Bookshelves

I finished constructing the bookshelves for my office this morning. They are floor to ceiling shelves. I loaded them this evening.
Now...if I only knew how to read.

Books

At one time I had a blog called Partially Read Books. The intent of the blog was to write brief reviews of books I had been reading and to hold me accountable to actually finishing books I had started reading. It didn't work so I deleted the blog. Below is a list of popular books I have read (actually cover to cover) over the last few months. I won't write about any of the books but if you have questions about any of them please ask in the comments. I may answer. I will tell you this - all of the books below are books I would recommend - some more than others.

Are you a member?

Several months ago my friend and I started a series about the importance of church membership. The blog series was about as consistent as the attendance of many church-goers and like many church-goers it stopped showing up altogether.

Church membership is an important part of the local church. If you consider yourself a regular attender of a local church and still have yet to become a member - it's time. I have yet to hear a good reason for NOT becoming a member of a church.

Up until now there weren't many resources on church membership. I recently finished reading Thabiti Anyabwile's book - "What is a Healthy Church Member?" I plan to give this book to everyone who becomes a member at our church. It is a simple encouragement and challenge to church members about how to be a healthy support to your church. As a member, do you want to serve your church and the leaders in your church? Read this book. It is a short book with ten short chapters. Buy the book. Read the book. Give the book to someone who should be a member and encourage them toward this commitment for the glory of God.

Close your eyes...we're praying!

I have been reading D.A. Carson's book The Cross and Christian Ministry: Leadership Lessons from 1 Corinthians. If you are or have been involved in ministry in a church, this is a must-read.
In the section on 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 Carson asks, "What then does it mean today to resolve "to know nothing...except Jesus Christ and him crucified"? How do we apply this in our churches. He gives a few examples but the one below caused me to think about our own church.

We have become so performance-oriented that it is hard to see how compromised we are. Consider one small example. In many of our churches, prayers in morning services now function, large measure, as the time to change the set in the sanctuary. The people of the congregation bow their heads and close their eyes and when they look up a minute later, why, the singers are in place or the drama group is ready to perform. It is all so smooth. It is also profane. Nominally we are in prayer together addressing the King of heaven, the sovereign Lord. In reality, some of us are doing that while others are rushing on tiptoes around the "stage" and others, with their eyes closed, are busy wondering what new and happy configuration will confront them when it is time to take a peek.

Has the smoothness of the performance become more important to us than the fear of the Lord?...Have professional competence and smooth showmanship become more valuable than sober reckoning over what it means to focus on Christ crucified?

Does this resonate with you and your theatre church?

The winnngs

When we returned from our mt. vacation a large box was waiting for me in my office. I opened the box and was pleasantly surprised to see the loot from the Challies give-away. I handed out several at church yesterday and plan to give out many more. I believe I will keep the Phillips book. After I read it I may loan it out. I have many books to give away and I am checking the list to see who has been naughty and who has been nice.

Many thanks to Tim Challies for having the draw and for Ligonier Ministries for supplying the books.

Satisfying and substituting

I am still reading through The Cross of Christ. It is a brilliant book!

The biblical gospel of atonement is of God satisfying himself by substituting himself for us. The concept of substitution may be said, then, to lie at the heart of both sin and salvation. For the essence of sin is man substituting himself for God, while the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for man. Man asserts himself against God and puts himself where only God deserves to be; God sacrifices himself for man and puts himself where only man deserves to be. Man claims prerogatives which belong to God alone; God accepts penalties which belong to man alone.

Praise Him!

The pastoral beat-down

Last week I began reading The Cross of Christ. This book has been recommended by many. I have heard several pastors recommend this book as one of the top books in their library. I have had the book for several years and have never cracked it open. I began reading this book during one of my first "Q days" (Stott called his one day a month quiet day a "Q day"). I read 120 pages in one sitting. Stott has the ability to grab your theological mind just in time to slap you with the pastoral beat-down of application. For instance, after spending a few pages discussing details about the Roman soldiers and Pilate's role in Christ's last days Stott says,

It is easy to condemn Pilate and overlook our own equally devious behaviour. Anxious to avoid the pain of a whole-hearted commitment to Christ, we too search for convenient subterfuges. We either leave the decision to somebody else, or opt for a half-hearted compromise, or seek to honour Jesus for the wrong reason (e.g. as teacher instead of as Lord), or even make a public affirmation of loyalty while at the same time denying him in our hearts.

So far this book has been a great devotional read - one in which I commend to you if you like an occasional pastoral beat-down.

Worship problems

Recently there have been a few issues for discussion at our church about worship (through music). Some of the discussions have not been easy. I decided to begin reading through Worship by the Book. I bought this book a few years ago and never started reading it until now. This morning I read chapter 4 - "Reformed Worship in the Global City" by Timothy Keller. It was extremely helpful in many areas and I would highly recommend this book to anyone who has thought through the purpose of worship (through music). Keller moves through historical traditions of worship as well as contemporary practices. He provides a few outlines of the services at Redeemer Presbyterian Church and gives rationale for each element in the service.

Although this has not really been part of the discussion at Trinity Church I found Keller's section on contemporary and historic worship insightful. In this section he lists the problems in strictly promoting one or the other.

Problems in promoting strictly contemporary worship:
First, some popular music does have severe limitations for corporate worship.
Second, when we ignore historic tradition, we break our solidarity with Christians of the past. Part of the richness of our identity as Christians is that we are saved into a historic people.
Finally, any corporate worship that is strictly contemporary will become dated very quickly. When [someone] says we should "plug in" to contemporary culture, which contemporary culture does he mean? White, black, Latino, urban, suburban, "Boomer," or "Gen X" contemporary culture?

Problems in promoting strictly traditional, historical worship:
First, historical worship advocates cannot really dodge the charge of cultural elitism. Much of high culture music takes a great deal of instruction to appreciate, so that, especially in the United States, a strong emphasis on such music and art will probably only appeal to college-educated elites.
Second, any proponent of "historic" corporate worship will have to answer the questions, "Whose history?" Much of what is called "traditional" worship is very rooted in northern European culture.

What say ye? What are your thoughts? Would you add any "problems" to his list?

Wide Load

Last Friday I received a brand new wide margin ESV bible. I have been using the ESV for a number of years and have had issue with the lack of margin on the pages for notes. Well it is finally here so I am reading my bible again. I decided to get the hardback edition so that I don't have to worry about killing a cow...and cardboard is half the cost of cow skin. Truth be known - I take my bible in my man-purse everywhere I go and it seems that a hardback would be more durable. I will let you know how it all works out.

So far I have read parts of 1 Kings, Song of Solomon and Hebrews and I have to be honest - it's much better reading now.

The ESV offers "more than 100 highly creative" editions. You can spend a billion dollars on a bible if you so choose. Scroll through the endless options here.

Utterly Incompatible

As I wrote about last week I am re-reading "God is the Gospel." This morning I read about the "diverse excellencies (lion and lamb) that unite in [Jesus]." The foundation for these "diverse excellencies" is a Jonathan Edwards sermon from Revelation 5:5-6.

• we admire him for his glory, but even more because his glory is mingled with humility;
• we admire him for his transcendence, but even more because his transcendence is accompanied by condescension;
• we admire him for his uncompromising justice, but even more because it is tempered with mercy;
• we admire him for his majesty, but even more because it is a majesty in meekness;
• we admire him because of his equality with God, but even more because as God’s equal he nevertheless has a deep reverence for God;
• we admire him because of how worthy he was of all good, but even more because this was accompanied by an amazing patience to suffer evil;
• we admire him because of his sovereign dominion over the world, but even more because this dominion was clothed with a spirit of obedience and submission;
• we love the way he stumped the proud scribes with his wisdom, and we love it even more because he could be simple enough to like children and spend time with them;
• and we admire him because he could still the storm, but even more because he refused to use that power to strike the Samaritans with lightning (Luke 9:54-55) and he refused to use it to get himself down from the cross.

Evangelism strategies

I am re-reading God is the Gospel by John Piper. The main point of the book can be summed up in this quote,

The gospel is not a way to get people to heaven; it is a way to get people to God.

How should this change our description of the gospel to an unbeliever?

Discuss....

New blog for 2007

I have this problem of partially reading books. This is my pattern of reading:

1. I hear of a new book that sparks my interest.
2. I purchase the book.
3. I read several chapters of the book.
4. I loose interest in the book because steps 1 & 2 have been repeated.
5. Steps 1-4 are repeated as often as step 1 occurs.

(read full post here)