I love to read. By God’s grace I am a pretty fast reader; I usually read a couple books each week. I find it helpful to summarize my thoughts on each book and I offer those thoughts in the hope that you will be encouraged to either read or pass over the given title.
Evangelical Eloquence: A Course of Lectures on Preaching by R.L. Dabney. For years my Presbyterian friends have said, “You’ve got to read Dabney’s Evangelical Eloquence!” The poor Southern Presbyterian’s lectures have been collecting dust in my study for some time, but a few weeks ago I finally pulled it out . . . and I may have just discovered my personal authorized text on preaching. If I ever taught a class on preaching, this would be the primary text. Here we find the preaching ministry treated with gravity, scripturalness, and simplicity (which, incidentally enough are Dabney’s “3 Special Qualities of Biblical Preaching”). Originally published in 1879 as Sacred Rhetoric, these lectures have more than passed the test of time; over and over I found myself convicted, challenged, and led to write, “Amen!” in the margin. Dabney’s introductory lecture on “The Preacher’s Commission” will fan aflame a love for the sacred desk, and his lectures on the “Cardinal Requisites of the Sermon” should be requisite reading for preachers young and old. The old man gets extra credit for concluding the work with a lecture on public prayer. A fantastic volume!
The Ministry by Charles Brown. An old seminary friend used to always be reading some book on pastoral ministry. The titles were often obscure and many stretched back to the church fathers. Several years ago he was reading Charles Brown’s The Ministry and it looked helpful enough, so I bought a copy. It proved to be medicine for my soul during a trying time in ministry. I reread it last week and was freshly encouraged. Brown was a 19th century Scottish pastor who was said to possess “a rare combination of intellectual power and spiritual earnestness, proceeding from a mind and heart full of the treasure of the Word.” His book on ministry consists of four chapters covering the essentials of pastoring: godliness, prayer, and preaching. Brown’s little volume will help pastors return to the apostolic rule of Acts 6:4.
The Path of True Godliness by Willem Teellinck. Teellinck has been called “The Father of the Dutch Nadere Reformatie“, a movement among the Dutch Reformed that generally paralleled the Puritan movement in England and Scotland. The Path of True Godliness, first published in 1621, is Teellinck’s major work on sanctification. In true Puritan fashion the work is exhaustive and covers everything from what true godliness is, to how the kingdom of darkness wars against the kingdom of grace, and the means by which we grow in true godliness. The book can, and probably should, be much shorter as Teelinck’s discussion gets quite redundant at points. If basketball was around in the 17th century this Dutchman would have been deadly from behind the arc: he organizes almost everything in triads. It’s rather amazing how many sections begin with something like, “Notice that this activity begins in three parts,” or, “As the Holy Spirit leads believers into truth, he offers three distinct works of grace.”
A Display of God’s Glory: Basics of Church Structure by Mark Dever. Dever’s little discussed manual on church polity is an absolute gem. We use it in our church officer training at Imago Dei and I had the chance to reread it again as we just finished our first round of deacon training. In the short compass of four chapters Dever covers the essentials of congregational polity: deacons, elders, congregationalism, and membership. Not only is this a an excellent resource for training prospective officers it would also serve as an excellent discipling tool for any member who needs to understand basics of Baptist polity. I’d love to see a publishing house pick up this title and make it more widely available.
Growing in Christ by J.I. Packer. For Packer, Growing in Christ is the logical companion to his classic Knowing God. This book is his work of catechesis; his commentary on “the three formulae which have always been central in Christian teaching – the Apostle’s Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, and the Ten Commandments, plus Christian baptism.” But don’t let the word “commentary” give you pause, Packer sprints through the content. Each chapter is 2-3 pages in length and includes useful discussion questions. Thoroughly evangelical and warmly ecumenical, I could see this book being a great resource for small groups or discipling relationships.
Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor: The Life and Reflections of Tom Carson by D.A. Carson. I’m not sure why it’s taken me so long to read this book, I am something of a sucker for pastoral memoirs. Carson is to be greatly commended, along with Crossway, for giving us a glimpse into the trials and joys of ordinary ministry through the life and memoirs of his father. After reading the work, Carson’s administrative assistant said, ““I used to aspire to be the next Henry Martyn [heroic British Bible translator and missionary to the Muslim peoples of India and Persia]. However, after reading your dad’s diaries, the Lord has given my heart a far loftier goal: simply to be faithful. I know we as men are but dust, but what dust the man I read about in these diaries was!” No higher praise could be given.
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. The Goldfinch won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for fiction and my first response upon completing it was, “How did this win the Pulitzer?” I’m not one who generally enjoys the “art” of literature, so it’s possible my distaste is simply the product of unrefined artistic taste buds. So I decided to do some research to see if my sentiments were completely unfounded. Little did I know that Tartt is something of a cult hero and her latest book has created something of a impenetrable divide among literary critics: you love it or you hate it. Although I didn’t loathe the book, I definitely didn’t love it. The narrative seamlessly moves from the rivetingly sensational to boringly bloated. I find most of the prose to fall in the latter category.
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