Community: Taking your small group off life support, by Brad House

Brad House works at Mars Hill Church in Seattle where he is responsible for community groups for their multi-campus church. As such he has lots of background in regards to leading small groups, growing small groups and helping church maintain healthy growing small groups.

This particular book addresses much of what Brad has learned over the years that gives him the info needed to help communicate to others how to get their community small groups off of life support. In many churches across American small groups have become an institution, a way of life, how accountability is done. Unfortunately they often become comfortable and drift away from the solid Biblical Base from which they were formed and the accountability they should be bringing to their participants. Instead they become a comfortable family who don't rock each others boats.

But community groups need to be the life blood of the church. That means they should be bringing good teaching, allowing good growth and holding Christians accountable for their walk with Christ and their walk with each other.

The line that is used often is that we need to get our small groups off of life support and into authentic community. So, what is authentic Community? That is what you will discover as you read through this good work.The book is broken up into Three Parts;

Part one: The Foundation : Building Blocks for Life
Part two: Health Plan: Redefining Community Groups
Part three: Treatment: Effecting Change in Your Groups

The Appendix has many useful tools to help you plan groups, plan had to infiltrate neighborhoods and and get good growth and replication going.

The three parts obviously talk about the main focus of Community Groups and the building blocks necessary. You have to have a good foundation to build upon. That is what has happened in lots of churches, good foundations, but then lack of execution.

The Health Plan goes through the redefining process, defining what the groups our, defining neighborhood and rhythms and structure. It gives you a good diagnose for what needs to happen.

Then finally part three gives you the structure for starting change in your groups to bring them back to health.

The book is well thought out and well written. There will be information that you will be able to immediately put to use.

Even if your small community groups are doing well this book will provide a good tune-up for them to give some more ideas and help to keep them on track.

All churches and Pastors who have small community groups should take a look at this book and keep it close at hand to provide good guidance for the programs that you start.

Enjoy!

Miraculous Movements, by Jerry Trousdale

A young friend suggested that I read this book to see what City Team is doing throughout the world and how their Disciple Making Movement through their Discovery Bible Studies is making a profound impact on the Muslim world and allowing the Holy Spirit to work to bring many Muslims to faith in Jesus Christ.

I found the stories in the book very inspiring. The stories are amazing. The truth of the stories will encourage every believer that God is at work and that we need to re-evaluate how we spread the Gospel and fulfill the Great Commission.

But there are some Theological rough spots. There are some comments, principles, "truths" that they claim that do not completely square up with the Bible. The Apostle Paul warned Timothy to examine every teaching to make sure that it squares up with the Holy Scriptures, well, not every thing they say in this book squares up. I will talk about that later.

The book claims that City Team has discovered Biblical Principles and Values that have been hidden "in plain sight' in the pages of the Bible. They claim that these principles are simple and easy to implement and that they hold the key to spreading the Gospel amongst Muslims (as well as other people groups).

What are these simple hidden truths? Well, the best I can come up with is, tell Biblical Stories, Pray often for your listeners and fast regularly and pray for the work that you are called to. Then allow the Holy Spirit to do the real work of drawing people to Jesus.

They look at Luke 10 and Matthew 10 and talk about Jesus saying the Harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. The Harvest is ripe but the church (espcially the Western Church) has dropped the ball on providing harvesters for the work. They are expressing that if you go to a Muslim Village and find a house of peace, then stay at that house and through your presence and good works you will eventually be allowed to share Bible Stories and tell others about Jesus. The Holy Spirit will then do the work to bring people to salvation.

As you tell your stories, you do discipleship through the story telling and helping the others to learn those stories and to obey the commands of Jesus. Through your discipleship you will lead people to salvation. OK, many of their truths are good. Many of their ideas are sound. The results of much of what they do is amazing. Although frankly it talks about the many small churches in many villages that they are planting, but it doesn't give any solid evidence of the depth of growth in the lives of the people that they are "discipling towards salvation." (I always thought discipleship came after salvation?)

Maybe I am being harsh, but they in their thrust to say it is simple seem to not desire to see people grow in depth and knowledge of the Theology of God. All Theology is, is really knowing God, growing in your knowledge of God.

But they push the theory that knowledge is bad. Experience is good. Their evidence that they are correct is the fact that miracles are happening in all of the church plants that they are doing. So, God is obviously involved since miracles are happening. God is obviously involved because many Muslims are having encounters with Jesus in their dreams and visions.

I don't disagree that this is bad but here is why I am bothered; They state on page 106 that with the Discovery Bible Study you tell stories, let people ponder them and let the Holy Spirit do His work. They state "Do not teach or preach the Word." Really, come on. Don't teach or preach. I'm sorry maybe I am naive or duped by my upbringing, but I do believe that the Bible tells us to TEACH the word, to PREACH the Gospel. Matthew 28:20 states "teaching them to observe." This is part of the main scripture City Team uses, the scripture says TEACH but city team states, "Do not teach or preach the Word."

How do they get off telling us not to teach? Then in 2 Timohty 2:24 Paul tells Timothy "and the Lord's servant . . . . be able to teach." Earlier in Timothy and other letters Paul tells his disciples, abide by my teaching. Live by my teaching. Teach to others what I have taught you. I'm sorry Jerry but the Bible is meant to be taught and preached. The Gospel is meant to be taught and preached. Yes the Holy Spirit is the one that draws people to Christ and yes many Muslims, Buddist and Hindu's are seeing visions dreaming dreams and having miracles happen that Jesus is directing.

But even Jesus told us to go and make disciples, TEACHING them to obey everything I have commanded. Your book is filled with wonderful stories that encourage us, The Western Church, that God is moving in the Muslim world, but don't bring shame on your method by misquoting scripture and telling people that the Bible (the Gospel) doesn't need to be taught nor preached. Shame on you. Friends, read the stories, be encouraged, thank God for His miraculous work and learn from what Jerry says about our need to not be angry or afriad of Muslims, but to learn to love them the way Jesus loves them. Yes that is good teaching. But also be an informed reader who tests the Biblical Principles they talk about against the whole of scripture.

WORD VS DEED, by Dr. Duane Litfin

First let me thank Angie Chetham and Lindsey Tulley from Crossway Publishing for sending me a review copy of this new book by Duane Litfin.  I appreciate them allowing me the opportunity to read and digest this material.

Dr. Litfin is President Emeritus of Wheaton College.  His book is dealing with the topic of whether or not the Gospel can be preached just through deeds and not with words.  He starts out with a quote, “Preach the gospel at all times.  Use words if necessary.”  This quote is attributed, wrongly, to St. Francis of Assisi and that is one of the reasons that Litfin starts with it.  He wants to be sure we don’t give power to this concept thinking that St. Francis said it.

Part One of the book deals with a very strong defense that the Gospel can only be “Preached” with words.  It cannot be “preached” with deeds.  He gives a very strong compelling argument for the truth of this point.  While his teaching is ‘right on’ I found that I kept asking, but shouldn’t our deeds be living examples of what “the Gospel” has done in our lives?  Don’t our deeds back up our “Verbal Preaching” of the Gospel?

Well, I had to keep from jumping to that point.  I found myself letting Dr. Litfin continue on his dialogue of the need for “Verbal Preaching” of the Gospel.  He is correct.  And he states in the beginning of the book that he is going to be “forceful” in Part One to stand firm on the thought the Gospel can only be conveyed with WORD’s and not with just DEED’S.

So, I really appreciated his first three chapters that strong detail the need for preaching the Gospel.

Part Two of the book deals with “The Importance of Our Deeds.”  So, he does get to a place where he brings the discussion to focus on the fact that our deeds should be a reflection of how the Gospel has affected our lives.  Thus our deeds should be such that they clarify our words and demonstrate the way the gospel has changed our lives.

Obviously our deeds have the potential to affirm or preaching or to show us to be hypocrites by demonstrating our sinful natures.

Deeds are good, but they come out of the convictions we hold.  The Gospel can not be caught only by our deeds, it must be verbally preached to those we want to share the Gospel with, but our deeds will add strength to our verbal preaching as people see how we live our lives.

I must admit that I found chapter four, “Abstractions and their Uses” to be a bit more academic than I felt was needed for this book.  But what can you expect when you have a professor / College President writing a book.  They just have to get academic at times J

Chapter Five, “Theology Applied” starts to get to the issue of how Deeds can be useful.  He starts with a quote from John Calvin, “The faithful do not only make claims with their lips, but prove their service of God in concrete acts.”  Again you see the emphasis on our words being the way the Gospel is preached, but our deeds add a secondary strength to our preaching.

Part Three of the book deals with “The Importance of Handling Scripture Well.”  Dr. Litfin gives us a very good discussion of how we need to know our scripture, we need to handle it well and we need to use it wisely and often.

2 Timothy 2:15 affirms the concept of handling scripture well.  Paul instructs Timothy to “do your best to . . . . handle rightly the word of truth.”  Dr. Litfin builds on this concept and ties it in well to his topic of Words verses Deeds.

Conclusion; I believe this book will be an excellent addition to any layperson’s library of Christian books.  It will also give them as well as Pastor’s a good treatment of why the Gospel Must Be Preached With Words and not just left to be hopefully ‘caught’ by those who observe our deeds.

This has been a fairly lengthy review, but I hope you caught that I was at first frustrated with Dr. Litfin’s strong statements in Part One, but he won me over to his side with his good transition to Part’s two and three and tied all of them together nicely throughout the book.

Bottom line, preach the Gospel with words and let your deeds demonstrate the truth of the Gospel you preach.

Bloodlines: Race, Cross and the Christian, by John Piper

At first I wondered what John Piper was doing writing a book on Race, the Cross and the Christian. I would not have thought that this topic was still a hot bed of thought for the American Church today. But as I read I was very encouraged that Piper took on this task and presented us with a book that is blunt, accurate, reflective and at the deepest level should cause each of us to step back and look at our lifestyle and our thought process about people of other Ethnicity.

John is just a bit older than I am, which means that we both grew up during the era of Civil Rights demonstrations and people such as Martin Luther King, Jr. Where we are different is this. John grew up in the South, I grew up in California. John grew up in a place and during a time when African Americans (Blacks) were segregated from almost everything. They couldn't drink from the same water fountain as a white person, they couldn't go to the same church as the white person, they couldn't even go to the same college as a white person (and this was in the "Christian" community.)

I on the other hand grew up in Southern California in a church that was multi-ethnic. We had White, Black, Asian, Latino and Native American all attending the same church. The majority was white, but 1%, but the mix was astounding. My problem, I didn't know there was prejudice in our country. I saw no difference between races because my parents lived out the Gospel of Christ in a loving community of mixed races within our church.

Further, I joined World Impact at the age of 18 to serve in the inner-city of America amongst Black and Hispanic populations. I didn't know that I should be prejudice. Boy was I naive. I grew up quickly living in the inner-city and ministering to those who were oppressed.

So, back to John's book. With the end of the Civil Rights movement didn't prejudice and segregation cease in America and the American Church? The answer is no. And it is still alive and well in today's culture.

John brings to us personal history for him on how he grew up, how the prejudice of his culture influenced his life and how he has come to understand that the Gospel of Christ breaks down all racial barriers.

You will find a very compelling read regarding the Gospel and Culture, the Gospel and Race, the Gospel and Racism. Piper will give you a history lesson, a Theology lesson and point out the current thinking among 'critical' thinkers today. Not everyone is on the same page in regards to racism in America. There are those who believe the answer lies in Welfare and Welfare reform. There are those who believe it lies in attitude adjustment, fair housing, fair job markets, etc. There are those who believe it lies in the way we view education and making it available to all people regardless of race, finances or religious preference.

John gives us the Biblical answer to the situation. He points out how the Gospel is the answer. He points out how the Cross is central to the answer and that the only way for this issue to be changed is for individuals to turn their lives over to Christ and allow the Holy Spirit to effect a change in their lives from the inside out.

This book is a must read for all Christians. It is a must read for anyone who is concerned about racism in America. Even if you are not a Christian this is a must read because it will help you understand better how the Christian and thus the Church should view different ethnicities and how we should strive to live in harmony and unity. This book tells you how God views the issue.

If you don't want to read the entire book then look for the chapters that interest you. Pay careful attention to the Appendices as they give good documentation to the issue being discussed.

I believe you will not be disappointed in this read, even if you disagree with Piper you will enjoy his honesty and learn more about his view on scripture and how it effects our view of Race and Racism.

Proverbs, Wisdom that Works, by Raymond C. Ortlund, Jr.

In our culture / world today people are struggling to find wisdom in everything they do. They want to be wise about their financial choices, they want to be wise in their selection of a life partner, they want to be wise in their choice of a profession, etc. etc. etc.

So, how do we find wisdom? Well Ray Ortlund reminds us that the book of Proverbs in the Bible gives us a great recipe for wisdom. Proverbs 1:7 tells us, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; fools despise wisdom and instruction." on Page 54 of the book Ray gives us a comment that his father wrote to him when he gave him his first Bible, the comment was, "Bud, nothing could be greater than to have a son--a son who loves the Lord and walks with him. Your mother and I have found this Book (The Bible) our dearest treasure. We give it to you and doing so can give you nothing greater. Be a student of the Bible and your life will be full of blessing. We love you. Dad"

That's a great quote and is exactly how the book of Proverbs talks to each of us. The book of Proverbs are the wise sayings of a father and mother, of a King and scholar, of a wise old mentor and a young learner. There is nothing in the book of Proverbs that won't touch deeply into your life and draw your attention to how to grow in wisdom, stature, and grace in this world.

Something else that Ortlund does in this text is to draw our attention to how Christ can be found in so many of the sayings of the book of Proverbs. You ask how that can be? It's easy, he draws many of the teachings of Jesus in to his discourse to show how they reflect the teachings of Proverbs and thus give us wisdom for living our lives. Christ lived by the wisdom of Proverbs and teaches us that it will be well with our souls if we do the same.

So, who will profit from reading this book? Everyone! Pastors, teachers, students, Christians, non-Christians. Yeah, that's right I think that people who don't yet believe the Bible as the word of God will find much in this text to help them understand the Wisdom Literature of the Bible and they will be able to see how it is very profitable for their lives to heed the advice that is given in this text.

The book is laid out with a great introduction of the first nine chapters of Proverbs. Then it goes on to take a selection of topics and draws many of the verses from the second half of Proverbs together to discuss wisdom in regards to topics such as, our speech, humility, family, emotions, friendship, money and life and death.

The book of Proverbs is a practical 'how to' book for everyone and Ortlund's new devotional commentary is a great tool in helping us to understand Proverbs in a very clear way.

Enjoy!