Diane Langberg, When the Church Harms God’s People
I really appreciated Diane Langberg’s book, When the Church Harms God’s People. Sadly, her book is very needed. Here are a few of my favorite quotes:
The body of Christ is called to be like Christ as individuals and as a gathered body of those who are one with him. Anything that does not look like Christ is not the church, even if it purports to be… We, the body of Christ, are called to follow our Head, be like our Head, carrying his light and truth into the world. Outward success, fame, wealth, and large numbers are not the fruit our Lord demonstrated during his earthly ministry. God’s purpose is to create a living body in which God is over and within each of its members as well as its corporate life.
Ministry growth, fame, and money are often taken as proof of God’s presence and work. But if that is true, then Jesus was an abject failure. He who had ultimate power and riches laid them aside. He did not grab onto them. He did not pursue them. They did not govern him. Proof of the presence of God is not found in the accoutrements of power and fame. It is found in likeness to his character.
If you want to be a shepherd/leader who honors God, the first thing you must know is that limitation is required for expansion. Incarnational leadership follows the opposite course of human leadership. Incarnational leadership descends from heaven to earth; it goes from up to down, from expansive to limited, from broad to narrow.
The infinite gathered himself up into a womb. All-Glory laid himself down in a barn. All-Power became a toddler. All-Love was slain. Such limitation is inconceivable to us. We think of limitation as an obstacle to overcome. We fight tiredness, sickness, and slowness. We believe that if we had more time, more energy, more ability, and more money, we could increase the good we want to accomplish. He, who never grows weary, knew tiredness. He, who is infinite and eternal, submitted to the clock. He, who is perfect, bore our sin and our sicknesses. Our God limited himself on all these fronts and more, and the resulting expansion is mind-boggling.
You want to live and work in the name of Jesus? If you want to lead the people of God in a way that expands his work and protects his honor, then you must do so by way of limitation. Restriction is foundational. There must be restriction of the tongue, the desires, the abilities, and the opinions of the self. There must be limitation of your way, your time frame, your speed, and your preference. There must be a limiting of the good, including your mental capacity, energy level, and powers of speech. If you want to lead, you must make yourself like those who are following. You must know their pace, their thoughts, their fears, and their needs.
We have erected beautiful buildings devoted to worship all over the world. We have created stunning music. We have raised up theology schools and trained theologians. Such things are not inherently wrong. But these things are not the church. A1ll these things can be externally beautiful yet become a den of thieves.To all of you who are shepherds: Your goal is not to preserve a church or human organization. Your goal is to serve your Lord and Shepherd, Jesus Christ.
Institutions, organizations, ministries, places, systems, and leaders may be part of Christendom, but that does not necessarily mean they reflect the ways of Jesus Christ. Nor is Christendom even the same as the living body of Christ; institutions and leaders can look Christian on the outside but be far away from Christ on the inside.
Church leaders and their followers often point to popularity, number of congregants, growing bank accounts, and particular political views as signs of God’s presence and blessing. None of these are listed in Scripture as signs of Christlikeness.
We often tend to select leaders in the Christian world according to their gifts rather than their character. We are often drawn to leaders whose intelligence, oratory, and social facility overshadow a weakness of character. When a leader is particularly gifted verbally, has a charismatic personality, and is adept with using spiritual language, it is easy to assume maturity and obedience to God. We see gifts and assume the leader’s character matches the image they project. Sadly, there have been charismatic leaders in the Christian world who achieved power and status because of their capacity for public speaking, vision casting, and entrepreneurial capabilities but had hidden character flaws such as lack of integrity or egotistical narcissism. We have watched thriving institutions crumble upon the discovery of ungodly leadership. Spiritual maturity is measured by character, by the fruit of the Spirit of God in a life.
Jonathan Tepper, Shooting Up (a book review)
Jonathan Tepper, Shooting Up: A Memoir of Love, Loss and Addiction,
Author Background
Jonathan Tepper seems like a rather amazing and interesting individual. He grew up as a missionary kid among drug addicts. And yet received the Rhodes Scholarship, which is extremely difficult to get. It is one of the most prestigious and competitive awards, and requires exceptional academic achievement, but also outstanding leadership, character, and commitment to serve others. He earned an M.Litt. in Modern History from the University of Oxford. He is now the Chief Investment Officer of Prevatt Capital.
In addition to the book we’re reviewing, he wrote The Myth of Capitalism, which was ranked as one of the Best Books of 2018 in Economics by the Financial Times. Tepper does not mean that capitalism does not exist, but that monopolies ruin the benefits of capitalism. This is true in regard to large-scale markets as well as the local scale of your internet provider. We need a recovery and appropriate enforcement of antitrust laws to protect consumers and competition itself. So, part of the financial problem many families face is not a problem of capitalism but competition. Much of the apparent competition is an illusion. All the while, companies with a monopoly pay what they want and price how they want. The monopoly wins, and competition and the average American lose.
Introduction
Shooting Up tells the story of the author growing up in a drug slum in Spain, where his missionary parents sacrificially loved and cared for heroin addicts. This eventually led to the founding of a groundbreaking drug rehabilitation center. It tells the true tale of care and dedication in the midst of destructive addiction. It recounts one family’s real and gritty love for the forgotten and left behind. It’s honest about the harsh realities of the world and the questions and struggles life brings.
If God could part the Red Sea and multiply loaves and fish, why didn’t God heal His faithful followers dying of AIDS? “Jesus healed the lepers and raised the dead. He spat into the mud and rubbed it into the blind man’s eyes to heal him. But the Bible stories all seemed like a sick joke when the men and women in the center were dying with no healing in sight.” (p. 203)
Here’s my own set of questions: “If Jesus loves the little children so much, then why did Ollie, Paige, MarieAnne, Torry, Terrance, and others need to die? If Jesus brings transformation, why did Mike steal Christmas presents from his kids to buy drugs‽”
I’ve always thought addiction is a microcosm of the sinful world we inhabit. It highlights the effects of sin in high definition and accelerated form. Shooting Up is an honest account of addiction, recovery, and loss seen through the eyes of a young boy coming to grips with the rugged realities we call life. “Shooting Up is a quietly devastating coming-of-age memoir that is as unsettling as it is unforgettable—a haunting exploration of belief, belonging, and the costs of sacrifice.”
The author graciously shared a free copy for me to review. I was immediately interested based on my experience with my heroin addict friends.
Insights and Impact
Overall, I appreciated the real-life story with real-life struggles and wrestling. It reflects the harsh realities we face in life. I also felt compelled to a real, gritty, in-the-trenches with people love. Love like Jesus’ love—Light going into darkness, the Pure entering putrid. Of course, that’s not the full reality. For when we truly enter into others’ lives, we see how alike we are to them, no matter what we thought before. We see our humanity is their humanity.
Four specific lessons stuck out to me…
1) Incarnation is real and painful.
In the house, there was a plaque with a quote from C. T Studd: “Some want to live within the sound of church or chapel bell; I want to run a rescue shop, within a yard of hell.” (p. 6) That’s what the Tepper family did. And in doing so, they imitated our Lord Jesus. Jesus had said, “As the Father has sent me, even so, in the same way, I am sending you.” The Tepper family listened and incarnated themselves into a diffrent people and culture.
In the incarnation, God entered flesh. “Carnal” often has bad connotations. Yet, Jesus became in-carnate—in flesh. Jesus is God with boots on, well, sandals. If Jesus were walking our streets today, He would be talking and making disciples of junkies.
Or as Bono from U2 said, “If Jesus were on earth you’d find him in a gay bar in San Francisco. He’d be working with people suffering from AIDS. These people are the new lepers. If you want to find out where Jesus would be hanging outit’ll be with the lepers.” (Alan Hirsch and Michael Frost, The Shaping of Things to Come, p. 44).
Sadly, very often we as Christians are ex-carnational. We have a come and see mentality that makes those who don’t know Jesus cross borders—whatever those borders are—and be missionaries themselves. That, however, was not the case with the Tepper family. They infleshed the gospel.
The Bible is honest about the brutality of the incarnation. Jesus took on flesh, and His flesh was bruised and battered, and He Himself was tempted (Heb. 4:15). Jesus, the Light, plummeted into our darkness, and the devil threw his worst at Him. When we serve and incarnate ourselves, we should expect no less.
One of the difficult things about ministry, however, is that the whole family is often swallowed up by it. Missionary kids and pastor kids don’t necessarily choose ministry, but they’re still stuck in the thick of it.
“If your parents are engineers, plumbers, or lawyers, it doesn’t matter one bit to your life, but if your parents are missionaries, it changes everything. You can’t pick your parents, but they get to pick your life. They decide where you’ll live, when you’ll pack your bags and go, and you’ll get roped into their work saving the lost.” (p. 9)
2) After repairs, there are still scars.
There’s a theme of repairing what is broken throughout the book. Repairing furniture, cleaning up buildings, and helping addicts. One of the things the drug rehabilitation center did to stay afloat financially was a furniture repair shop. “When the used or abandoned furniture entered through the doorway, the pieces came in with scrapes and dents, disfigured by years of neglect and abuse. The former owners had been unkind to the dressers, wardrobes, and desks. The handles were missing, the mirrors cracked and shattered, and often layers of faded paint covered what had once been solid oak.” (p. 70)
The men “took the furniture apart piece by piece, revealing stains and scratches in the wood, and peeling off all the old coats of paint.” (p. 70) “They loved taking something others thought was rubbish, cleaning it, caring for it and transforming into something new with sandpaper, varnish and care.” (p. 37) Maybe the men saw something in the funiture that resembled themselves.
“As a child,” the author shared, “I believed that no matter how broken and scarred by scrapes the pieces were when they entered the shop, they could always be restored. Now, though, I saw that although the scratches and scars grew fainter, they were never gone. The woodworm remained hidden, but the ravages of time could never fully be reversed. How easily we are damaged, and how hard to put back together.” (p. 180)
The Apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:17 that if anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation; the old has gone, behold, all things are new. But he also said “before transformed by the renewal of your mind” and that we “are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another” (2 Cor. 3:18). Transformation takes time, and scars remain. It’s true of furniture, and it’s true of each of us in this life.
3) There are blessings and perils to education.
The Tepper family clearly valued education, but there are particular perils to education. The author shares that he couldn’t decide on many things about his life, but with his books and encyclopedias, his mind was free to roam where it wanted. “Books could fit in any backpack, yet they contained entire worlds. They were my magic carpet to change reality and take me wherever I wanted.”
“Books filled every corner of our small apartment. My parents had made a study with bookcases that lined the walls from the floor to the ceiling, as my father had when he was growing up. Books were stacked randomly in piles on the carpet like stalagmites. My parents said books had the power to transport and transform you.” (p. 9)
Education can be a blessing but also baffling. The author quotes Solomon: “For in much wisdom is much grief; and he that increases knowledge increases sorrow” (Eccl. 1:18). “Education can be a bittersweet experience. For all the joy of discovery, sometimes I wished I were a house painter and had skipped school when I was twelve. I would know how to read, but I might not be troubled by questions of belief. (p. 202)
4) Beauty will break forth from the brokenness.
Very tragically, the author’s mother got a brain tumor. After her surgery, she was not the same. She took her own life in 2012. She jumped from the rooftop of the drug rehab headquarters.
“With the added perspective of time, death has made me aware of the preciousness of life, the importance of family and friends, and the overwhelming power of love and memory.” The author goes on to share, “Shattering tragedies have marked my life, but I was always surrounded by a loving family and community. True misfortune and trauma are for those who suffer and are not surrounded by love.” (p. 266)
Yet, in reading the book, a question replayed in my mind. Why, if God is good, is there suffering? More than that, why doesn’t God protect His own faithful servants from suicide? There are many questions beyond my understanding, but I know God is love. And soon sin, and its chorus of chaos will end, and new creation will resound.
As the author said, “My mother suffered a great deal, and now she is suffering no more. I hope people will remember what a wonderful woman she was all her life. I never met a kinder, gentler, more selfless person.” (p. 264)
As Julian of Norwich said, and as is quoted in the book,
All shall be well and
All manner of things shall be well.
That is the Christian hope. We can minister in the dark because the light has come, and soon it will totally overwhelm the darkness.
Favorite Quotes
Suffering itself is meaningless. It is our response to it that gives it meaning, and it is not an easy task to thread the needle of suffering. The answer to suffering is always more love. We can love those who are hurting, and when we are grieving, we can treasure and remember those who have passed.(p. 266)
I could come home in the years ahead, but it would never truly be the same. You cannot turn back the days to the hours of youth and health. Home is not even a place; it is a fleeting state of mind—of innocence—you can never go back to. You can never truly go home. (p. 224)
Why was it that some Christians took parts of the Bible so literally—the seven-day creation, the flood, and the endless genealogies— yet viewed the Sermon on the Mount with its call to meekness, kindness, and love, and the Ten Commandments, as mere suggestions? (p. 117-18)
Suffering itself is meaningless. It is our response to it that gives it meaning, and it is not an easy task to thread the needle of suffering. The answer to suffering is always more love. We can love those who are hurting, and when we are grieving, we can treasure and remember those who have passed. (p. 266)
Every great love story will eventually become one of loss. If we do not love, we will not suffer. We cannot have it any other way. (p. 266)
Hate destroys you, but love transforms us and the world around us. (p. 69)
My mother and father had reason to be proud of all they accomplished over the decades, but not because of the size of the building or the numbers of addicts in the centers. My parents did not set out to create a large organization, seek political influence, or fight any culture wars. They set out to show compassion to one addict at a time. (p. 262)
What a vast gap between knowledge and wisdom! I was no more responsible for my odd, schizophrenic childhood than they were for their normal ones, yet I placed the burden upon them to understand me. It is easier to blame others than to accept our shortcomings and grow. And so I retreated further into my shell. (p. 224)
If only my parents had not taught me how to think, I would not have had the tools to take my own beliefs apart piece by piece and to saw off the branch I was sitting on. (p. 202)
“Thank you, Lord, that while we were stealing from the slot machines last night you didn’t let the police catch us. Thank you, God, for looking after your sheep. Amen.” (p. 39)
Some Christians were the worst possible advertisements for Christianity. (p. 117)
David shared a room with Timmy, and I bunked with Peter, who was only one year, two months, and one day younger than me. But my parents’ books had a room all to themselves. (p. 10)
Quotes and Takeaways from Christian Smith’s Book, Why Religion Went Obsolete
Christian Smith’s book, Why Religion Went Obsolete, is a sobering wake-up call. We would be wise to consider his well-researched work. And wake up to reality and make adjustments to meet the challenges ahead as best we can.
Smith[1] contends that a profound and multifaceted cultural shift has made traditional American religion increasingly irrelevant and unattractive. He argues that “Religion has not merely declined; it has become culturally obsolete.”[2] The irrelevance of religion is different than just decline or secularization. Instead, Smith basically summarizes the problem this way: “The vibes are off.”[3]
The cultural air we breathe essentially contains pollutants that subtly shape people. It makes them not care about or have time or attention for religion. We may not like it, but we can’t change reality by ignoring it. But it’s not just the surrounding culture that is at fault for the decline. The church itself is liable. One of Christian Smith’s chapter titles is fittingly, “Religious Self-Destructions.”
Many Christian leaders don’t realize the extent of what’s going on. Or they would rather stay the course, doing more of the same. Yet, if we continue on this course, we will get more of the same but with increasingly less successful results. If Christian leaders don’t make the necessary changes, they will burn up and burn out. They will think the answer is more—more of everything and better everything. But that’s not the answer. If we understand the problem incorrectly, we will not be able to come up with the correct solution, and we will be weary and discouraged.
Imagine someone buys a brand-new electric car. But when it starts acting up, they open the hood and start looking for the carburetor. They look around for spark plugs and try to change the oil. They’re frustrated because they don’t know what to do, and nothing looks familiar. But they just keep trying to do the same old thing.
What’s the problem? They’re treating an electric car like it’s a gas-powered one. Same idea on the outside—four wheels, steering wheel, gets you from point A to B—but a completely different system under the hood. We assume what worked before will work again, without realizing the “engine” has changed. We can’t keep using gas tools on electric systems.
We aren’t in Christendom anymore. Christians are speaking a dying language. Church buildings and institutions are increasingly seen as out of touch. Increasingly, America resembles Europe and the culture of Rome at the time of the early church.
What’s the solution?[4] Christian Smith suggests getting down to the core. What are Jesus’ followers trying to do and why? What are the essential core traditions, identities, and missions—without which we would not exist—versus cultural positions that may seem non-negotiable but are actually liabilities? We can’t scramble to just try to keep the status quo intact. A whole new paradigm is needed.[5]
10 Quotes from Why Religion Went Obsolete
“Traditional religion has been losing ground among Americans, especially younger ones, no matter how you measure it: affiliation, practices, beliefs, identities, number of congregations, and confidence in religious organizations have all been declining” (p. 34).
“American religion’s demise has not been due to its farfetched belief contents—as most atheists and some secularization theorists would have it—but because of its own fossilized cultural forms that it was unable to shake. Religion in the Millennial zeitgeist felt alien and disconnected from what mattered in life—in short, badly culturally mismatched. The vibes were off” (p. 338).
“Church closings overtook new church plantings in the latter 2010s.18 In 2014, an estimated 4,000 new Protestant churches were planted, while 3,700 closed that year, resulting in a net gain of 300. In 2019, before COVID-19 spread in the United States, about 3,000 Protestant churches were started but 4,500 closed, resulting in a net loss of 1,500 in one year” (p. 32).
“In 2000, the median number of attendees at a worship service was 137 people. By 2020, that number was reduced to 65—a 52% loss in size in 20 years” (p. 32-33).
“In the mid-1980s, more than two-thirds of Americans believed that clergy had high or very high moral standards. By 2021, however, those ratings were cut by more than half, from 67% in 1985 to 32% in 2023. The ratings by younger Americans, ages 18-34, fell even more sharply, from a high of 70% in 1985 to a mere 22% in 2021” (p. 35).
“Most Americans see religion as a non-essential—an option, a supplement, a life accessory from which someone may or may not benefit” (p. 47).[6]
“The decline of traditional American religion is a massive social change, the kind that doesn’t happen often, and it can be difficult to wrap one’s head around how such a massive change can occur” (p. 60).
“In brief, one key takeaway about the Millennial zeitgeist is this: through immense, tectonic shifts in global and national sociocultural orders, the terrain on which religion and secularism have long contended as binary rivals has undergone upheaval and reconfiguration. New players have gained in numbers and influence. The cultural landscape has become more complex and, for religion, more challenging than before. Understanding the big picture adequately requires recognizing the larger significance of this rise of spirituality and occulture” (p. 335).[7]
“Not all Americans pay attention to these denominational culture wars. But those who do quickly learn that these religious groups are not simply collections of believers who share similar creeds and convictions. They are bureaucratic institutions-an immediate red flag for those who distrust organizations-with complex administrative structures” (p. 269).
Many “believe religious institutions are at best superfluous and at worst dangerous” (p. 347).[8]
Notes
[1] Christian Smith is the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Sociology and founding director of the Center for the Study of Religion and Society at the University of Notre Dame.
[2] Christian Smith, Why Religion Went Obsolete: The Demise of Traditional Faith in America, 2. “The decline of traditional American religion is a massive social change, the kind that doesn’t happen often, and it can be difficult to wrap one’s head around how such a massive change can occur” (Ibid., 60).
[3] Smith, Why Religion Went Obsolete, 338. “The issues, rather, thrash around the semiconscious subjectivities of young people who rove about their lives with fine-tuned antennae sensing whether or not things give off the right ‘vibe.’ Does it ‘resonate?’ Does it give off ‘good energy?’ Life in this dimension is sorted out in realms of tacit, intuitive, instinctive knowledge and response–always informed by the background zeitgeist. Cultural mismatch meant that, for most younger Americans, traditional religion did not resonate, so they discarded it.” (Christian Smith, Why Religion Went Obsolete, 64)
[4] It has been wisely said, “Every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets.” Perhaps part of the problem is the current “design” of the church.
[5] Christian Smith, Why Religion Went Obsolete, 372. Many do not understand the need for a new paradigm. “The denial is also present within many churches, as older believers pastors and laity alike-respond to the falling away of young people from faith with either flat denial of the seriousness of the problem or by resorting to failed strategies that at least feel familiar. A Southern Baptist pastor friend focused on evangelizing youth complained bitterly to me that the church’s state-level leadership was spending a fortune on programs that made sense in the 1980s, when those leaders were young, but that had no chance of working today. This allowed the leaders to believe that they were doing something to address the crisis of unbelief among the so-called Zoomers, when in fact these leaders were only propping up illusions of a glorious Christian past” (Rod Dreher, Living in Wonder: Finding Mystery and Meaning in a Secular Age, 101).
[6] If church is simply a “service” where we go and sit, then to a great extent, most people’s perception is true.
[7] See also, for example, Carl Trueman’s book, The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution.
[8] “Institutional religion compelled them to distance themselves from religion” (Ibid.). “One can subtract the institution and retain the essence of religion” (Ibid.).
Quotes from J.D. Payne’s Pressure Points
I really appreciate J.D. Payne. His church planting class had an impact on me in seminary, and I have appreciated his books. I recently read his book Pressure Points.
In his intro, Payne says, “Ever since the first century, the church has experienced challenges to her mission of making disciples of all nations… Over the past two thousand years, the church has constantly found herself swimming in a sea of difficulties and delights, challenges and comforts, opposition and opportunities… For better or for worse, the global issues of our day are shaping and will continue to shape the church… Knowing how to live as wise stewards involves knowing our world in light of our commission. Knowing our world means understanding the global pressure points shaping the face of the church and mission.”
To be wise stewards it’s helpful to be aware of those pressure points so we can respond well. I found his book helpful. Here are some quotes that especially stuck out to me:
Our brothers and sisters in the Majority World remind us of the simplicity of the faith. At the end of its first three centuries, Christianity became one of the officially recognized religions, and it accomplished this feat with few materials resources. While there are exceptions, the Majority World believers are accomplishing more for gospel advancement with little more than God’s Word and His Spirit than the church in the West is accomplishing with all of our money, organizations, and structures. They are an example to us that faith can be vibrant and the church both simple and dynamic.
Biblical simplicity helps foster the rapid dissemination of the gospel and the multiplication of disciples, leaders, and churches.
Complexity gives birth to complexity, and complexity is difficult to reproduce… The more technical our methods and strategies,… the less likely the people we reach are going to be able to use those same approaches to reach those within their social networks.
If we model a form of leadership before the people that only the few can imitate, then the possibility of multiplication will be diminished.
If my regular leadership style and ways of doing ministry are so lofty that they impress upon the people, ‘You can never serve the Lord like this—the way ministry should be done. I’ll do everything for you. And only those of such a caliber as myself can be trusted with any significant ministry,’ then I am not a leader with the multiplication of disciples, leaders, and churches in mind.
With over four billion people in the world without Jesus, it is not wise to develop strategies that support methods which are counterproductive to the healthy rapid multiplication of disciples, leaders, and churches. Just because there is much biblical freedom in our culturally shaped methods does not mean that all such expressions are conducive to the multiplication of healthy churches across a people group or population segment.
Often our strategies are designed to bring instant gratification, thus allowing us to win the sprint of seeing numbers produced but failing the marathon of making disciples.
The multiplication of disciples, leaders, and churches will only happen in relation to the sovereignty of God. The church cannot create movement. It is an act of the Spirit. We cannot program it. It is not achieved in four or five easy steps. However, we can hoist the sails on our boats so that if the Spirit does decide to move.
Helpful takeaways from Paul David Tripp’s book Lead
I really enjoyed Paul David Tripp’s book, Lead: 12 Gospel Principles for Leadership in the Church. There were a lot of good takeaways. Here are some of my highlights but you should read the book for yourself, especially if you are in church leadership.
“The gospel of Jesus Christ is meant to be your life hermeneutic, that is, the means by which you understand and make sense of life” (Paul David Tripp, Lead, p. 12).
“Every human being is a meaning maker, a theologian, a philosopher, or an anthropologist, always taking things apart to understand what they mean. As a ministry leader, you are doing theological work not just when you preach, teach, or lead but also in the ways that you think about yourself, understand your ministry, and relate to fellow leaders” (Tripp, Lead, p. 12).
“If sin blinds, and it does, and if sin still remains in us, and it does, then, even as ministry leaders, there are pockets of spiritual blindness in us. So it is vital that we all forsake the thought that no one knows us better than we know ourselves. If there are places where we still suffer from spiritual blindness, then there are inaccuracies in the way we see ourselves and interpret our words and behavior. If, as a leader, you deny the possibility of personal spiritual blindness and trust the accuracy of your self-view, you are not humbly open and approachable to fellow leaders whom God has placed near you to help you see what you won’t see on your own” (Tripp, Lead, pp. 67-68).
“Leaders must push the gifts of others forward, willing to listen and willing to submit to the wisdom of others who are gifted in ways that they are not. Humble leaders surround themselves not with ministry clones but with leaders who have gifts that they do not and are therefore smart in ways they are not and strong in areas they are weak. This kind of community will always produce a quality and longevity of fruit that won’t ever be produced by a domineering leader” (p. 75).
“Every leader needs to be the object of ongoing discipleship, every leader needs at moments to be confronted, every leader needs the comforts of the gospel, every leader needs help to see what he would not see on his own, and every leader needs to be granted the love and encouragement to deal with the artifacts of the old self that are still within him. If this is so, then we cannot be so busy envisioning, designing, maintaining, evaluating, and reengineering ministry that we have little time to care for the souls of the ones who are leading this gospel work. A spiritually healthy leadership community participates in the ongoing personal spiritual growth of each one of its members” (p. 86).
“A leader whose heart has been captured by other things doesn’t forsake ministry to pursue those other things; he uses ministry position, power, authority, and trust to get those things. Every leadership community needs to understand that ministry can be the vehicle for pursuing a whole host of idolatries. In this way, ministry leadership is war, and we cannot approach it with the passivity of peacetime assumptions” (pp. 109-110).
“If ministry leadership is your identity, then Christ isn’t… Ministry leadership identity produces fear and anxiety and will never produce the humility and courage that come with identity in Christ. Looking horizontally, as a leader, for your identity, meaning, purpose, and internal sense of well-being asks people, places, and position to do for you what only your Messiah can do. This will produce either pride in success or fear of failure but never the kind of humility and courage of heart that results in humble, willing, confessing approachability. Ministry as a source of identity will never result in healthy gospel-shaped relationships in your leadership community, the kind of relationships in which candor is encouraged, confession is greeted with grace, and bonds of love, appreciation, affection, understanding, and respect grow strong” (p. 156).
“If identity in ministry is a battleground for every ministry leader, and if the exchange from identity in Christ to identity in ministry is often subtle and usually takes place over an extended period of time, then it is important to identify some of the symptoms you will see when a leader is looking to get from his ministry leadership what he was meant to get from Christ” (p. 168).
“Because of the dynamic of spiritual blindness, we don’t always see ourselves with accuracy, so we all need instruments of seeing to help us. We must not let ourselves think that we’re grace graduates or that no one knows us better than we know ourselves. Because we as leaders have been welcomed by God’s grace, we can be humble and approachable, thereby protected and able to grow” (p. 204).
“If we are not living with the presence and glory of God always in focus and always as the primary motivator of all we say and do, what we say and do will be driven by the glory of self. Every human being is glory oriented, because that orientation is meant to drive us to God. So we are all always living for some type of glory” (p. 214).
10 takeaways from Vivek H. Murthy’s book Together
Being connected in community is important. Murthy’s book, Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World, concurs. Below are some quotes I appreciated from his book.
“The values that dominate modern culture… elevate the narrative of the rugged individualist and the pursuit of self-determination. They tell us that we alone shape our destiny. Could these values be contributing to the undertow of loneliness” (Vivek H. Murthy, Together, p. xxi).
“Social connection stands out as a largely unrecognized and underappreciated force for addressing many of the critical problems we’re dealing with, both as individuals and as a society. Overcoming loneliness and building a more connected future is an urgent mission that we can and must tackle together” (Murthy, Together, p. xxvi).
“People with strong social relationships are 50 percent less likely to die prematurely than people with weak social relationships… weak social connections can be a significant danger to our health” (p. 13).
“Few of us challenge our cultural norms, even when their influence leaves us feeling lonely and isolated” (p. 95).
“Building… bridges for connection may never have been more important than it is right now” (p. 96).
“If you ask people today what they value most in life, most will point to family and friends. Yet the way we spend our days is often at odds with that value. Our twenty-first-century world demands that we focus on pursuits that seem to be in constant competition for our time, attention, energy, and commitment. Many of these pursuits are themselves competitions. We compete for jobs and status. We compete over possessions, money, and reputation. We strive to stay afloat and to get ahead. Meanwhile, the relationships we claim to prize often get neglected in the chase” (p. 98).
“Social media… fosters a culture of comparison where we are constantly measuring ourselves against other users’ bodies, wardrobes, cooking, houses, vacations, children, pets, hobbies, and thoughts about the world” (p. 112).
“Many factors play into… polarization, social disconnection is an important root cause” (p. 134).
“Even as we live with increasing diversity, it’s easier than ever to restrict our contact, both online and off, to people who resemble us in appearance, views, and interests. That makes it easy to dismiss people for their beliefs or affiliations when we don’t know them as human beings. The result is a spiral of disconnection that’s contributing to the unraveling of civil society today” (p. 134).
“When I think back on the patients I cared for in their dying days, the size of their bank accounts and their status in the eyes of society were never the yardsticks by which they measured a meaningful life. What they talked about were relationships. The ones that brought them great joy. The relationships they wish they’d been more present for. The ones that broke their hearts. In the final moments, when only the most meaningful strands of life remain, it’s the human connections that rise to the top” (p. 284).
*Photo by Robert Bye
Quotes from Richard Bauckham’s The Theology of the Book of Revelation
Here are ten quotes from Richard Bauckham’s book, The Theology of the Book of Revelation, that especially stuck out to me. And if you’re interested in eschatology (the doctrine of last things) you can also see my post “Eschatology and Ethics.”
“Revelation provides a set of Christian prophetic counter-images which impress on its readers a different vision of the world… The visual power of the book effects a kind of purging of the Christian imagination, refurbishing it with alternative visions of how the world is and will be” (Richard Bauckham, The Theology of the Book of Revelation, p. 17).
“Creation is not confined for ever to its own immanent possibilities. It is open to the fresh creative possibilities of its Creator” (Bauckham, The Theology of the Book of Revelation, p. 48).
“A God who is not the transcendent origin of all things… cannot be the ground of ultimate hope for the future of creation. It is the God who is the Alpha who will also be the Omega” (Bauckham, The Theology of the Book of Revelation, p. 51).
“The polemical significance of worship is clear in Revelation, which sees the root of the evil of the Roman Empire to lie in the idolatrous worship of merely human power, and therefore draws the lines of conflict between worshippers of the beast and the worshippers of the one true God” (p. 59).
“Who are the real victors? The answer depends on whether one sees things from the earthly perspective of those who worship the beast or from the heavenly perspective which John’s visions open for his readers” (p. 90).
“The perspective of heaven must break into the earthbound delusion of the beast’s propaganda” (p. 91).
“There are clearly only two options: to conquer and inherit the eschatological promises, or to suffer the second death in the lake of fire (21:8)” (p. 92).
If Christians are to “resist the powerful allurements of Babylon, they [need] an alternative and greater attraction” (p. 129).
“God’s service is perfect freedom (cf. 1 Pet. 2:16). Because God’s will is the moral truth of our own being as his creatures, we shall find our fulfillment only when, through our free obedience, his will becomes also the spontaneous desire of our hearts” (p. 142-43).
“Only a purified vision of the transcendence of God… can effectively resist the human tendency to idolatry which consists in absolutizing aspects of this world. The worship of the true God is the power of resistance to the deification of military and political power (the beast) and economic prosperity (Babylon)” (p. 160).
The Ten Best Books I Read in 2020
Here are my ten favorite books that I read in 2020 (they’re listed in alphabetical order by the author’s last name):
- D.A. Carson, Showing the Spirit: A Theological Exposition of 1 Corinthians 12–14
- Kevin DeYoung, The Ten Commandments: What They Mean, Why They Matter, and Why We Should Obey Them
- David Kinnaman, Faith for Exiles: Five Ways to Help Young Christians Be Resilient, Follow Jesus, and Live Differently in Digital Babylon
- Peter Kreeft, Back to Virtue: Traditional Moral Wisdom for Modern Moral Confusion
- Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, On Death and Dying
- Rebecca McLaughlin, Confronting Christianity: 12 Hard Questions for the World’s Largest Religion
- Reggie McNeal, The Present Future: Six Tough Questions for the Church
- J.P. Moreland, Kingdom Triangle: Recover the Christian Mind, Renovate the Soul, Restore the Spirit’s Power
- Gavin Ortlund, Finding the Right Hills to Die on: The Case for Theological Triage
- David Platt, Before You Vote: Seven Questions Every Christian Should Ask
And five runner-ups:
- Andy Crouch, Playing God: Redeeming the Gift of Power
- Albert Mohler Jr., The Gathering Storm: Secularism, Culture, and the Church
- Tony Reinke, Competing Spectacles: Treasuring Christ in the Media Age
- Deepak Reju, On Guard: Preventing and Responding to Child Abuse at Church
- Mark Dark Vroegop, Clouds, Deep Mercy: Discovering the Grace of Lament
Here are my favorite books from last year.
10 Quotes from Jonathan Pennington’s book, Jesus the Great Philosopher
I appreciated Pennington’s book. He did a good job showing that “Christianity is more than a religion. It is a deeply sophisticated philosophy” (Jonathan T. Pennington, Jesus the Great Philosopher: Rediscovering the Wisdom Needed for the Good Life, 159).
Here are 10 quotes that stuck out to me:
“When we try to live without knowledge of physics and metaphysics—how the would is and how works—then we are foolish, not wise, living randomly, haphazardly, without direction or hope for security, happiness, or peace” (Pennington, Jesus the Great Philosopher, p. 23).
“The Bible is addressing precisely the same questions as traditional philosophy” (p. 53).
“The Old and New Testaments teach people to act in certain ways, knowing that cognitive and volitional choices not only reflect our emotions but also affect and educate them” (p. 120-21).
“Without intentional reflection, we will live our lives without direction and purpose. Or worse, we will live with misdirected and distorted goals” (p. 124).
“Relationships aren’t an add-on to life, they make up our life” (p. 134).
“Jesus himself emphasized that his kingdom is not of this world (John 18:36). This does not mean Christians are free to ignore this world, but instead it frees Christians to relate in a gracious and humble way, knowing their citizenship is ultimately something more and greater and different” (p. 166-67).
“The reason Jesus was so infuriating to both religious and government leaders was not because he was taking up arms and trying to overthrow governments but because his radical teachings were so subversive to society. Jesus was subversive because he sought to reform all sorts of relationships. In his teachings and actions, Jesus continually subverted fundamental values of both Jewish and Greco-Roman society” (p. 172).
“Christianity is a deeply intentional and practical philosophy of relationships” (p. 173).
“Unlike sitcom relationships, the reality is that our lives are broken through sin—the brokenness not only of sin that has corrupted creation itself but also of personal acts of evil, foolishness, and harm. Thus, the Christian philosophy’s vision for relationships within God’s kingdom is not naive or idealistic” (p. 181).
Back to Virtue by Peter Kreeft
I recently read Peter Kreeft’s book Back to Virtue. Kreeft is a Roman Catholic philosopher, theologian, apologist, and a prolific author. He is a professor of philosophy at Boston College and The King’s College.
Here are some quotes from Back to Virtue that stuck out to me:
“We control nature, but we cannot or will not control ourselves. Self-control is ‘out’ exactly when nature control is ‘in’, that is, exactly when self-control is most needed” (Peter Kreeft, Back to Virtue, 23).
“Nothing is so surely and quickly dated as the up-to-date” (Peter Kreeft, Back to Virtue, 63).
“It is hard to be totally courageous without hope in Heaven. Why risk your life if there is no hope in Heaven. Why risk your life if there is no hope that your story ends in anything other than worms and decay” (Kreeft, Back to Virtue, 72).
“The only way to ‘the imitation of Christ’ is the incorporation into Christ” (Ibid., 84).
“There are only two kinds of people: fools, who think they are wise, and the wise, who know they are fools” (Ibid., 99).
“Humility is thinking less about yourself, not thinking less of yourself” (Ibid., 100).
“God has more power in one breath of his spirit than all the winds of war, all the nuclear bombs, all the energy of all the suns in all the galaxies, all the fury of Hell itself” (Ibid., 105).
“We can possess only what is less than ourselves, things, objects… We are possessed by what is greater than ourselves—God and his attributes, Truth, Goodness, Beauty. This alone can make us happy, can satisfy the restless heart, can fill the infinite, God-shaped hole at the center of our being” (Ibid., 112).
“The beatitude does not say merely: ‘Blessed are the peace-lovers,’ but something rarer: ‘Blessed are the peacemakers’” (Ibid., 146).
“There is only one thing that never gets boring: God… Modern man has… sorrow about God, because God is dead to him. He is the cosmic orphan. Nothing can take the place of his dead Father; all idols fail, and bore” (Ibid., 157).
“God’s single solution to all our problems is Jesus Christ” (Ibid., 172).
“An absolute being, an absolute motive, and an absolute hope can alone generate an absolute passion. God, love and Heaven are the three greatest sources of passion possible” (Ibid., 192).
in X 