Review: The Lost World of Genesis One

Each year, I try to do research and reading related to the ongoing conversation debate between proponents of evolutionary theory and those of biblical creationism. I can easily say that it is a constantly evolving dialogue battle. John Walton’s 2009 release of  The Lost World of Genesis One steps into that fray attempting to reconcile the scientific community with the metaphysical/spiritual community.

One of the reviewers of Walton’s book said it was very readable. I’d like to add a caveat. While it attempts to provide an accessible understanding of the overall debate over origins and translation of the creation account in Genesis 1, it is dry. He does offer a few helpful and creative analogies throughout the book that seem to place the book on a “lower shelf” for those who may not read much in this area, but I’m not sure if he was really successful.

With that said, Walton’s basic premise goes like this:

• Genesis 1 should be translated as providing an account of functional creation, not material creation. Much of the first several chapters explain this perspective and remind us that in our western mentality, we are not aware that the ancient world of Genesis 1 would not conceive of a mindset that divided science from spiritual. They were holistic in their worldview.
• The creation of the world should be seen more as the establishment of God’s cosmic temple. The entire creation has as its center God, not man, and the end result is intended to create a place for creation to enjoy God.
• He sees the seven days in Genesis 1 as seven literal days, not as periods of time. He points out that an immeasurable amount of time may have passed before these seven days. This view allows for but does not necessarily advocate an evolutionary perspective.
• Genesis 1 does not attempt to provide a scientific perspective on creation. Here’s a helpful quote related to that:

If God were intent on making His revelation correspond to science, we have to ask which science. We are well aware that science is dynamic rather than static. By its very nature science is in a state of flux. If we were to say that God’s revelation corresponds to “true science” we adopt an idea contrary to the very nature of science. What is accepted as true today, may not be accepted as true tomorrow, because what science provides is the best explanation of data at the time. This “best explanation” is accepted by consensus, and often with a few detractors… We gain nothing by bringing God’s revelation into accordance with today’s science. In contrast, it makes perfect sense that God communicated His revelation to His immediate audience in terms they understood.

• Public education should be neutral regarding purpose of origins. Much of the animosity and ugliness of the warfare between idealogies is unnecessary, Walton says. If we could fairly admit when we are trying to teach/coerce about purpose behind origins – whether that evolution shows all is chance or intelligent design proves designer, we could better dialogue.

My overall assessment of the book goes like this: I didn’t like the first half of the book – at all, but I thoroughly enjoyed the second half of the book.

The first half of the book is when Walton offers his novel interpretation of Genesis 1 as being a functional creation intended to culminate in God’s cosmic temple. Walton spends far too much time comparing the biblical audience and culture with other ancient near Eastern cultures. His interpretation of Genesis 1 is thus weighted heavily toward how other cultures – and decidedly not biblical ones – thought about creation. He uses ancient creation documents to prove his point. My point, however, is that God was rewiring the Jews all along to think different (Steve Jobs should have been a big fan of that.) How an ancient culture thought is thoroughly difficult for us to interpret, but Walton has no problem doing so and then reading this interpretation into the biblical account of creation.

I am not suggesting that the Israelites are borrowing from these ancient literatures. p78

His occasional statements like the one above can not account for the amount of authority that he gives to these other non-biblical sources. So, I was unconvinced with his reasoning and interpretation that he offered in the first half of the book.

However, the second half of the book, beginning with the chapter titled “Other Theories of Genesis 1 Either Go Too Far or Not Far Enough” is truly good. I’d encourage anyone to read from there to the end of the book. It is there that – regardless of his own interpretation of Genesis 1 – he offers extremely helpful thoughts and principles that could dramatically reshape the current angst over origins – both in the scientific community and in faith community (and they don’t have to have a dichotomy).

He includes a chapter about how public educators should handle the teaching of origins that is sound, balanced and though it will make each opposing viewpoint uncomfortable, it does offer a way forward. Before offering five resolutions intended to provide a way forward, Walton says:

…empirical science is not an education unto itself that can serve all the needs of society or that can serve as the sum of one’s education. The physical sciences are only one branch of education, and we dare not isolate them from the humanities or elevate them as self-contained.

I was grateful for Walton’s attempt to offer a work that brings together two worlds that seem diametrically opposed so often in the origins debate. He is unabashedly clear that whatever means God used for creation, God was the Creator, and He is the Sustainer of His creation. He believes in a literal Adam and Eve. If you buy into his interpretation, his work offers a way to read Genesis without casting aside the authority of scripture. I appreciated his final comments:

We must not let our interpretations stand in place of Scripture’s authority and thus risk misrepresenting God’s revelation. We are willing to bind reason if our faith calls for belief where reason fails. But we are also people who in faith seek understanding.

Review: Is God a Moral Monster? Part 2

Paul Copan’s Is God a Moral Monster? is an outstanding resource for understanding and responsinding to  difficult texts in the Old Testament. In the second part of this ongoing review, I wanted to express some concern about his introduction to the otherwise excellent chapter “Child Abuse and Bullying: God’s Ways and the Binding of Isaac.”

This chapter expounds on Genesis 22, where God asks Abraham – the ancient progenitor of Israel – to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice. Critics have loudly pointed to this passage as an example of the contradictions of scripture (elsewhere human sacrifice is prohibited and clearly condemned) and even claimed it shows God as a capricious, malevolent and divine bully.

Once Copan begins his exposition of Genesis 22, his explanation and response to such accusations is not only sound, but he demonstrates that the incident also reveals the heart of God’s love, for in sparing Isaac through providing a ram, the text profoundly hints at a time in the future where an innocent Son would not be spared but that His death would actually provide for the salvation of all.

However, Copan begins the chapter needlessly contrasting Abraham and Moses. Here’s his line of thought: Abraham’s actions in actually going through with the sacrifice reveal his great faith. Abraham operated solely in obedience to God’s commands, trusting what he knew of God’s character through his relationship with Him. Moses, Copan claims, was not allowed to enter the Promised Land due to his acts of faithlessness in spite of having God’s word now written in the law. So Copan elevates Abraham’s faith over Moses’ and uses it to show that Abraham’s pre-law faith is a better example for us than Moses’ failure in faith even though he had the law.

Here’s my concern:

Yes, Abraham is the example of being justified by faith alone for Christians. He had NO written law, so yes, he is a great example for us of a person who God counts his faith alone in Him as being sufficient for justification.

However, I do not think we can say that Moses failed whereas Abraham succeeded. Abraham, after all, had many faithless moments in his life. Both Moses and Abraham are mentioned in the great New Testament chapter of faith in Hebrews 11.

In fact, other scriptures uplift Moses’ faith and importance, hardly describing him as a failure of faith:

• “Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later..” (Hebrews 3.5)
• Moses said, ‘The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. You shall listen to him in whatever he tells you. (Acts 3.22)
• And there has not arisen a prophet since in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face..” (Deuteronomy 34.10)

With that said, the chapter really is well-done as he explains that God’s command to Abraham about Isaac’s sacrifice is actually of huge significance and reveals God’s love rather than Him being a divine bully. I just found Copan’s introductory material contrasting Abraham and Moses unnecessary and even questionable in its interpretation. I’m looking forward to reading further. As with any book, read with discernment.

Review: Is God a Moral Monster? Part 1

One of our church’s small groups has recently read Paul Copan’s book Is God a Moral Monster? Having not heard of Copan before they requested its use, I researched and was impressed by his approachable, scholarly technique in communicating difficult biblical subjects. Even Danny Hays, a professor at my alma mater, was one of those who reviewed and recommended:

“This is a very readable book, and it will be a valuable resource for all Christians who desire to understand the Old Testament in today’s context. I heartily recommend it!”

This review may become a multipart review (as designated above by “Part 1″) as I’ll try to respond and review the books as a I read through it. An overall summation of the book, I’m seeing, would be hard since Copan tackles so many different topics. His intent in writing is not only to equip Christians in understanding how difficult theological principles are expressed in the Old Testament, but he’s also responding to the New Atheists.

The New Atheists are those people who in recent years have undertaken a fresh attack on biblical authority and the very existence of God. Copan provides an easily-read resource to respond to many of their objections (and even sneering belittlements) of some admittedly difficult parts of the Old Testament.

In his description of the New Atheists, Copan says that “for all their emphasis on cool-headed, scientific rationality, they express themselves not just passionately but angrily.” In addition, he boldly claims that their arguments and writings against God’s existence are “surprisingly flimsy, often resembling the simplistic village atheist far more than the credentialed academician.” He calls out the “four horsemen” of New Atheism – Daniel Dennet, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and the late Christopher Hitchens and expressed incredulity that “so many have been intellectually swindled by such fallacious argumentation and blustery rhetoric.”

Quoting sociologist Rodney Stark, “To expect to learn anything about important theological problems from Richard Dawkins or Daniel Dennett is like expecting to learn about medieval history from someone who had only read Robin Hood.”

If you’re a believer and have been cowed into embarrassed silence by pseudo-intellectual arguments about the unreliability of scripture, know that there are amazing resources and credible responses by biblical scholars such as Copan’s work to assist you in being obedient to the apostle Peter’s exhortation in 1 Peter 3.15:

“always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect…”

Review: The Mystic Rose

Knights. Swords. The Crusades. Holy relics.

Stephen Lawhead first captured my appreciation as a magnificent chronicler of historical fiction with his epic book about St. Patrick called Patrick: Son of Ireland. I picked up his Celtic Crusade trilogy, hoping that it was as imaginative and as rooted in history. Beginning with The Iron Lance, Lawhead spins a tale that flips back and forth between the early 20th century and the Crusades. The Black Rood follows with a continuing story of one family’s holy calling to find, secure and protect the holiest relics of the church.

Finally, The Mystic Rose ends the trilogy. It moves from Constantinople to Spain (I was excited that it passed through Bilbao, where I’ve been). Lawhead weaves in some of the intrigues of the unholiness of the Crusades, the mysteries and rumors of the Knights Templar and the very real unrest among Christians and Moors in these books.

A young man named Murdo, followed by his son Duncan and then his granddaughter Catriona, capture your heart in this action-packed and easy-to-believe series. It kept me reading and, as The Mystic Rose wrapped up, made me sorry to be finishing.

In one family’s pursuit of the honor of God, the lance that pierced Christ’s side on the cross, a remnant of the cross itself, and the holy grail are all found and recovered before vanishing again in the mists of time.

If you’re looking for a great historical fiction series to begin, you can’t go wrong here.

Review: Building a Discipling Culture

There’s been a lot of buzz about Mike Breen and Steve Cockram’s book Building a Discipling Culture as well as the ministry they lead, 3DM. The Baptist General Association of Virginia (one tribe to which our church belongs) helps promote the discipleship process through the training of leaders. There are several BGAV-affiliated churches who have embraced 3DM’s methodology of helping make people within their church a fully devoted disciple of Christ.

Mike Breen defines 3DM as “the global home for an organic movement of biblical discipleship and missional church that is centered in the United States.” Prior to locating in the US, Breen served as a pastor in England for many years in which he had the opportunity to apply the principles and methods that 3DM now promotes today.

In the summer of 2011, our church did a series called Building a Discipleship Culture before I was aware of the book’s title, and we used material from Real Life Discipleship by Jim Putman, pastor of Real Life Ministries. You can view our cheesy videos from that summer of training and study here. They are bound to entertain and inform you.

With all that said, our church is a church committed to making disciples. We take Colossians 1.28 as one of the deepest aspirations of our community:

Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.

So, I devour books about discipleship. There’s nothing better than helping someone begin to follow Christ, experience His love and become a mature believer who is able to lead others to faith and equip them in spiritual maturity. Any process or tool that can assist that journey that is biblically-centered and relevant to people’s life schedules should be examined greedily.

The book is essentially the primer for the 3DM movement, and it gives an overview of how ministries and churches who want to embrace its methodologies can organize, train and develop disciples.

Let me start with the good:

• The process outlined in the book is intentional.
• It’s structured.
• There is great expectation from the working out of the process.
• There has obviously been fruitfulness from the process where it’s been implemented.

The actual writing style of the book is pretty dry. It seems disconnected in many points, and after a good read, my copy had some underlining from points that were made that were especially good, but those points seemed extraneous to the overall description of the process.

Let me outline what I didn’t connect with:

• The process described is extremely involved.
• While intentional, I don’t know that the training and process is realistic in every church or ministry.
• I’m not confident that the process of making disciples needs to rendered in such a convoluted way that requires so much explanation of the process itself rather than the qualities desired in a disciple of Jesus.
• There were a few statements in the book that without knowing Breen, I would need more elaboration on before I’d label the statement as wrong or false. Such as:

You can invite God into any part of your day. Truth is, he’s there already, and it is rude to ignore his presence. He’s never too busy to talk with you, he enjoys the same things you enjoy, he wants to be part of your life – he really does.

My problem with comments like that it may reveal a deeper view of God that I would fundamentally disagree with. Again, without knowing the leaders behind 3DM, I can’t say, but combined with a few other statements scattered throughout the book, this produced a sense of holy caution, or a red flag, so to speak, in my mind.

• There’s literally a lot of shapes used to communicate points. I am not primarily a visual learner, but I would imagine those that are probably learn better from deeper illustrations that squares, triangles, and circles that are labelled. One illustration is shown at right.

Conclusion

There is a lot to commend in the 3DM approach to discipleship and leadership development. If your church is currently doing nothing intentional related to making disciples, it would be a massive jump to embrace 3DM methodology with a lot of planning, training and buy-in among your key leaders. Yet, if you embrace the process, you will see fruit.

I found myself constantly asking why we make discipleship so difficult in the modern church. The process of leading people to maturity must show them models, but I believe those models should be incarnational rather than geometric. In other words, we need more people�who are intentional about teaching others to live in joyful, loving obedience to Jesus.

Like the authors, I agree that as a movement grows, there must be structure and processes added to it, and I’m thankful for the thinking and creativity that has resulted in the 3DM approach. I appreciated the heart of this statement because I know many pastors who aren’t involved in the discipleship process at all:

We need leaders who will step out of “managing church” and make discipling others their primary objective. The time has come to humbly acknowledge before God that we have failed to train men and women to lead in the style of Jesus. Whether through ignorance or fear, we have taken the safe option, training pastors to be theologically sound and effective managers of institutions rather than equipping them with the tools they need to disciple others.

Yet to be gracious, I don’t think the answer is to jettison the baby with the bath water. The answer is not to create vacuous disciple makers by abandoning theological soundness and effective leadership of organizations. It’s not an either-or situation. It’s a both-and. We need to increase the equipping for discipleship while continuing to do the other.

Since I know the process is bearing fruit in hundreds of places, I cannot argue against it. However, don’t feel guilty for questioning whether the 3DM model is right for your ministry. There are other dynamic models of organizational discipleship. The most important model is the one that you choose and use. Leading people to maturity in Christ is not an option.

Others

• For another perspective on the 3DM approach from someone who is using and embracing it, check out this post. It’s excellent.

Review: A Praying Life

When I pray over a problem, that problem begins to sparkle with the energy of God. Strange things happen.

I did not just read the book. I chewed and meditated my way through A Praying Life by Paul Miller. Unlike other books on prayer that I’ve read that seem to elevate prayer as something you should do or must do, Miller’s book describes prayer differently. It’s not a spiritual discipline to achieve or maintain.

Making “prayer” a goal such as “I need to pray more” misses the mark. Miller says our goal should not be prayer. Rather, our goal is knowing and loving God in a progressively deeper and intimate way. Focusing on prayer misses the person.

In A Praying Life, I found again the sheer joy of living life in dependence upon God. An absence of prayer reveals relational distance. To be told to pray more is like telling a married couple that they should have an occasional conversation. Prayer is not the goal. Intimacy is.

Miller demonstrates through dozens of personal anecdotes the simple joy of actually trusting God with our life through presenting our life, our needs, our thoughts and our dreams to Him in prayer. The entire book is a like a spiritual tide coming back in. We say we believe in the reality of God, but until we get our feet wet in prayer with Him, we cannot imagine the depth of life and joy possible by walking with Him in the waves.

Part 2 of the the book deals with the destructive power of cynicism. It hammered me. Our culture loves to be detached, critical observers of anything of significance. I challenge you to read this section disinterestedly. Miller prophetically indicts us in the church as falling to the spirit of this cynical age in regard to our praying lives.

Miller points out that Satan’s temptation of Adam and Eve in the garden was essentially cynical. “Did God really tell you not to eat of the tree?… You won’t die.” He plants a seed of doubt in their minds, and the rest is tragic. Satan has since successfully led humanity to succumb to cynicism.

To be cynical is to be distant. While offering a false intimacy of “being in the know,” cynicism actually destroys intimacy. It leads to a creeping bitterness that can deaden and even destroy the spirit. p79

I believe he’s correct in observing that “there’s a dark, self-serving agenda” that we embrace when we refuse to trust, to hope, to believe. Cynicism sets us up to judge other’s motives and believes the worst. It is man’s attempt to be God, to crown himself as king of his own domain and to proclaim that only he can accurately discern motives, situations and life events.

Cynics imagine they are disinterested observers on a quest for authenticity. They assume they are humble because they offer nothing. In fact, they feel deeply superior because they think they see through everything. p91

In short, you can’t be cynical and also have a praying life. One will starve the other.

The rest of A Praying Life offers you a clear view of the love of God in Christ Jesus. When we love Him, we will walk with Him. Our walking will include delighted conversation with Him that ranges from joyful sharing to heart-wrenching cries for help. But prayer is not the focus. God is.

I deeply appreciate how Miller reveals that one can’t pray deeply without repenting thoroughly. We have to be honest with God. Prayer is not an isolated form that we can fill out and email to God, thinking He doesn’t know what we’re really thinking. God will not allow prayer to be a quarter in a game machine. Prayer is our opportunity to know Him – and to even know ourselves.

As we draw closer in relationship to God, our prayers also become mirrors. They show us our selfishness, our small-mindedness. As we grow, our prayers also show us our submission and our spiritual growth.

Miller concludes with a section on practical prayer in which he shares a systemic way to engage the Lord in prayer that will also help you remember those you’ve promised to pray for. I wholeheartedly agree that we need to keep track of our conversations with the Lord. What relationship would be healthy if you always started talking about what you’ve already talked about? As you learn to record your conversations with the Lord, you’ll be so excited to see just how responsive the Father is. You will also discover patterns in His activity that may help you understand and find peace in areas where previously you might have been tempted to say that God “didn’t answer” your prayers.

A Book Switch

As I mentioned in my preview of the book here, I’m grateful that Katie urged me to read A Praying Life. She gave me permission to underline in her book, even though it had been a gift to her. After completing it, I asked her (as one of our interns) to transfer my underlines to the copy I bought for myself after realizing it was a book I wanted to own. She just gave me her book – with the gift note on the inside. So I took a picture of the note, printed it off, and taped it to the inside of the new book.

She wrote her own note under the other note:

Jeff – My gift to you. May it bring you closer to God’s heart. Thanks for stealing my book. KT

And there you have it: A Praying Life – a book worth stealing…

Review: When Missions Shapes the Mission

I did a brief preview about the book a few days back. David Horners is the pastor of Providence Baptist Church in Raleigh, NC�(Awesome URL: pray.org). His book, When Missions Shapes the Mission, is a deeply challenging book addressed to pastors and leaders in the church. Because it was written from a pastor within my tribe of churches – Southern Baptists, I was pretty interested in what he had to say.

The book is essentially the presentation of a research project that was born from the conviction that churches have sidelined missions in favor of growing their own local kingdoms. What he presents is disturbing and should bring deep conviction to pastors, church leaders and local church members who do not have the world on their hearts.

Some of his findings don’t surprise me, but the extent of their damage upon the cause of Christ is lavish.

• Church members are not obedient in giving. Just in 2005, a study revealed that if believers in Christian churches tithed on their after-tax income, it would result in $46 billion (yes, billion) more in giving. (Source)
• �Only .09 percent of people in Southern Baptist churches have responded to a calling to vocational missions.
• Only 6 percent of money received in local SBC churches makes it out of those churches to support the missions efforts �of the denomination.
• Just over 1 percent of the money given actually makes it to support international missions.

How do these realities square with Jesus’ clear directive in Matthew 28:18-20 to make disciples of all nations? How do these realities mirror your own attitude or apathy toward the call of God to make His gospel known to all peoples?

Horner presents an honest assessment of where evangelical churches actually are today in relation to their commitment to missions. In his book Good to Great, Jim Collins says that one of the marks of great companies is their ability to be brutally honest with themselves about where they actually are. It’s a slow death to believe your own press. What is needed, Collins says is to cultivate a climate of truth. This is essentially what Horner urges churches to do – be honest with where we’re not.

His first section in the book challenged me deeply. Let’s quit patting ourselves on the back for the occasional mission trip or conference. Is a commitment and love for the glory of Christ among the nations embedded in our churches? Does our DNA reflect the priority of God for His gospel to be made known to all people? Do our church members and small group talk, pray and act in ways that are a “conduit and not a cork” to missions mobilization? Are we seeing people from our churches commit their lives to the calling of vocational missions?

Horner walks the reader through a brief and helpful survey of past missions movements from history and identifies nine things that were consistently present in these movements:

1. Power form God as the Holy Spirit
2. Passion for Christ
3. Prevailing prayer
4. A rich soaking in the scriptures and sound doctrine
5. Unwavering faith that trusts God to be faithful in all things
6. Holiness and purity of life (together with deep repentance and an abhorrence for sin)
7. Eyes willing to see and have compassion on others
8. A supportive, sacrificial, and generous sending community
9. Persecution and opposition

Horner surveyed 300 churches that were demonstrating not just a commitment but a culture of missions involvement and from that survey, �and delineates how these churches practices align with the elements of past missions movements. By doing so, he presents a helpful road map for an honest and repentant church to begin placing missions back as a foundation element in its mission.

Here are the 10 practices he says that churches today who are “investing in the cultivation of a missions content in their congregations” employ:

1. Assign clear leadership responsibility for missions (have someone devoted to the effort).
2. Place a high value on indigenous works.
3. Maintain regular contact with their missionaries.
4. Emphasize missions from the pulpit/preaching.
5. Use both budget and nonbudet funding for missions.
6. Emphasize both long-term and short-term trips.
7. Employ an assessment process.
8. Become involved in international church planting.
9. Highlight missions festivals (Larger churches from the survey did this more than the smaller reporting churches, he found. But that should not exclude smaller churches from embracing this as a practice.)
10. Adopt a people group. (He found that a very small majority of smaller churches do not adopt a people group.)

Perhaps one of the most frequent things I’ve heard in ministry when missions begins to be emphasized is how there is such great need for work locally. There are always objections to pouring resources – people, time, and financial – into works so far beyond our city limits. There are trust issues. The adage “out of sight, out mind” seems to dominate our mentality so much more than the scriptural command to “walk by faith and not by sight.” (2 Corinthians 5.7)

Is it true that America is “equally in need of missionary endeavors” when over 90 percent of the missions resources in the world are invested here and 90 percent of the world receives less than 10 percent of the resources? (p153)

The book is a reality check, but it’s also a practical tool to help begin somewhere. While we have so much change to embrace in order to refocus our churches and members upon the glorious call to take the gospel to all nations, we can begin. There’s great hope, for so many churches each year are “getting it.” In fact, “there is an overwhelming response to take the gospel to the nations coming from 20- and 30-somethings.” (p153)

While the book is written to pastors and denominational leaders, I would highly recommend it as a tool to help mobilize a new missions team (or existing one) in your church. It’s a resource that’s meant to be challenge but not to leave you challenged. It hopes to transport you and your church onto fields white for harvest as it shows you some best practices to consider implementing as you begin leading your church to allow missions to shape your mission.

Note: I received this book for free to review, and I’m appreciative, because it wasn’t a chore. It was a challenge. Get it into the hands of others.

Review: The Principle of the Path

I don’t know how Andy Stanley consistently communicates with such simplicity and power. Every time I read something by him or listen to him preach or give a talk at a conference, I find myself thinking, “That’s pretty self-evident.” Yet, then I realize how deep the topic or principle he shares with such clarity actually is. That’s one of his gifts. He is able to take complexity and transform it to simplicity.

Previously, I’ve reviewed three other books by him:

• Creating Community
• Communicating for a Change
• Visioneering

I picked up The Principle of the Path on sale, and after reading it, I wonder why it hasn’t been more talked about. The book is shaped around one very basic analogy – what path you’re on will determine your ultimate destination. Andy elaborates on that in a few very simple thoughts, including:

Direction, not intention, determines destination.

So many people wonder how in the world they “wound up” in their current situation. The answer is clear to their family and friends. They “wound up” where they are based on the decisions they made on the path they were heading. It’s an age-old problem. It’s hard to see above the walls of a rut. When you are doing life, day after day, you are making decisions, and every decision has a directional quality about them. Put together, those decisions that you make will put you one day in a destination.

Rationalizations for decisions have a radical power to determine your destination, as in:

• Zero percent financing and no money down…
• She makes me feel like I used to feel…
• But he’s rich…
• That’s how business is done here…

If you don’t want to wind up there, you need to start making decisions here. You can’t put off taking a u-turn. The longer you head in the same direction, the sooner you’ll wind up in a place you may not want to be. You must quit assuming you’ll always have time to change things.

Choosing the right path begins with submission, not information.

This particular reality is so glaringly obvious. A good example is doctors who smoke cigarettes. They have the information about what such an activity will do to their health. That information can’t change them. They must submit to the truth and adjust their lifestyle in order for it to change their path.

Andy has a great chapter about the importance of seeking counsel that relates to this principle that is powerful. In it, he urges us to quit seeking input from people in our same season of life.

Taking cues from people who share your season of life is the equivalent of asking for and following the directions of someone who’s never been where you want to go.

Using the example of Solomon’s son, Rehoboam, in the Old Testament, Andy shows how the nation of Israel was fractured because Rehoboam listened to his peers rather than those older and wiser.

What gets our attention determines our direction, and ultimately, our destination.

Whatever we focus on, we will head toward. After all, it’s a principle in racing, archery, etc. You aim at something, and you’re most likely to hit it. Andy asks hard questions about what is it that you’re currently paying attention to? It has the power to determine your direction. He also points out that what we give our attention to will also capture our affection.

More from the Book

Perhaps you’ve heard someone make the argument that experience is the best teacher. That may be true, but that’s only half the truth. Experience is often a brutal teacher. Experience eats up your most valuable commodity: time. Learning from experience can eat up years. It can steal an entire stage of life. Experience can leave scars, inescapable memories, and regret. Sure, we all live and learn. But living and learning don’t erase regret. And regret is more than memory. It is more than cerebral. It’s emotional. Regret has the potential to create powerful emotions – emotions with the potential to drive a person right back to the behavior that created the regret to begin with. If regret can be avoided, it should be. (p7)

I live in a world of nodding heads and note takers who walk right out the door every Sunday and do very little with what they’ve heard. (p48)

We would do well to abandon the adage, trust your heart. Apparently, the heart can’t be trusted… If our hearts are deceitful by nature (Jeremiah 17.9), then it is no wonder we are so prone to deceive ourselves. (p69)

Your decision making environments are not emotionally neutral.. Emotionally driven decision making rarely leads us down the right path. (p103-104)

It is next to impossible to hear the voice of wisdom if we are not really listening for it to begin with. The best counsel in the world is wasted counsel if our minds are already made up… Pride is hard to see in the bathroom mirror. But it is awfully easy to see in the rearview mirror. (p129)

Asking for help doesn’t mean you lack wisdom – it’s evidence of wisdom. (p134)

Conclusion

The Principle of the Path�is a great resource for anyone. I’d especially recommend it to graduating high school seniors and college students. It’s one of those powerfully practical books that can help shape your life wisely. Because it shares biblical counsel and connects it with 21st century living, its proactive message can save you a lot of time, hurt and wasted resources.

Preview: When Missions Shapes the Mission

I received David Horner’s book to preview, and I’m glad I got around to reading it. David is the pastor of Providence Baptist Church in Raleigh, NC. His book,�When Missions Shapes the Mission, is a deeply challenging book addressed to pastors and leaders in the church, but any mature or growing Christian should digest its message.

Expect a full review of the book here on the blog when I conclude it, but for now, I wanted to share this passage with you from the chapter The Value of Missions Models from the Past:

When the motive for missions arises from a sense of guilt that we ought to do more to help people in need, that may suffice for a while as long as our compassion holds steady. When the motive is gratitude to do something for God as a way to “pay Him back” for His mercy on us, all we are demonstrating is that we do not really understand grace. When the motive is to impress others with the depth of our commitment to Christ, the superficiality of that needs no comment. When the motive is to produce humanitarian change through a better way of living, the success will only be temporal and not eternal.

The only impetus that will sustain a missions movement is an overwhelming love for Christ and a passion for His glory to be made known as widely as possible. Until He is our most valued treasure, as He was for Paul, His message will be no more than a logical explanation of how people can escape God’s judgment, not an impassioned introduction to the infinitely radiant splendor of seeing, loving and knowing Jesus Christ.

Until Christ is our priceless treasure and His beauty fills our souls, all efforts to worship or serve or obey Him will be like half-filled cups trying hard to overflow. Obeying His commands to make disciples of all nations flows freely only when our love for Christ overflows fully. Therefore, sending churches must be savoring churches that adore Christ as most previous. As we learn to “taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34.8), the delight we find will lead us to savor and be satisfied with all that He is. The impact on missions, then, is substantial. People will not rally to action until they have learned how to rest in adoration. (p98-99)

Review: Live Sent

Ever read one of those books that cause you to look over your shoulder to see if the author is copying things from your thoughts or personal journal? That’s how I felt reading Jason Dukes’ book Live Sent.

Jason is the pastor of Westpoint Church in Orlando, Florida, and I’ve also had the privilege of meeting and calling Jason a like-minded friend. He graciously agreed to come share with our church in Blacksburg, Virginia last fall, and since then, I’ve used Live Sent with some of the guys I meet with. This spring, some of our small groups are using it as a discussion book.

Live Sent reads like a conversation with Jason. At times, his writing style is so conversational that if you prefer a more formal writing style, you’ll be a little put off. In addition, the book could use some more editing. Those are just minor critiques.

Jason uses the extended analogy of a letter and the process of sending throughout the book, and it never seems to get old. He crafts a timely message to Christians urging us to remember that we are a letter written from God to our world.

“And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.”�(2 Corinthians 3:3 ESV)

Some of the best chapters in the book are the following:

• rethinking church

“Church culture in general has become more “come and see” than “go and be.” The letters (people sent by Christ) are, for the most part, sitting in the draft box of your email or on the post office shelf. It’s like we have a message to deliver, but we are expecting people to come to our house and get the email or stop by the post office and pick up the letter.”

• a fueling station or a post office

“Sunday mornings cannot be viewed as just fueling stations any longer. They must be viewed as post offices, gathering and sorting mail in order to send out those letters into daily culture.

He says that until we see ourselves as letters to be sent, that church-goers will continue “their addictions to personal worship experiences and leaders will continue to burn out under the pressure to create that same attractive, compelling environment every week.”

In a great assessment of how backwards we sometimes get spiritual maturity, Jason says,

“It’s not self-improvement or self-actualization. It’s not self-anything. When the goal of our spirituality is self-anything, it usually results in self-righteousness. Self-assurance and personal fulfillment are not our end game. Denial of self must be the first step every day. When spiritual maturity is defined in terms of beyond-self rather than in terms of myself, then my understanding of the importance of the church will line up more with the intent Jesus had for His church.”

Understanding spiritual maturity is vital for Christians if we realize it is our goal. After all, the apostle Paul shaped his ministry around bringing Christians to maturity:

“Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.”�(Colossians 1:28-29 ESV)

• a letter, not a personal to-do list
• stay on the postal route (or wireless travel)

“If you are not living sent in the marketplace, then you are wasting more than 50% of your awake time each week.”

“Living sent in our world isn’t just about a get-in then get-out experience.”

It’s this chapter that has a great section on how we leverage our influence on the internet. This is something I earnestly seek to do, and I preach it to others as well. Jason offers some great challenges about how Christians can live sent on Twitter, Facebook and the inter webs.

He also has a chapter titled “when mail gets blocked,” and I think his concept is a great one, but the chapter itself seemed convoluted and a little repetitive. I also liked the chapter “you are not junk mail” which seeks to communicate that we all are created in the image of God and have great purpose and opportunity to bless others. We all deserve reading because God is such a creative writer.

I’d encourage you to pick up Jason’s book and give it a good read. Then start finding your ways to live sent. You need to be read as well.

Review: Sticky Teams

Larry Osborne is pastor of North Coast Church, a megachurch, by anyone’s definition. I read his book Sticky Church some time back, and when someone sent me Sticky Teams as a result of seeing it on my Amazon Wishlist, I was grateful.

Loved that it was concise, to the point and not wordy. It was also very short on scriptural references. Osborne does use scripture and biblical situations, but he mainly speaks from his earned experience as a leader of a large church for the past 20+ years. I wanted to include that observation for those you who might get distracted by the paucity of verse references in the book.

He deals with essential, practical issues of church leadership that will effect unity if you don’t have a plan. Things like budgeting, letting go of a loved, but ineffective staff person, how to clarify roles among staff and other boards, and whether or not your church is developing leaders for the future.

It would be well worth the time to buy copies of this book for your staff and primary leadership teams and then have 2-3 meetings discussing through the short questions provided in the back.

One helpful thought is simply how to share vision/information/plans with your teams or congregations. Typically, a leader will have dreamed and thought about a needed change for quite a while before presenting it. However, when it comes time for presentation, it meets with initial resistance that can perturb an unwise leader.

Norman points out, “When information is presented to close to a decision-making process, most people will view it as a lobbying effort, not as a training exercise.” In other words, give your people permission to think and make the change journey with you. Don’t spring stuff on them. He includes two chapters on introducing change that will be extremely helpful for you.

Intensely practical, and if even a portion of the book is implemented in your leadership structure, I know you’ll be further toward having a unified and healthy team than you are now.

Review: Radical Together

David Platt’s followup to his book Radical is intended to be a tome for the corporate church rather than for the individual Christian. Platt’s first book was an in-your-face approach intended to slap, sometimes not too gently, compromised Christians into a radical allegiance to the One they call Lord. Radical Together is also a rather blunt instrument intended to beat down the spirit of consumerism that has invaded the western church.

I read and reviewed Radical here, and I noted that -

While I was challenged by the book, I think that it also needs the balanced corrective of God’s deep and majestic love for His people. Platt comes across many times as simply… angry. The book seems to need a great dose of the�joyand�love�of God.

Radical Together, at times, reads as a corrective to some of Platt’s first book’s extremes. He seems to have chewed long and hard about the motivation needed for believers and realized that only a humble awareness of God’s grace in light of our sin produces love. And love produces obedience.

Speaking about the possibilities of Radical being taken out of context, Platt says,

“I get frightened when I think about Radical in Ashley’s hands. Though in writing that book I tried to show the entirely underserved grace of God toward us in the gospel, I know Ashley is prone to think, ‘I need to do more for God. I need to sell this possession and make this pledge in order to be right before God.’ Guilt will motivate her obedience, and action will be her obligation.”

Exactly. Thanks, David. That was my concern when reading the first book. It had so many merits, but I felt that it was heavy on external motivations to radical living rather than internal appeals to loving obedience to a radical God. With that said, Radical Together, on the whole, is a great read and resource for churches and small groups.

Platt writes to church members, collectively, to urge them to savor God’s Word, appreciate God’s leaders, work for God’s glory, pray for the nations and to progressively enjoy the exaltation of God.

He confronts the tendency of churches to become immersed in activities planned for church members. In doing so, he reminds us that “church leaders are intended by God not to plan events but to equip people.” (See Ephesians 4:12.) He asks us why we see a dichotomy in local ministry and global missions. There shouldn’t be.

…biblically, our mission is not only about loving our city or invading our culture with the gospel. Our mission is also about leaving our cities to infiltrate every culture with the gospel. I am convinced that satan, in a sense, is just fine with missional churches in the West spending the overwhelming majority of our time, energy and money on tryng to reach people right around us.

Reading this book together, I think, would greatly benefit any group. It’s been said that theology is best done in community. It wards off the spirit of individualism which refuses to submit to another. It also provides needed corrective.

There is thus a need to engage theology not just by way of individual contemplations of truth but more importantly, in a faith community of collaborative theological learning. This is how theology is best done! (Source: Edmund Chan, How Theology Should Be Done)

I think this book was necessary for Platt’s total message to be understood. We cannot be radical without considering what it means to be radical together.

I received this book from Waterbrook Multnomah for free as part of their Blogging for Books program.

Review: Out of a Far Country

Out of a Far Country: A Gay Son’s Journey to God. A Broken Mother’s Search for Hope

Review: Exponential

Exponential: How You and Your Friends Can Start a Missional Church Movement

Review: AND: The Gathered and Scattered Church

AND: The Gathered and Scattered Church (Exponential Series)

The urgency of discipleship and a review of “Real Life Discipleship”

One of the main reasons I read Jim Putman’s Real Life Discipleship is that it had been given to me as part of a promotional package from the publisher. However, I’d been on the hunt for discipleship materials for study and implementation by our church as we prepped for a summer series called “Building a Discipleship Culture.” I stumbled across the book on Amazon and was really interested when I learned of Avery Willis’ influence in Putman’s ministry and church. Willis is the author of the Masterlife series of discipleship books that were hugely popular in the 1970s as a tool for leading people to spiritual maturity. Willis passed away in July 2010, and he left a legacy of devotion to discipleship in the church.

I sensed I’d found the book I needed to digest. I wasn’t disappointed.

Before I proceed, let me just a few things about the church and discipleship.

1. Churches should be proactive, intentional and focused on discipleship.
2. Discipleship is not arbitrary one-on-one or small group meetings that discuss spiritual principles or read books together.
3. Discipleship should be thought of as the deliberate process of leading individuals and churches to spiritual maturity. We use Colossians 1.28 as a key verse:
   “…that we may present everyone mature in Christ.”
4. If you as a spiritual leader are hung up on finding the perfect tool to use in discipleship, you will be forever spinning your wheels.
5. The urgency of beginning far exceeds the implentation of a perfect tool. So pick a tool and begin. Write your own stuff later.

Putman’s material helpfully provides a way of assessing where people are in their spiritual growth process. He uses the following “stages” of development:

• Spiritually dead
• Spiritual infant
• Child
• Young Adult
• Parent

RLD uses four key terms to describe the strategy used with people at different levels to lead them to further growth.

• SHARE: Spiritually Dead & Infant
• CONNECT: Child
• MINISTER: Young Adult
• DISCIPLE: Parent

We reproduced the main image the book uses for our folks to better understand how we are to respond and engage people in each stage of spiritual growth.

After digesting the book and much of the accompanying workbook, I recommend it as a fantastic tool for individual and corporate use.

Our churches are full of spiritual infants and children. In many cases, what appear as young adults zealously serving are actually less mature people who are only serving as a result of being asked to help or “fill a slot.” The American church suffers from a maturity deficiency, and yet, that is the very thing that its pastors and leaders have been called to lead people to.

“And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children…” (Ephesians 4.11-14)

So let’s get intentionally busy and focused about sharing the depth of the Father’s love with His children.

Other discipleship resources to consider

I’ve had personal experience and used the following materials with success. Again, it’s not finding a perfect tool. It’s just using one that’s important. I suspect that you or your church will gravitate toward one that fits your collective personality and culture.

• One on One with God by Jerry Fine
• Experiencing God’s Story of Life & Hope by J. Scott Duvall
• This workbook has been split into four separate, smaller workbooks for easier use with different stages. Scott is a good friend, and I love his approach of leading people to Christian maturity from the perspective of believe-behave-become.
• Experiencing God by Henry Blackaby
  It’s one of the most foundational studies I’ve ever been through and used in my life and ministry.
• Building a Discipleship Culture by Northstar Church
  This is the series of videos we produced in the summer of 2011 to help communicate the principles of discipleship from RLD. Disclaimer: Rated “C” for cheesy.

In addition, Jason Dukes, author of Live Sent, has a great entry about books being used by actual disciple makers.

Leave a comment about what materials or process are you using in your personal life or ministry that you’ve seen bear fruit.

Review: Sun Stand Still

Stephen Furtick is pastor of Elevation Church in Charlotte. He’s a dynamic communicator, and his church has seen wonderful numerical and spiritual growth. It was planted in 2006, and within a year, it was running over 1000. At last report, they were tallying over 8000 in worship on Sundays on multiple campuses.

I wrote a review on the church’s website back in 2007 when I was doing a series on helpful ministry websites. I had no idea then that Elevation Church would become a megachurch or that Furtick would become the popular preacher he is today.

I recently heard him speak at the Refuel Conference in Lynchburg, and he was as I’ve heard – powerful, animated, humorous and convinced. He preached a message of encouragement and challenge (watch it at the link) to the gathered ministers.

With that said, I believe I can recommend Sun Stand Still to you with qualifications. If you’ve been a Christian for a while and are a reader, I doubt this book will be anything worth reading. If you’re new to the faith or are not a reader, this book is a good first start.

Furtick’s premise is based on an obscure passage in the Old Testament (seems to be the in thing for preachers/writers these days). In Joshua 10:13-14, God answered a prayer of Joshua’s by stopping the sun’s path across the sky for several hours. The Israelites had been promised victory over their enemies, but with encroaching darkness, their enemies would be allowed to escape in the night. So Joshua prayed what Furtick describes as a “sun stand still” prayer – an audacious prayer in his words.

The rest of the book is peppered with stories and examples of people who have experienced God’s unusual work in their lives as a response to prayer. He then uses the second half of the book to instruct and urge the reader forward in audacious prayer.

The book is an easy read, and if you’re looking for a book to give as a gift to someone who needs to be encouraged to keep going, to trust God, or to reignite vision in their life, it would be an appropriate book to give.

I would not suggest giving it to a well-read Christian. It is repetitive and other books and authors have written on prayer in ways that are more instructive and substantial. Furtick’s chapters come across as just scratching the surface of the beauty of prayer.

Some books I’d recommend (and please comment on others you’ve read and are familiar with):

• A Call to Spiritual Reformation by D.A. Carson (reviewed here)
• Hearing God by Peter Lord
• Disciples Prayer Life by T.W. Hunt
• Wrestling Prayer by Eric and Leslie Ludy (more challenging, but read review here)
• The Kneeling Christian by Anonymous (reviewed here)
• Prayer by Phillip Yancey (review here)
• A Hunger for God by John Piper

FTC Disclaimer: “I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.”

Review: Wrestling Prayer

Review: Doctrine: What Christians Should Believe by Mark Driscoll

Mark Driscoll is the lead pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle. It’s a megachurch with over 8000 people in attendance. Mark is also the founder of the church planting network/wanna-be denomination called Acts 29.

I picked up Doctrine: What Christians Should Believe and began to work through it with one of the interns on our church staff.

We waded up through chapter 6 before putting it down this week. One caveat… if you’re searching for what Christians believe and really want to know… and you’re a patient reader, this book is easily digestible. It’s not horrible. It’s just.. well, boring.

It should be a crime to write a book about God who is most beautiful, loving, grace-saturated and self-sacrificing and be as dry and stale as this book is. If it were, put Driscoll and his coauthor Gerry Breshears in handcuffs.

If a person is not aware that there are other theology books out there written better, this might be a good place to start. It’s not inspiring or breath-taking even though it is intended to portray a God who is and whose teachings match His character.

To be fair, there are a few spots that are very good. I would not hesitate to recommend the book to a college reading group or for one-on-one discipleship purposes with a new believer – if there are no other choices available and if they have already purchased the book. However, I got the impression throughout the book that it is more for Driscoll’s church than a wider audience.

Driscoll is a dynamic leader and powerful personality in young Christian leadership circles. I appreciate that he upholds God’s Word as authoritative and that he’s unafraid to stand firm on its teachings. This book, however, will be no classic. It’s good but not great.

Other Recommendations:

Driscoll may have discovered that his book (only about $15) and short is a wise entry into the overall marker of Christian theology books. It’s a savvy marketing decision because most of the good ones are rather large and in the $25-$40 range. With that said, if you’re looking for a good, solid read on theology or the teachings of Christianity, I would suggest:

• Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology
• Millard Erickson’s Christian Theology

The two above are meaty. If you’re not quite ready to dive into something like that, you might try..

• John Stott’s Basic Christianity

What other books would you recommend for someone wanting to ground themselves in the essential teachings of Christianity?

Review: The Dumbest Generation

The subtitle of this book hooked me. It’s “How the Digital Age Stupifies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future (Or Don’t Trust Anyone Under 30).” Since I’m over 30, you can trust this review…