Do You See What God Sees?

Once or twice a year I post a recent sermon. Today is one of those times. On Sunday, which was Mother’s Day, I preached from Luke 13 about a “daughter of Abraham” (v. 16).

Abraham in the Old Testament is the quintessential patriarch of our faith. God promises Abraham and his descendants that they will inherit the world and be a blessing to the nations (Gen. 12:1–3). If you grew up in the church, perhaps you sang the song “Father Abraham.” “Father Abraham,” it goes, “had many sons. And I am one of them, and so are you . . .” You probably never sang about his many daughters. But in this passage, we meet one of them. And she meets God. 

You can listen to the sermon here or read a rough manuscript below.

Do You See What God Sees?

Benjamin Vrbicek

*     *     *

It’s possible to become so focused on something, so protective of something that you actually miss the thing you are trying to protect. When we had construction workers here this winter, they took various safety precautions as they went about their work. The general contractor even has a safety coordinator that goes around all their jobs just to make sure people take necessary precautions.

But what if, over the course of the job, as this safety coordinator came to Community to inspect things, he noticed how I continually increased the precautionary safety measures. At first it was just hardhat and safety glasses to be worn all the time, even from the moment a worker gets out of the car. And then it moved to not only steel-toed boots but Kevlar vests and body armor.

And then it got to the place where, before a worker could get to work, I would proceed to tape them in bubble wrap head to toe. Can you imagine me, a pastor, wrapping full grown women and men in bubble wrap? It’s absurd. It’s not even safe anymore. How could one breathe?

Lot’s could be said about this silly story but had this actually happened, I can assure you that whatever we could say, we would not be saying it in this building; we never would have moved in! No work would have been done.

That’s what happens in this passage. A focus on the letter of man’s law to the utter neglect of the spirit of the God’s law creates sinful absurdity. Let’s just read a few verses at a time, and I’ll make comments as we come to things.

The Setting, vv. 10–11

First, there is the setting in vv. 10–11. Let’s re-read them.

10 Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. 11 And behold, there was a woman who had had a disabling spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not fully straighten herself.

The story begins seemingly unassuming. We don’t know much about this particular synagogue, but we might picture something like a small church, a place where believers gathered each week to hear the Scripture read and taught.

But the careful reader is already cued into a potential tension in these opening lines. We read of “the synagogue” and “the Sabbath” and “[Jesus] teaching.” These three have come together several times already (4:15, 16, 33, 44; 6:6). Luke 4:16 even calls it his custom to teach in a synagogue on a Sabbath. The careful reader might as well have read in v. 11, “It was a windy afternoon, and on the horizon were giant thunderclouds, and two armies faced each other.”

Then we read of this woman, a woman who has no clue she’s just hobbled on to a battlefield. Luke certainly is drawing our attention to her. That’s one thing you need to know is particular to Luke’s gospel: Luke trains our attention on God’s love for those often shoved to the margins. In Luke’s context and many times in our own, this certainly includes women. Luke’s gospel has forty-two passages with motifs related to women, and over half of these passages are unique to his gospel, meaning they are not recorded elsewhere in the other gospels (Bock, Luke in The NIV Application Commentary Series, 373). This story in Luke 13 is one of those stories unique to his gospel.

And just look at her. We read that she “was [both] bent over and could not fully straighten herself.” Why the two descriptions? It communicates not only her default disposition (bent over) but also her inability to deviate from that default position (unable to stand up). She is hunched over all the time. If she wants to look you in the eye, she does so in a sort of sideways manner. Everything about every detail of her life is disrupted. Her walking was disrupted. Her sitting was disrupted. Her going to the bathroom was disrupted. Her rest was disrupted. Her sleep was disrupted. Her mothering was disrupted, along with intimacy with her husband, if she was married with children. But perhaps this incident happened before all that, and so no man would even court her, leaving her alone in her predicament. And all for 18 long years! This was a woman for which you’d have to whisper to your children, “Don’t stare.”

Luke tells us she had a “disabling spirit.” We don’t know exactly what that means, but later Jesus indicates that Satan was involved in this particular “binding” (v. 16). But in real-time—which is the only way we experience our pain—as this woman experienced her pain, we can only imagine the reason for her pain was as unclear to her as it is to most of us when we experience pain. Why, Lord, did this have to happen? Why, Lord, am I hurting so? Why is life so difficult? Have I done something wrong, Lord? Have you forgotten about me, Lord? How long, O Lord?

The Untying, vv. 12–13

Let’s continue reading vv. 12–13. Jesus sees her.

12 When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said to her, “Woman, you are freed from your disability.” 13 And he laid his hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and she glorified God.

We read that Jesus saw her, Jesus called to her, and Jesus touched her. And when he did, she was changed. She was, we might say, untied. She was loosed and set free—free to glorify God by jumping around. The Greek implies that she did not merely glorify God but that she was glorifying God, meaning it was continuous; she couldn’t stop speaking about the greatness of her God.

Let’s talk for a moment about the language of seeing and touching. In our day a religious man seeing a woman and then laying hands on her is jarring because of how many women are abused by men in positions of authority, which is especially troubling when it’s done by those in positions of religious authority.

So I pause. And I ask: Men, when you see a woman, what do you see? With what lens do you look at women? Do you look at them the way God sees them or the way a pornified culture sees them? Do you see women made in the image of God and as those who ought to be the source of your love and sacrifice, or do you see women as those who are made to be sacrificed for you?

And I pause. And I ask: Women, how do you see yourself? Do you see yourself as God sees you or as the world tells you that you are to be seen? Do you see yourself as fearfully and wonderfully made by the almighty Creator of the Universe, or do you see your worth and value in what size dress you can wear and how well you can delay the expansion of wrinkles?

O that we had the eyes of Jesus! O that we—men and women—could see the way he sees. What love, what compassion, what vision of the way things ought to be and will be someday, even someday soon.

Well, next we come to the disagreement about the Sabbath and work. But I would just mention before we read the reaction to this healing, that while a grand and glorious liberation to a captive has taken place (cf. Luke 4:18), it really didn’t take that much “work.” He saw, he spoke, he touched, he healed. Done.

Here’s an encouragement to us. If your eyesight is off, meaning you do not see with the eyes of God and the lens of Scripture, this morning—and this is good news—God can straighten you up with just a touch and a word. Done.

The Ruler’s Reaction, v. 14

Look at v. 14 to see the reaction.

14 But the ruler of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the people, “There are six days in which work ought to be done. Come on those days and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day.”

What a contrasting picture. On the one hand, a crippled woman is now healed. And on the other hand, a powerful, healthy man now shows his deep heartsickness. The woman glorifies God, and the man is berating God. And he won’t even look at Jesus as he does it. Notice the passage points out that the coward says whatever he has to say to the people, not Jesus. He’s like someone who runs to social media to rant: There are six days in which work ought to be done. Come on those days and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day. #KeepSabbathHoly. Is God closed for business on the Sabbath?

This ruler’s words are absurd, aren’t they? Jesus thinks so. But we’d be helped by trying to put ourselves in this ruler’s shoes. To do that, we’d have to go back in time.

When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, he came down with two tablets inscribed by the finger of God. He came down with the Ten Commandments. The fourth commandment is, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy” (Exodus 20:8). That’s going back some 1,400 years before Jesus. And it turns out that Gods people weren’t so great at keeping this commandment or any of the other commandments either.

For this reason the prophets began to warn of the severe punishment that God was storing up because of the way his people profaned the Sabbath. In Jeremiah 17:27 we read,  

27 But if you do not listen to me, to keep the Sabbath day holy, and not to bear a burden and enter by the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will kindle a fire in its gates, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem and shall not be quenched.’”

Eventually the punishment comes; the fire comes. God picked up a flamethrower called Babylon and pointed it at Jerusalem. Babylon laid siege to Zion, crippling her food supply. In a series of assaults over several years King Nebuchadnezzar led most of Israel away as captives.

While Israel is in Babylon for seventy years, all the while prophets like Ezekiel explain that a chief reason—among the many reasons—they went into exile was because they neglected the Sabbath. Ezekiel, speaking for God, says,

You have despised my holy things and profaned my Sabbaths. (22:8)

And many such things God says through him (e.g., 20:10–26; 22:26; 23:38).

When God’s people are released from their exile, the governor Nehemiah makes a huge deal of the Sabbath. He says,

15 In those days I saw in Judah people treading winepresses on the Sabbath, and bringing in heaps of grain and loading them on donkeys, and also wine, grapes, figs, and all kinds of loads, which they brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. And I warned them on the day when they sold food. . . .  18 Did not your fathers act in this way, and did not our God bring all this disaster on us and on this city? Now you are bringing more wrath on Israel by profaning the Sabbath.” (13:15, 18)

When the merchants end up hanging outside the city wall, Nehemiah tells them, “If you do so again, I will lay hands on you” (13:21).

And then 500 years go by between Nehemiah and Jesus. What happens during that time is that the leaders, in a desire to never repeat the exile, they build laws on top of regulations and commandments on top of stipulations. These manmade rules were recorded in places like the Mishnah, a collection of rabbinic teachings during this time. In some places in the Mishnah there are provisions made for watering and feeding animals, but in one place in the Mishnah we read a list of 39 things prohibited on the Sabbath, things such as,

Sowing, plowing, reaping, binding sheaves, threshing, winnowing, sorting, grinding, sifting, kneading, baking, shearing wool, whitening it, combing it, dyeing it, spinning, weaving, making two loops, weaving two threads, separating two threads, tying [a knot], untying [a knot], sewing two stitches, tearing for the purpose of sewing two stitches, hunting a deer, slaughtering it, skinning it, salting it, curing its hide, scraping it, cutting it, writing two letters, erasing for the purpose of writing two letters, building, demolishing, extinguishing a flame, lighting a flame, striking with a hammer, carrying from one domain to another. (Taken from Shabbat 7.2 here.) 

And perhaps without even realizing it, they continually increased precautionary safety measures to the point that keeping the Sabbath holy meant wearing bubble wrap. Their focus on the letter of man’s law to the utter neglect of the spirit of God’s law created sinful absurdity: one of God’s leaders, a ruler of a local synagogue, berating God for doing on the Sabbath that for which the Sabbath was made, namely, healing and joy and pushing back the curse wherever it’s found.

This is what sin always does. When it is full grown, it creates absurdities (cf., James 1:15). No man who begins with pornography wants to end up addicted. No woman who wants to look beautiful intends to end up anorexic. But that’s where things can go. I can remember in college running my self absolutely ragged trying to keep up my test scores. It was an act of false worship. And even today, I sometimes marvel at how slow my Christian maturity has developed when I find myself running myself ragged trying to be the pastor I think everyone wants me to be, coveting lofty opinions from you. O, we need grace, don’t we, church?   

The Lord’s Response, vv. 15–16

And while the synagogue ruler would not take his complaint directly do Jesus, Jesus certainly takes his complaint directly to him and every other leader who sided with him. Look at vv. 15–16.

15 Then the Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger and lead it away to water it? 16 And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?”

There are seven recorded miracles that Jesus performs on a Sabbath day (See this helpful chart here), which leads me to believe controversy over the Sabbath wasn’t a battle Jesus fell into by accident. No, Jesus saw the religious leaders draw a line in the sand, and he walked across it with loving fire in his eyes.

Jesus makes one statement (“you hypocrites”), and he asks two questions. These questions, in case it isn’t apparent, are rhetorical. You’re not supposed to answer them out loud. You’re supposed to sit in them. Or better, they sit on us, holding us down until we come to our senses.

Jesus, as he so often does, argues from the lesser to the greater (cf. 11:11–13 and 12:6–7). If it’s okay for an animal to be untied on the Sabbath and be led to water, how much more on a Sabbath is it necessary to untie this woman, this daughter of Abraham? (By the way, that’s the only place this phrase is used in the Bible.) This daughter of Abraham is an heir of the world through the promise of God, and the religious leaders were essentially saying through their actions that this woman was less than a donkey.

Buy on Amazon

If we widen out a bit away from this woman specifically, it might be helpful to ask what you think the Sabbath is for? On this ordinary Sabbath something extraordinary happened. Just like it does in every ordinary church, with ordinary pastors, preaching ordinary sermons—God sees fit to show up. But you’d have to be there to see it.

I actually don’t think in the New Covenant era, the time after Jesus’s death and resurrection, that we are required to keep the Sabbath in the same way it was kept in the Old Testament, but I do think we are not helped by our general neglect of Sabbath rest. I’ve been convicted of this lately. I’ve read four books loosely around the topic of busyness and contentment and Sabbath rest. One author, a pastor in Boston, writes in his new book The Art of Rest,

If you’re concerned that by embracing regular Sabbath rest you’re in danger of coming under some harsh legalism, simply ask yourself how not observing the Sabbath rest is going for you. It’s not rest that threatens to oppress you, but your refusal to. (Adam Mabry, The Art of Rest, 48)

I guess I’m arguing things both ways because I see the passage do that very thing. There is a danger to adding rules to the Sabbath to make something absurd. But on the other hand, many of us have gone so far the other way that we are missing the joy and healing that are offered on the Sabbath. Build rhythms of rest into your life. Build into your life relaxed and unhurried time in the presence of God. Build into your life relaxed and unhurried fellowship with God’s people.

The Polarization, v. 17

Let’s wrap this up by reading the final verse.

17 As he said these things, all his adversaries were put to shame, and all the people rejoiced at all the glorious things that were done by him.

This story in Luke 13 is the last time recorded in the gospels that Jesus teaches in a synagogue. You can see why. A polarization takes place around the person of Jesus.

We read that “all his adversaries were put to shame, and all the people rejoiced at all the glorious things that were done by him.” All and all. Sadly, their shame, it would seem, does not lead them to repentance. In a few weeks we’ll come to chapter 14 where Jesus heals again on the Sabbath (vv. 1–6) and says similar things. He repeats himself because they didn’t get it. The grace of God displayed before them made their hearts of stone harder.

I think this widening out is an accurate historical summary of what took place. But also, in part, this widening out in v. 17 has the rhetorical effect of pressing us to deal with Jesus. What do you think of him? Where do you stand? Will you be content with your manmade ladders to heaven, or will you let Jesus touch you, heal you, and make you whole again.

As I said earlier, Luke’s gospel highlights God’s special compassion for those who society, even religious society, does not value, which often includes women and mothers. If on this Sabbath Lord’s Day you feel exhausted, beat down, and lonely, take heart. Jesus sees you. Jesus loves you.

 * Photo by David Monje on Unsplash.

I Only Write Books When I Must

Over the last few years, I’ve read and reviewed all of Tony Reinke’s books. He’s an author and the content strategist for Desiring God. First, there was Lit!, then Mom Enough, then Newton on the Christian Life, then The Joy Project, and finally 12 Ways Your Phone is Changing You. I even wrote a study guide for one of them (The Joy Project).

Okay, okay, okay. You can make fun of me if you want to, but I’m a fan.

Buy on Amazon

Recently Reinke wrote a “thank you” post to his readers. It’s been just over a year since his book 12 Ways was published by Crossway. There were several things I appreciated about the short post. Being thanked was one of them. But the main encouragement to me were his convictions about writing books. He said,

In the publishing market, plagued by its razor thin margins, many authors face tremendous pressure to cave to editors aiming at pop appetites. I don’t. I write the books I want to write, in complete freedom, because (1) I have a publisher that believes books should be better than what the mass market wants, and that authors are better when they fear God more than the market’s silence. And (2) I have readers who share my vision of God and vision of the world.

My promise to you: I refuse to become a professional author. I only write books when I must. Maybe one more, two, four — who knows? But I know I will never ask my busy wife to edit, or for you to read, any book not driven by an urgent need to share with you a necessary message yet unpublished.

I’m not sure precisely what Reinke means when he says, “I refuse to become a professional author.” I suspect he has the pejorative sense in mind, suggesting an author’s pipeline of projects more determined by money than anything else. I read a lot of books, and I know I gravitate toward the books that seem they had to be written, those books that fill far more than a market need.

His post renewed in me the passion to do the same, to write only those must-be-written books. Next week I hope to share more about my job-search book for pastors, a book that—in my opinion—needs to be written. I promise, it certainly wasn’t market forces that drove my decision to spend three years working on it.

What about you? We all have things in our life we must do because they are necessary parts of life—work, sleep, cleaning the house, mowing the yard, and so on. But what things in your life are you doing because you feel compelled to do them for the glory of God, regardless of whether they are efficient, make money, or achieve some other requirement?

The apostle Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:14 of the love of Christ that compels us. Paul has in mind here what he calls the ministry of reconciliation. But it seems to me that the same compelling love of Christ also unleashes Christians to a thousand different God-honoring, people-helping pursuits. For Reinke, it meant writing a book about faith and phones.

What is it for you? What has the love of Christ unleashed you to do for the good of others and the glory of God?

* Photo by Felix Russell-Saw on Unsplash.

STRUCK by Russ Ramsey (FAN AND FLAME Book Reviews)

It’s not often that after reading a book, I buy eight more copies. But such was the case after reading Russ Ramsey’s book Struck: One Christian’s Reflections on Encountering Death. It’s a great book about a terrible experience. Ramsey got an infection in his bloodstream, which traveled to his heart, and proceeded to wreak havoc.

First, he got really sick.

Then, he got worse.

Then, he had a major heart surgery.

After all this came the two-year recovery process.

He opens the book with these words,

When my doctor told me I was dying, I came alive.

Three days before my fortieth birthday I was admitted to the emergency room. A bacterial infection had destroyed my mitral valve and I was in the early stages of heart failure.

Buy on Amazon

That day and the two years that followed are the setting of this book. They are the setting, but they are not the subject. This is a book about what happens when affliction and faith collide. (p. 17)  

It might sound like a strange statement, but hear me out: not everyone who authors a book is also a writer. There are some authors who not only get published but also love the craft and excel at it. Ramsey is one of those types, and it made the book both enjoyable to read and all the more raw. It’s not surprising to me that Struck is currently a finalist in the 2018 Evangelical Christian Publishing Book Awards in the category of biography and memoir.  

In an interview last year, Ramsey said,

I think there are two kinds of books on suffering and affliction. There are books that you give to people who are interested in the subject, but not necessarily afflicted or suffering in the moment. And then there are books for people who are in the middle of suffering. They are not the same voice. I wanted to write something that you’d be able to hand to someone who is suffering. (HomeRow: Episode 15, 4/6/17, around the 50-min mark)

And he sure did. That’s why I bought eight copies—eight life-preserving, faith-preserving copies to give to friends I know who are struggling to keep afloat in the deep end of adversity. If you are currently suffering, or if you know people who are, pick up a copy.

I’m Super Excited about These Contributors to My Job-Search Book

View fullsize

When a pastor is looking for a job in a local church, one of the most frustrating things he might experience is how poorly churches communicate with those they are considering for the position. That was true for me as I looked for a job. But I don’t just know this from personal experience. I also know this because I’ve spent the last 3 years studying the best practices for pastoral transitions, researching the literature on the job-search process, and interviewing over 50 local church pastors.

While many books have been written about helping a church to form a pastoral search team if their pastor leaves, nothing has been published in the last 10 years to actually help the pastor in the job-search process. I hope to change that with my book, Don’t Just Send a Resume: How to Find the Right Job in a Local Church.

In the coming months, I’ll tell you more about the book. I’ll even be doing a Kickstarter campaign to give you the opportunity to help launch the book.

For now, I wanted to share about several of the people who have agreed to contribute to the book. I’m asking 10 published authors to share what they’ve learned during the job-search process. These are people who know both the fear and the euphoria involved in a transition from one church to another. Each short contribution will be included at the end of a chapter in my book.

I hope to be able to announce the complete list of contributors in May. Here are a few of them:

Jared C. Wilson
Long-time local church pastor, author of over 15 books, content strategist for Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and one of my favorite authors.

William Vanderbloemen
An expert in the job-search field, runs the largest church-staffing firm, and has written extensively on the topic of transitions.

Chris Brauns
Local church pastor, author of several books, including a go-to book for churches who are looking for a pastor, When the Word Leads Your Pastoral Search.

Jeremy Writebol
Local church pastor, author, and the Executive Director for Gospel-Centered Discipleship.

Cara Croft
Coauthor of The Pastor’s Family, wife of pastor Brian Croft, and mother of four.

Sam Rainer
Local church pastor, author, cohost of the Established Church podcast, and co-owner of Rainer Publishing.

Kristen Wetherell
Author, content manager for Unlocking the Bible, and wife of pastor Brad Wetherell.

Again, I need your help to launch this book and to get it into the hands of those who need it. Look for those details about how you can help next month.

Let me close by saying this: This book isn’t about me. I believe that when churches are healthier, the gospel of Jesus Christ shines brighter. And I hope that in some small way this book will improve the health of pastors and churches, causing the good news of Jesus to shine even brighter.

Blogging for God’s Glory: Audio from My Radio Interview

When I talk about blogging for God’s glory, I don’t mean to say, “Look at my website, and you’ll know how it’s done.” I don’t mean that. I’m certain that no angels dance when they open up my URL on their smartphones.

Those are a few of the ideas I shared in a recent 30-minute interview for Pilgrim Radio Network. In the interview I also share how I became a writer, which is something I never imagined would happen. If you get this post on the day it releases (Friday, March 30, 2018), then you can livestream the interview at 12:30 pm and 9:30 pm Pacific Standard Time. For everyone else, the audio is below.

Blogging for God's Glory - My Interview on "His People" with Bill Feltner

Benjamin Vrbicek

Download

The backstory to the interview is funny—at least to me.

About 18 months ago I wrote down a series of questions to help a friend as he launched his blog. A year later, I took those questions and wrote them into a post. I was hoping they might help others but feared only five people would read it. After I submitted the article to two different places and heard “no” from each, For The Church was kind enough to publish it. (I also posted a follow up on the technical aspects of blogging on my own site, which I’m sure only five people did read.)

Anyway, Tim Challies ended up sharing the post on his blog, which gets, shall we say, a little more traffic than mine—about 100 times more web traffic to be exact. From there, Bill Feltner, the host of “His People” on Pilgrim Radio, saw the post and asked for the interview.

I hope you both enjoy and find it helpful as you pursue whatever it is that God has specifically called you to do for his glory.

* Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash.

What Was Jesus Doing Each Day of Holy Week?

We call the week leading up to Jesus’s death “Holy Week” or “Passion Week.” When Christians read the gospel accounts, however, sometimes we get confused sorting out what Jesus was doing each day of this special week.

But we are not the first to be confused, nor are we the first to attempt to harmonize the gospels stories; there are excellent resources available to us.

Buy on Amazon

This week, I commend to you a series of videos from the publisher Crossway that explain what happened each day of the week. You can watch them here. They are fantastic. Also, below I’ve included a table I adapted from the ESV Study Bible (also produced by Crossway). If you don't have one of these study Bibles, you should. I give them away often.

May God richly bless you this week as you—along with millions of Christians throughout the world—savor the glory of the passion of Jesus Christ: his virtuous life, his sacrificial death, his victorious resurrection, and the promise of his glorious second coming.

View fullsize

Click to enlarge.

Blogging for God’s Glory: Technical Questions to Consider

Last week, For The Church was kind to publish an article I wrote called “Blogging for God’s Glory.” In it, I encourage Christians to care about the quality of our art, not simply because it reflects on us, but more importantly, because it reflects our God. I shared 35 questions to consider as we bloggers ply our trade. I discussed things such as:

Purpose & Audience: Why am I blogging, and who am I trying to reach?
Commitment: How much time and effort will I give to blogging?
Networking: How will I connect with readers and other like-minded bloggers?
Money & Growth: How much money will I invest in blogging and what might be the returns?

Near the end of the article I wrote, “There are a dozen technical, behind-the-scenes details that you’ll also want to consider, but let’s leave them for another day.” Well, today felt like a good day to cover some of these technical questions.

I realize this post will not give “warm-fuzzies” to you about the gospel. It doesn’t for me either. I also realize many people who read my blog don’t have their own blog. But for any like me who have floundered for a season not knowing the difference between Wordpress.com and Wordpress.org (and what does URL mean, and a bunch of other techie things), I hope this post helps you as much as it could have helped me three years ago.

Technical: What behind-the-scenes details do I need to know?

1. Am I capable of handling technical tasks such as setting up the blog, formatting posts, and creating forms to capture email addresses? If not, who can help me?
    

2. Which categories will go in my blog header, such as an about page, a publications page, and a contact page?
    

3. Will my blog contain only written posts, or will I include video and audio posts? If I include audio and video, do I have the equipment and the technical expertise to pull off these other forms?
    

4. Is the name of my blog the same as my website address, commonly called a URL? Have I purchased a URL yet?
    

5. Of the many different blogging platforms, will I use Wordpress, Squarespace, Blogger, Medium, or something else?
    

6. If I use Wordpress, the most popular blogging platform, do I know the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org, and what might be the pros and cons of using each? (It’s been said that Wordpress.com is like renting a house and WordPress.org is like owning a house.)
    

7. If I use Wordpress.org, am I comfortable keeping my “plug-ins” up to date? (Plug-ins are added features you can incorporate into your blog to customize it.)
    

8. Will I email readers using the email service included by some blog platforms, or will I use an email service provider, such as MailChimp, Emma, or Constant Contacts?
    

9. If necessary, am I able to use HTML, the web coding language, to finetune the look of my blog?
    

10. Do I understand the term blog hosting, which describes who stores the content uploaded to the blog? Who will host my blog?
     

11. Will I set up my blog to capture email addresses, often called a lead magnet? If so, can I offer to give an ebook, short story, or infographic in exchange for contact information?
     

12. How will I store these email addresses, and how will the storage system relate to my blog hosting platform?
     

13. Will I check how my blog appears through several different internet browsers, such as Chrome, Explorer, Safari, and Firefox?
     

14. Does my blog templet work seamlessly with mobile devices, tablets, and desktop computers?
     

15. Will I first write my blog posts with a word processing software like Microsoft Word, or will I write my posts directly on the blog? If I write in Microsoft Word, do I know how to transfer posts onto the blog?

* Photo by Corinne Kutz on Unsplash.

Idolatry: Signs We’ve Turned a Good Thing into an Ultimate Thing

“Home Row”—a podcast for writers on writing—is my favorite podcast. I’ve listened to every episode, some of them a few times.  

The host is pastor and author J.A. Medders. Last summer, he asked listeners to send him questions about writing; I sent him several. One question was related to idolatry. I phrased it like this,

How do we keep the pursuit of writing well from becoming, as Tim Keller says, a good-thing-turned-into-an-Ultimate Thing? In other words, what is God-honoring pursuit, and what is sinful?

And what are the signs we might have crossed the line into idolatry?

On Episode 29, from around 2:30 – 15:00, Medders was kind enough to answer the question, especially the second part, in which he identifies five signs a writer’s pursuit of excellence might have crossed the line into idolatry.

Medder’s gave me permission to share a lightly edited version of his answer. I want to share this with you, not only because I found it helpful, but because I think his response applies to many more careers than writing. Whether you are a janitor or construction worker, a teacher or student, a stay-at-home mom or a lawyer, all of us can turn a good thing into an Ultimate Thing. So, when you read the word “writer” below, or you read some other detail related to writing, insert something from your own profession. Medders says,

[The idolatry question] is a really important question for us as writers because we don’t want to sin in our writing. We want to honor Christ as Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 10—whatever we do, whether we are eating or drinking [we do all to the glory of God]. So this matters. Whether we are hitting on the keyboard or writing in a journal or working on a church blog. Whatever we are doing has got to be to the glory of God.

[But I mainly] want to go at the second part of the question, “What are the signs we might have crossed the line into idolatry?”

The first dangerous warning sign would be [related to] identity—wanting to be known as a writer, wanting that to be the signal of our life, wanting other people to view us as a writer. The chief identity we should rest in is that we are now children of God. I want to remind myself that I am a child of God more than I am a writer, more than I am anything else in my life, even more than I’m a pastor.

You are not your writing. You are not your puns. You are not your metaphors. Your writing is not your life. The same for your talents or anything like that. Paul tells us in Colossians, “When Christ who is your life appears . . .” (3:4). I love that he talks about Jesus that way. When Christ who is your life. We know that the triune God goes by many names . . . Jesus also has several names too: Christ who is your life, it’s one of his nicknames.

We need to see that Jesus is our life, and his righteousness, and his accomplishments. And not what we’ve done and haven’t done and will do or what we are trying to do. Christ is our life.

If God gives you the opportunity to have an article up on a website that you’ve been hoping would publish you, or if you have a book someday, that’s great. But that is not your life. That is not an identity that you want to rest in, the sign you want over your life.

What you want, really, the sign that was hanging above the cross of Christ: This is the king of Jews who is being crucified for you. [You want to know] that you’ve been crucified with Christ, and it’s no longer who you live, but Christ who lives in you.

As Medders continues, he discusses how disappointments in life often show us where we are really placing our trust, which was helpful for me to hear after my recent round of rejection letters.

So much of life comes back to identity, and you can really tell you have an identity crisis when things don’t go well—when you get a rejection letter and when your writing isn’t getting the traction that you hoped it would. . . It’s okay to be disappointed if something didn’t work out, but if rejection is consuming, if it’s crushing, if it leads to anxiety or depression or these kind of things, then we know we have an identity problem when we care too much about wanting to be known as a writer . . .

We are not writing to grow a platform. We are writing to serve others. We are writing to serve the local church. We are writing not to serve our namesake, but Gods. As the psalmist says, “Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to your name give glory” (115:1).

In addition to discussing a shift in identity away from Christ, Medders adds four other signs that we might have crossed over into idolatry. He mentions,

1. When you’re always networking but not building friendships.

2. When you shirk other responsibilities (i.e., work, home, or school).

3. When your personal Bible reading becomes less about pursuing godliness and more about the search for something to write.

4. When you are unable to receive correction from others.

Again, with perhaps the exception of #3 about the co-opting of Bible reading, I believe his answer speaks to far more than just writers. As I wrote in a post for Desiring God, all of us need to keep re-affirming that the defining reality of our lives is not in our marital status, nor where we live, nor in children, income, vocation, looks, education, or popularity. Rather, our chief identity is this: Jesus Christ loves me and gave himself for me. You are not your writing. You are not your puns. You are not your metaphors. You are Christ’s, and he is yours.

If you’re looking for a great podcast, especially if you’re a writer, I’d encourage you to check out his show. Most of the episodes are interviews with authors. Recent guests include, Helen Sword, Roy Peter Clark, Dan DeWitt, and Tim Challies.

BOOKS BY MEDDERS

Buy on Amazon

Buy on Amazon

RELATED POSTS

...            ...

BLESSED ARE THE MISFITS by Brant Hansen (FAN AND FLAME Book Reviews)

When author and radio host Brant Hansen does a thirty-second radio commercial, I enjoy it.

When Hansen does a three-minute monologue between songs on a Christian radio station, I enjoy it.

When our mutual friend invited both of us on a road trip last summer to Philadelphia to watch the final Lord of the Rings movie, which was accompanied by a live orchestra, I really enjoyed it.

And when he writes a book, I enjoy that too.

Buy on Amazon

In fact, because I enjoyed his last book Unoffendable so much (reviewed here), when I learned he was writing a new one, I asked if I could be on the book’s launch team. That new book is called Blessed are the Misfits, with the long and misfit-like subtitle of Great News for Believers who are Introverts, Spiritual Strugglers, or Just Feel Like They're Missing Something.

The book, he would say, is born out of personal struggles. You wouldn’t necessarily know this from listening to a couple of radio clips, but Hansen has Asperger’s, and on top of that he also has nystagmus, which causes his eyes to shake and his head to move involuntarily. All this invariably leads him into both amusing and very frustrating experiences. Some of these he shares in his book. Perhaps you have parts of your life that are awkward and difficult to share. Everyone does.

But, I must confess, I’ve been a misfit member of his book-launch team. His book released in the fall, and this is the first time I’ve written about it! Because the central theme of the book is that the love of Jesus is not for those who see themselves as upwardly mobile—an unfortunate, but common misconception—but rather that the love of Jesus is for those who recognize their great need, perhaps Brant will overlook my misfit-launch-team participation.

Buy on Amazon

I did loan the book to a friend, which is some promotion. My friend enjoyed the book very much. However, I now realize in loaning the book, it probably didn’t help the book sales. Again, sorry, Brant.

I could share several funny sections from the book, but I’d rather share one of the more serious ones. It’s the story of Brant‘s father, who was a Christian preacher while Brant grew up. But his father was a different person at church than he was at home, which made things very difficult for Brant and the rest of the family. He writes,

People really liked my dad’s preaching and singing. My brother and I were often told what a wonderful man he was.

We were also absolutely petrified of him.

Honestly, I still don’t know what happened to him, or when. There are a lot of things I don’t want to remember. I recall bits and pieces, like being four years old, in a fast-moving car late at night, while my mom drove my preacher dad to the hospital. He was in the back seat, breathing into a paper bag.

I remember late-night yelling matches. I remember my mom yelling, “Who is she? Tell me who she is!” over and over.

I remember visiting Dad over the years, through grade school and middle school, in psychiatric wards and mental institutions. When you visit your dad in these places, it makes an impression on you. When you see him preaching days later, you remember that too.

I remember our bathroom floors. Very well. I’d sit there, sometimes for hours. I’d make up stories to distract myself from the arguing. Sometimes I would bring my favorite puppet, a little furry green monster, with me (I was big on puppets), and I’d sit and act out little sketches.

That was the coping plan. Go somewhere and lock the door and sit on the floor and rock back and forth and make up a puppet story or just try not to exist. . .

I remember my brother heroically intervening in my parents’ room when Dad was beginning to physically attack my mom. . . (pp. 90–91)

This section goes on for another page or two, only getting more difficult to read. I share this part of the book, and not one of Hansen’s many goofy stories, in the hope that you might check out the book. But more importantly—and I believe Brant would say this himself—I share this section in the hope that you won’t dismiss Christianity as a religion for the put-together, the good-doers, the never-need-help. Instead, I want you to know that the hope of Christianity is for misfits who only have their need to bring to God.

* Photo by Ian Parker on Unsplash.

A Short Stack of Rejection Letters

For the last three years I’ve been working on a book. The topic is niche, but when it’s done it will meet a need. There’s not a way to know precisely how many hours or how much money I’ve directed toward the project, but I’d guess around six-hundred hours and two-thousand dollars.

Last week I received my seventh rejection email from a Christian publisher. Sometimes these messages landed gently in my inbox like autumn leaves; you see them coming. Other times they hit my laptop with a thud like glass marbles dropped from a skyscraper.

At least the rejection letters have always been kind. They don’t say “nana-nana-boo-boo” or “don’t quit your day job,” the rejection typically being sandwiched by affirmation. That’s nice of them. Let me just show you one of them.

Benjamin,

Good morning. I hope you're having a good week.

I wanted to get back in touch about your book proposal. Thanks again for sending this one our way. I appreciate the book's intent and goal.

We've decided not to offer on this book at this time. I would encourage you to keep shopping it around, or potentially to self-publish. I think this book could be a great resource, but doesn't really fit with our strategy as a trade publisher. I pray you'll have a chance to publish with someone who will be a better fit.

Blessings,
**NAME**

In Stephen King’s popular book On Writing, he tells of keeping every early rejection letter he received and how he hung each to his wall with a metal spike. This, by the way, was the day when authors and publishers printed book proposals and rejection letters and mailed them to each other. The one book contract I have, I had to print myself and scan it back in after I signed it. There’s something anticlimactic about that. Anyway, for Stephen King the rejection letters were fuel. He was a man in prison doing pull-ups motivated by the judge who locked him up.

That’s not necessarily why I’m sharing mine. This blog post isn’t my metal spike. Rejection letters are not my badge of honor, the proof I have skin in the game. I longed for each no to be a yes.

So why share it?

My friend Bryan pointed out to me that social media is often little more than an unbroken, personal highlight reel. And this is why I share. I share my seventh rejection as an act of war against the status quo, my version of a Pinterest-fail, if you will. Real life has more grit, more flaws, more disappointments than our filtered Instagram photos betray. And it’s this version of us—the whole version, the real version, the limping along version, the only version of us there is—that God so loves, giving his Son that we might have life. If this “rejection blog post” is a metal spike, it’s not for hanging my rejection letters but to be wielded as an implement to mortify my vanity.

One more thing to mention. The most recent rejection letter was the final publisher I was waiting to hear from before I made the decision to self-publish the book, making it the proverbial nail in the coffin. So, eventually when I do self-publish, Lord willing, it will fly off the launchpad with a chip on its shoulder, a book no publisher wanted.

And when that day comes, that day when I post a picture on Facebook with a link to Amazon, a post you might wrongly internalize as me saying “Hey, buy this book I wrote; look how awesome it is to be me!” and my apparent success thuds on your heart like a marble because on that day you didn’t publish a book too or eat a fancy steak or add definition to your biceps or get a job promotion, then you will know there is more to the story than our social media glory.

[In the comments below, I’d love to hear about what rejections you’re experiencing and what God is teaching you through them.]

 

* Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash.

Traveling Instructions

For all the discord and disconnection that social media seems to unintentionally generate, it can also help us, believe it or not, make new friends—real friends.

Kevin Halloran and I connected on social media a few years ago. He works in Christian ministry, loves to write, and is heavily involved in a church in the same denomination as me. All this means we have a lot in common.

Once, when I posted a picture on Instagram of a “rejection email” I received about an article I had submitted for publication, Kevin shot me a direct message, letting me know of another website that might want the piece. He was right. They did.

A few weeks ago we were able to hang out in person, and he told me more about his ministry. Kevin works for Leadership Resources, an organization that equips and encourages pastors around the world “to teach God’s word with God’s heart.” They provide pastoral training made for missions. (Their website has lots of information about how you can partner with LRI to ignite movements of God’s Word worldwide.)

Kevin gave me a booklet that Leadership Resources produced to help train people to teach the Bible. This is an important topic for me. In fact, last year I wrote a series of blog posts about this very topic. The booklet is incredibly helpful, not only to me as a professional Bible teacher but also for every Christian who wants to grow in their ability to teach the Bible.

Below is an excerpt from the booklet called “Traveling Instructions.” This principle explains why it is imperative that we understand the original context and the author’s intent before we apply a passage to us. If you want to get the whole Dig and Discover booklet, it can be downloaded for free.

*     *     *

Dig and Discover Hermeneutical Principles, "Traveling Instructions," page 5

The Principle: In order for us to understand how to apply God’s Word to our lives today, we first need to travel back to understand the message expressed through the author in the original context.

How Does Traveling Instructions Work?

(1) Not Taking the Direct Route. We are often tempted to read God’s Word and try to apply what is said directly to our lives. But God first spoke through the heart of an author to readers in a different time and place. And so, instead of taking a direct route from God’s Word to our lives today, we first need to travel back to consider what that author was saying to the original readers, and why.

(2) Hearing the Intent of the Author. We must travel back to listen to what God was saying through an author in the original context – the literary context of the message of the book, the historical context of the background situation, and even the biblical context of the overall story and message of the Bible. And while here are many aspects of context which we could explore, we want to focus our attention on those aspects which help us understand what the author was saying, why he said this to these people, and what response he desired from his message.

(3) Applying the Message to Us Today. The end goal of Traveling Instructions is application. After we have discovered the author’s intended response to the message he gave, we can then travel to our day and ask how that response would be seen in our lives and in the lives of the people where we live and minister.

Why Is Traveling Instructions Important?

If we take the shortcut and try to immediately apply God’s Word to our lives, we risk misinterpreting what God was saying through His Word, missing the way God intends for us to respond, and misleading the people to whom we minister.

However, when we do take the time to travel correctly, we discover the wonder of God’s heart expressed through the original context, and the transforming power of His Word for our lives today.

* On this principle, the booklet has this footnote: “Based on original material © The Proclamation Trust with kind permission, www.proctrust.org.uk.”

* Photo by Ben White on Unsplash.

LIFE IN THE WILD by Dan DeWitt (FAN AND FLAME Book Reviews)

For several years, I lived in Tucson, Arizona. The longer I was there, and the more familiar I became with the plants that survive in the desert, the more I noticed this: every plant wants to fight you. Whether by needles or poison or spikes or by some other inventive means, all flora has weaponized itself. I got a taste of this one day when I crashed my mountain bike into a growth of cacti. It was a bad accident. I broke a rib and everything. I also had over 150 needles stuck in my right arm and shoulder.

This led me to wonder if, perhaps, there was a prickly pear cactus in the garden of Eden, and if there was, did it have needles? And not only in the garden of Eden, but will there be needles on plants in the new heavens and new earth?

Buy on Amazon

I’m not sure of the answer. But I do know the world we live in now—the world between the old Eden and the new one—is wild. This is one of the themes in Dan DeWitt’s new book Life in the Wild: Fighting for Faith in a Fallen World. And when DeWitt writes about the wild world, he means the fallen world, the world affected by Genesis 3, the world where even creation seems to be weaponized against us. As he writes, “We’re surrounded by things that would love to maul us” (p. 77).

DeWitt is the founding director of the Center for Biblical Apologetics & Public Christianity at Cedarville University. He’s written several books, including Jesus or Nothing (Crossway 2014) and Christ or Chaos (Crossway 2016). He also wrote a series of worldview books for younger readers called The Owlings, which I read to my family and reviewed here. He blogs regularly at Theolatte.com.

In Life in the Wild, DeWitt helps readers think deeply about the consequences of Adam’s sin, the effects of our self-rule, and the “bloody battle waged over the souls of men” (p. 15). There are eight chapters, each addressing an aspect of how the Christian worldview is shaped by the fall (but of course shaped by Jesus’s redemption too). He writes about topics such as guilt and shame, men’s and women’s roles, and care for creation.

The book is accessible, short, written to engage someone skeptical or new to Christianity, and full of hope. Like the Bible, it’s book-ended with a discussion of Eden, as it was and as it will be when God restores this world. In the final chapter, which is on death, he writes, “God’s final enemy, death itself, has to die. . . . [T]he Bible makes it certain: one day death will be placed in a coffin. In the last act of human history, we will read death’s obituary” (p. 111)

Once I heard an author say there are two kinds of books on suffering: There are books you give to those in the midst of suffering, and there are books you read to prepare for it. Life in the Wild could do double duty, though I think DeWitt’s book leans slightly toward the latter, helping us understand why suffering happens and what God is doing about it.

WIN A FREE COPY

Life in the Wild is released on February 1, 2018. To promote the book, DeWitt is giving away a copy to one reader of my blog. To be eligible to win, you must do one of two things:

1. Leave a comment on this post with your name on it.

2. Share this post on social media (FB, Twitter, Blog, Pinterest, etc.). Make sure you either tag me in the post (FB or Twitter) or send me an email with the link to your post (benjamin@fanandflame.com).

Each time you share this post, I’ll add your name to the hat (limit of 5 chances). You have until Tuesday, January 30 at 12:00pm EST when I’ll email the winner and update this post.

[*Update: The winner of the book give away (chosen randomly), is Liz who shared the post on Twitter.***]

OTHER BOOKS BY DAN DEWITT

* Photo by Denisse Leon on Unsplash.

15 Articles to Help You in Your Struggle Against Porn

I’m slowly winding down the research for my book on pornography (forthcoming with Rainer Publishing late in 2018). And over the last two weeks, I read dozens and dozens of blog posts about the topic written by Christian authors. I even printed them out and scribbled notes in the margins. The word count total for the articles was 105k, or about the size of two non-fiction books.

Buy on Amazon

Below are my favorite 15 articles. I chose them based on some combination of profundity (e.g., Russell Moore’s about the connection between video games and porn) and beautiful prose (e.g., both posts by Samuel James). A few others I include because they address some aspect of the struggle often not covered (e.g., Jason DeRouchie’s about masturbation; Rebekah Hannah’s and Ashley Peterson’s about women using pornography; and John Fort’s about when your children tell you they have seen pornography).

I read articles from many different websites, but the below articles are from Desiring God (6), The Gospel Coalition (2), Tim Challies (2), BradHambrick.com (2), For The Church (1), The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (1), and Covenant Eyes (1).

I hope you find them helpful as we struggle against porn, not with it.

“I Hate Porn”
by Eric Simmons (Desiring God)

“Fake Love, Fake War: Why So Many Men Are Addicted to Internet Porn and Video Games”
by Russell Moore (Desiring God)

“Sexual Sin in the Ministry”
by Harry Schaumburg (Desiring God)

“How to Fight Addiction in a Pornographic Culture”
by Voddie Baucham (Desiring God)

“If Your Right Hand Causes You to Sin: Ten Biblical Reflections on Masturbation”
by Jason DeRouchie (Desiring God)

“The Fearful and Wonderful Art of Flirting: Seven Warnings for the Digital Age”
by Tony Reinke (Desiring God)

“Women Use Porn Too”
by Rebekah Hannah (The Gospel Coalition)

“I Was a Pastor Hooked on Porn”
by Garrett Kell (The Gospel Coalition)

“Sex on the Silver Screen”
by Tim Challies (Challies.com)

“Sex on the Silver Screen – Outsourcing our Depravity”
by Tim Challies (Challies.com)

“19 Possible Motive-Triggers for Pornography”
by Brad Hambrick (BradHambrick.com)

“Teacups and Playboy: Women and Sexual Sin”
by Ashley Peterson (BradHambrick.com)

“The One Ring and Pornography”
by Samuel James (For The Church)

“Tinder Mercies–Or, How Porn Destroyed Sex”
by Samuel James (The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission)

“How to React the First Time Your Child Admits Watching Porn”
by John Fort (Covenant Eyes)

Do you have a favorite post not listed above? If so, let me know in the comments below. 

* Photo by Marjan Grabowski on Unsplash.

Reading List 2017

My first post of the year is the list of books I read the previous year (2014,  2015, and 2016). I’m not doing this to rub it in your face. I do it for personal accountability. I have a goal of reading at least one book a week, and knowing I must write about it helps me get there.

This year I greatly exceeded that goal, reaching 104 books (see graph below for stats from other years). The two main reasons for all the reading was the extra research for book projects and the enjoyable experience of reading (almost) every Jared Wilson book.

Speaking of Wilson, my favorite of his was The Pastor’s Justification. It’s a gospel-feast served by a master chef. My over-all favorite book, though, was Marriage and the Mystery of the Gospel by Ray Ortlund. It’s one of those books, that if I had let myself, I might have underlined more sentences than I didn’t. 

As for novels, I read 16 this year, including rereading All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Dorr, which was even better the second time around. For 2 years in a row, it was my favorite novel. I also thought The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (published 2003) deserves an honorable mention; the book touches father-son issues with all the gentleness of a taser.

Another highlight of the year, although not explicitly of reading but closely related to it, was watching The Return of the King, the third of The Lord of the Rings movies. I watched it at an amphitheater in Philly. Members of The Philadelphia Orchestra played the music score. It would be hard to overstate how amazing it was to watch the movie while a live orchestra played. I read and discussed all three LOTR books (and The Hobbit) this year with a great friend, and he bought the tickets as a gift.

Just in case you look closely at the list, let me flag two aspects of goofiness.

First, I counted the Bible as 6 separate books, even though I firmly believe it’s one book and one story. But counting it this way helped me keep better track of how I was moving along. I didn’t use the ESV Reader’s Bible, but that is where I got the idea.

Second, I included two yet-to-be-published books I wrote. That’s a little goofy, I know. But since I read them each nearly 10 times during the editing process, I figured counting each once was (mostly) legit.

Let me know in the comments what was your favorite book of the year.

*     *     *

Books Read, 2013-17

Pages Read, 2013-17

Miscellaneous Christian Non-fiction

1. Church Buildings: A Strategic Guide to Design, Renovation, and Construction by Katie Burch (160 pages)

2. Marriage and the Mystery of the Gospel by Ray Ortlund (128 pages)

3. Friend of Sinners: An Approach to Evangelism by Harvey Turner (144 pages)

4. The Prodigal Church: A Gentle Manifesto against the Status Quo by Jared C. Wilson (240 pages)

5. The Whole Message of the Bible in 16 Words by Chris Bruno (160 pages)

6. The Bible: Romans to Revelation, Part 6 of 6 by God (300 pages)

7. Habits of Grace: Enjoying Jesus through the Spiritual Disciplines by David Mathis (240 pages)

8. A Vision for Preaching: Understanding the Heart of Pastoral Ministry by Abraham Kuruvilla (224 pages)

9. Your Jesus Is Too Safe: Outgrowing a Drive-Thru, Feel-Good Savior by Jared C. Wilson (288 pages)

10. Thoughts to Make Your Heart Sing by Sally Loyd-Jones (224 pages)

11. 12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You by Tony Reinke (224 pages)

12. For the Life of the World: Sacraments and Orthodoxy by Alexander Schmemann (151 pages)

13. Living in the Light: Money, Sex, and Power by John Piper (144 pages)

14. Gospel Wakefullness by Jared C. Wilson (224 pages)

15. The Storytelling God: Seeing the Glory of Jesus in His Parables by Jared C. Wilson (192 pages)

16. The Bible: Genesis to Deuteronomy, Part 1 of 6 by God (300 pages)

17. The Story of Everything: How You, Your Pets, and the Swiss Alps Fit into God’s Plan for the World by Jared C. Wilson (240 pages)

18. The Imperfect Disciple: Grace for People Who Can’t Get Their Act Together by Jared C. Wilson (240 pages)

19. The Tech-Wise Family: Everyday Steps for Putting Technology in Its Proper Place by Andy Crouch (224 pages)

20. None Like Him by Jen Wilkin (176 pages)

21. The Seven Sayings of the Saviour on the Cross by Arthur Walkington Pink (142 pages)

22. The Pastor’s Justification by Jared C. Wilson (192 pages)

23. Not Yet Married: The Pursuit of Joy in Singleness and Dating by Marshall Segal (208 pages)

24. Strong and Weak: Embracing a Life of Love, Risk and True Flourishing by Andy Crouch (192 pages)

25. The Bible: Joshua to Esther, Part 2 of 6 by God (300 pages)

26. The Pastor’s Wife: Strengthened by Grace for a Life of Love by Gloria Furman (160 pages)

27. The Joy Project: A True Story of Inescapable Happiness by Tony Reinke (148 pages)

28. Five Points: Towards a Deeper Experience of God’s Grace by John Piper (96 pages)

29. Chosen by God by R.C. Sproul (187 pages)

30. What Is Reformed Theology?: Understanding the Basics by R.C. Sproul (272 pages)

31. The Wonder-Working God: Seeing the Glory of Jesus in His Miracles by Jared C. Wilson (192 pages)

32. Chosen for Life: The Case for Divine Election by Sam Storms (240 pages)

33. Making Sense of God: An Invitation to the Skeptical by Timothy Keller (336 pages)

34. The Bible: Psalms to Song of Solomon, Part 3 of 6 by God (300 pages)

35. Is God a Moral Monster?: Making Sense of the Old Testament God by Paul Copan (256 pages)

36. How Does Sanctification Work? by David Powlison (128 pages)

37. Humility: True Greatness by C. J. Mahaney (176 pages)

38. America’s Pastor: Billy Graham and the Shaping of a Nation by Grant Wacker (448 pages)

39. Sojourn Network Ebooks (four of them) by Various (160 pages)

40. The Joy Project: A True Story of Inescapable Happiness by Tony Reinke (148 pages)

41. The Bible: Isaiah to Malachi, Part 4 of 6 by God (300 pages)

42. Unparalleled: How Christianity’s Uniqueness Makes It Compelling by Jared C. Wilson (240 pages)

43. Gospel Deeps: Reveling in the Excellencies of Jesus by Jared C. Wilson (208 pages)

44. Galatians for You: For Reading, for Feeding, for Leading (God’s Word for You) by Timothy Keller (208 pages)

45. Blessed Are the Misfits: Great News for Believers who are Introverts, Spiritual Strugglers, or Just Feel Like They’re Missing Something by Brant Hansen (256 pages)

46. Church History 101: The Highlights of Twenty Centuries by Sinclair B. Ferguson, Joel Beeke, Michael A. G. Haykin (112 pages)

47. Finish: Give Yourself the Gift of Done by Jon Acuff (208 pages)

48. The Bible: Matthew to Acts, Part 5 of 6 by God (300 pages)

49. Come, Let Us Adore Him: A Daily Advent Devotional by Paul David Trip (160 pages)

Miscellaneous Non-fiction

1. Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance (272 pages)

2. Spunk and Bite: A Writer’s Guide to Punchier, More Engaging Language and Style by Arthur Plotnik (272 pages)

3. Everybody Writes: Your Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content by Ann Handley (320 pages)

4. The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America by Erik Larson (447 pages)

5. Just My Type: A Book About Fonts by Simon Garfield (384 pages)

Books about the Job-Search Process

1. Effective Long-Rang Strategic Planning in Churches: Mitigating Crises, Seizing Opportunities, and Executing Leadership Transitions for God’s Glory DMin Diss., (Westminster Theological Seminary, 2016) by William "Tucker" York (313 pages)

2. Effective Staffing for Vital Churches: The Essential Guide to Finding and Keeping the Right People by Bill Easum and Bill Tenny-Brittian (176 pages)

3. Pastoral Moves | 9Marks Journal (Jan-Feb 2011) by Various (46 pages)

4. Looking for a New Pastor: 10 Questions Every Church Should Ask by Frank S. Page (176 pages)

5. In Search of a Leader: The Complete Search Committee Guidebook by Robert W. Dingman (262 pages)

6. Pastors in Transition: Why Clergy Leave Local Church Ministry (Pulpit and Pew) by Dean R. Hodge and Jacqueline E. Wenger (271 pages)

7. Discerning Your Call to Ministry: How to Know For Sure and What to Do About It by Jason K. Allen (160 pages)

8. Am I Called?: The Summons to Pastoral Ministry by Dave Harvey (224 pages)

9. Don’t Just Send a Resume: How to Find the Right Job in a Local Church by Benjamin Vrbicek (212 pages)

Books about Sexuality

1. Closing the Window: Steps to Living Porn Free by Tim Chester (151 pages)

2. Your Brain on Porn: Internet Pornography and the Emerging Science of Addiction by Gary Wilson (200 pages)

3. Divine Sex: A Compelling Vision for Christian Relationships in a Hypersexualized Age by Jonathan Grant (256 pages)

4. Pornified: How Pornography Is Damaging Our Lives, Our Relationships, and Our Families by Pamela Paul (320 pages)

5. The Porn Phenomenon: The Impact of Pornography in the Digital Age by Barna and Josh McDowell (160 pages)

6. The Gospel & Pornography (Gospel For Life) by Russell D. Moore and Andrew T. Walker (128 pages)

7. The Social Costs of Pornography: A Statement of Findings and Recommendations by The Witherspoon Institute (61 pages)

8. Just One Click: Christians, Pornography, and the Lure of Cybersex by Robert J. Baird and Ronald L. VanderBeck (240 pages)

9. Addictions: A Banquet in the Grave: Finding Hope in the Power of the Gospel (Resources for Changing Lives) by Edward T. Welch (320 pages)

10. The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert: An English Professor’s Journey into Christian Faith by Rosaria Champagne Butterfield (154 pages)

11. Pastoring Singles | 9Marks Journal (Spring 2017) by Various (58 pages)

12. Sex and Money: Pleasures That Leave You Empty and Grace That Satisfies by Paul David Tripp (224 pages)

13. Making All Things New: Restoring Joy to the Sexually Broken by David Powlison (128 pages)

14. Getting Off: Pornography and the End of Masculinity by Robert Jensen (200 pages)

15. False Intimacy: Understanding the Struggle of Sexual Addiction by Harry Schaumburg (256 pages)

16. The Art of Turning by Kevin DeYoung (42 pages)

17. The Hole in Our Holiness: Filling the Gap between Gospel Passion and the Pursuit of Godliness by Kevin DeYoung (160 pages)

18. What Does The Bible Really Teach about Homosexuality? by Kevin DeYoung (160 pages)

19. What is the Meaning of Sex? by Denny Burk (272 pages)

20. Over Coming Sin and Temptation: Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers (1 of 3 books) by John Owen (155 pages)

21. Over Coming Sin and Temptation: Of Temptation, The Nature and the Power of It (2 of 3 books) by John Owen (155 pages)

22. Mere Sexuality: Rediscovering the Christian Vision of Sexuality by Todd Wilson (192 pages)

23. Over Coming Sin and Temptation: Indwelling Sin (3 of 3 books) by John Owen (155 pages)

24. Struggle Against Porn: 40 Diagnostic Tests for Your Head and Heart by Benjamin Vrbicek (160 pages)

Novels

1. Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West by Cormac McCarthy (368 pages)

2. Fellowship of the Ring (Lord of the Rings: Book 1) by J.R.R. Tolkien (432 pages)

3. Dead Low Tide: A Novel by Brett Lot (256 pages)

4. The Twin Towers (Lord of the Rings: Book 2) by J.R.R. Tolkien (352 pages)

5. Tales of the Resistance by David and Karen Mains (110 pages)

6. The Return of the King (Lord of the Rings: Book 3) by J.R.R. Tolkien (432 pages)

7. A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman (337 pages)

8. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien (300 pages)

9. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (400 pages)

10. The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt (771 pages)

11. The Road by Cormac McCarthy (287 pages)

12. Otherworld: A Novel by Jared C. Wilson (386 pages)

13. About Grace: A Novel by Anthony Doerr (432 pages)

14. The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis (272 pages)

15. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (624 pages)

16. All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr (531 pages)

Let me know in the comments what was your favorite book of the year.

Pa Rum Pum Pum Pum

At our Christmas Eve service, as another pastor-elder was sharing an offertory reflection, he mentioned the song The Little Drummer Boy. I’ve heard it a thousand times, yet I’d never thought about the lyrics before. The song is about a boy who wants to give a gift worthy of Jesus. But, as he says, “I have no gift to bring . . . that’s fit for a king.” (I’m leaving out a few “pa rum pum pum pum’s.”)

I feel the same. We all should. Before the Messiah, there’s nothing we could give that would bring him the honor he’s due. But that shouldn’t stop us from giving; the little boy plays his drum the best he can.

For the last four or five years, I have spent hours and hours each week trying to assemble words as best as I can into sentences, and sentences into paragraphs, and paragraphs into articles, and sometimes articles into chapters and books. It might not look like much of a Christmas present for the King of kings—and I’m not very impressed with my own words either—but it’s what I have. And what I have, I give.  

I love the ending of the song. When the boy played for Jesus, Jesus smiled at the boy and his drum. Pa rum pum pum pum. I love that.

Every “note” wasn’t hit perfectly in the fifty articles I wrote last year, including my favorites. Still, I offer them up to the King. May they bring a smile to his face and find a place on his heavenly refrigerator. Me and my words. Pa rum pum pum pum.

1. Pastors Need Healthy Boundaries
Evangelical Free Church of America (EFCA) Eastern District Blog, January 18, 2017

Pastors are people, and people are finite. This article offers a few reflections about the implications of this truth for pastoral ministry.

2. Sometimes God Just Closes Doors
Desiring God, June 27, 2017

Jesus is always enough for you—even when you’re at the end of your rope.

3. The Wilderness Makes or Breaks a Man
FAN AND FLAME, August 29, 2017

Peter C. Craigie wrote, “The wilderness makes or breaks a man; it provides strength of will and character.” But what he means by this is not what you’d expect.

4. What If Tomorrow Is Even Harder Than Today?
Desiring God, November 4, 2017

If tomorrow is as difficult as today, or is even harder than today, how will we go on? (FYI: I started writing this article almost 7 years before it was published.)

12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You by Tony Reinke (FAN AND FLAME Book Reviews)

I see it at stoplights. I see it during timeouts at my daughter’s basketball games. And I even see it when I stand in the back of the sanctuary during church services. When there’s a lull in the action, however brief, smartphones appear, and eyes are toward them.

But why must we check them so often? Is it because smartphones are such great tools for human flourishing or because they are evil taskmasters that make us less human with each use?

This is the dilemma with which Tony Reinke opens his book, and if you are like most people, the dilemma isn’t theoretical. Your phone is changing you. It’s certainly changing me. How could it be otherwise when we apparently check our smartphones every 4.3 minutes of our waking lives (p. 16)?

Buy on Amazon

Reinke is the author of several books, as well as the host of the popular Ask Pastor John podcast and a senior staff writer for Desiring God. He is well suited to write this book for at least two reasons. First, Reinke feels the tension between the blessings and curses of technology more acutely than most. As a professional producer of online content, he must navigate reaching readers without succumbing to the click-bait, Buzzfeed-type posts that dominate web culture (to which, by the way, DG doesn’t capitulate).

Second, Reinke is the perfect person to shine the glare from our screens back into our eyes, not only because he is a competent researcher and a nimble wordsmith, but because he is also a God-centered theologian. And this trait is necessary because, as he points out, “conversations about our smartphones often do not raise new questions; they return us to perennial questions every generation has been forced to ask” (p. 24). And it’s this point about how new technology always brings us back to the perennial questions—questions about what it means to be creature not Creator; about beauty vs. efficiency; about loving God and neighbor—which makes this book so insightful.

Consider for just a moment our longing for approval (covered especially in chapters 3 and 6). Each generation must wrestle with this. The lore of Narcissus in Greek mythology, who fell in love with his own reflection, certainly predates the 2004 birth of Facebook. Today, perhaps, there are just more metrics to measure our beauty (likes, retweets, followers, pins, subscribers, and so on). And if you let it, your smartphone will send you push notifications for each of these so that when you wake up in the morning, you can glance at your phone to find out how many others love your face too. “When we talk about ‘smartphone addiction,’” writes Reinke, “often what we are talking about is the addiction of looking at ourselves” (p. 110).

The chapters of the book include topics such as the way we become addicted to distractions, how we ignore people, crave immediate approval, get lonely, become comfortable in secret vices, fear missing out, and half a dozen other changes our phones are doing to us. Additionally, readers will find the foreword by John Piper something that not only recommends the book to us, but also begins to engage with the topics at hand, including several of the ways technology has changed in his lifetime. For example, Piper bought his first computer in 1984. It was an IBM PC with 256K of RAM, which he bought for $1,995. A quick internet search (and yes, I did it on my phone) tells me this would be nearly $5,000 in today’s dollars!

If there were something to critique about the book, maybe it would be the structure. The title and layout of the book (12 Ways …) could make the book seem like one giant list-article, or listicle as they’re called. Listicles tend to be the lowest common denominator of online content. I say this, by the way, as the author of several listicles. But this criticism, in my opinion, doesn’t hold. The depth of Reinke’s insights and his biblical fidelity resist formulaic chapters.

One final comment. I found the book disturbing. But not because the problems created by smartphones are merely “out there” in culture or even in the church. Rather, I’m disturbed because the problems are “in here.” Despite all the blessings of smartphones (connection to others, wealth of information, and Bible apps galore), I still see the negative impact in my heart and habits. Too often my children compete with a screen for their dad’s attention. Being confronted with this change was disturbing, but it’s the good kind of confrontation, the kind that when paired with repentance of sin and faith in the gospel, leads to the good kind of change.

* This book review originally appeared in the theological journal Themelios.

---

RELATED POSTS

I Read Every Jared Wilson Book This Year; You Won’t Believe What Happened Next

Actually, you probably can believe what I did next. I wrote this blog post. Scandalous.

To be completely honest, though, I didn’t quite read all his books. I left off the three books coauthored with Matt Chandler: The Explicit Gospel (Crossway, 2012), To Live Is Christ to Die Is Gain (David C. Cook, 2014), and The Mingling of Souls (David C. Cook, 2015, which I read last year). I also didn’t read Romans: A 12-Week Study (Crossway, 2013), Gospel-Shaped Worship (a 7-week study by The Good Book Company, 2015), or Abide: Practicing Kingdom Rhythms in a Consumer Culture (LifeWay, 2010). Abide is out of print, and the only copy on Amazon was a used copy listed for fifty bucks.

But don’t be misled by this post or my gobbling up a dozen other books by Wilson. He and I are not BFFs. I don’t text with him and call him J Dub. He’s not my Protestant Pope. I refer to the Jared Wilson corpus, not canon. And occasionally, though rarely, I even scribble in the margins of a book “no, that’s not right” or “awkward sentence.”

Yet when you read half-a-million words from a single author, and you do this all in one year, you feel like you know a guy. And what I know, I love. His writing is punchy, rhythmic, grace-filled, unpretentious, and always about a big Jesus and a bright gospel. He writes the kind of theology I read “off the clock.”

Jared Wilson is the Director of Content Strategy for Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and the managing editor of For the Church, Midwestern’s site for gospel-centered resources. He’s been a pastor in several churches and also speaks regularly at conferences.

Some of his books are for the wider Christian audience, and others are aimed more at pastors and ministry leaders. In my opinion, his sweet spot is writing and speaking to fellow pastors. I think this same thing about John Piper, but perhaps I only think these things because I’m a pastor too.

My first introduction to Wilson came through his blog The Gospel-Driven Church, which is hosted by The Gospel Coalition. I’ve read, and reread several times, the posts, “In Praise of Fat Pastors,” “I Wrote This Blog Post on Church Time,” and “I Love the Church, and That’s Why I Resigned.”

What follows in the rest of this post is a “miniature review” of each book—miniature as in I’m only giving a sentence or two of review, along with a favorite quote. Also, I ordered the books, not in the order I read them but in their publication order.

One last comment before we jump in. Wilson is a writing workhorse. I had a vague sense of this already, but when preparing this post, I had to look closer at the publication dates. And, sheesh! Across the years 2013–15, Wilson published ten books! He is the sole author on eight of them, and on two he partnered with Chandler. Additionally, there were a hundred or so blog posts and a few dozen conference messages and contributions to things like The ESV Men’s Devotional Bible. I know enough about writing books to know that he didn’t do all the work for these books in just these three years. But still, that’s a whole lot of ink.

Wilson addressed his writing output the other day on Twitter:

I stay good-natured about all the good-natured ribbing I get about writing “so many” books. I hear it all the time. And I get it. I make Stephen King look lazy.

But here’s the deal, pretty much writing is not something I try out every now and again. I’ve been a writer (of some kind) since I was a kid. Writing for publication has been my career aspiration since elementary school.

Perhaps Wilson is able to write blog posts the way I write emails, and he’s able to write books the way . . . I dunno . . . preach a sermon series.

Regardless, I’m thankful for his output. To borrow a prayer from Moses, may Wilson’s gospel-saturated writings continue to “drop as the rain, and his speech distill as the dew, like gentle rain upon the tender grass” (Deuteronomy 32:2).

Your Jesus Is Too Safe: Outgrowing a Drive-Thru, Feel-Good Savior (Kregal, 2009)

So, who is Jesus? He is many things, and he is not many things. Wilson talks about both. This book is rich and spunky. It has the highest density per capita of tweetable quotes of any book I read this year.

A Favorite Quote: “My friends, Jesus is not a pop song, snuggly sweater, affectionate boyfriend, a poster on your wall, self-help book, motivational speech, warm cup of coffee, ultimate fighting champion, knight in shining armor, or Robin to your Batman. He is blood. And without blood, you die.” (Wilson, Your Jesus Is Too Safe, 243)

Gospel Wakefulness (Crossway, Oct. 2011)

Wilson is convinced that “Jesus won’t become your only hope until he becomes your only hope.” Let the reader understand. But when Jesus does become your only hope, oh, it is good. This is the story of how Wilson got “woke,” as the kids say, to the good news story of Jesus.

A Favorite Quote: “Really, there are only two steps to gospel wakefulness: be utterly broken and utterly awed.” (Wilson, Gospel Wakefulness, 35)

Gospel Deeps: Reveling in the Excellencies of Jesus (Crossway, Sept. 2012)

He who has ears, let him hear: “Deep and wide, deep and wide—there’s a gospel story that’s deep and wide.” And this gospel story is like the wardrobe that leads into Narnia; it’s much, much bigger on the inside than it looks from the outside. May you have strength with all the saints to comprehend it (Ephesians 3:18). 

(I used the below quote in an article titled “The Gospel in 140 Characters,” which now seems a little silly because Twitter now has 280 characters. Oh well.)

A Favorite Quote: “The gospel is contained in an announcement of something Jesus did inside of history. It can even be tweeted in less than 140 characters! But it is nonetheless bigger than the universe.” (Wilson, Gospel Deeps, 21)

The Pastor’s Justification: Applying the Work of Christ in Your Life and Ministry (Crossway, July 2013)

Not only is this my favorite Jared Wilson book, but it’s also my favorite book from 2017. (And I read 100 books this year.) In The Pastor’s Justification, Wilson directs his core, gospel message to pastors. Fellow pastors, come enjoy the feast.

A Favorite Quote: “A different set of traits is needed for pastors than the business world’s management culture. Paul writes, ‘But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children’ (1 Thess. 2:7). This is not exactly the pastoral image that is most popular today. In an age when machismo and ‘catalytic, visionary’ life-coaching dominate the evangelical leadership ranks, the ministerial role of a breastfeeding mom is alien.” (Wilson, The Pastor’s Justification, 48)

Otherworld: A Novel (David C. Cook, Sept. 2013)

I don’t like sci-fi movies or books. Sorry, I never have. Still, I enjoyed this novel, which (to date) is the only fiction contribution to the corpus. The book has murder, mystery, UFOs, spiritual warfare, and a hard-won redemption.

The Storytelling God: Seeing the Glory of Jesus in His Parables (Crossway, Feb. 2014)

Although they are not consciously labeled “Book 1” and “Book 2,” this book on the parables of Jesus is linked with the next book on the list, a book about the miracles of Jesus. As in his first book Your Jesus is Too Safe, Wilson shows that Jesus is not tame. “Throw away your Flannelgraphs,” he writes in the first sentence. “They are flat and soft, and the story of Jesus is neither.”

A Favorite Quote: “The parables are postcards from heaven. ‘Wish you were here,’ they say. Supernaturally, however, they can transport us exactly to the place they depict, the place where God’s kingdom is coming and his will is being done on earth as it is in heaven. As Jesus conducts his kingdom ministry, he lays these stories on thick, seeding the alien nation of God with rumors of that other world, casting shadows of the realer reality like flickering images on the walls of Plato’s cave.” (Wilson, The Storytelling God, 35)

The Wonder-Working God: Seeing the Glory of Jesus in His Miracles (Crossway, July 2014)

Miracles are signposts, which is why the Bible also calls them signs. Signs point away from themselves to somewhere else. The arrow on the sign that says “Harrisburg—>,” tells me my exit is ahead. And when Jesus does a miracle, say feeding the five thousand, the miracle invites us in to point us on: Jesus is the bread of life.

A Favorite Quote: “The miracles are more than they’re cracked up to be but probably less than we often make of them. The miracles are not the smoking gun, in other words. But they are the bright explosions of the violent spiritual campaign against evil.” (Wilson, The Wonder-Working God, 13)

The Prodigal Church: A Gentle Manifesto against the Status Quo (Crossway, April 2015)

How would the way we “do church” change if we believed the saying, “What you call them with, you call them to”? Wilson argues that some of the silliness that takes place in church (like raffling away a car on Easter or performing pop songs during worship) would go away. And in its place, we’d have gospel ministry (like biblical preaching, genuine repentance, deep and authentic community, and robust discipleship).

(I used an extended quotation from this book in a post I wrote called, “Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth?”)

A Favorite Quote: “It’s the customary mantra of ministry that healthy things grow. And yet sometimes healthy things shrink. This is certainly true of our bodies, when we’re eating right and exercising. I mean, the formula doesn’t always work in every circumstance. ‘Healthy things grow’ sounds right. But cancer grows too.” (Wilson, The Prodigal Church, 40)

The Story of Everything: How You, Your Pets, and the Swiss Alps Fit into God’s Plan for the World (Crossway, Oct. 2015)

I’ll let the subtitle be the “review” for this one.

(I wrote an article for Desiring God titled “Sometimes God Just Closes Doors” where I used the below quote. I was flooded with emails by those who found the post and quote helpful.)

A Favorite Quote: “I have a problem with all the ‘chase your dreams!’ cheerleading from Christian leaders. It’s not because I begrudge people who want to achieve their dreams, but because I think we don’t readily see how easy it is to conflate our dream-chasing with God’s will in Christ. You know, it’s possible that God’s plan for us is littleness. His plan for us may be personal failure. It’s possible that when another door closes, it’s not because he plans to open the window, but because he plans to have the building fall down on you. The question we must ask ourselves is this: Will Christ be enough?” (Wilson, The Story of Everything, 122)

Unparalleled: How Christianity’s Uniqueness Makes It Compelling (Baker, May 2016)

This book, among the Wilson corpus, seems to be the most geared to an interested non-Christian or a new believer. But even as I read the book, I found myself reaffirming the truth stated in the subtitle: the uniqueness of Christianity does make it compelling.  

A Favorite Quote: “Christianity did not explode in growth in the first centuries because people had found in Jesus a new set of religious instructions. They had found, actually, that the perfection Jesus demanded he also supplied to those who trusted in him. They had found that the life Jesus promised he actually delivered.” (Wilson, Unparalleled, 126)

The Imperfect Disciple: Grace for People Who Can’t Get Their Act Together (Baker, May 2017)

This book is an accessible treatment of what it means to follow Jesus, and a faithful explanation of the grace that we all need, because even the best of us only follows Jesus . . . imperfectly. I especially appreciated the fresh reflections on the gospel that open each chapter. Readers should come away challenged to be better disciples, but more importantly, encouraged that Jesus is our savior and his perfection covers all our sin.

Oh, and that story on pages 36–37 about a marriage in his church falling apart and Wilson being accused of not “being there” and feeling all inadequate and stuff—yeah, me too.

A Favorite Quote: “Jesus wasn’t blowing smoke. His major contribution to the world was not a set of aphorisms. He was born in a turdy barn, grew up in a dirty world, got baptized in a muddy river. He put his hands on the oozing wounds of lepers, he let whores brush his hair and soldiers pull it out. He went to dinner with dirtbags, both religious and irreligious. His closest friends were a collection of crude fishermen and cultural traitors. He felt the spittle of the Pharisees on his face and the metal hooks of the jailer’s whip in the flesh of his back. He got sweaty and dirty and bloody—and he took all of the sin and mess of the world onto himself, onto the cross to which he was nailed naked.” (Wilson, The Imperfect Disciple, 47)

Supernatural Power for Everyday People: Experiencing God’s Extraordinary Spirit in Your Ordinary Life (Baker, Jan. 2018)

I don’t have this one because it’s not out yet, and because Jared didn’t give me a copy. Come to think of it, he didn’t do that for any of these.

* If you need more Jared Wilson like Christopher Walken needs more cowbell, check out his website, blog, podcast, and social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram).

Life-Giving Groups: An Interview with Jeremy Linneman

Jeremy Linneman and I both graduated from the University of Missouri. We met a handful of times over a dozen years ago. I’m excited to see how the Lord is using him.

He’s the pastor of the recent church plant Trinity Community Church in Columbia, Missouri. He’s married to his wife Jessie, and they have three boys. From 2010–16, he was a community and executive pastor at Sojourn Community Church in Louisville, Kentucky.

I recently had the privilege of interviewing him about his new eBook on small groups called, Life-Giving Groups: “How-To” Grow Healthy, Multiplying Community Groups.

You can listen to the 30-minute interview below.

Benjamin Vrbicek Life-Giving Groups: An Interview with Jeremy Linneman

Download

These are some of the questions we discussed:

1. For those that don’t know who you are, can you introduce yourself?

2. Where do you see small groups in the Bible?

3. What are small groups for?

4. What are some of the significant hurdles to meaningful and healthy small groups?

5. How should small groups include (or not include) children?

6. What would you say to a person that has been in small groups before that were more hurtful than helpful to their process of becoming a mature disciple?

7. What role can small groups play in church plants?

8. If you and I were in a cycling race, how bad would you beat me?

Yesterday, I posted short reviews of all the recent ebooks from Sojourn Network. Here’s what I wrote about Jeremy’s book. If you think you’ll purchase his ebook, in December all of the profits go directly to those planting churches in their network.

Life-Giving Groups: “How-To” Grow Healthy, Multiplying Community Groups by Jeremy Linneman

If you’ve been in enough small groups, then you know not every small group is “life-giving.” Some are, to be frank, “life-sucking.” But participating in a group that “gives life” means that you need to be giving your life to others.

In this ebook, Jeremy Linneman explains how an individual group (or a small group ministry) can cultivate mature disciples. He sets forth a biblical vision for groups, as well as offering tons of practical insights for cultivating the health of these groups. If your church has a groups ministry but no established training plan for leaders, you’d benefit greatly by taking all your current and new leaders through the material.

A favorite quote: “Like Jesus, we exist for relationships. We are created in the image of this triune God. To be fully human means to live in relationships. If Jesus was the most ‘fully alive’ human ever, it shouldn’t surprise us that a person cannot become fully human without a community.” (Linneman, Life-Giving Groups, 10)

New eBooks from Sojourn Network for Christians and Church Leaders

When it comes to learning, sometimes you need a “deep dive” into a subject: you need a 12-week course that meets thrice weekly for 90 minutes. But other times, an office visit with a professor will suffice.

This difference is the difference between books and ebooks. Ebooks are typically quick hitters that don’t say everything but do say enough to bring clarity to a specific topic. This fall, Sojourn Network released a series of “How To” ebooks for Christians and church leaders. Sojourn Network is a group of reformed Baptist churches that band together for greater church health.

I recently read each of their ebooks and gladly recommend all of them. Below are a few specific reasons why I liked each. Also, if you think you’ll purchase one of them, I was told that in December all of the profits go directly to those planting churches in their network.

Filling Blank Spaces: “How-To” Work With Visual Artists In Your Church by Michael Winters

“When the earth was brand new,” writes author Michael Winters, “it was formless and empty . . . . [B]lank spaces were everywhere. Now they are rare.”

This means that if your church is going to begin a ministry that promotes art and artists, you’ll have to do some de-cluttering first. You’ll have to clear the sanctuary walls and stage, the foyer and welcome area, the café and restrooms. You’ll need to make room for paintings and sculptures and photos that give sight to the blind.

It’s in this mission—giving sight to the blind and freedom to captives—that Winters contends artists can play a crucial role. And when they do, they are doing what God did and does, taking the blanks spaces, those formless and empty parts of creation, and filling them up with the glory of God.

Winters is the Director of Arts and Culture at Sojourn and is himself an artist. In addition to the practical advice and theological reflection on the arts, one thing I appreciated about the book is the way Winters transparently shares some of his missteps and failures as he has sought to cultivate the arts. I enjoyed this ebook so much, I’d love to see Winters expand his reflections beyond the visual arts to the written and spoken word.

A favorite quote: “Everyone and everything contributes to your church’s visual culture, from the kid’s ministry coloring sheets to the preaching pastor’s hair gel. The visual culture of your church should not be an obsession of control and marketing-driven scrutiny. But when you make aesthetic decisions, they should thoughtfully complement the church’s vision. Major factors would include: the architecture of your space, its interior design, technologies, graphic design, along with decoration, furnishings, landscaping, and outdoor signage including parking lot demarcations.” (Winters, Filling Blank Spaces, 10)

Life-Giving Groups: “How-To” Grow Healthy, Multiplying Community Groups by Jeremy Linneman

If you’ve been in enough small groups, then you know not every small group is “life-giving.” Some are, to be frank, “life-sucking.” But participating in a group that “gives life” means that you need to be giving your life to others.

In this ebook, Jeremy Linneman explains how an individual group (or a small group ministry) can cultivate mature disciples. He sets forth a biblical vision for groups, as well as offering tons of practical insights for cultivating the health of these groups. If your church has a groups ministry but no established training plan for leaders, you’d benefit greatly by taking all your current and new leaders through the material.

A favorite quote: “Like Jesus, we exist for relationships. We are created in the image of this triune God. To be fully human means to live in relationships. If Jesus was the most ‘fully alive’ human ever, it shouldn’t surprise us that a person cannot become fully human without a community.” (Linneman, Life-Giving Groups, 10)

Healthy Plurality = Durable Church: “How-To” Build and Maintain a Healthy Plurality of Elders by Dave Harvey

Dave Harvey begins this ebook with a thesis: “The quality of your elder plurality determines the health of your church.” In my own experience, although far less extensive than Harvey’s, I’ve found his thesis to be true, especially over the long-haul of a church. This means working on the health of your elders is a nearly constant priority. As with healthy eating, you can take a break for a meal or two, or even a week or two; but bad things happen if you eat hot dogs and Cheetos and sticky buns and drink Mountain Dew and IPAs for a year.

Local churches mentioned in the New Testament always had more than one pastor. They always had a plurality of pastor-elders. Numerous passages in the Bible indicate this. For example, see Acts 20:28; Ephesians 4:11; 1 Timothy 4:14; 5:17; Titus 1:5; and 1 Peter 5:1–5 (see Appendix 1 for a complete list).

In the ebook, Harvey takes readers through the philosophy, principles, and process of creating and maintaining healthy plurality among elders. He’s also the author of When Sinners Say “I Do” (which we keep in our church bookstore) and Am I Called? (which I read just a few months ago).

At our church, we do not have a single lead pastor but rather co-pastors, where each of us shares the role of a lead pastor (weddings, funerals, vision casting, preaching, disciplining, etc.). This is a deviation from some of what Harvey advocates for in his ebook, but I’m not sure we are all that far off from his intent either in the letter of the law or the spirit. As with the other ebooks, any elder team would benefit from reading this together.

A favorite quote: “Humility is the oil that lubricates the engine of plurality. When one considers all of the polity options God could have chosen for governing churches, I theorize that God chose plurality because he loves humility.” (Harvey, Healthy Plurality = Durable Church, 19)

Before the Lord, Before the Church: “How-To” Plan a Child Dedication Service by Jared Kennedy with Megan Kennedy

I just loved this ebook. It was relentlessly practical, even including several options for liturgies when conducting a child dedication service; sample invitations a church can send to relatives; suggested resources to give away on the day of a dedication; and instructions about putting an “X” on the stage with masking tape to show families where to stand. This sounds like micromanaging, but it’s not. Church leaders need this kind of help. I need this kind of help.

If your church does child dedications, you need to read this book. Doing shabby child dedication services is not helpful or honoring to anyone.  

A favorite quote: “As I said, I don’t have any Bible verses to reference here. I can’t point to a passage which says, ‘Thou shalt have child dedication services.’ But I do know parents are tempted to think about their relationship with their kids as if it was a contract. And I also know nothing challenges consumer thinking quite like making really difficult covenant promises. It’s true for marriage, and it’s true for parenting too. The child dedication covenant confirms this reality: parenting is a higher, self-sacrificial commitment. The sacred public vow helps us teach parents to practice regular patterns of sacrificial love from the very beginning of their parenting journey.” (Kennedy & Kennedy, Before the Lord, Before the Church, 12)

* Your can purchase the ebooks here.

The 50-Week Plan to Finish My Book on Pornography

I was listening to a podcast the other day and heard a musician say one of the most practical things an artist can do to achieve a goal is “going public” with the goal. The pastor who was interviewing the musician mentioned that he agreed, saying deadlines and outside expectations are a good thing for creativity. He added, “If there wasn’t Sunday, I’d never complete a sermon” (Pastor Colin Smith interviewing musician Dave Radford on Readers and Writers).

Here I stand; I’m going public with my goal. I’ve never written a book for a publisher, but this summer I signed a contract to do just that. It’s a book to help men struggle against (not with) pornography. And—Lord willing—by June 25, 2018, I’ll complete the draft of the manuscript.

So what’s the best plan to get ‘er done?

I’m not actually sure what is “the best” way forward. I’m making this up as I go. But below is where the project seems to be trending.

Buy on Amazon

I realize this post won’t interest 90% of my readers, but, as I said above, apparently telling people I’m going to do something is supposed to actually help me do it. Thanks for the peer pressure.

Skimming the 50-week schedule, you’ll notice three things. First, I had already done a lot of research, but not as deep or as wide as is necessary (see Weeks 13–24). Second, because I had already written the book, and it was too long, I need to take out 35% of the words (see Week 25 & 26). Finally, you’ll notice there are numerous breaks where I’m not actively working on the project. Those are strategic too. They provide rest and perspective (you can’t see you the book’s faults when your nose is pressed against it).

If you read any part of this blog post, “thank you” in advance for being your brother’s keeper.

*     *     *

June 17, 2017
Week 1 | Draft of manuscript accepted by publisher; contract signed

July 24 to October 2, 2017
[Week 2 | Take a break from project to work on another book]
[Week 3 | Take a break from project to work on another book]
[Week 4 | Take a break from project to work on another book]
[Week 5 | Take a break from project to work on another book]
[Week 6 | Take a break from project to work on another book]
[Week 7 | Take a break from project to work on another book]
[Week 8 | Take a break from project to work on another book]
[Week 9 | Take a break from project to work on another book]
[Week 10 | Take a break from project to work on another book]
[Week 11 | Take a break from project to work on another book]
[Week 12 | Take a break from project to work on another book]

October 9, 2017
Week 13 | Restart working on this book; read 2 more books on the topic of sexuality
Week 14 | Read 2 more books on the topic of sexuality
Week 15 | Read 2 more books on the topic of sexuality
Week 16 | Read 2 more books on the topic of sexuality
Week 17 | Read 2 more books on the topic of sexuality
Week 18 | Read 2 more books on the topic of sexuality
Week 19 | Read 2 more books on the topic of sexuality
Week 20 | Read 2 more books on the topic of sexuality
Week 21 | Read 2 more books on the topic of sexuality
Week 22 | Read 2 more books on the topic of sexuality
Week 23 | Read 25 blog posts on the topic of sexuality
Week 24 | Read 25 blog posts on the topic of sexuality

January 1 to 29, 2018
Week 25 | Cut down word count by 10,000 words because my previous draft was too long
Week 26 | Cut down word count by another 5,000 words
Week 27 | Rewrite, general
Week 28 | Rewrite, general (cont.)
Week 29 | Rewrite, general (cont.)

February 5, 2018
Week 30 | Send to a professional editor

February 12 to 19, 2018
Week 31 | Send networking email to authors I cite in my book and others who have written on the topic
Week 32 | Send networking emails (cont.)

February 26, 2018
[Week 33 | Break for other projects]

March 5 to April 9, 2018
Week 34 | Manuscript returned from professional editor
Week 35 | Rewrite, general
Week 36 | Send copy to potential “foreword author”
Week 37 | Secure “foreword author”; send to and secure potential “blurb” writers”
Week 38 | Give to my copastor for review and comments
Week 39 | Give to 20 beta readers for review and comments

April 16 to May 21, 2018
[Week 40 | Break for other projects]
[Week 41 | Break for other projects]
[Week 42 | Break for other projects]
[Week 43 | Break for other projects]
[Week 44 | Break for other projects]
[Week 45 | Break for other projects]

May 28 to June 11, 2018
Week 46 | All feedback from copastor and beta readers due
Week 47 | General rewrites; also the foreword and all blurbs due
Week 48 | General rewrites (cont.); send foreword & blurbs to professional editor

June 18, 2017
Week 49 | Submit complete manuscript (including foreword & blurbs) to Rainer Publishing

June 25, 2018
Week 50 | Rest, because—Lord willing—the submittal of the project was completed one week early

* Photo by Estée Janssens on Unsplash.