“For [Barth], no intellectual pursuit could possibly match the thrill and the terror of the bold and audacious venture to speak about God.” – Marsh, Strange Glory, 53.
7 Books to Look For
Every so often I scour the “Coming Soon” lists from evangelical publishing houses to see if there’s anything worthy of anticipation. My most recent search turned up seven soon-to-be-published titles I think are of unique interest to ordinary pastors—to read and/or pass around in their churches.
Baptist Foundations: Church Government for an Anti-Institutional Age edited by Mark Dever and Jonathan Leeman. Today is an anti-polity age, perhaps more than any other time in the history of the church. Yet polity remains as important now as it was in the New Testament church. Right polity strengthens Christians and their ties to one another. It is the platinum prongs that hold the diamond of the gospel in place, protecting the gospel from one generation to the next. Wrong polity, on the other hand, weakens Christians and their ties. It leaves heresies and hypocrites unchecked. It lets hurting sheep wander off and fall into canyons. It loosens the prongs so that the diamond of the gospel eventually falls to the ground and gets lost.
What then is a right or biblical polity? In this volume, representatives of several North American Baptist seminaries and a Baptist university make the exegetical and theological case for a Baptist polity. Right polity, they argue, is congregationalism, elder leadership, diaconal service, regenerate church membership, church discipline, and a Baptist approach to the ordinances.
Caring for Widows: Ministering God’s Grace by Brian Croft and Austin Walker. Pastors and church leaders are responsible for countless things. Unfortunately, in many churches, ministry to widows remains largely neglected and forgotten.
Highlighting the Bible’s recurring commands to care for widows with sensitivity and compassion, this book encourages church leaders to think carefully about how to serve the widows in their congregations and suggests practical strategies to that end. In part 1, the authors summarize the Bible’s consistent teaching regarding the care of widows. In part 2, the authors offer hands-on counseling and a host of practical suggestions related to ensuring that widows receive the support and encouragement they need to thrive in the church.
Going Public: Why Baptism is Required for Church Membership by Bobby Jamieson. Does everyone who joins a local church need to be baptized? What should churches that practice believer baptism do about those who were “baptized” as infants? This is a live question for many churches today, and it raises a host of other crucial questions: What is the meaning and function of baptism? Does baptism have any inherent relationship to the local church? How do baptism and the Lord’s Supper fit together? What exactly is “church membership”?
To answer the question of whether baptism is required for church membership, Going Public seeks to rebuild ecclesiological foundations, digging deep into the Bible’s teaching on baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and church membership. Bobby Jamieson describes how baptism and the Lord’s Supper transform a scattered group of Christians into a gathered local church. It traces the trajectory of a church’s birth, how gospel people form a gospel polity.
The Pastor as Public Theologian: Reclaiming a Lost Vision by Kevin Vanhoozer and Owen Strachan. Many pastors today see themselves primarily as counselors, leaders, and motivators. Yet this often comes at the expense of the fundamental reality of the pastorate as a theological office. The most important role is to be a theologian mediating God to the people. The church needs pastors who can contextualize the Word of God to help their congregations think theologically about all aspects of their lives, such as work, end-of-life decisions, political involvement, and entertainment.
Drawing on the depiction of pastors in the Bible, key figures from church history, and Christian theology, this brief and accessible book offers a clarion call for pastors to serve as public theologians in their congregations and communities. The church needs pastors to read the world in light of Scripture and to direct their congregations in ways of wisdom, shalom, and human flourishing. The Pastor as Public Theologian calls for a paradigm shift in the very idea of what a pastor is and does, setting forth a positive alternative picture.
Praying the Bible by Don Whitney. All Christians know they should pray, but sometimes it’s hard to know how—especially if the minutes start to drag and our minds start to wander. Offering readers hope, encouragement, and the practical advice they’re looking for, this concise book by professor Donald Whitney outlines a simple, time-tested method that can help transform our prayer lives: praying the words of the Bible. Praying the Bible shows readers how to pray through portions of Scripture one line at a time, helping us stay focused by allowing God’s Word itself to direct our thoughts and words. Simple yet profound, this resource will prove invaluable to all Christians as they seek to commune with their heavenly Father in prayer each and every day.
Theological Fitness: Why We Need a Fighting Faith by Aimee Byrd. Your spiritual life should be a battle! The writer of Hebrews tells us to “hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering” (10:23 ESV). What (and whom) do we need to meet this challenge? How does simply “holding fast” turn into such a workout of faith? Author and blogger Aimee Byrd invites us to join her in some “theological fitness” training as she unpacks our call to perseverance and explores the great metaphor that physical fitness lends to theology. Learn about the “fighting grace” God has given us, and discover how we are equipped to live lives of obedience even amidst the suffering and irritations of ordinary life.
Word-Filled Women’s Ministry: Loving and Serving the Church edited by Gloria Furman and Kathleen Nielson. The Bible is clear that women as well as men are created in God’s image and intended to serve him with their lives. But what does this look like for women in the church? Helping church leaders think through what a Bible-centered women’s ministry looks like, this collection of essays by respected Bible teachers and authors such as Gloria Furman, Nancy Guthrie, and Susan Hunt addresses a variety of topics relevant to women. Whether exploring the importance of intergenerational relationships, the Bible’s teaching on sexuality, or women’s roles in the church and the home, this book of wise teaching and practical instruction will become a must-have resource for anyone interested in bolstering the health and vitality of Christian women in the context of the local church.
Theological Foundations for Preaching
I’ve long thought that David Platt is a wondrously faithful model of how to preach God’s word. He handles Holy Scripture with reverence, clarity, passion, and joy.
Back in 2009 Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary invited Platt to speak on the topic of “For the Glory of God: Theological Foundations for Text-Driven Preaching” at their annual expository preaching conference. The lecture is full of unction and help for ordinary preachers like myself.
The Preacher’s Private Prayer
In preparing to preach this Saturday on Acts 6:1-7 I’ve found the apostles’ prioritization on prayer freshly challenging. And that’s the way it’s supposed to be, right? Which one of us would ever say we don’t desire to grow in devotion to prayer? I need to hear—surely I’m not the only one—this apostolic conviction again and again, “We will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”
From Disqualified to Distinguished
Thinking about Acts 6:4 always reminds me of a Spurgeon lecture entitled, “The Preacher’s Private Prayer.” His opening volley to the students will arrest any pastor’s attention. With typical confidence the Prince proclaims,
Of course the preacher is above all others distinguished as a man of prayer. He prays as an ordinary Christian, else he were a hypocrite. He prays more than ordinary Christians, else he were disqualified for the office which he has undertaken. “It would be wholly monstrous,” says Bernard, “for a man to be highest in office and lowest in soul; first in station and last in life.” Over all his other relationships the pre-eminence of the pastor’s responsibility casts a halo, and if true to his Master, he becomes distinguished for his prayerfulness in them all.
You’ll really want to read the rest here—pastoral and spiritual gold awaits. It may just be the most challenging and encouraging thing you do today.
A Series—That Looks to Be—Worth Serious Investment
One of the greatest things a pastor can do is read books that stretch his soul. These books may be outside his ordinary field of interest or they may be more academically rigorous than what he usually reads in theology. Such reading gives the soul godly flexibility and knowledgeable capability.
Among the Common Places
To this end I’ve found it helpful to identify a few series of books worth serious investment—of time and money. Last week I came across a new series from Zondervan that looks fantastic, “New Studies in Dogmatics.” The editorial team of Michael Allen and Scott Swain say,
New Studies in Dogmatics follows in the tradition of G. C. Berkouwer’s classic series, Studies in Dogmatics, in seeking to offer concise, focused treatments of major topics in dogmatic theology that fill the gap between introductory theology textbooks and advanced theological monographs. Dogmatic theology, as understood by editors and contributors to the series, is a conceptual representation of scriptural teaching about God and all things in relation to God. The source of dogmatics is Holy Scripture, its scope is the summing up of all things in Jesus Christ, its setting is the communion of the saints, and its end is the conversion, consolation, and instruction of creaturely wayfarers in the knowledge and love of the triune God until that knowledge and love is consummated in the beatific vision.
The series wagers that the way forward in constructive theology lies in a program of renewal through retrieval. This wager follows upon the judgment that much modern theology exhibits “a stubborn tendency to grow not higher but to the side,” to borrow Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s words from another context. Though modern theology continues to grow in a number of areas of technical expertise and interdisciplinary facility (especially in both the exegetical and historical domains), this growth too often displays a sideways drift rather than an upward progression in relation to theology’s subject matter, scope, and source, and in fulfilling theology’s end. We believe the path toward theological renewal in such a situation lies in drawing more deeply upon the resources of Holy Scripture in conversation with the church’s most trusted teachers (ancient, medieval, and modern) who have sought to fathom Christ’s unsearchable riches. In keeping with this belief, authors from a broad evangelical constituency will seek in this series to retrieve the riches of Scripture and tradition for constructive dogmatics. The purpose of retrieval is neither simple repetition of past theologians nor repristination of an earlier phase in church history; Christianity at any rate has no golden age east of Eden and short of the kingdom of God. Properly understood, retrieval is an inclusive and enlarging venture, a matter of tapping into a vital root and, in some cases, of relearning a lost grammar of theological discourse, all for the sake of equipping the church in its contemporary vocation to think and speak faithfully and fruitfully about God and God’s works.
While the specific emphases of individual volumes will vary, each volume will display (1) awareness of the “state of the question” pertaining to the doctrine under discussion, (2) attention to the patterns of biblical reasoning (exegetical, biblical-theological, etc.) from which the doctrine emerges, 3) engagement with relevant ecclesiastical statements of the doctrine (creedal, conciliar, confessional) as well as leading theologians of the church, and (4) appreciation of the doctrine’s location within the larger system of theology as well as its contribution to Christian piety and practice.
Our prayer is that, by drawing upon the best resources of the past and with an awareness of both perennial and proximate challenges to Christian thought and practice in the present, New Studies in Dogmatics will contribute to a flourishing theological culture in the church today. Soli Deo Gloria.
Forthcoming Volumes
- Holy Scripture: Donald Wood (University of Aberdeen)
- Triune God: Fred Sanders (Biola University)
- Divine Names: Scott R. Swain (Reformed Theological Seminary)
- Election: Oliver D. Crisp (Fuller Theological Seminary)
- Creation: Marguerite Shuster (Fuller Theological Seminary)
- Providence: Kevin J. Vanhoozer (Trinity Evangelical Divinity School)
- Humanity: Matt Jenson (Biola University)
- Christology: Daniel J. Treier (Wheaton College)
- Redemption: Henri Blocher (Faculté Libre de Théologie Ėvangélique)
- Justification: Michael Horton (Westminster Seminary California)
- Sanctification: Michael Allen (Reformed Theological Seminary)
- Holy Spirit: Christopher R. J. Holmes (University of Otago)
- Sacraments: J. Todd Billings (Western Theological Seminary)
- Eschatology: Ivor J. Davidson (University of St. Andrews)
- Prayer: Katherine Sonderegger (Virginia Theological Seminary)
- Christian Life: Kelly M. Kapic (Covenant College)
What’s Growing in Us?
Every time one of our children goes in for their annual checkup our pediatrician will humorously—yet carefully—work through a “Development Report Card.” Haddon’s 18-month report card said in the Development Comments, “Great job at growing up.” He evidently achieved all of the medical milestones.
Have you ever considered how concerned God is with our spiritual development and growth in godliness? Over the last four months we’ve journeyed as a people through the book of 1 John and the apostle has given us a clear chart on what kind of spiritual growth ought to be normal in our life together. We know he wants us to have growing assurance, and as we begin to close I want to think about from our text particular marks of growing assurance. Three marks by which we can examine our corporate growth.
Marks of Growing Assurance
Growing trust in God’s word. I told you all the way back in January, when we started our series in this letter, that John is surely an apostle for our time. In an age that demands acceptance of virtually every view, an age that up until just recently celebrated doubt and rebelled against absolute truth, John speaks with total, trustful certainty. The drumbeat of our text and his message is, “We know.”
Where might you be tempted to doubt God’s word? Are there any truths, commands, or promises where you are not taking God at His word?
To grow in assurance is to have growing trust in God’s word. A second mark is . . .
Growing confidence in God’s spirit. Our text says “everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning,” and that Jesus “protects” us and “has given us understanding.” All of this happens through the work of His Spirit. Are you confident in God’s spirit? Is secret sin threatening to undo you? Is consistent weariness stealing hope? John means to inject our souls not only with ever deepening trust in God’s word, but ever increasing confidence in the Spirit who resides in us.
A final mark of growing assurance is . . .
Growing joy in God’s son. This is the chief mark. John said in chapter one that one reason he wrote this letter is so that “our joy may be complete.” John continually defends the truth of Christ and exalts in the glory of Christ because, as 5:20 says, “He is the true God and eternal life.” What brings you ultimate joy? What person, place, or people—no matter the difficulty plaguing you at the moment—can seem to lift your spirit in an instance? Oh, how I long for us to increasingly say, individually and corporately, “Jesus is our supreme joy.”
Growing assurance means growing trust in God’s word, growing confidence in God’s spirit, and growing joy in God’s son.
This post is adapted from my recent sermon, “The Love of Assurance,” on 1 John 5:13-21.
Recent Reads
I love to read. 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.
Lord willing, tomorrow night at IDC we will finish our spring sermon series on the book of 1 John. Here are some brief thoughts on the 1 John commentaries I finished this week.
Epistles of John (NICNT) by I. Howard Marshall. If you’re familiar with the NICNT series you know it tends to be a bit more technical in nature, but Howard Marshall’s work on 1 John is full of pastoral warmth. That’s probably because the epistle on which he comments is full of pastoral sensibility and exhortation. Marshall strikes the appropriate balance in the apostle’s teaching between truth and grace/ word and spirit. Highly recommended.
1-3 John (BECNT) by Robert W. Yarbrough. Every sermon series I’ve ever preached found me purchasing—unknowingly—at least one commentary that was, quite frankly, turgid. For me, Yarbrough’s was that one for 1 John. The simplest of truths get untold paragraphs of focus and so it’s no surprise to find yourself drowingin the detailed analysis of John’s more difficult sections. Now, I’m not against detailed attention in biblical commentary. Yet, Yarbrough’s volume in the BECNT—a series I love—is an example of losing the forest for the trees. Preacher, don’t do the same in your exposition of 1 John.
The Letters of John (TNTC) by John Stott. To read a John Stott commentary is a dangerous endeavor for preachers. If you don’t have your own outline of the passage before reading Stott’s commentary, chances are you’ll always be taking his–he’s just that good. This brisk volume in the Tyndale series has the two hallmarks of Stott on full display: precision and concision. If you are thus a preacher who tends to be wordy in your explanation, Stott will be a valuable addition to your study.
The Letters of John (PNC) by Colin Kruse. I always knew it would happen. At some point I was bound to find a volume in the Pillar New Testament series and offer a summary sigh of, “Meh.” I didn’t find the pastoral care in Kruse I so love in many of the other Pillar volumes. Also, the flow of his commentary is too frequently stilted by an “excursus” I think would have been better left woven into the verse-by-verse exposition. I’m sure some will disagree and find the theological rabbit trails useful. Looking back through its pages, this book has few underlined sentences after a first read. Somewhat disappointing.
The Message of John’s Letters: Living in the Love of God (BST) by David Jackman. You can always expect a BST volume to have devotional tenderness and Jackman didn’t disappoint in his commentary on 1 John. Although I did find his commentary somewhat losing steam by the end and thought some of his expositional divisions were odd, his word is worth the money for a preacher. I regularly found Jackman providing an unusual depth of illumination into the text with winsome turns of phrase and thought-provoking outlines. Good work!
The Epistles of John (Boice Expositional Commentary) by James Montgomery Boice. I love the ministry of James Montgomery Boice and have long thought him to be a model of a pastor-theologian. Unfortunately, his expositional volume reminded me of Yarbrough’s a bit as Boice frequently divides the text into such minute sections he misses John’s larger argument. However, Boice must be commended here for characteristic clarity in instruction and moments—albeit more sporadic than you’d expect—of homiletical brilliance.
Letters of John (NIVAC) by Gary Burge. I’m sure every preacher has affinity for a particular format in the commentaries he reads (I mean, does anyone like the format of the “Word Biblical Commentary?”). I’ve long found the NIVAC’s formatting to be a bit frustrating as it moves from ancient text, to bridging context, and finally to contemporary application. I was thus somewhat astonished to find Burge’s volume on 1John the most homiletically helpful of the whole bunch I read! He offers numerous exegetical insights, yet doesn’t complicate the simplicity of John. Burge also manages to squeeze out inordinate amounts of heart-searching application from each passage. I generally judge the commentaries I use for exposition by the “Preaching Factor”; i.e., “Does this book fan into flame a desire to preach the text at hand?” The best commentaries are sermonic fire-builders and Burge’s volume ignited a flame each week.
Click here to find other entries in the Recent Reads series.
Messenger Hymns
For almost seven years now it’s been a great privilege to call Matt Boswell a friend and partner in the gospel. We served on staff together at Providence Church before we planted IDC in 2013.
I’d say about seventy percent of the songs we sing at IDC are hymns of old. The remaining thirty percent include many songs Bos has written for the church. It’s thus a wonderful day when we can celebrate a new Boswell release. Just this week Bos gave Christ’s church another rich EP entitled Messenger Hymns Vol. 2.
“God Omniscient, God All Knowing” has long been a personal favorite and is a quintessential “call to worship” song. “Come Behold the Wondrous Mystery,” “O Church of Christ, Invincible,” and “God the Spirit” are some of our congregation’s favorites.
You can stream the seven songs below and then go buy the album on iTunes.
A Simple Encouragement
Pastoral ministry is one of maturing the members (cf. Col. 1:28). Christian maturity depends on teaching (Matt. 28:20), but we also know that much discipling work is more frequently caught than taught. One thing a faithful pastor should want his members to catch from his model is the joy of singing.
Needed: Singing People
Few threads of Christian experience are as woven through all of Scripture as the role of singing. It’s a consistent command (cf Ps. 96:1), the immediate response to redemption (Ex. 15), a mark of a Spirit-filled life (Eph. 5:19), and one of the glories of heaven (Rev. 4-5). Our God is a singing God (Zeph. 3:17) who commands and creates a singing people.
Our churches thus need pastors who visibly and audibly exemplify this singing life. Here are two simple ways you can do this.
They’re Watching and Listening
Sing passionately during your church’s gathered worship. This is quite simple for we one-service-only churches, and it’s a bit more tricky for multiple-service churches. Here’s why: if you have multiple services you might be tempted to join in the singing during only one service while skipping out on the others. For years I’ve seen pastors sit in “the green room” during the singing portion of corporate worship, only coming into the room to preach. I used to be on staff at a church where this was the usual practice. If you’re in the green room as much—or more—than you are out among the congregation during the church’s songs know that you’ve missed out on a sweet opportunity. Not just an opportunity to join in the joy of singing, but to model that joy before your people.
There is something powerful in a pastor sitting at the front of the room and singing with passion. It’s surely true that many church members take occasional, maybe even regular, glances at the pastor during worship to see what he’s doing. Oh, I pray when they look they don’t see a pastor fixated on his sermon notes. I pray they don’t see a pastor seemingly indifferent to the glory of song. I pray they don’t see a pastor talking with staff members or church members more than he sings. What does all that communicate to watching eyes? Singing is not of much value to the pastor. And if it’s not much value for him, why should it be for Mr. Church Member?
What’s better, much better, is for the congregation to see her pastor or pastors singing with passion. Passionate singing means praising God in spirit and truth with volume, expression, joy, and knowledge.
Sing often at other church gatherings. Don’t let the only time your church sings together be the weekend’s gathered worship service. Sing at men’s meeting, women’s meeting, members’ meeting, and prayer meetings. Encourage your small groups to sing one or two songs whenever they meet. I’ve recently been considering how to best incorporate singing into elders’ and deacons’ meetings. If we want to be a singing people we ought to be singing at every station of church life.
Preaching Pastors Should be Singing Pastors
My hope in this post is simple: to see more preaching pastors model the singing life before their people. Let us not relegate the joys of singing to those peculiarly gifted in voice or instrument. God’s given us a voice—however out of pitch it frequently may be—to sing praise to His name and model joy in song for out people.
Apply God’s word and grace wherever it’s needed on this issue. Then go sing with unusual heavenly joy before your people this weekend.
Within the Crucible
Martin Luther said oratio, meditatio, and tentatio (prayer, meditation, and trial) are the indispensable ingredients for proper theological study.
For years I’ve labored as a pastor convinced of Luther’s laws, but to tell the truth, I’ve only experienced two of them with any regularity. Prayer and meditation have been faithful friends, yet trials has been something of a distant relative—until last fall. Tentatio knocked on my door around November and he seems to have taken up an extended residence in my life.
The Trials We’ve Faced
Our season of suffering arrived when one of our deacons found out his third child would likely not survive many hours outside the womb. God’s hand of providence took baby Eli home a few months before his due date and we wept together. Death struck again just ten days ago when a beloved church member’s heart unexpectedly failed in the middle of the night and his earthly pilgrimage came to an end.
In between we’ve watched another dear member waste away before our eyes as cancer ravages his body. We’ve counseled church members with immediate and extended family members passing away. We’ve walked through instances of secret sin seeking to steal souls and mar relationships. We’ve prayed with brothers and sisters in Christ whose bodies are failing. The storm clouds of suffering still hover overhead.
I’m thus getting a first sense of how trial teaches and shapes not only our theology, but our church’s life together. Tentatio is indeed a faithful tutor when it’s married to faith in Christ. Here are the sweet lessons we’ve feasted on these last few months.
What the Trials Teach
Suffering has brought us greater unity. Like soldiers fighting in a foxhole together creates unusually strong relationships, so too does suffering together bring peculiar unity to a church. Many relationships now have a strength from shared suffering that I doubt could have come in any other way. Intercessory prayer is more active. Concerns of mercy and benevolence, already large, seem to burst forth at every corner. It’s quite difficult to let petty differences and disputes reign when death is moving. Which leads to the second lesson . . .
Suffering has brought us joyful perspective. We’ve learned afresh that life is short, death is real, and pain is great. Yet, oh how kind God is to comfort us in grief! These are principles many of us have heard about and endured separately, but now have experienced them together. We’ve seen how God’s promises take on new significance when suffering strikes. The ministry of God’s word becomes ever sweeter. The songs of the saints rise with greater volume. The vaporous nature of life is more keenly felt. This renewed perspective is a means to what is the ordinary walk of a Christian this side of heaven: joy in suffering.
Suffering has taught us the unshakeable power of God’s word. Without the truth of Scripture, what meaning can we find in suffering? Without God’s self-revelation, how can we know how Christ relates to our pain? Without God’s word, where would we find hope and strength?
What I’ve seen—maybe most acutely—over these last few months is what happens when a church lives in, around, and under the Truth. The Word is everything to God’s people. Like Luther famously said in another place, “The word did it all.” God’s word is the ballast in the boat of our corporate life.
Seasons of suffering, like the one we’re in, are times when our corporate boat sails through storms of Satan’s fury and death’s wrath. Our enemies sling their greatest waves our way and mean to tip us over. What will we do? Grieve we will, but fall we won’t, for our Lord has conquered death. What is left for God’s people is to stand on the truth of God’s word and in the victory of God’s Son.
And so we sail towards the heavenly city with confidence and certainty in spite of the storm, for nothing can assail God’s power delivered through His ordinary means. This is what tentatio has taught us.