Book Reviews

Honestly, I had never delved into the Song of Songs prior to reading Stephen Clark’s book As Good as It Gets. Now I stand amazed at the depth and richness of how God reveals himself in the “lyrics” of this song. References to the book have always been more on the subject of love, which is certainly there, but the author makes the words come alive as he directs our attention to what love means in our relationships with each other, in friendships, in community, and in the broad scope of our lives as we relate to God and man. This was my first time reading a commentary processing the thoughts behind the words in the Song of Songs, and it proved to be a very enlightening experience. Clark presents his commentary in the form of daily devotions, breaking the song into fifty days of guiding us through human emotions we face in life and relationships.

The author speaks of the beauty and passion found in the pages while seeking to discover the meaning it has for all of life: identity, community, transformation, dignity, just to name a few. The reader is taken on a journey through, as Clark says, “…a garden steeped in passion, a place filled with this tantalizing thing called love-always nearly in grasp, forever slipping through our fingers, but never left forgotten once it is found.” This book helps us be at home in relationships and takes us to the very core of God’s love. We are given what the author feels is the key to the book which is affirmation. He explains, “It may take time for this to revolutionize the way that we relate to others, but until it does, we will find ourselves alone, embattled, and unready to love and be loved.” He goes on to say, “…in love we are transformed, and in loving we become life-transforming.”

As Good as It Gets is a commentary but uniquely done, capturing the essence of the meaning behind the words while drawing out the far-reaching implications of what God intends to teach us.

It seems like there is a never ending stream of youth ministry books being published. You can find books on topics ranging from how to plan good youth retreats to how to avoid having your youth program sued. What you could not find in youth ministry books, until recently, were serious attempts to put youth ministry issues and models into a theological framework. It may be in reaction to several years of negative research concerning the effectiveness of youth ministry that have caused this new wave of youth ministry books to find their way onto shelves in Christian bookstores. Whatever the reason, I am glad to see this movement from a reliance on proof texts to validate youth ministry to a desire to develop a theology of youth ministry based on the whole counsel of God taking place.

It is within this new spate of books that Brian Cosby’s Giving Up Gimmicks: Reclaiming Youth Ministry From An Entertainment Culture finds itself positioned. Many a youth ministry book has languished in the publishing wasteland because it lacks the content to separate itself from the myriad of books on the same topic. Thankfully, Giving Up Gimmicks does not suffer from that issue. In fact, I believe that it is the depth of the content of this book that separates it above the fray.

Perhaps this quote taken from Appendix A sums up best what Cosby has been able to achieve with the writing of Giving Up Gimmicks, “The aim of this book has been to offer a plea for youth pastors, youth leaders, and parents to reclaim or (possibly) to discover a model of youth ministry focused on the Word of God, prayer, sacraments, service and grace-centered community.” Building on what he has coined a “Means of Grace” ministry model, Cosby develops not only a theologically reformed framework for youth ministry but he connects the reader to church history as he builds his case. Interspersed throughout the book are real life youth ministry examples and practical applications for the youth program in your church.

If you come to this book, as I did, with an understanding that the Means of Grace are the Word, the sacraments, and prayer then you will most likely be especially interested in Cosby’s thoughts on why service and community should also be considered Means of Grace. Whether or not you end up agreeing with him on those points, Cosby’s treatment of service and community as Means of Grace is well-handled and thought-provoking, especially in the context of youth ministry.

My final analysis of Giving Up Gimmicks is that this book should be read by anyone connected with youth ministry in the local church. I found great value (even in the places that I disagreed) in Brian Cosby’s insights throughout the book. Because he is asking the right questions, using God’s Word as the starting point for the answers and has put into practice his theories in the cauldron of local church youth ministry, I believe Giving Up Gimmicks: Reclaiming Youth Ministry From An Entertainment Culture can help most local churches who believe that there is something more to youth ministry than pizza parties and games. Danny Mitchell, CEP Youth and Family consultant.

For those who know Carl W. Wilson, you know him as a committed Christian, a scholar, a practitioner, and one who has developed a keen interest in the modern hard sciences since the 1500. This first of a two volume set should be on the reading list of every Christian, especially living at a time when modern science, while having accomplished good things, operates from a humanistic philosophy that has taken it away from the truth of God in many many instances. In a brief amount of space, knowing how to give you a good picture of this book and its value to Christian scholarship is not an easy task. It is Wilson’s Magnus Opus. If you have read his other books, whether it be on discipleship, doctrine of man, Christian education, or cultural apologetics, you know of his great burden and desire to glorify God in all of his writings and ministry. Written well, and very readable, it covers a great amount of material that will serve as an invaluable resource. I would say that it would be worth having this book if you only read the introduction and chapter 32 which summarizes much of what he has documented throughout the book.

One sample of what you will find in the book, “The conflict is between true disciples of God in the church and the false religions conceived by natural sinful men to solve man’s problems by one world political government lead by one humanist. Democracy that once worked under a faith in a common biblical God in America and the West is now subject to humanism based on pride, greed, and lust. It seems postmodern anti-church leaders are ready to sacrifice America and the West for a chance at a man-made U. N. world government.” That is a hard-hitting statement, but Wilson backs it up throughout the book.

While modern science has attempted to leave God out of the picture, as Christians we know it was our faith and belief in God that actually gave rise to modern science; yet over the years man has followed the usual pattern of taking the things of God and attributing them to sinful man. For example: we know the claim that modern science only deals with facts and observations, not theology and philosophy. We also know as Wilson makes clear, the fallacy of making that into a total truth without admitting that modern science operates on a faith based philosophy. It was that very tension that sparked Michael Polanyi to move from science to philosophy.

Wilson has taken the time in this book to help us move beyond modern science to consider the history of science and the changes in science’s philosophy. He points out with references how even those associated with modern science did not have a true sense or grasp of the history of science, consequently leading them further away from a God foundation for all truth.

Wilson further writes, “A primary purpose of this two-volume history of science is to inform Christians, since the perversions were developed and maintained as a result of the natural sin bias of men who think they can be ‘wise as God.’ This book seeks to develop through history the work of the enemy in leading men astray, even well known men in the field of science. He makes clear that the book is not “anti-science,” but rather it is an attempt to highlight throughout the pages and unbiased science that honors the Creator God as the source of all that is truly scientific. He contends that the churches today have weakened because they have not stood for and clearly proclaimed Christ as the the Creator and Re-Creator which tends to cause a blindness to the truth. Wilson, while painting a discouraging picture for America and the West, holds out hope that if the churches and other institutions of learning will return to the truth of Christ as Creator and Re-Creator and seek to carry out the great commission, we could expect a revival of biblical truth throughout.

I encourage you to invest in this book and make it your aim to read it, mark it, and use it with your children, in the discipleship in the churches, and other educational institutions.

Here is a book that you must read, preach, and teach. We have reviewed this in a previous issue of Equip to Disciple, but due to its present importance, we are reprinting it with slight editing because it is a good companion to the Doctrine of the Christian Life book also reviewed in this issue. John Frame has produced another outstanding kingdom-building book. It is an introduction to systematic theology. Before you disregard it as just another theology book, remember from Frame’s other books, he views theology as life and life as theology. Even though he says this is a book for beginners in theology, it challenges us to think more biblically. He writes for a college-level audience which I believe would also include new seminarians.

Salvation Belongs to The Lord is unique as it challenges those engaged in full-time teaching and preaching, it is very readable for others in the church. He says this is not a part of his Theology of Lordship series, but I believe it should be read before the others in that series. In this book Frame gives us the big picture of the Sovereign God and his Lordship over all things, including the church and salvation. Understanding the big picture of God’s truth and reality will enable us to handle the details more effectively.

This is a timely book in that studying doctrine, at least in a systematic way, is not very popular. It is a time when thinking with intentional precision is needed. Systematics is a pedagogical device to help us understand more of God and his Word as it relates the parts to the whole and ties the teachings of the Bible together. Frame is right when he says, “the Bible is not a miscellaneous collection of ideas but a coherent, consistent system of truth in which major doctrines depend on one another.” I believe that is why it is difficult for people to know how to think biblically because they cannot always connect the dots in the Scriptures. This book will enable the reader and student to do that better and more practically than many others that have been written.

Part one lays the foundation for what he writes about in his Lordship series books. It is about the Sovereign and Triune God, His Word, His Son, and His Holy Spirit. Part two deals with the ordo salutis, order of salvation, thus the title. He opens up the doctrines of grace, including the means of grace. He also treats the topic of the church and kingdom clearly. For example, while the Reformers listed three marks of the true visible church, Frame suggests several others should be part of that list: love among the brothers and sisters, worship, and the Great Commission are some of his examples.

As usual, Frame gives good insights into the government of the church. His conclusion on the “Nature of the Church” challenges us to remember that “the well-being of the church has more to do with the work of the Spirit than with the form of government.” His section on the Church and Kingdom is also helpful. For example, he says that God’s kingdom is synonymous with God’s sovereignty. “The church consists of those who have been conquered by God’s saving power, who are now enlisted in the warfare of God’s kingdom against the kingdom of Satan…The church is the headquarters of the kingdom of God, the base from which God’s dominion extends and expands”(page 249).He uses the term “missional church” to underscore the church’s task in making kingdom disciples. He highlights three elements that make up the missional church–worship, nurture, and witness.

I would encourage you to read, study, and discuss this book in order to assist churches in their making kingdom disciples curriculum. Dr. William Edgar, professor at Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, made a descriptive comment on the cover of the book, “We can be grateful for such a powerful and clear exposition of the whole range of theology. It is at once vigorously orthodox and sweetly pastoral.”

If there is one book that you should possess, read, study, use as background resource for preaching and teaching on the Christian life, this is the book. This is the third volume in a series of four by John Frame. For years I have included the writings of John Frame on my must read list. He thinks from a wholistic world and life view regarding the Kingdom of God.

As the title suggests, this book deals with Christian ethics. And, who better than Frame to write about that topic. He points out, as he writes about Christian ethics, the threefold perspectives regarding ethics and Christian living.

First there is the normative perspective, followed by the cultural or situational perspective and then followed up by what he calls the existential perspective, referring to our daily living the Christian life. We are aware that Christianity, particularly reformed and evangelical Christianity, is struggling with the very topics included in this book, things like: the kingdom of God, law and grace or law and the gospel, justification and sanctification, the sufficiency and authority of Scripture, culture, and the role of the church within the kingdom. While sharing with Frame a one kingdom perspective and seeing God as sovereign over all of life and realizing that all truth is God’s truth, I find this book full of substantive content in dealing with these issues. Frame does not hesitate to set forth his understanding and convictions in a way that does not pull any punches, yet he does so in a fair and balanced manner. Even with those with whom he disagrees, he speaks fairly and with a Christian spirit.

Frame’s treatment of the law of God, particularly the ten laws, will be welcomed by the serious Christian who wants to obey His Lord and King. He explains how we relate to the law of God i.e. to show us our sins, then to lead us to Christ, and after we are in Christ, how the law becomes God’s standard for our living the Christian life, not to win God’s favor unto salvation and acceptance, but as the way he wants us to live in order to obey, serve, and please him. I think of one example: chapter 32: “The Fifth Commandment: Family, Church, and State,” followed by chapter 33 on the fifth law, entitled “Man and Woman.”

I particularly appreciate his section “Christ and Culture.” As Christians we do not live in a vacuum which requires that we have to be able to understand our environment in order to apply our theology to daily Christian living. What is culture? How do Christians relate to culture? What about the church and culture? These are some of the topics that make this book a treasure and commentary on the Christian life. The last section of the book reveals his overarching desire, “Personal Spiritual Maturity.”

Though Frame is a philosopher and theologian, par excellence, he writes with the heart of a pastor concerned for his people to live the Christian life, according to God’s standard. His triperspectival view of the Christian life, (normative, situational, and existential), blends together all three areas into one wholistic view of living the Christian life: loving God, loving one another, and walking in obedience as we progress in our sanctification. Frame will challenge you to think biblically and theologically from a “Calvinistically Reformed” context. Consistent with Equip to Disicple’s philosophy, Frame helps us to underscore the importance of the church’s role in making kingdom disciples thus enabling them to live in the broader kingdom without attempting to transform things like our workplace into a church, yet at the same time having a clear Christian impact on the culture around us. Once again the old saying comes forth with the challenge,” how to be in the world but not of the world.”

Not long ago I was introduced by one publisher to the work of another. He was really excited about the work being done by City on a Hill Productions and wanted me to get to know them. After viewing their work I too was convinced they deserve more exposure in our churches. They have, to date, produced three series; each is narrated by Kyle Idleman.

Not a Fan is for the church audience. Kyle persuasively moves Christians to consider where they are with their walk with Christ. Are we simply fans of Jesus? Or, are we followers? His presentations are well produced, well stated, and convincing.
H₂O is very different. These are crafted for viewing by non-Christians, BUT, the encouragement is for your church to use these to train your people to invite non-Christians into their homes for a series of discussions on the claims of Christ.

The audience for the Easter Experience is the church. It is a challenging series to watch, as Kyle takes us into Israel and we watch the last hours of Jesus acted out. It is one thing to read the Bible and form our own visual pictures, it is quite another to see it acted out for us, showing the levels of emotions on the face of each participant. I have shown the Easter Experience to my college and career class. Each grew up in the church and in Christian schools. All of them were moved and expressed a great appreciation for what they experienced watching these last hours of Jesus. Kyle keeps bringing you back to the question: What if what happened then changes everything now? A masterful question that forces us to think about where we are with our relationship with Jesus.

I highly recommend all three of these, and encourage you to use all three as they are intended. They are great for outreach as well as equipping your church for the work of ministry.

The main text for this series is published by Zondervan.