Book Reviews

Collin Hansen is the editor-at-large for Christianity Today and is the author of a number of books and articles, one of which appeared in Christianity Todayin the fall of 2006 dealing with this same topic. Young, Restless, Reformed one of those books that you start and must finish. Tim Challies expressed the sentiment very well on the book’s back cover. “Collin Hansen invites us on a voyage of discovery, learning how our restless youth are discovering anew the great doctrines of the Christian faith. Weary of churches that seek to entertain rather than teach, longing after the true meat of the Word, these young people are pursuing doctrine. Discover how God is moving among the young, the restless, and the Reformed.”

I was excited to read how leaders of influence made pilgrimages through shallow, superficial, rootless Christianity only to see that the Christian faith and its doctrines of grace provide a foundation and substantive framework to see and understand God’s grace in action. I have said for many years, and I believe this book illustrates it, that Calvinism provides the best theological and philosophical framework for us today.

Postmodernism’s attempt to advocate a non-foundational approach to truth and reality has thrown out the baby with the bath water. While it is true that much of the theology in the past 300-400 years suggests a modern or Enlightenment framework that must be understood in its historical formulation, Calvinism pre-dates the Enlightenment period. It is a joy and delight to read of the many people, examples. and situations where we are seeing a desire to be more solidly biblical and theological.

It is true that doctrine and theology are not abstract concepts but are all about life and reality. To be a Christian in this postmodern, pos-Christian world demands more than a content-less faith built on feelings, subjectivism, and relativism. In this book, Hansen offers many diverse examples of how people are being drawn more and more to Reformed, Calvinistic theology. He writes about Mark Driscoll and the Mars Hill ministry in Seattle, Washington. Driscoll was early known for his involvement in the “emergent movement” but began to look for more solid biblical and theological truth in the Reformed tradition.

Hanson also writes about the influences of institutions such as the Presbyterian Church in America and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, the largest Southern Baptist seminary under the leadership of AI Mohler. John Piper has also been a key figure and influence in the emphasis on Calvinistic doctrine. Piper, with his Desiring God books and conferences, along with others like Wayne Grudem. has led from a Calvinistic perspective in his Baptist settings.

Maybe with the exception of the Baptists mentioned and the PCA, others highlighted in this book are not part of a denominational setting, generally operate independently, and are quiet different and unique in their styles of ministry.

One of the men mentioned by Hansen said, “Once you start seeing Reformed theology in Scripture, you realize it’s all over the place. It’s like a big revolution in your mind. Stuff that didn’t make sense before starts to make sense. It’s been an incredible journey, and it’s increased my passion for God.”

Mohler stated in an interview with Hansen, “When I say that my agenda is not Calvinism, I say that with unfeigned honesty, with undiluted candor. My agenda is the gospel. And I refuse to limit that to a label, but I am also very honest to say, yes, that means I am a five-point Calvinist If you’re counting points, here I am.”

Hansen says of John Piper, pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota, “At sixty years old, Piper is the chief spokesman for the Calvinist resurgence among young evangelicals. Ten years of Passion conferences have introduced him to a generation of young evangelicals.” J.I. Packer said of Piper, “John has the gift of catching the attention of young thinking people and getting them excited about thinking as an exercise, because he himself does it so passionately.”

From many different circumstances and diversity of ministries, the Calvinistic movement is alive, growing, and bringing people together who have nothing in common but the gospel and the desire to embrace a strong doctrinal Christianity.

Read this book and be encouraged. Read this book and realize, as stated earlier in this edition of Equip to Disciple, unity and diversity do not have to result in either chaos or uniformity. Some of this growth is happening within a denominational setting and some in more independent settings. However. the doctrines of grace are a common theme among them all.

I was asked by a mother at one of our training events what to do about her 19-year-old teenage son who had turned away from God. I asked her to explain and describe what she meant by that. The first thing I remember her saying is that he will not attend church. I immediately said to her, “l would not necessarily equate not attending church with turning his back on God.” That statement was a new concept for her to think about. This book by Julia Duin, religious editor for the Washington Times, offers some insights to my response to the mother. Duin is well known for her religious journalism. the winner of many awards, knowledgeable of the contemporary church scene, and a seminary graduate with a master’s degree in religion.

I told some friends and seminary faculty recently that this book should be required reading, with time provided to work through with the students what the book is all about. Drawing from her own experience, Duin listens to others and realizes something is going on today in Christianity that should concern us especially leaders in the church about why so many people who profess to love the Lord and have a hunger for His Word are actually leaving church, at least the traditional church as we have known it.

Duin is no stranger to the Reformed faith and the PCA. She has visited L’Abri and speaks positively about Francis Schaeffer’s ministry. Nancy Pearcey, author of Total Truth (which we have recommended and used in teaching for the past three years), said of this book: “We have come to expect solid journalism from veteran religion reporter Julia Duin, and Quitting Church does not disappoint. Churches need to address the seasoned churchgoer who wants more, not less, out of worship.”

Would you believe with all that is going on in the church today regarding pop culture, diversified worship, and story telling in place of expository preaching, that among the reasons Duin has found for people leaving church is that they are looking for more not less in worship, teaching, and fellowship?In the larger churches people often are not known and their needs not met. Both single men and women are leaving church because the teaching does not offer them a substantive challenge nor does the worship give them a participant’s role. She tells of one church she visited where the music was so loud she observed that people were not singing because of the volume.

She also deals with the problems singles are having in finding a church where they are accepted, helped in developing meaningful relationships, and assisted in finding a spouse. Teaching that doesn’t connect with people in their daily lives and not having a place to use their gifts and feel they are making a contribution are among issues referenced in this book.

I was amazed at some well known Christian people who have left church. What are they doing? Some have quit altogether and said “I can get more on my own–while others have started their own family worship–and many have become involved in the growing house church movements. Others are claiming to get their spiritual nourishment off the internet.

Obviously. Duin is quite aware of the PCA and what is or is not happening in our denomination. Some of her remarks are encouraging and others are challenging to those of us in leadership positions. However, one of the important points you will glean as you read this book is that you do not keep people by dumbing down worship or teaching; but how to retain people must be looked at very carefully, lest in trying to minister to the culture one becomes that very culture.

She addresses a number of reasons why she has found this trend to be taking place. I’lI mention a few that might get your attention. One is that the church is not giving people a reason for being there. Pastors, especially in larger churches are so professional that they cannot pastor the people. Some single women who need pastoral care are not able to find it because some will not meet with single women and others are too busy for such activities. People are not being spiritually fed, cared for, or given an opportunity to serve. What’s the solution? Coffee house type churches? House churches? Internet community worship? Or nothing at all?

Duin writes, “Although the ’emergent church’ movement is a huge mixed bag of theologies that usually attracts the young…conservative and liberal alike are adopting the term emergent to describe themselves, so it’s safe to say these congregations are a nee generation of churches that are works in progress.” People are either trying to reinvent the church or abandon it altogether.

Pastors, read this book and get your leaders to read it and discuss it. The church is in crisis today in America, and you will be reminded of this as you read and discuss Quitting Church.

Singleness Redefined is a rich source of Reformed theology applied specifically to single Christian women who seek to live joyously and abundantly. Starting from the strong foundation of the Word of God, the reader is reminded of the goodness of God’s sovereignty. The wise, insightful, and at times humorous content provides a resource for both the individual and the church.

I recommend this book for two reasons. One of the most accelerated growth demographics in culture and the church is that of singles. How does the local church minister to and steward this expanding portion of God’s family? How do single women of all ages live out God’s sovereign purposes with joy and abundance?

To the multitude of lovely, unwed women ranging from twenty-somethings to centenarians. singleness brings complex responses. It runs the gamut of emotions ranging from bitterness, hopelessness, and loneliness to contentment, hope, and pleasure.

Carolyn Leutwiler takes a realistic look at the struggles and difficulties of singleness; yet because she begins at the right place. it is a book that will encourage and nurture the inner woman and equip her for kingdom service. You will not find a self-help, weak, formulaic design. You will discover a clear call and challenge to know, rejoice in, and listen 10 the truths of God rather than the lies of the world and to be involved contributors to the life and ministry of the church.

God’s family is privileged to lovingly enfold, nurture, and serve King Jesus, one another, and to live out the gospel before the world. Singleness Redefined has broad appeal – purchase this book, read it, share it with the Christian education staff of your local church; give it as a gift to a young woman who may be struggling with her singleness: and look for ways to better engraft the gifts of singles who are part of God’s good plan and purpose!

D. A. Carson has done it again. He has written another masterpiece; a book that causes us to think about what it means to be in the world but not of the world. Knowing what culture is, how to relate to the culture, and how to think about it as it relates to the church and kingdom are crucial questions. So much of contemporary Christianity has gone to the opposite extremes, some in partial reaction to a fundamentalist withdrawal attitude about the church. This is happening to such an extent that we must ask who is determining the church’s agenda or who is driving the ship, culture or Scripture?

Today, we find Christians attempting to divorce themselves from culture, though it is actually impossible; simply going with the flow of culture and not questioning it; or caught in the middle wanting to know how to understand, interact, and live within culture.

Carson approaches this topic by using the classic typology of H, Richard Niebuhr’s Christ and Culture, which poses five different approaches to the question of Christ, Christians, and culture and how they are related or interact. (Some of us studied Niebuhr’s book in seminary and have found it to be a reference point for discussions on culture.) Carson’s theology enables him to take the five options of Niebuhr and suggest that they are actually not separate approaches but should be parts of the whole. He does this in a manner that helps us to see how we can live in the world and relate to the culture in a way that helps us focus on a biblical worldview that enables us to know our role and calling.

If there is one thing that we can be certain of, especially in this age of communications and a shrinking global village. it is that we do not live in a monolithic culture. Actually it is quite diverse, not only globally but right in our own backyards. We need to know how to relate to the culture in a Christ honoring and serving way. Withdrawing is certainly not an option, even if it were impossible, and allowing the culture to determine our worldview and lifestyle is also not the answer. While there is some validity to seeing the culture as relative because of its diversity, there are some things that transcend the diversity that should unite Christians globally and help us to better understand what it means to be a part of a kingdom that is not of this world. As Carson says, some want to by-pass this discussion for various reasons in a way that allows them to focus on evangelism and church planting. Others living by a dualistic philosophy simply do not try, or know how, to connect their Sunday church life with the rest of the week.

The truth is that if we are to be kingdom disciples and live with a kingdom world and life view perspective. we cannot afford not to think seriously about culture, even if the tension requires us to do some serious thinking or rethinking. It is all connected to what God would have us to do, and we cannot afford to neglect that.

While the entire book is a valuable resource to help us think and live more consistently with God’s will, chapters one and five are well worth the price of the book. Chapter one is an analysis of the Niebuhr five models and subsequent chapters deal with defining and relining those concepts. Chapter five is the best text I have read on church and state relations. Religion and politics are frequently the topics of conversation but much understanding is often missing in those discussions, especially in using terms like church, religion, spirituality, etc., as though they were synonymous. Defining terms in our postmodern day is extremely important, as Carson demonstrates. I think Carson’s case could be made even clearer and stronger by being more specific about the relationship between the church and the kingdom; nevertheless, you will find much food for thought and application.

When we look at both of God’s commissions, the first in Genesis I :28 and the second in Matthew 28: 18-19, Carson’s challenge is clear. He says, “To pursue with a passion the robust and nourishing wholeness of biblical theology as the controlling matrix for our reflection on the relations between Christ and culture will, ironically, help us to be far more flexible than the inflexible grids that are often made to stand in the Bible’s place. Scripture will mandate that we think holistically and subtly, wisely, and penetratingly, under the Lordship of Christ-utterly dissatisfied with the anesthetic of culture.” His last statement is right on, “Instead, we will live in the tension of claiming every square inch for King Jesus, even while we know full well that the consummation is not yet. that we walk by faith and not by sight, and that the weapons with which we fight are not the weapons of the world (2 Corinthians I0:4).”

This is an interesting book that will be a good text to encourage people to spend more time in the Old Testament. Christians have a tendency to spend more time in the New at the expense of reading and studying the Old. Bob Beasley has written a book that will draw readers to the Old Testament not only for the history but to see how Christ is revealed throughout it.

Beasley is a graduate of Westminster Theological Seminary. a ruling elder in the PCA, and former member of the CEP Committee. In the same clear manner as earlier works by this author, he has given us 101 different portraits of Christ from Genesis to Malachi. Being appreciative of earlier books, the late Edmund P. Clowney’s The Unfolding Mystery and Dennis Johnson’s Him We Proclaim, Beasley’s book will help us grow in our appreciation for the Old Testament as we see our Lord revealed there in prophesies, types, foreshadowing, and mighty works, as well as His pre-incarnate appearances.

Each portrait is only two pages. It could be used as a personal or family devotional. It could be used in teen or adult Bible studies by combining the portraits. Don’t pass this by.

For those who are familiar with the Evangelical Training Association (ETA, formally the ETTA), here are some of their works made available again, this time as compilations. These books are designed for new Christians who want to know the basics of the faith. They were originally created for teachers who wanted to teach the basics. Each chapter contains application activities and discussion questions for individual use or group study.

Exploring the Bible contains three books: Exploring the Basics of the Bible by R. Laird Harris (PCA, who went to be with the Lord in May of this year), Exploring the Old Testament by Samuel Schultz and Gary Smith, and Exploring the New Testament by Walter Dunnett.

Exploring Church History has three sections by James Eckman: Exploring Church History, The Truth about Worldviews, and Biblical Ethics.

Exploring Theology also has three parts by Clarence Benson (founder of ETA) and Robert Morgan: The One True God, Biblical Faith, and Evidence and Truth.

In today’s world, many have lost sight of the basics of our faith. here is a collection of three books that are great for new Christians, teachers, and those who have not learned, or have forgotten, the basics.