Well for whatever reason, possibly deadlines it took me quite a while to read this, but that wasn’t so bad,it’s a book that you can read one chapter each week without losing an idea of what’s going on, each chapter being a little shot of good stuff every now and then. The author Kris Lundgaard, has taken the best bits from John Owen’s writing on sin, temptation and defeating it. It’s packed with loads of gems and little nuggets of gold in talking frankly about sin. The book is split into 4 chapters but really has two main themes; 1) analysing the nature and power of Sin and its tactics to tempt and deceive, and 2) biblical, prayerful, and thoroughly practical strategies for defeating sin. Each chapter ends with some questions which really help to focus thinking on what’s being discussed- would make a great small/prayer/accountability group study. Very helpful and practical, easy to read. Good stuff.

Uncle Stevo, who was running the CB3 book stall this year was trying to get rid of his last few books… of course I snapped up a copy of Desiring God for £7 - bargain… and was also intrigued by the History Makers biography series; Luther, Calvin and The Cambridge Seven, there’s lots more too.

The main reason I got this book was because I wanted to read some more about C.T. Studd - one of the Cambridge Seven, missionary to China, Congo, maybe some other places, the founder WEC, and source of the quote “If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him.” But if I’m honest, I was always more interested by the fact that he was the best all-round cricketer of his day, and gave up a promising international cricket career to serve God in an overseas mission field.

Anyway…the book was quite hard to read at first, loads of different names and random diary entries. But I love the background details, about the mothers and missionaries who were praying, about how the Seven came to faith - largely through the ministry of D.L. Moody, and of Hudson Taylor, his vision and prayer for workers to come to China. The book doesn’t talk about their work in China but is focused on the Seven, their conversions and their call to overseas gospel work.

What did the Seven achieve? Clearly they were called and used mightily by God, and their legacy can be seen today… despite oppression the church in China stands, around 70 million strong! China has the potential to become the largest missionary sending country with the ‘Back to Jerusalem‘ march. And their influence extends beyond China, the work and example of these 7 has led to the sending of may more missionaries, establishment of worldwide missionary organisations as well as the founding of student Christian movements… Norman Grubb, son-in-law of C.T. Studd started UCCF… so in fact the influence of C.T. Studd has contributed to the fact that I’m part of a Christian Union at Sussex University today!

I always thought that China is a closed country, the church is underground and no one really knows anything about it… that’s not true… John Piper recommended this website China Soul - under the heading “The Cross - Jesus in China” there’s 4 videos about the history and the present of the Chinese church. Hearing some Chinese Christians talking about their faith and the persecution they face is both a great encouragement and truly humbling.

“God does not deal with you until you are wholly given up to Him, and then He will tell you what He would have you do.”

Recently I’ve been listening to ‘Vintage Jesus’, a series of 12 sermons preached by Mark Driscoll at Mars Hill. It’s answers to 12 questions about Jesus, like; why did Jesus come? why did his mum need to be a virgin? why worship him? what will Jesus do when he returns?

There are two extras which I also like, each sermon starts with an interview with someone talking about Jesus, usually a crazy guy who smoked too much weed, ranting about something… also each week Pastor Mark wears a t-shirt about Jesus, usually it’s kindof irreverent, but shows how Jesus is very much part of pop culture.

Anyway.. it’s going to be coming out as a book (click pic for website) written with another guy called Gerry Breshears, it’s published on the 11th Feb 2008. Look out, there should be a few Driscoll books coming out next year.

Read this book while on the train to Budapest… this book is the story of Mars Hill church in Seattle, along with some insights into various aspects of missiology and ecclesiology from Driscoll along the way.

The Criticisms

The two main criticisms I’ve heard about this book, and Driscoll’s ministry are; 1) the chapters are all based around the size of the church, 2) there’s lots of inappropriate things that Driscoll has done that he refers to.

Having read the book I think these are flawed criticisms - first, the book is about the growth of the church, and a vision for more growth, having targets is healthy for mission and focus, in one of his sermons Driscoll says about his church “Is it all about numbers? Well yeh it is because numbers are people and we want to serve as many people as God gives us.” Second, the book is called Confessions not everything here is presented as the right way to do things and Driscoll often talks about the times he has come to repent of his mistakes in ministry.

Key Points

Mission - Driscoll starts off with some of the themes of ‘Radical Reformission’, in all of the decisions he takes in Mars Hill he always makes sure that the focus is kept on the church mission - to reach Seattle with the gospel. Sometimes he has to “put dogs down” when there are people getting in the way of this mission.

Change - when a church grows from 50-4000 in less than 10 years there’s inevitably going to be some radical changes taking place. It’s interesting to hear about Driscoll’s personal change, distancing himself from the liberal Emergent movement and embracing Reformed theology, and how through preaching through Romans the church established this position. Driscoll makes some controversial, sometimes unpopular decisions, but is always looking to keep the church vision focused and ready to grow.

Management - a lot of what Driscoll does seems very experimental, but is always done under the authority of Scripture and the council of other pastors. Firstly, I like the basis of leadership, where rather than recruiting external leaders, that new leaders are raised up and trained within the church, and the idea of hiring staff slowly and firing quickly. And there’s lots of good thoughts about being a pastor, leading a church, leading an eldership team and managing staff, members, change and growth.

Questions - it’s not really a study guide, but at the end of each chapter Driscoll asks the readers some questions about their churches and their attitudes. Driscoll is on a mission and is constantly questioning why we do things, Driscoll brings us back to the Bible for the answers…

Overall…

You have to remember that this book is the story of a specific church in a specific place. And also that it’s a book of confessions… not everything is said and done is ‘good’. But, Driscoll’s passion for evangelism, for leading and building a church is worth the read alone, his thoughts on how to lead/pastor the church may seem a bit strange sometimes, but I love them, because he always goes back to the gospel mission and what the Bible says as his lead and guide.

As I understand the book is now out of date, the church has grown even more and has started multi-site services, with preaching streamed by satellite. Driscoll ends the book with a vision and strategy to see a church of 20,000, I suspect an updated edition will not be too far away!

As ever, it’s an easy read, full of humour and sarcasm, couldn’t put it down. Other reviews of the book can be found at… Reformissionary, Tim Challies, thebluefish

Gonna read about the ‘Cambridge Seven’ now…

It was commented at the EMA that all of Vaughan Roberts’ books have no more than 3 words in their titles… I paused for a moment, reading and counting through the titles in my head - it was true. Interesting but somewhat irrelevant fact… shouldn’t judge a book by the length of its title!

Anyway, sometimes when I hear Vaughan speak I find him a bit dry, a bit too conservative in his style and sometimes content. But his writing is altogether different, it’s much more accessible, concise, easy to read and take in, and of course like his preaching thoroughly sound, true and Biblical. I haven’t read all of his books yet, need to read his Bible overviews at some point, but True Worship and Distinctives (2nd Christian book I read I believe, after John Dickson’s ‘Hanging in there’) were both excellent.

His latest book which I’ve just read is called ‘Battles Christians Face’ looking at 8 issues, or battles that Christians face in life. From the start it’s clear that this isn’t some kind of self-help book, a certain solution to win the battles, or a ground-breaking new perspective on the issues. No, rather Roberts sets out a Biblical example of the battle in question, takes us through that example looking at what we can learn about us and about God in these situations.

Roberts takes us through the issues with a related Bible text, looking at; Image (Col 3), Lust (David & Bathsheba), Guilt (Psalm 32), Doubt (Doubting Thomas), Depression (Psalm 42 & 43), Pride (Mark 9), Homosexuality (Matt 19 and 1Cor 6) and Keeping Spiritually Fresh (Luke 7).

I love Roberts’ simplicity and honesty, his realism and gentle approach to hard issues. There’s no great detail here, it’s a small book, so he gets straight to the point, but there’s enough here to give us both a firm biblical grounding and some practical application. There’s also a challenge here, where we feel we don’t struggle with the issue Vaughan bring God’s word to rebuke us - are we proud of our humility? do we judge others for their struggles?

Well worth a read - currently £7 along with some more reviews at the Good Book Company

I’ve recently read a couple of books - which is good going for me! I’ve found that train journeys and sleepy Lake District towns are productive times for reading… some more reading awaits as it seems a productive use of my summer…

I started reading ‘Don’t waste your life’ just after Word Alive, was a customary book shop purchase in Skeggy (shove it in the hand of parents as they are buying some). Anyway, John Piper is really addressing the question of our purpose in life, where we invest our time, money, gifts, skills, our future, our whole lives??

A guy called Frank Turk describes this book as “the best apologetics book for unbelieving teens”, I think he’s right but it extends beyond that, in fact it’s a call for all those who have breath in them to see and acknowledge the glory of Jesus and to give their lives to his service. More specifically this is the best challenge to be distinctive in the secular work place that I have read, being realistic, and not simply saying ‘preach the gospel to your work colleagues’, which is usually unhelpful and unrealistic.

My only criticism of Piper’s writings is you feel he stresses the point too much sometimes - “God is most glorified in us, when we are most satisfied in him”… “Worship is the fuel and goal of missions”… I think his ‘taglines’ like these are great, helpful, true and memorable, but just occasionally you feel he’s not able to articulate his points in any other way - so every now and then you feel like he’s writing exactly the same thing!

Nevertheless, this book is a well-written, passionate call to serve Jesus, to give your life to his glory. In the last chapter Piper gives a personal call to consider missionary work. I think this book confirmed and reinforced the aim of my life, to serve Jesus and consider the call to full-time gospel ministry.

‘The Radical Reformission’ is written by Mark Driscoll (and published by Zondervan), it’s £9 on Amazon, he’s also written ‘Confessions of a Reformission Rev’. Driscoll is pastor of Mars Hill Church, in Seattle, and leader of the Acts29 church planting network. If you haven’t come across Driscoll, then stop reading my pathetic blog, go and read his, and download some of his sermons. In particular there is a sermon he has preached titled “Reformission” in which he covers some of the themes in this book.

Anyway, the thrust of the introduction is to say that since we live in a post-Christian culture, mission isn’t just something that happens overseas, but starts just down the road. In the same way that overseas missionaries have to learn about the language and culture of where they are going, so we need to understand and engage with ours. The sub-title for the book is ‘reaching out without selling out’, describing his church as ‘theologically conservative’ yet ‘culturally liberal’. Driscoll has kept the main thing the main thing, but is radical, sometimes risque when it comes to the how, the practical steps in the goal of introducing people to Jesus.

Driscoll as ever is witty and sarcastic, I particularly enjoyed his list (over a page) of his prejudices, repenting against his hatred of boy bands and Canadians - my favourite chapter title is “The sin of Light Beer” - sounds silly, but is a serious attack on a culture of self-righteousness. Would highly recommend. Driscoll has lots of answers and examples from his ministry, though the basics are the same, it’s very American, this book will require some thought as to how we can do mission in our culture.

Have just started reading ‘Battles Christians Face’, by Vaughan Roberts which is looking like another little gem, also picked up a few bargains at the camp bookstall - Desiring God for £7! After BCF I think I shall read a copy of ‘The enemy within’ which I picked up, was recommended at Word Alive, so should be good!

I just started reading the PFOT book, that’s right after two weeks I’ve made it through the endorsements pages! It’s slow going as ever with me (hopefully will speed up now exams have finished) but it’s been great to read about Exodus 12 and Leviticus 16, how they gloriously reveal something of what atonement is all about. John Piper’s foreword is worth a read on it’s own! Check him out on youtube on this subject…

Some more posts coming soon that were delayed due to exams. Last week in Brighton for a bit, then maybe a few blogs on the EMA.

Currently reading the book of the same title… which you can download for free along with many other Piper books, even some of his very recent ones from his resource library.

“Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life—in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor for nothing.” - Philippians 2

Just read ‘Shining Like Stars’, a book all about students around the world holding out ‘the word of life’ in their universities and beyond. The book is published by IVP and written by Lindsay Brown, former General Secretary of IFES. The book takes us through the history of IFES (International Fellowship of Evangelical Students), from the first Intervarsity Christian groups in the 1920’s, to the formation of IFES, as 10 national groups in 1947, and the continued growth to the present day with IFES groups in over 145 countries.The book is easy reading and combines lots of two main things… biblical examples of courageous men and women, and a faithful God - particularly focusing on Daniel, and looking practically (and biblically) at the motivation and techniques used for mission. These two areas are consistently supported by examples of people all around the world involved in student ministry.The book has helpful things to say on; trusting God’s sovereignty and faithfulness, taking risks for the gospel, perseverance through trials, methods for reaching students with the gospel, honouring God in our work - and our whole lives. One really encouraging thing to come out from this book was stories of reconciliation, particularly from Rwanda and Yugoslavia, where the bond between Christians was stronger than racial differences and is an awesome witness to whole nations of the peace that comes from being in Christ.

One of my favourite stories from the book is that of a Georgian student - a Muslim, in a Muslim family. At an IFES conference he was so compelled by the love he saw that he gave his life to Christ. Soon after returning, his grandfather died, and many mourners came to his funeral. The student stood up to a community of Muslims and said:“My grandfather was a Muslim, my father is a Muslim and I have been a Muslim. I have searched the Koran, but I couldn’t find salvation in it. Now at my grandfather’s graveside I want to tell you that I have found salvation in Christ. How I wish that you could all believe in Jesus.”

There are loads of encouraging stories like this, not to mention the timelessly chalenging quotes dotted around from the likes of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Howard Guinness, John Wesley, and William Carey not to mention all the lesser known students and staff working to bring the gospel to students all around the world.