I'm working through at the moment, all are good if different:

Total Church, S Timmis and T Chester. Looks at what church is and or should be, calls us back to a gospel centred and saturated community
Above all earthly powers, D Wells. Examination of postmodernism and the gospel, is very insightful and calls us to engage intelligently with our culture.
Going the Distance, P Brain. Is a book I try to re-read every couple of years, its about staying fit for a lifetime of ministry. Particularly useful at this time of year for examining my bad ministry habits and calls me on my messiah complex!

I also read some great books last year which I'd highly recommend:
The Because Approach, Andrew Baughan. Makes us think about how we reach the lost and 'do church'.
The Jesus Storybook Bible, Sally Lloyd Jones. Brilliant Biblical Theology Bible for kids which I have found refreshing in the way it points to Jesus with every story.
If You Could Ask God One Question, B Cooper and P Williams. Great evangelistic and training tool.
The Word Became Fresh, Dale Ralph Davis. Small book but invaluable for insights it brings and training it gives on dealing with Old Testament Narrative.
Why Men Hate Going to Church, D Burrows. Makes us think about the gender gap in our churches and how to reach men.