Kingdom of God

Review: The Kingdom of God is Among You

/ rtrube54 / Leave a comment
Cover image of "The Kingdom of God is Among You" by Gordon D. Fee and Cherith Fee Nordling.

The Kingdom of God is Among You

The Kingdom of God is Among You, Gordon D. Fee and Cherith Fee Nordling, foreword by Craig S. Keener. Cascade Books (ISBN: 9781666732924) 2025.

Summary: A New Testament theology drawn from lectures emphasizing the kingdom of God as a framework.

Gordon D. Fee was one of the outstanding New Testament scholars of my generation. He was a Pentecostal who taught at evangelical seminaries. His God’s Empowering Presence was probably one of the best books on the Holy Spirit I’ve read. He wrote academic commentaries and book on Paul. And he contributed to wider understanding of the Bible (with Douglas Stuart) with his How to Read the Bible For All Its Worth and How to Read the Bible Book By Book. I gave the former book to many of the students I worked with. One thing he never did was publish a book on New Testament theology.

However, he gave lectures to students on the topic. One series was recorded and transcribed. From these, his daughter, theologian Cherith Fee Nordling set out to edit these and turn them in the book. She describes the process in a moving Preface, set in the context of her father’s advancing Alzheimer’s illness and death.

The first lecture lays out Fee’s understanding of the nature and message of New Testament theology. He notes that the New Testament writings do not expound theology systematically. Rather, he says, “We must never forget that the writings of the New Testament are ad hoc documents, written in each and every case to speak to a specific need. Thus, rather than careful, systematic presentations of theology (such as in a book or a lecture), the earliest Christian theology is worked out in the marketplace, as it were.” With that in mind, Fee sees the New Testament concerned with God, people and redemption, captured in the idea of the presence of the kingdom. He works with the following definition of New Testament theology, which he unpacks in the book:

“Through the death and resurrection of Jesus our Lord, our gracious and loving God has effected eschatological salvation for his new covenant people, the church, who now, as they await Christ’s coming, live the life of the future by the power of the Spirit” (p. 13).

Then the following lectures unpack this definition. Firstly, lectures two, three, and four focus on the kingdom of God, its presence in Christ and how its fulfillment is anticipated in what already is seen in the works of Christ and in the life of the people of God. Secondly, lectures five through nine address salvation in the person of Christ, in the writings of Paul, John, and the other New Testament writers. Thirdly, lectures ten through twelve center on Jesus the Savior. Beginning with the gospels he considers Jesus as Messiah, Son of Man, and suffering servant. Then he explores the contribution of Paul, John, and Hebrews to our Christology.

Fourthly, lectures thirteen to fifteen approach the New Testament from the perspective of the people of God, following the same pattern of the gospels, Paul, and John. Finally, lecture sixteen addresses the continuity and discontinuity between Old and New Testaments and the consummation of all things. The book concludes with a benediction focusing on the Trinitarian formulation of 2 Corinthians 13:14 and emphasizing the personal nature of the Holy Spirit.

There are several things I appreciate about this work. First are the prayers that appear throughout, at the beginning of each set of three lectures. In addition, unlike some New Testament theologies that spend much time in technical discussions, referencing other scholars, this is Fee with his Bible, sketching out the major themes of the New Testament. Scholarly discussion and devotion are never far apart with Fee. Discussing Jesus’ teaching about titles, he turns to his own recognition of what being called Doctor Fee instead of Gordon and how we cease being brothers and sisters when we invoke titles. Above all, we witness his devotion to Christ. He writes:

“I suggest to you that the church could be effective once again in the world. This is the passion that infuses these lectures. If I could somehow communicate, inculcate, and instill one passion into our Christian lives in the present age, it would be to stop being in step with our own age, and to live fully as eschatological people. I’m not here with you merely as an academic exercise but with a desire to recapture the theology of the early church, the eschatological hope of the Spirit given already in Jesus and his kingdom that set the church ablaze. Jesus’ coming set the future in motion. The coming age has dawned. With the early Christians, may we await the consummation of his second coming as active participants in that future even now” (pp. 36-37).

This is a wonderful posthumous gift to the church from Gordon D. Fee. While treating the writings of the New Testament individually, he also sees the whole as part of God’s story. Read this work to know the story and better tell the story. Finally, Fee opens this work by saying, “the proper aim of all true theology is doxology.” Do not be surprised if, in your reading, you have to stop and worship.

_______________________

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: The Peaceable Kingdom

/ rtrube54 / Leave a comment
Cover image of "The Peaceable Kingdom" by Stanley Hauerwas

The Peaceable Kingdom, Stanley Hauerwas. University of Notre Dame Press (ISBN:  9780268015541) 1991.

Summary: A Christian ethic centered in the character of the rule Jesus inaugurated, lived by the church in nonviolent service.

I recently reviewed a distillation of Stanley Hauerwas’ writings titled Jesus Changes Everything (at https://bobonbooks.com/2025/03/26/review-jesus-changes-everything/). I was so impressed with his writings that I wanted to read more and picked up his The Peaceable Kingdom. This is his “primer in Christian ethics” and elaborates the idea that peace and nonviolence is central to the character of Jesus’ kingdom and the calling of those who follow him, gathered in Christian communities. I was surprised in reading this work to find it was far more “academic,” befitting his work as a seminary professor at Duke.

In my review, I will not focus on all the details of what is at times a dense discussion (but well worth the wading). Rather, I will summarize what I found and briefly comment.

First of all, he denies the possibility of an “absolute” ethics while arguing for the distinctiveness of a Christian ethic. For him, doctrine and ethics are inseparable. Truth must be lived and this inevitably involves an ethic. Moreover, for the Christian, that ethic centers in the narrative of Jesus–his life, death, and resurrection–that inaugurates a kingdom of forgiveness and peace. That peace is both with God and with one another.

Jesus calls his followers into a community of character. Specifically, Jesus calls us into lives of repenting from violence and discord, exercising our agency to live peaceably. Hence, the church, as Christ’s body, doesn’t have an ethic but is one. We are the servant community living in patience and hope for the dawning of Jesus kingdom. The church isn’t the kingdom but lives in anticipation of it by its character.

Hauerwas notes the focus on casuistry and ethical decision-making in much of ethics. A Christian ethic is different, flowing not from calculated decisions but what a person or community is and is becoming. Finally, Hauerwas proposes that a key virtue undergirding peaceableness is patience. He argues the virtue of doing nothing, siding with H. Richard Niebuhr over his brother Reinhold Niebuhr. With this patience comes joy, as we relinquish controlling our lives and those of others to God. Rather than tackling the many problems of the world, he argues for the grace of doing one thing.

For me, the strongest parts of Hauerwas’ argument are the appeal to the narrative of Jesus for our ethic and the insistence that the church is a social ethic. However, I do not believe that nonviolence always means doing nothing. Rosa Parks was peaceable and nonviolent, but she sat down. So were John Lewis and others who engaged in sit-ins. And sometimes, doing nothing is an act of nonviolent resistance, not nonresistance. Given that Hauerwas wrote twenty-five years after the civil rights movement, it surprises me he does not address this.

However, Hauerwas is one of the leading voices in reasserting the calling of the church to peace and nonviolence within society. It is an important testimony at a time when Christians seem bent on “taking sides” in the divisive political issues of our days, even using warfare metaphors to characterize their efforts. Perhaps this book is indeed a “primer” for how then we should live as the people of God.

Review: Households of Faith

/ rtrube54 / Leave a comment
Cover image of "Households of Faith" by Emily Hunter McGowin

Households of Faith, Emily Hunter McGowin. InterVarsity Press (ISBN: 9781514000069) 2025.

Summary: Instead of blueprints of the biblical family, casts a vision of families as apprentices in love together.

Evangelicalism has given families a great amount of attention in recent years. Much of that has come in the forms of models and blueprints for the “ideal” Christian family. Some of this has outlined very specific role expectations for fathers and husbands, wives and mothers and for children. That is not the approach of this book. Emily Hunter McGowin writes:

“With this book, I hope to speak a word to Christian families of all kinds that is neither a rigid, unattainable ideal nor an uncritical, feel-good placebo. I am not promoting a particular blueprint of family to which all Christians are expected to conform, nor am I trying to obliterate the notion of family as outmoded and useless. Instead, I am seeking a new paradigm for the family within the framework of the church and the kingdom of God, rooted in the Scriptures and the best of the church’s traditions, that I hope will be empowering and encouraging as we learn to live as households of faith today” (p. 10)

McGowin begins with a survey of the material on family in scripture. What she finds in the Old Testament is not a particular form (and often some pretty flawed examples). Rather the function of families is epitomized in Deuteronomy 6:4-9 as places where one learns to wholeheartedly love God by keeping his commands. Similarly, while the New Testament sometimes offers versions of Roman society’s household codes, the real goal is how to live as disciples of Jesus within society’s expectations.

Then she focuses on Jesus. Rather than specify gender roles, he calls people first to follow him. Their loyalty to him may divide families. While not obliterating family ties, Jesus cares for his mother as he dies by entrusting her to the Beloved Disciple. This is something new. He is not a family member! Furthermore, Jesus’ preoccupation was with the kingdom of God. In Jesus, it has already come but is not yet consummated. Churches, as households of God reflect, albeit imperfectly, God’s gracious rule in their life and to the world.

So, what then of our biological families? They exist within this larger family that includes singles, the divorced and widowed as well as families with parents (grandparents?) and children. For all, this experience of “family” is toward the goal of forming people as disciples, what McGowin calls “an apprenticeship of love.” This is true for parents and children. Rather than just making children “launchable,” McGowin argue for the priority of forming them as people who are learning to love like Jesus.

Beyond this ideal picture, what does this look like in a fallen world? The second part of the book addresses that question. She addresses honestly the dysfunctions that inflict wounds upon families, both internal and societal. Then she speaks of the hope for healing within the gospel as sin and trauma are faced. Some of these problems are huge. McGowin offers realistic examples of living as apprentices of love; what one can do as one also lives in the “not yet” of Jesus kingdom.

Not all will marry. McGowin devotes a whole chapter to singleness and marriage. She notes the balanced way scripture handles this that honors singleness within God’s household. Then she turns to the challenges of childrearing. She reminds us that children belong to God and themselves rather than being ours. We raise them within a larger family of disciples joined together in this apprenticeship of love. We wonder whether we can do this. The call, she says is not to perfection but faithfulness. And in this, God meets us.

Patterns of practice may help us. Not as blueprints but as rhythms around which family life moves. In her final section, McGowin addresses three sets of practices helpful in forming apprentices of love in family. One is sabbath, which includes getting enough sleep and play and wonder. The second is living in the reality of our baptism. We care for our bodies and places. Baptism calls us into storytelling and timekeeping. Baptism initiates us into a narrative of life. Finally, eucharist bids us into reconciled relationships around table fellowship. We live eucharist in shared meals as family and in hospitality with others as well as ongoing reconciliation

What I appreciate about this book is that it situates the family within the bigger Jesus story. It’s the story of God’s kingdom, both already present and not yet. Rather than rules, roles, and blueprints, McGowin offers an expansive vision. And yet the core idea is simple to express (if not always to practice). Families together (and the whole household of God) are apprentices of love. Jesus wants to form us as people of steadfast, sacrificial, and holy love and there is no better place to learn it than in the school of family life. McGowin’s honesty and her willingness to share both struggles and practices makes this a rich and accessible resource.

____________________

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Finally, thanks for visiting Bob on Books. People aren’t reading blogs like they used to, so I appreciate that you spent time here. Feel to “look around” – see the tabs at the top of the website, and the right hand column. And use the buttons below to share this post. Blessings! [Adapted from Enough Light, a blog I follow.]

Review: Jesus Changes Everything

/ rtrube54 / Leave a comment
Cover image of "Jesus Changes Everything" by Stanley Hauerwas

Jesus Changes Everything (Plough Spiritual Guides), Stanley Hauerwas, edited by Charles E. Moore with an Introduction by Tish Harrison Warren. Plough Publishing House (ISBN: 9781636081571) 2025.

Summary: The radical implications of Jesus’ call to follow him for every area of life from personal to societal.

Did answering the call of Jesus to follow him turn your life upside down (or rather right side up)? Stanley Hauerwas has maintained through all of his writing that Jesus changes everything. Following him isn’t about inspiring messages followed by polite chit-chat in the church lobby that has little effect on life Monday through Saturday. Rather, this collection of readings from his works demonstrates how Jesus indeed changes everything from our life orientation to our identification with God’s people to our money, our pursuit of peace, and even our politics.

The book is organized in six sections. What follows is a brief summary to highlight what you will find:

Part I: Following Jesus. Jesus call is a call to follow him, giving him our ultimate allegiance, even unto death, to get out of the boat far from shore and come to him. It’s not a call to an abstract kingdom but into relationship with the living, breathing king. But to follow this king is not a modification of the existing social order, but to become part of a new social order. While love is central to that life, it is love defined by the cross, where Jesus fully identifies with sin and suffering to raise us to new life.

Part II: Good News. The good news is that in Christ the impossible of the sermon on the mount becomes possible. There is really more to life than living for ourselves. Jesus means it when he calls us to be perfect because that perfection is already in effect in him, and may be in us as we look at and follow him. This way of living subverts the existing social order as it embraces a community of reconciliation and forgiveness.

Part III: God’s Alternative Society. At Pentecost, God created something new out of people from every language group. Specifically he created the alternative society called church. It is a society characterized by truth and charity. It is our first family through baptism. For Hauerwas, this has radical implications for marriage, which is supported and derived from our other commitments. Hauerwas contends, “You do not fall in love and then get married. You get married and then learn what real love requires.’

Part IV: Kingdom Economics. Hauerwas is blunt. We have a problem with wealth and we try to soften the radical teaching of Jesus. The issue is whether we see our goods voluntarily at the disposal of others and are able to say “enough” to ourselves. To not offer help we are able to give is theft. Even the prayer for daily bread is for our bread. He asks whether we are closer to the extravagant Mary or the grifting Judas.

Part V: Sowing Seeds of Peace. The way of Jesus is the way of peace. He made peace with God and with one another possible at the cross. He challenges Christians to practice this when we have grievances and he speaks a challenging word to divisive political partisanship. Any identification of Christianity with party or nation is idolatrous. Rather Christians are to “help the world find habits of peace.” He unflinchingly calls Christians to non-violence which may mean “that we and those we love cannot be spared death.” This is dangerous business, only to be contemplated with the hope of the resurrection. He makes the modest proposal that Christians begin by at least agreeing that they will not kill each other.

Part VI: The Politics of Witness. The question is not which party or policies ought the church support. Instead, Hauerwas argues,

“Put starkly, the first task of the church when it comes to social ethics is to be the church. Such a claim may well sound self-serving or irrelevant until we remember that what makes the church the church is its faithful manifestation of the peaceable kingdom in the world. As such, the church does not have a social ethic; the church is a social ethic.”

Jesus alone is king. Rather than killing for freedom, we are called to faithfulness, even unto death. Instead of seeking social status through political alliances, we pursue our freedom to be the church apart from any social order. Rather than the polite society of Sunday mornings being the church could actually get us in trouble, Hauerwas concludes; “By God, sisters and brothers, being Christian could turn out to be more interesting than we had imagined.”

More interesting indeed. This is an uncomfortable book. But it has the ring of truth as being faithful to the one who went to the cross and bids us die. Charles E. Moore captures the message of Hauerwas across the years, and articulates an alternate path to quiet discouragement or political captivity. He skillfully edits the readings to make this a seamless composition. He also offers a brief biography of Hauerwas complemented by an Introduction by former Times columnist Tish Harrison Warren.

I love these Plough Spiritual Guides. Each one I’ve read calls me into both an encounter with Christ, and to the life of following him. This one is no exception. If you are discouraged with the state of the contemporary church, pick this up. It will both challenge your heart and capture your imagination.

____________________

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: The Return of the Kingdom

/ rtrube54 / 1 Comment
Cover image of The Return of the Kingdom" by Stephen G. Dempster

The Return of the Kingdom (Essential Studies in Biblical Theology) , Stephen G. Dempster. IVP Academic (ISBN: 9780830842919) 2024.

Summary: Traces the themes of kingship and kingdom throughout Scripture from creation to new creation.

How would you summarize the storyline of the Bible in a phrase. Stephen G. Dempster proposes the succinct phrase, “the return of the kingdom” will serve well. He argues that the Bible presents a vision of the creation as a temple over which God is king and human beings his vicegerents and a kingdom of priests. That kingdom was disrupted when human beings rebelled against God’s calling. Hence, the rest of the story is how God works to restore that kingdom and humanity to their rightful place.

In this book, Dempster traces the theme of the return of the kingdom through the whole of scripture, as part of a series covering essential theological themes in scripture. Thus, he begins with a chapter setting out the big picture. He does so by looking at how Genesis 1-3, the creation, and Revelation 21-22, new creation, bookend the story of scripture. Specifically, he frames a story of creation, fall, and a greater restoration.

In subsequent chapters, Dempster traces this theme from creation, through a thoughtful exploration of the fall narrative and the spread of sin, resulting in the flood. Dempster moves from patriarchal narratives through the exodus and the establishing of a nation over which God is king. From here, he follows the Hebrew scripture order, showing kingdom growth and decline in the former prophets and the once and future kingdom in the latter prophets. Under the Writings, the Psalms and Wisdom literature teach us kingdom prayer, life, and hope. The Daniel through Chronicles portray the posture of an exiled people awaiting the kingdom.

Turning to the New Testament, Dempster covers this corpus in four chapters, one on Matthew, one on the remaining gospels, one on Acts and all the letters, and one on Revelation. I found the allocation of his attention puzzling. For example, Acts, the Pauline and Catholic epistles are discussed in eleven pages, half of which is devoted to Acts. Likewise, the chapter on Matthew is nearly twice as long as the chapter on Mark, Luke, and John! While his summaries were on the money, this felt like he had to truncate his material to meet page limits. And his material on Revelation, one of the bookends, also included what seemed to be a conclusion of how then do we await a delayed kingdom, all in ten pages.

That said, he helpfully sketches the coming of the king and the particular aspects each gospel writer develops. He traces the kingdom expansion from Israel to the ends of the earth. and the glory of the new Jerusalem and the trees (plural) of life for the healing of the nations.

Overall, this is a valuable work, tracing the theme of God’s rule through scripture. Particularly, showing how the Old Testament develops this theme is valuable. This is so because, for many, the Old Testament is undiscovered territory. I could see this book encouraging people to read the Old Testament. And attending to the reality of God’s reign is great encouragement in our troubled times!

____________________

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: God’s Revolution

/ rtrube54 / 1 Comment
Cover image of "God's Revolution" by Eberhard Arnold

God’s Revolution: Justice, Community, and the Coming Kingdom, Eberhard Arnold. Plough Publishing (ISBN: 9781636080000), 2021.

Summary: A collection of the writings of Eberhard Arnold, describing the life of discipleship embodied in the Bruderhof, as a radical alternative to the institutional church.

I was in an online conversation today, provoked by posting an image of a new book titled Claiming the Courageous Middle. The person who responded thought I was talking about the idea of being a political moderate and wondered how many biographies have been written about great moderates. I remarked that none of those labels fit what I’m talking about and I rather agree with the implied characterization of moderate as being something like insipid. As a Christ follower, I have a different allegiance, to God’s kingdom and a way that is far more radical than anything politically on offer, the way of Jesus. If I were with the person, I would just offer him a copy of the book I’m reviewing by Eberhard Arnold and say, “Read this, if you want to understand what I’m talking about.”

Eberhard Arnold is the co-founder of the Bruderhof, “an international movement of Christian communities whose members are called to follow Jesus together in the spirit of the Sermon on the Mount and of the first church in Jerusalem, sharing all our talents, income, and possessions (Acts 2 and 4).” Writing in the 1920’s and early 1930’s as National Socialism was rising in Germany, he articulates the defining features of this alternative Christian community, differentiating it from the institutional Christianity of his day, increasingly identified with and supportive of the state. Eventually the German community fled to neutral Switzerland, while other Bruderhof communities flourished in England, Canada, the U.S. and eventually South America. This work was drawn from his notes as he taught the German community and is organized thematically with the date the message was given.

This work is organized into four parts. The first reflects his own sense of the crumbling civilization of his time and contrasts this with the inbreaking of the kingdom of God. He describes the Church as “an embassy of God’s future reign.” that looks for the day when that kingdom will extend to the whole world, uniting all under Christ in peace. The Sermon on the Mount reflects the way those who embrace the hope of the kingdom live, and the early chapters of Acts, on which the Bruderhof is modeled, reflect the living out of the sermon.

The second part talks about the fleshing out of this new order heralded by Jesus. The church was established and continues to be established by an outpouring of the Spirit, forming her as a community and empowering her for mission. He writes about the community, that it must be built by God in contrast other communal efforts built on human effort. He recognizes the evil power of money as the reason for the sharing of possessions and no private ownership or savings. Entry into community comes through repentance, a “recognition of the gravity of what we have done.” Baptism represents our break with the status quo, reflecting our spiritual rebirth. The Lord’s supper is a feast of bread and wine, remembering not only Christ’s perfect sacrifice but our communion with each other, one cup, one loaf. Arnold takes seriously the scripture saying we ought not worship if we have a quarrel with someone in community; we should settle it first. Finally, the expectation of the coming kingdom of Jesus calls every one of us in some way into the church’s shared mission.

Part three focuses on the individual in relation to the community. Our bond is not our intention or vision but the Spirit who unites very different people, and fits them, with their gifts, together. Arnold doesn’t speak of leaders but elders who are servants of the word (and housemothers responsible for the women and their work–it appears there was for Arnold a real gender division in the communities). Arnold emphasizes how important is the heeding the leading of the Spirit in one’s speaking in the community. This is a community that practices discipline–“straight talking with love.” At the same time, life in community is always voluntary. If one wishes to leave, they may. All are expected to work, health permitting, according to their gift. Arnold considers marriage a sacrament to be enjoyed in unity and purity between man and woman. Life is to be revered, children welcomed. He denounces abortion. Singleness is also honored. He discusses the high value the Bruderhof place on education although his emphasis is one the formation of character through consistent discipline. The aim of education is to help children see Christ everywhere, in every field of study.

The final section concerns the commitment to peacemaking and non-violence. What is striking is that this commitment rules out work in government, which only makes sense for these self-sustaining communities. While not anti-government, the call is one of “hands off,” of no political involvement. I do wonder how, beyond personal service to humanity and in the order of Bruderhof communities, justice is pursued. What is clear from the final chapter is a deep call to identify with Christ’s sufferings in the suffering of humanity.

I certainly have not captured all the nuances of Arnold’s thought here. He offers bracing challenges to the comfortable traditional church, foremost of which is, do not the scriptures call us to this kind of life together? Nor do I know the extent to which this describes present day Bruderhof communities, although the description on their website sounds consonant with the teachings of Arnold. What is striking to me though is that Arnold thought and taught deeply about how the kingdom life should be lived out among God’s people, particularly around the issues of money and property, as well as the renunciation of violence in any form (including corporal punishment). He challenges all the excuses we make for why we don’t pursue this life. He reminds us of how radical it really can be to say, “I have decided to follow Jesus.”

____________________

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: What Jesus Intended

/ rtrube54 / 3 Comments

What Jesus Intended, Todd D. Hunter. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2023.

Summary: Written for those who have been disillusioned by the church and bad religion, offering hope that the rediscovery of Jesus and his aims can sustain and restore us.

The number of people who no longer identify with a church, even if they still identify as “Christian” is staggering. The last decade has been particularly disastrous with numerous sex and power abuse scandals and the embrace of partisan politics of the left and the right. It has become popular to use the post-modern language of deconstruction with regard to one’s faith. In some cases, those deconstructing have left Christianity altogether, often times for a personally designed eclectic and ethical spirituality. For others, this has led to a “reconstruction” centered on the teaching of Jesus, a renewal of a gospel centered faith focused around loving God and neighbor.

Similar to me, the author came to faith during the Jesus movement and all of the heady hopes of the 1970’s and 1980’s and finds himself looking back with the nagging question I’ve also struggled with: “Nothing in my generation has worked?” And the question for both of us is, “why have you remained a Christian?” Why don’t we deconstruct or just throw in the towel? In Hunter’s case, he saw plenty of what he calls “bad religion” as a leader in several church movements. He proposes that what brought him through the experience of bad religion was the good Jesus to whom he kept returning, and this made the Bible freshly compelling. He contends that this can bring his readers through to a reconstructed, vibrant faith as well.

The book is organized around questions that have been raised in focus groups Hunter hosted with those struggling with the disappointments and hurts they’ve experienced with the church:

  • Can I find faith again?
  • I am failing to connect to faith and church.
  • I’ve lost the religious plot line.
  • I feel pain, cynicism, and despair–where is Jesus?
  • What about all the bad things done in God’s name?
  • Can I trust the church to be an instrument of restoration?
  • How can I find vibrant faith?
  • Why is consistent spiritual growth so difficult?
  • Is there an authentic community of faith?
  • Do my religious reservations and churchly hesitations disqualify me?

Hunter’s encouragement as we consider these hard questions isn’t simply the facile Sunday School truism, “Jesus is the answer to all our questions and we should trust him.” What Hunter does is dig deeply into the identity, the story, the eternal life that empowers the church in caring mission, that finds its source in Jesus. He explores what it means to follow this Jesus, to repent of our own implicatedness in bad religion, and to recognize the oft-hidden goodness of Christ-followers quietly pursuing his kingdom aims.

The book does what it urges in offering exercises and prayers that direct us back to Jesus. While Hunter allows all our questions and objections about the bad religion we’ve seen and experienced to be aired, he also makes it unmistakeably clear that Jesus’s aim was to proclaim and inaugurate God’s kingdom and this involves an invitation to which we must give a response. He is both the destination of our journeys and the path, the way on which we may walk, if we will.

The one question I find myself left with is, if Jesus is so great, good, beautiful, and compelling, why are his people so rarely like him? Why does it seem like so many miss the point and exchange hs goodness for bad religion? How can so many read their Bibles regularly and miss Jesus? So many young people I know struggle with this. As Russell Moore has observed, it is not that many young people can’t or won’t believe in Jesus; it’s that the church doesn’t believe in Jesus, doesn’t believe its own gospel. Perhaps all we can do is come to Jesus saying, “I believe; help my unbelief.”

________________________________

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher.

Review: Prayer Revolution

/ rtrube54 / 3 Comments

Prayer Revolution, John Smed. Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2020.

Summary: A call to kingdom prayer movements based in houses of prayer through which Christ comes, the Holy Spirit advances, and renewal spreads in cities, nations, and globally.

I write this review amid a global pandemic with accelerating case numbers and deaths and in a nation in the middle of efforts to violently subvert the constitutionally governed processes of presidential succession. If ever there was a time for a prayer movement, it seems now would be a good time.

John Smed would agree. He believes we are in a world desperately in need of a prayer revolution, and having led prayer movements, he lays out in this book a biblical basis for prayer movements, how prayer movements break out and how they break through to bring renewal to church, city, and nation. Jesus is central to his focus as the risen King who comes to his people as they seek his kingdom in prayer. He writes as one who has prayed what he preaches. He writes:

Immersing myself in the prayer practices of Jesus, my prayer life changed. Praying like Jesus became a discipline and a habit. Like Jesus praying all night before choosing His disciples, before major decisions and crossroads, I take seasons and days of prayer. Our team does not make plans, we make prayer plans–meeting regularly for interactive times of prayer and planning. We have learned to face the ever-present onslaught of electronic noise and busyness by waiting on God.

Smed begins by laying a basis for kingdom prayer movements by talking about how the king comes as his people pray. The Lord’s prayer shows the Lord’s strategy for prayer–focused outward on kingdom advance rather than inwardly. He wants to work through “houses of prayer.”

This kind of prayer breaks out. The ascended Lord hears his people throughout the world as they gain a vision for renewal. This leads to advance through the work of the Spirit who empowers the church in multiplying ministry. That can scale to a global movement and to the renewal of our cities.

Ultimately, kingdom prayer breaks through. It brings national renewal and repentance from idols. In scripture it has sustained exiles, and those present day “political exiles.” Churches are revived and cities renewed.

Appended to this work is a ten step description of how to implement kingdom prayer, a prayer grid using the Lord’s prayer, and a prayer exercise that may be used for praying for nation or city. Also, the author includes stories of kingdom advance through prayer in history from the Moravian movement, the Welsh revival, the Fulton Street awakening, and the prayer movement in Cuba.

What is puzzling to me in our present moment is that there are professing Christians who have joined in violence, others who are making statements of all sorts. Most of us are just “doomscrolling” through endless stories on our phones that make us sadder or angrier. We are watching bodies stacking up massively while we argue with instead of submitting to sensible public health mandates. Where is our urgency in prayer? Where is repentance? Where is pleading for the peace of our cities and for the inbreaking of the just rule of Jesus?

Prayer Revolution is that call to prayer. It is a book that offers hope of what God may do and vision for how we as God’s people may pray. It’s a book for our time. Many times in history prayer movements break out in desperate times. And God hears. How desperate must things get before we pray?

____________________________

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

Review: Less of More

/ rtrube54 / 8 Comments

less is more

Less of More, Chris Nye. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2019.

Summary: Proposes that the American dream is making us miserable and that the vision of the kingdom turns the American dream upside down, leading us to a truly rich life.

Chris Nye proposes that the American dream is killing us. Visions of unlimited growth are pressing up against the operating limits of the only place where we can live. Depression and suicide among the young are rising. Our politics are mired in discord pitting groups who share a common citizenship against one another. Nye writes, “we never had more than we do now, and we’ve never been more depressed about it,”

Nye’s challenge in this book is the counter-cultural message of Jesus that we must lose our lives to save them. He contends that the American dreams of growth, self-sufficiency, fame, power, and wealth are gained at the cost of our souls. In chapters on each of these “dreams” he articulates the alternative the gospel of Jesus offers.

He speaks to our infatuation with growth, especially the infatuation among Christians with church growth and measuring goodness by bigness. He counters that the message of the gospel is one of “pace,” of keeping pace with God’s often slow but certain work of transformation. He challenges the hyper-individualism of our culture and the idea that we are more connected than ever with the reality that many are more isolated than ever. He observes the gospel alternative of the connectedness of the welcoming table. He contrasts the quest for fame and gaining a name for oneself with the practice of hiddenness and the downward journey exemplified by Henri Nouwen and Jean Vanier at the L’Arch Communities.

The culture defines greatness in terms of power. Nye proposes the humble and vulnerable community, where we reveal rather than hide weakness, and stoop to serve and protect each other. Finally we define ourselves by how much we are worth, by the wealth we have accumulated. Nye invites us to discover that while saving might feel good, giving feels great.

Nye concludes with a pointed challenge. Despite dreams of American greatness, history tells us that the American Epoch will end, the Empire will fall. Christian hope has survived the fall of every empire and challenges us to consider to which we have given our allegiance. He writes, “To follow Jesus is to follow him out of America and into the kingdom of God, from our own weak, man-made houses and into the mansions he has built that await us.”

I wouldn’t be surprised that there is pushback to this book (and perhaps this review). We want both the American dream and to have Jesus to as our eternal insurance policy. It seems to me that Nye is on good ground here in arguing that these are diametrically opposed to one another and that we can’t have both. Jesus himself said that we can’t have two masters, and the truth is that both the American dream and the call of the kingdom of God are a call to serve a master. But Nye goes further. He names the things that make are making us miserable, and the alternative life of the kingdom that restores wholeness. Nye diagnoses our American sickness. The question is whether we will recognize our dis-ease, and what can make us well.

________________________________

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

 

 

Review: Surprised by Paradox

/ rtrube54 / 1 Comment

surprised by paradox

Surprised by Paradox, Jen Pollock Michel. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2019.

Summary: In a world where things are often defined in either-or terms and a quest for certainty, Michel proposes there are many things, beginning with basic biblical realities that are both-and, inviting our continuing curiosity.

Whether it is schism in the church, political divides, or just a good old marital conflict, the parties often have defined things sharply in either-or terms, one way or another. Jen Pollock Michel explains how she began to look for a third way, and to write this book. A family member had been lying to her, repeatedly. She described her dilemma to her counselor.

“…I needed light for groping my way out of this tunnel with two exits: should I suffer lying or sever the relationship?

‘What if there’s a third way?’ she asked gently. Her language sounded like a struck bell, especially because ‘third way’ language was something my spiritual director often used with me. It was as if here was yet another invitation to find a sure-footed way on some undiscovered path–to find and where I had previously imagined only either and or. Here was an invitation to ‘lean not on my own understanding’ and find wisdom in the way of paradox” (pp. 22-23).

She discovered that paradox ran through the pages of scripture, that Christian orthodoxy is full of and, beginning with the incarnation, this idea that the Son of God came to earth, fully God, and also fully human. If paradox is at the heart of the nature of the Lord we trust and follow, might we look for God in the and, rather than insisting on answers to either-or questions. This paradox also suggests that we find the spiritual in the material, the living God in the stuff of everyday life. It also suggests that to conform to God’s ideal for our lives, is to live fully the “one wild and precious life” that is ours, expressing in our own uniqueness, the image of God in our lives.

She goes on to explore three other paradoxes. There is the paradox of the kingdom, which is already here and not fully come, where the least are the greatest, where we both give lavishly and enjoy lavishly what we are given, and where strength takes the form of vulnerability whose crowning hour is the cross. Grace confronts us with other paradoxes. Treasured, yet not for any personal excellency. Finding favor when the wrath we deserved falls upon his favored Son. Michel writes, “We don’t get grace because we change our lives–but our lives are indelibly changed because we get grace. Finally there is lament, the raw, unvarnished plea to God of people in pain that God has not shielded them from, that is a paradoxical kind of faith. It takes God seriously enough to become angry, to speak with blunt honesty rather than pretty pieties when what has happened in one’s life doesn’t square with our understanding of who God is.

Michel is a compelling author, one who can relate the depths of theology to teaching her daughter to drive, and her need for grace. She weaves scripture, teaching of the theological “greats,” contemporary realities, images, and personal stories into a narrative that sings and helps us examine with fresh eyes what we thought we knew down pat, helping us by asking, “did you notice this and this?”

A friend once observed that when we try to get rid of the tensions in our faith, or our lives by getting rid of one side of the tension to focus on the other, we make life simpler, but also smaller and more confined. Jen Pollock Michel invites us to live with paradoxes, and to celebrate the ands of God. She proposes that this opens us up to mystery, to surprise, and to the depth of the riches of knowing our God and what it means to live in the and of his purposes, to experience how grace transforms our work, and how our laments in all their perplexity may be among the most robust acts of faith. What might this “third way” mean as Christians are present to a world mired in “either-or?”

________________________________

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.