The Month in Reviews: February 2015

March 3, 2015March 3, 2015 / rtrube54 / Leave a comment

February is always a short month. It was also a “full court press” month in my work with travel and several major events. Somehow I managed to finish nine books this month ranging from another John Scalzi novel to The Bully Pulpit to a fascinating book on the value of vulnerability and a thought-provoking treatment on the idea of revelation (not the book but the concept) by a young Catholic theologian. Here’s the list with links to the full reviews:

1. Paul and Judaism Revisited: A Study of Divine and Human Agency in Salvation by Preston Sprinkle. Sprinkle thinks a more nuanced view is needed of the continuity between Judaism and Paul than is proposed by “New Perspective” theologians.

2. The Bully Pulpit by Doris Kearns Goodwin. A magnificent work that introduced me to the lesser know figures of William Taft and the muckraking journalists like Ida Tarbell who set a high bar for investigative journalism. Of course, there was also a fascinating portrait of Teddy Roosevelt, as well as the complicated relationship between him and Taft.

3. Daring Greatly by Brene’ Brown. Brown explores how the courage to be vulnerable leads us to personal wholeness, human connection, better parenting, and more effective organizational life.

4. 30 Events that Shaped the Church by Alton Gansky. Gansky gives us a highly readable narrative of key events throughout church history. I would have wished for more from outside the western world and more about the African-American church’s contribution, particularly around civil rights.

5. Engaging the Doctrine of Revelation: The Mediation of the Gospel Through Church and Scripture by Matthew Levering. Levering is a Catholic theologian publishing with an evangelical publisher who both upholds a high view of the inspiration and authority of the Bible while also arguing for the important role of the church in its councils, liturgy and leadership for mediating a clear and unified understanding of that revelation.

6. Essential Eschatology: Our Present and Future Hope by John E. Phelen, Jr. Hope is a theme of this book that explores how our future hope may shape our present lives.

7. The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi. The second in “The Old Man’s War” series which explores the ethical landscape of enhanced human clones grown specifically to become Special Forces troops in the midst of a riveting plot.

8. Protege’: Developing Your Next Generation of Church Leaders by Steve Saccone with Cheri Saccone. The Saccones outline five key elements of their leadership development work: Character, Relationships, Communication, Mission, and Entrepreneurial Leadership.

9. Shepherding God’s Flock: Biblical Leadership in the New Testament and Beyond edited by Benjamin Merkle and Thomas Schreiner. The contributors to this volume do just what the title proposes, albeit from a common, shared Southern Baptist perspective.

I thought this month I might start including my “best book” recommendation, and “best quote” simply for your enjoyment!

Best Book: Hands down, it had to be The Bully Pulpit for its exploration of presidential influence, the role of the press, and the fascinating portraits of Roosevelt, Taft, and the muckraking team of journalists that gathered around McClures.

Best quote: Consistent with my best book recommendation, but cited from Daring Greatly is this quote from Theodore Roosevelt in a speech at the Sorbonne in 1910:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

Previews for March: A collection of essays on Christian political witness, a book exploring the future of higher education, a mystery by Michael Innes, a narrative on the rise of Amazon, and her founder, Jeff Bezos, and the place of paradox in our spiritual journey.

All “The Month in Reviews” post may be accessed from “The Month in Reviews” category on my home page. And if you don’t want to wait a month to see my reviews, consider following the blog for reviews as well as thoughts on reading, the world of books, and life.

Review: Shepherding God’s Flock

March 2, 2015March 2, 2015 / rtrube54 / 2 Comments

I’ve always found it interesting that scripture likens the people of God to a flock of sheep. Sheep are defenseless, are not very intelligent and easily panicked. If well-cared for by shepherds who protect, nourish, and do not abuse them, they turn grass into massive quantities of wool. I could spend time on the ways God’s people are like sheep, but for the purpose of this review, the more important question is how those who lead God’s people are to be like shepherds. Indeed, the term pastor is derived from a term meaning “shepherd”.

This book, edited by Benjamin Merkle and Thomas Schreiner, is a collection of articles exploring this question, considering not only the character of those who “shepherd” God’s flock but also the structures of leadership that most closely reflect biblical teaching. And it is here that I should give a caveat. It is not apparent either on the cover material or in descriptions of this book, that it is written from a Southern Baptist perspective. All the contributors are either theologians or pastors associated with Southern Baptist institutions and so the book reflects the polity and theological convictions of the Convention, although advocating strongly for plural eldership, which is not necessarily the practice of many Southern Baptist churches which have a single pastor-elder. In particular, all teaching roles are limited to men, while diaconal roles which do not involve teaching are also open to women.

Given that, the contributors nevertheless provide an accessible account of biblical teaching and subsequent church practice around leadership. Whether one agrees with the perspective of the contributors or not, there is much of worth in this volume. It begins by exploring the question of the degree to which the church derived its leadership structures from the synagogue structure of Judaism. While noting the carry-over of elders, it argues that the church usage focuses on spiritual rather than a larger civic role. The next three chapters explore the New Testament teaching on leadership. Particularly in Acts and the Epistles, it argues that the terms “bishop” (or overseer), “elder”, and “pastor” all refer to the same person, where elder is the office and pastor and overseer describe the functions of this office. It also notes the precursor to the diaconal role in Acts 6 and the teaching on deacons in the pastorals. And these also substantiate the local rule of congregations with a connectional association, particularly with the Jerusalem church.

Two succeeding chapters provide a history of the papacy, that while not favoring this structure, was more descriptive than critical. Similar treatments follow of Presbyterian, and Anglican forms of church government, each with some critique at the end of the chapters. Then the case is made for the Baptist form of church government, allowing that plural teaching (but not ruling) elders best conforms to scripture, that congregational rule is most biblical, and against any church hierarchy. Bruce Ware then gives a summary theology of church leadership from this perspective followed by a pastoral exhortation by Andrew Davis on the practice of church leadership in today’s world.

I found the book helpful for its review of the biblical material and its discussion of church leadership vis a vis the Jewish context out of which the church sprang. The review of leadership through church history was informative and much of the material on the contemporary practice of leadership challenging to live up to, regardless of the context in which one practices leadership–particularly the emphasis on being scripturally informed, patient and yet bold in leadership, and protecting God’s flock against attack. This all is a healthy corrective to the excessive attention to business models of leadership given in many church leadership texts.

I do not think the contributors adequately dealt with the argument that church leadership structures were still in formative stages during the period when the New Testament texts were written, or the contention that things written to particular local situations are prescriptive for all time. Nor do they deal with how structures beyond the local congregation played a critical role in articulating and regulating orthodoxy and orthopraxy throughout the church.

This book will be most helpful for those from Baptist-related polities or those who wish to better understand Baptist theology and practice around church leadership. Others can profit from the biblical and historical discussions keeping in mind the bias of the contributors.

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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. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Review: Contagious Disciple Making: Leading Others on a Journey of Discovery

January 26, 2015 / rtrube54 / 1 Comment

The main idea of “contagious disciple making” is both simple to summarize and presents a real challenge to the contemporary church. It is to model and encourage trusting obedience to Christ as we discover his will in scripture, and to share these discoveries with others. This simple and compelling idea is a breath of fresh air for a Western church long on talk and short on obedience.

The authors (father and son) have been involved in church-planting movements throughout the world resulting in thousands of churches being planted under indigenous leadership in each country. This was not always the case and the first part of the book recounts the “re-thinking” that took place for them in moving from attempting to plant churches that conformed to Western ideals to launching Disciple-Making Movements. They argue, to begin with, that the task of church planters is not to contextualize the gospel but to “deculturalize” it–to help people discover the message without Western cultural or denominational accretions.

What is crucial is simply building relationships within the appropriate structures, often family or tribal or village, where one can lead people in discovering for themselves from the Bible the basic message of the gospel, and even as they are learning it and beginning to act on it, to share it with others. Even before becoming disciples, proto-disciples are making disciples. From the start, and at every phase, an emphasis on obeying what one discovers, and inviting others to discover and obey is central.

The disciple-maker facilitates discovery and encourages obedience. This is so different from a teacher-student model that focuses around transfer of knowledge. Instead of creating perpetual learners, disciples quickly learn to become disciple-makers themselves and continue to perpetuate this with those they lead in discovery. The approach is one that respects and holds up the priesthood of all believers rather than a cult of experts.

The second part of the book explores practices around this core mindset that have proven important to these movements. Parts of this reiterate the focus on disciple-making from the first part and seem repetitive at times. But the authors also cover the importance of prayer movements, the nature of discovery groups, how churches are established out of these, and the development of leadership through mentoring that concentrates not simply on action but also character.

I found two sections particularly thought-provoking. One, concerning engaging lost people, talked about identifying the “silos” in which they live — the different affinity groups by family, village, or interest that bring people together. Rather than seek to “extract” people from this group, the Watsons advocate disciple-making within these groups so that families, villages or significant parts of affinity groups come to faith, rather than isolating a single convert from the former “silo” of which they were a part.

The other section concerned finding the “person of peace” in this silo, the person sufficiently spiritually receptive to host the disciple-maker as they form discovery groups. They recommend not attempting to plant in a particular “silo” without having the support of such a person.

There was much that I found to be refreshingly helpful. I work in university ministry that incorporates much of what these authors recommend, building groups around discovering what it means to follow Jesus in scripture, defining leadership in terms of those who are making disciples with others, doing all this in a context of prayer, and even thinking about the different “silos” on a university campus.

At the same time, I found myself wrestling with a tacit anti-intellectual, anti-theological emphasis that focused on the Bible and nothing but the Bible. I’ve seen too many unorthodox movements that are able to appeal to the Bible to say that relying on people’s personal discoveries from scripture to counter false teaching.

Also there is the question of Christian witness and discipleship in centers of learning and culture. While it is true that unlearned disciples who had been with Jesus confounded the religious elites of their day (which underscores the priority of trusting and obeying Christ!) I would contend for the value of coupling that devotion with the development of a Christian mind that is both theologically acute and culturally astute for engaging these culture-shapers. Just as a willingness to learn gaming is important to reaching a “gamer” silo (an example used by the authors), this intellectual work, which underlines the value of the theological enterprise and the intellectual work Christians are doing in many fields, should be encouraged for those engaging the intellectual world.

Yet the authors’ challenge to churches long on words and experiences and short on consistent obedience is one that needs to be heard. The authors contend that “A church that condones disobedience to God’s laws cannot stay a church. A church that does not practice grace and mercy cannot stay a church” (p. 159). Any of us seeking to plant or develop a ministry or church do well to heed this.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookLook Bloggers book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

If God is With Us…

June 24, 2014 / rtrube54 / 1 Comment

The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph’s care, because the Lord was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did. (Genesis 39:23, NIV).

In the faculty conference I have been writing about in this week’s posts we have daily Bible studies on the life of Joseph in Genesis. In the conference we have been wrestling with some of the big challenges facing higher education in this present time and what Christians working in this arena can do to contribute to the flourishing of the educational institutions at which we work. There are no simple answers! But one thing a number of us have reflected on is what does it mean for God to be with us in our work?

What this doesn’t mean is that we are trying to Christianize the places we work. Joseph didn’t do that in Egypt. Eventually, because of God’s presence and gifting, he advises Pharoah about how to prepare his nation to weather an extended famine, the nation, ironically, that would eventually enslave his people. While he is in prison, he is helping a system run smoothly that supports a capricious justice system. He brings efficiency to the prison, and perhaps better conditions, and saves many lives in Egypt including his own family through his work with Pharoah.

Perhaps that is what it means to have God with us in our work in the university. It may not be a matter of creating the “ultimate” solution to the big challenges, but it is a matter of experiencing the enabling of God to know and do the right things in the particular places of God calls us to. One of our speakers observed that every single faculty in the room had some sphere of influence, all of them are leaders.

Furthermore, the presence of God suggests that often our God enabled work will bring tangible benefit that is noticeable to even those who do not share our belief. I know people whose integrity has led to their being given deanships or chairs because people recognize an intangible “something” that makes them trustworthy–the person who will do the work in a way that leads to flourishing.

It seems the big question for the person of faith, whether we work in a university or at a McDonald’s, is will I believe in the presence of God with me and be open to what that could mean in bringing blessing and flourishing to my context?

Review: Resilient Ministry: What Pastors Told Us About Surviving and Thriving

February 16, 2014February 16, 2014 / rtrube54 / 1 Comment

Resilient Ministry: What Pastors Told Us About Surviving and Thriving by Bob Burns
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I’ve watched pastors burn out and drop out. While it is a privilege to shepherd God’s people, it is also just plain hard and demanding work. You don’t do pastoral work, you are a pastor. In some sense, you are always on. The project of this book is to explore what is necessary for pastors to burn on, not burn out. And it is pastors in fact who developed the content of this book as part of a Lilly research project in which pastors were gathered in Summits that explored the keys to sustaining pastoral excellence. Out of these summits five key factors emerged:

1. Spiritual formation: resisting the temptation of workaholism by building rituals, maintaining accountability, growing through hardship, and practicing spiritual disciplines.

2. Self-care: resisting the pressures of work and fostering spiritual growth, emotional self-awareness, relational depth (particularly helpful here was identifying who can pastors share with), and intellectual and physical self-care. Self-care, the authors point out can actually be self-denial as one refuses to heed the siren calls of ministry to tend to the self in a way where you are able to bring the best to those you serve.

3. Emotional and cultural intelligence. Does one understand one’s own emotions and is one aware of the emotions others are manifesting? Likewise, they explore how we all work out of a cultural context and a growing awareness of both one’s own cultural identity and the cultural differences we encounter among those we minister is critical to ministry success in a culturally diverse world.

4. Healthy marriage and family life. Normal life stresses marriages. The ministry lifestyle means one may never feel off the clock and spouse and children get the leftovers or are often the dumping ground for pressures of ministry. Sometimes this may lead to conflicting loyalties or even abandonment of one’s family to ministry. There is the question of who ministers to the spouse. There were a number of practical recommendations in this section ranging from setting aside intentional time together and pursuing shared hobbies to annual marriage “check-ups” with a therapist.

5. Leadership and Management. The authors described leadership as “poetry”, that which captures the imaginations and has systems in place to channel the energies of people. Administration is “plumbing”–modeling, shepherding, managing expectations, supervising conflict, and planning.

The book concludes that it isn’t enough to have summits that recognize these themes or even to make resolves to change. Negotiating these changes with spouses and church leadership and finding continuing support from cohort participants is necessary to consolidate these insights. It seems to me that this may be the most critical insight in terms of pastoral transformation in the whole book.

The book includes appendices with various tools, the most helpful of which may be the emotions checklist, which helps one give a name to the emotions one feels (especially helpful for men). I would recommend this book as a resource to pastors, others in ministry, and to church or ministry leadership, who need to understand the stressors and key factors to pastoral success in order to support their pastors.

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Review: Entrepreneurial Leadership: Finding Your Calling, Making a Difference

January 7, 2014January 7, 2014 / rtrube54 / Leave a comment

Entrepreneurial Leadership: Finding Your Calling, Making a Difference by Richard J Goossen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book fills a void in publishing from a Christian perspective on entrepreneurship. Richard Goossen leads the Entrepreneurial Leaders Organization and R Paul Stevens is a seminary professor who was both worked in the marketplace and thought and written deeply in the area of the theology and practice of work. The book is based on research from the Entrepreneurial Leaders Research Project and so combines good empirical evidence and theological acuity.

The book begins with chapters on entrepreneurship and leadership and contrast Christian and humanist models, focusing on the difference that sourcing such leadership in God rather than oneself makes. Following this are chapters on soul and spirituality in the workplace, meaning and work ethic, risk and reward and a chapter on finding your calling that provides a very helpful rubric for discerning calling.

The latter part of the book focuses heavily on principles for practicing and sustaining entrepreneurial leadership. One of the most illuminating sections for me was the section on dealing with betrayal. Rarely do I hear this talked about and yet I’ve known a number of people who were deeply wounded by personal betrayals in the workplace.

They finish with a chapter on making a difference that has a challenging section on entrepreneurs and the church. They found (as have I) that churches neither know what to do with entrepreneurs (other than ask them for money!) nor do they often support and affirm their calling and provide theological teaching that equips them for Christian service in the marketplace.

This is a travesty. The authors observe at one point that it may well be the case that the marketplace will be one of our main fields of mission in the twenty-first century. Woe to us if we fail to see beyond our church walls to these ripe fields! Hopefully this work, and others that I hope will follow will change the church’s posture toward these gifted people who are also pursuing the call of God.

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