Jesus and the New Evangelicals

Modern evangelicalism is drinking deeply from the waters of postmodern and contemporary sensibilities. And depending on who you read, that is a good thing, or the one thing that will eventually destroy the movement. It is possible to understand the current postmodern culture well and address it through the lens of traditional Christian faith, or you can use the culture as a template for reimagining the Christian faith. Many in the emergent movement, and some in the seeker-sensitive movement are doing the latter, and it doesn’t please John MacArthur.

 

Pastor or Professional?

Brothers, We Are Not Professionals: A Plea To Pastors for Radical Ministry

John Piper

 B&H Publishing Group, Nashville: 2002 (286 pages)

I have to admit that the first few chapters were a rollercoaster ride for me.  I bought the book with one expectation, the first chapter met that expectation, then the second two went another direction altogether.  Piper opens with:

We pastors are being killed by the professionalizing of the pastoral ministry.  The mentality of the professional is not the mentality of the prophet….Professionalism has nothing to do with the essence and heart of the Christian ministry. (pg 1)

I was excited to read a book from a veteran pastor analyzing the current state of professional ministers, and the details of how the prophetic role of pastor is incompatible with the professional mentality of a CEO.  But that is not what Piper wrote.

 

Confessions of a Reformission Rev

Confessions of a Reformission Rev: Hard Lessons From an Emerging Missional Church

Mark Driscoll

Zondervan, Grand Rapids: 2006 (207 pages)

 

I didn’t know what to expect when I picked up this book, and I honestly didn’t expect that much from it.  I was pleasantly surprised by the book—not because my expectations were so low, but because it really was a helpful and useful book for a pastor trying to wrestle with the deepening and broadening of the church.  Driscoll’s sarcasm was an unexpected treat.  I am sarcastic a little too often, and it was fun reading his take on the world.  As with all hard humor, though, it was great when I agreed with it, and it was frustrating when I didn’t.

 

But humor aside, Driscoll has a handful of extremely important things to tell pastors (and church leadership in general).  To begin with, church is about Jesus.  We can put on dazzling shows, mimic models working half-way around the States, or disband the whole thing in favor of house churches, but every adaptation needs to be about Jesus.  Pastors and churches grow in the right ways when we preach Christ and him crucified every week no matter the topic or text.  A church without carefully defined and followed theology is like a grocery store that only sells Hostess cupcakes.  People will get a sugar high coming, but the crash is not far away and they certainly won’t grow.

 

Christianity In Crisis: 21st Century

Christianity In Crisis: 21st Century

Hank Hanegraaff

Thomas Nelson, Nashville: 2008 (427 pages)

 

She sat in my office, about 15 years removed from the trauma, but she and her family were still having a very hard time reentering the church world.  They were committed to Christ, but the wounds were still too deep.  One son was, luckily, too young to feel the brunt of the abuse the church heaped on them, but the other was older and no longer in church at all.  What was the source of all this current dysfunction in their lives?  A church bent on the faith movement’s message had entered her hospital room in the midst of a debilitating illness, pronounced her faithless and sinful, and rejected their participation and engagement with the church.  They didn’t want people too sinful to be sick in their church.

 

Hank Hanegraaff has updated his classic text exposing and refuting the Faith movement’s movers and shakers for the 21^st century.  To be sure, some of the characters are the same: Hagan, Hinn and the Crouches, but there are plenty of new and popular preachers and teachers out there spouting the “health and wealth” gospel.  I was especially pleased to see Hanegraaff detail the teachings of such popular figures as Joel Osteen and Joyce Meyer.  Their message, though maybe packaged a little differently, is no less heretical than their mentors’ message, and no less dangerous.

 

UnChristian: What A New Generation Really Thinks About Christianity… And Why It Matters

 

UnChristian: What A New Generation Really Thinks About Christianity… And Why It Matters

David Kinnaman 

Baker Books, Grand Rapids: 2007 (220 pages). 

In recent years I have been surprised by conversations I have had with those outside the Christian faith who like the idea of Jesus, but have a problem with the Christian Church. Our culture seems to be a breeding ground for spiritual hankering while fostering trepidation over institutions’ motives and integrity. Why are people suspicious of the Church? What intrigues them about Christ? Have we misrepresented Him? 

Questions along these lines led Barna Research Group’s president, David Kinnaman to research this supposed disconnect between the Church and her founder. UnChristian is the upshot of that research and the desire to help church leaders navigate the waters of representing Christ to a skeptical generation through the activity of the local church. The research project polled 16-29 year olds both inside and outside the church. From those national polls three prominent descriptions of Christianity emerged from those outside the church; Anti-homosexual (an image held by 91% of young outsiders), judgmental (87%), and hypocritical (85%). These ‘big three’ were followed by these other negative perceptions held by a majority of outsiders: old fashioned, too involved in politics, out of touch with reality, insensitive to others, boring, not accepting of other faiths, and confusing (p.27). And, unfortunately only a small percentage of outsiders strongly believe that the labels “respect, love, hope, and trust” describe Christianity (p.27). Startlingly many young (16-29 years olds) Christians feel much the same way.

 

Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership

 

Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership: Seeking God in the Crucible of Ministry 

Ruth Haley Barton

InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove: 2008 (228 pages).

No doubt we have all felt or have had a friend who experienced ‘burn out’ in ministry. For some ministry may even seem to create distance where once there was intimacy. If you have ever felt like the busyness of ministry was interfering in your walk with God, then this book is worth a read. As Barton describes, 

Strengthening the soul of your leadership is an invitation to enter more deeply into the process of spiritual transformation and to choose to lead from that place. It is an opportunity to forge a connection between our souls and our leadership rather than experiencing them as separate arenas in our lives (p.15).

 

The Extraordinary Ordinary Pastor

Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor: The Life and Reflections of Tom Carson

D. A. Carson

Crossway Books, Wheaton: 2008 (160 pages).

 

Most pastors will not rise to the level of popular cultural figure or even be known outside of their immediate circles of friends, families, and churches.  Most pastors, the statistics tell us, will never pastor a church over 200 people.  Most pastors will not write the books that become best-sellers and send them on national book tours.  And yet, we tend to see those pastors who do achieve these things as our standard – the measure by which we judge ourselves and each other.

 

If it is true most pastors will never be those things, and that the work of the Church gets done by most of us in our towns, cities, neighborhoods and communities, then we are looking to the wrong set of heroes.

 

 

The Celtic Way of Evangelism

The Celtic Way of Evangelism: How Christianity Can Reach the West…Again

George G. Hunter III

Abingdon Press, Nashville: 2000 (144 pages).

 

All pastors want what the title of this book promises.  I know we often strain in prayer, buy books, and spend the money necessary to attend conferences that tell us what the culture around us is like and how best it can be reached.  Often those books and conferences are a list of “tips and tricks” and even copy-and-paste solutions from the latest mega-church success.  And this is why I am often turned off by them.

 

The Celtic Way of Evangelism avoids those things…mostly.  Hunter, who deftly combines missiology with communication theory, intends his book to give us a useful and practical example of a man and plan that converted a completely pagan culture for Christ.

 

 

How To Make This Blog Useless

1. Make sure you disagree with the other side before you fully understand what their position actually is.
2. Make sure you slam a book because you don’t like the author.
3. Contrast your position’s greatest strengths with the other side’s greatest weaknesses.
4. Set up “straw men” and knock them down as often and as harshly as possible.
5. Do not define terms. Assume that everyone defines terms exactly the same way you do.
6. Operate under the assumption that anyone who disagrees with you probably hasn’t actually looked at the Bible.
7. Operate under the assumption that anyone who disagrees with you is either spiritually immature or, more likely, just not very smart.

Adapted from class notes taken by Ryan.