Putting the Hip in Church Planting Fellowships : Identity

     Today's installment of "Putting the Hip in Church Planting Fellowships" kicks off our look at the unintended consequences of subcultural targeting and how embracing a more well-rounded philosophy of church planting can head those side-effects off at the pass. Here's the first tick on the list:

• A divergence from the biblical pattern of gospel-centered identity inevitably promoting a culture-centered identity among those gathered in the church plant

     At the end of the day, this first issue we're tackling is one of the primary fenceposts that mark off the problems associated with the trend in church planting in view here. This issue is really more of a big picture kind of problem and is not one that a) the vast majority of church planters are eager to see happen, even if they champion the subculture-as-necessary-target method and b) can be treated beyond abstract reflections here. It's way too big of a potential flaw in the garment to patch up with the little thread available here, so our task is going to be identifying what the problem is abstractly and providing helpful perspective on how to rightly and biblically think "abstractly" about the nature of the local church. Not much here by way of practical tips or specific targets - just a potentially major problem that would otherwise skew the perception of the local church's identity among a whole lot of people. And that makes it an issue worth addressing first.

     Any self-identified "evangelical" assents to the need to proclaim the gospel, regardless of nuances or definitions. Finding basic tenets of gospel truth are just as easily accessed on a prosperity gospel teacher's website as an Orthodox Presbyterian website. Which makes the identity issue surrounding the gospel so crucial for those involved with the establishment of new local churches. How is it that such divergent groups (theologically and by way of philosophy of ministry) can affirm the same "core" truths, yet have such radically different agendas for carrying out ministry? I suggest it is because, apart from adjacent areas of doctrine, the assumption of the gospel has given way to the prioritization of things outside the realm of focus for a New Testament church.

     Since the 19th century, the atmosphere of American evangelicalism has generally pushed back against the press for doctrinal purity and towards models of what has been considered more "practical" matters facing people. The suspicion that the very end of days was upon us provoked a rise in end-times groups, swallowing up people whose hopes were, at best, diverted from the gospel to the supposed prophecies and biblical interpretations that were only empty and false promises. The recasting of evangelistic sermons and presentations of the gospel into the mold of anxious-bench emotional manipulations drove many well-meaning Christians to reliance on presentations of the gospel instead of the power of God at work through the gospel itself. The emotionalism of the early 1900's drew the focus of many on what was billed as the work of the Holy Spirit, instead of seeing the clear gospel fruits of holiness, godliness, faithfulness, and the like prized among the miracles worked by the Holy Spirit among the people of God. Theological liberalism has consistently maintained the idea that meeting felt needs was really the missionary task. And finally, the last 30 years has seen the ascendance of a method of ministry, particularly church planting, that has focused so heavily on identifying emerging cultures, classes, and sectors of society that assembling groups of similar people has become a staple food in the diet of homefront missiology.

     While the recent church planting focus is not as radically off-base as the others listed above, it might be appropriate to consider it an opening act in pressuring local churches away from identifying closely with the gospel. Consider one of the primary purposes of Acts, signifying an interpretive lens for the book as a whole: "So when they had come together, they asked him [the resurrected Jesus], 'Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?' He said to them, 'It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.'" These were the parting words of the Lord Christ before His ascension - and words that instruct the missionary endeavor of the church.

     The words of Acts 1:8 are often associated with missionary enterprises. But the context (immediate and the big picture of Acts) supplies us with an even more helpful perspective than what might otherwise be taken from the verse itself. Notice that the apostles ask this question: "Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" This cannot go unnoticed for the reader of Acts, because it shows an issue that surfaces multiple times in the book: the idea that the Kingdom of God would come only to Israelites. Instead, the expansion of the Kingdom to include people from every tribe, language, people, and nation is in view throughout the book. So while it was a temptation for the apostles to restrict their ministry to the Jews, the missionary commission drives Peter to not only preach to the Jews gathered (from all manner of nations) at Pentecost, but to enter Cornelius' home and proclaim the gospel to him and his household. It was through that encounter that Peter's eyes were opened to the truth that the gospel shapes the identity for all who believe.

     Even though the contemporary emphasis on targeted church planting may not stress the need to follow certain aspects of the ceremonial law for inclusion, the tendency in the human heart toward self-righteousness and partisanship is not altogether removed. Thus, the warnings in the New Testament for the people of God to avoid such behavior in the church. And that brings us full circle to what stands as a primary concern regarding the culturally-driven identity shaping many church planting efforts: they run a significant risk of strengthening the cultural aversions (doctors, lawyers, and businessmen don't typically spend time with migrant workers) that the gospel eradicates as it becomes the new identity of the people of God. This is the potentially great hazard that a culture-centered identity poses for the relationships within the church, a hazard that a gospel-centered emphasis in evangelizing a whole community would do well to avoid. And it almost goes without saying that it runs the risk of compromising the church's identity as a church targeting "X type of people," rather than the identity the church holds as the people of God, where the gospel replaces other identities.

     At the end of the day, the risk to gospel-centered identity has the potential to compromise to significant aspects of the local church: its ministerial focus and its identity as the gospel-transformed people of God. Both of these are priorities that ought to be guarded and pursued by any local church. In the next few days, we'll be moving on to another "unintended consequence." All of these are related in some way, though they all are tangential to this: the local church needs to be shaped by, driven by, and held together by the gospel. It is its message and its identity is found in the glorious Christ whose gospel it is. We cannot afford to assume it.

Book Review : Transformed by God : New Covenant Life and Ministry : David Peterson

     Few theological themes exist more prominently throughout the Scriptures than that of covenants. While this review isn't the place for discussing the importance of covenants, it is the place to give a brief word on it, as Dr. Peterson's book, Transformed by God : New Covenant Life and Ministry, assumes a foundational understanding of just how important the presence of covenants throughout the Old Testament, particularly, find their way to fulfillment in the New Covenant sealed by Christ. So, to introduce this review and the theme generally, here we go:

     Covenants play a significant role throughout the Old Testament. The formal covenant exists at peaks throughout redemptive history, as God addresses His promises to major biblical figures: Abraham, Moses, and David. The general role of divine promises is asserted soon after the Fall, when God promised in the "proto-evangelion" that One would come who would stamp out the serpent. Since that anticipation in Genesis, there are more or less formal events that concern the promises of God to His people. The prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel, however, are mouthpieces whereby a "New Covenant" would come about, a Covenant that would be fulfilled by God Himself. All of the other covenants and promises would ultimately find their converge point and fulfillment in the New Covenant. Which makes the New Covenant a very important aspect of redemptive history.

     Dr. Peterson's volume has to do with the proclamation of that New Covenant during the ministry of the prophet Jeremiah, in particular, and how the Covenant, "signed, sealed, and delivered," effects the people of God, our worship and ministry, the hearts of God's people, and our knowledge of God. This important reality indeed changes "everything" and Dr. Peterson's aim in writing this volume is admirable and more than appropriate. It is a commendable pursuit and an entry into what I would consider an "under-served" field of theology, particularly as it specifically concerns the New Covenant.

     The first four chapters of Transformed by God are adaptations of lectures delivered by Dr. Peterson, while the remaining two chapters are additions made to the work. To be fair, I have a good deal of respect for Dr. Peterson as a scholar. I own a couple other books by him, including his contribution to the Pillar Commentary series regarding Acts. There is no doubt that he is a fine scholar and theologian, I must say, however, that my experience with this book was not as engaging as I had hoped it would be. The book's content is solid, which alone merits a positive review on the grounds that it both addresses a very important theme and does so soundly. However, I found the book to be somewhat dry. This may have something to do with the adaptation of previous material or the extended time period I took to complete the book. Nonetheless, on such a major and largely unaddressed (in book form, at least) topic, I expected a bit more in the department of "engagement."

     I would certainly recommend Dr. Peterson's book to anyone looking to gain some perspective on the New Covenant and its implications for Christian life and ministry - that's the thrust of the book and, as I said, it does not fail in that regard. That being said, I would ensure that if you do read this book, that you stay intentionally engaged. Thank you to the folks at InterVarsity Press for supplying a complimentary review copy without expectations of a positive review.

Putting the Hip in Church Planting Fellowships : The Law of Unintended Consequences

     The other day, my wife (who happens to be one of the most hospitable and generous people I know) made a meal for some good friends of ours who had just welcomed their third child into the world. Now, my wife does an excellent job on two fronts with these meals: 1) She stays on top of caring for others with them; and, 2) She does a very good job of figuring out what kind of meal should be made and then does a great job making it. So, last week, to accompany some well-made soup, she found a recipe for bread that we hadn't tried before, a recipe that had received some good reviews from others. The soup turned out well. The "bread" did not. Accordingly, it did not accompany the soup to this family, whom we care about and did not want to be responsible for breaking any of their teeth. As an aside, if anyone works for a brick manufacturer and would like to find a way to only heat their bricks in a 300+ degree oven (as opposed to the kilns presently used), we have a bread recipe that would substitute your brick recipe well.

     Last week, I began a series entitled "Putting the Hip in Church Planting Fellowships," providing some perspective on what I see as some missteps in contemporary philosophies of church planting. Let me emphasize again that I love church planting as a ministry, which is one reason I hope these posts will resonate with folks. Because I want to see church planting increase and be done the right way. But not only one or the other. They both have to be there. And that leads us into today's post.

     Like the recipe my wife used to make the brick-bread, a philosophy of ministry that fails to incorporate the necessary components will inevitably fail. For whatever reason, the results might be endorsed by a whole host of people. And it might even seem to start out well, like a good recipe would have it. But neither endorsements nor good beginnings avail for a good loaf of bread or, much more importantly, a healthy local church. So my concern here in these posts is to address a missing step in the recipe for planting local churches that, in my opinion, is creating a local church culture in the United States that is out of character for that most precious ministry. It is the "law of unintended consequences" - well-intended tweaks to the nature of a ministry that ends up rerouting things down the road in ways not intended, yet damaging to churches, families, individuals, and the culture at large.

     This post is intended to give you a preview of some of those concerns, which I'll pick up and discuss over the days ahead. Each concern has its place and will have a separate post devoted to it. The list below summarizes the inevitable "unintended consequences" that, in my opinion, the present emphasis in the church planting culture on targeting segments of culture rather than geographic regions are creating, both short-term and long-term:

• A divergence from the biblical pattern of gospel-centered identity inevitably promoting a culture-centered identity among those gathered in the church plant;
• Focus on a segment of culture inevitably gathers a homogeneous group. Accordingly, this group fails to represent the cross-cultural character of the New Testament church that testifies to the supremacy of the gospel. Along with this, the group will find it difficult to pursue the missionary enterprise of the church in pursuit of others, both "naturally" and due to the reinforced philosophy that focuses on people "like them";
• The oft-selected subcultures tend to be widely shared in church planting fellowships. Twenty years ago, it was "unchurched Harry and Mary." Now it appears to be hipster Harry and Harriet or tattooed Tom and Tracy. But this emphasis on targeting subcultures ends up marginalizing such a tremendous percentage of the population that instead of evangelizing a community, it evangelizes a part of the community. And the rest of the community continues to go unreached, though the statistic of a "church plant" goes up, gets us excited, and leaves thousands of people without a witness while zeroing in on a few hundred.
• When emerging or popular subcultures are targeted, an inevitable premium of the church plant ends up being "newness" or "relevance." While this dynamic may "help" some folks who spend Sunday mornings in a bar, it can be a major stumbling block for the large percentage of folks who spend Sunday mornings at churches that proclaim a false gospel. When these people encounter someone from Hipster Church of Cooltown, they stumble over the apparent lack of transcendence accompanying worship and would prefer to stay with something familiar that at least "seems" like a real church. While there's nothing necessarily wrong with being from Hipster Church, why is it okay to justify the "relevance" as the removal of a stumbling block, when a large percentage of Americans are more prone to stumble over the fact that a church plant doesn't even seem like church to them?;
• When we target subcultures, we inevitable shift the focus off of the transforming power of the gospel and the saving power of the Triune God to a subtle trust that our methods are trustworthy enough to hang the church's hat of identity on. "We're not like other churches" shouldn't be the banner flying over a church unless it's because every other church in the community fails to proclaim the glorious gospel of God's grace to sinners through Christ;
• Instead of reconciling natural differences by the gospel and providing occasion for actual application of that amazingly peculiar effect of the gospel within the body of Christ, it can further harden long-held differences that are based on culture, rather than believer/unbeliever. In a culture that continues to demonstrate racism and class warfare as not only de facto, but even pursued for the sake of political gain, there is tremendous opportunity for church plants that embrace a model of ministry holding forth the gospel as a reconciler of man to God, first, and then men to men as a byproduct of great witnessing value;
• Prioritization means time and resources that are diverted from elsewhere. Which means that even the best-intentioned efforts to plant culturally-targeted local churches end up focusing more on sharpening cultural relevance than they should, while diverting resources away from the biblically emphasized ingredients for a healthy local church;
• And, finally, what happens when the targeted culture becomes over-saturated? Not only do we end up neglecting a large segment of the population, but we end up burning over a segment that will, over time, inevitably "die out." Focusing on the hipster crowd today will only last as long as there is a hipster crowd to focus on. The crowd either changes, dies off socially, or dies with the people who comprise it. The church then becomes irrelevant, unless it grows with the group it targeted, which, in my mind, inevitably means that they move closer to what should have been done in the first place: focus on the under-evangelized community as a whole instead of a small fragment of it.

     I hope these thoughts provide some more thought stirring-up in your mind. As I seek to address the concerns individually and expand on the problem and seek to show how a different philosophy of church planting can help avoid the "unintended consequence," I genuinely desire this to be a sharpening and edifying series. Stay tuned.

Putting the "Hip" in Church Planting Fellowships . . .

I'm Not Cool . . . and That's Getting to Be More and More Okay

     About ten years ago, I had the honor of serving for two years with Campus Crusade for Christ. (Yes, for the most part, I still refer to it as Crusade.) One of the tremendous blessings of serving with Crusade for that time period was working with some other Christians whom I still think of fondly. I remember there was a song that my good friend Seth and I latched on to for a little while by a guy named Scott Krippayne. The title, "I'm Not Cool," pretty much conveys the gist of the song. Scott Krippayne had come to the realization that a lack of coolness didn't ultimately undermine God's love for him. (If you want to check it out, I put a link to the song on YouTube at the end of this post.)

     The song gets across a pretty fundamental reality that should be held close to the heart of every Christian, not only because it's comforting to those of us who would rather go to a historical sight than Six Flags, but because it's biblical. And if that doesn't run like rebar through our lives as Christians, we better double-check what is, right? Being cool, hip, good looking - none of these things are commended to the church of Jesus Christ as being a focal point of our identity. If anything, we're given some pretty clear ideas that God delights to use those who aren't in those categories for the very purpose of showing how great He is through those whom the world at large would write off as unimportant, obscure, and undesirable. It's a hard thing keep in view when sin is in the business of self-promotion, but it's necessary. Which brings me to what this post is about - and what I'll be writing about over the next number of days in the hope that it resonates with some folks and provides perspective on what I believe is a subtle, yet pervasive issue affecting church planting fellowships in the United States.

Putting the "Hip" in Church Planting Fellowships

     I really need to kick this off by stating something with crystal clarity: I am thrilled at the resurgence of church planting as a focus among denominational and para-local church organizations. It's a blessing and I rejoice that there are more and more who are heeding a call to serve the cause of Christ by proclaiming the gospel to communities devoid of significant and faithful gospel witness. I have friends who have left and are leaving the "security" of other positions to pursue church planting in the very contexts that I'll be talking about here. Further, what I'm going to be discussing over the next handful of days isn't something that should be discarded as worthless or unworthy of pursuit. Let me write, in bold letters, that my desire is that we would become aware that an over-emphasis on a particular "kind" of person or subculture can have unwanted consequences that we would do well to check ourselves on. That's my disclaimer. So don't get hot under the collar because of stodgy old Chris. I hope that's clear at the outset and should be clear throughout the posts on this issue. Good deal? Alright.

     The posts to come will talk about specific aspects of the concern I'm voicing here, but today I'm giving the birds' eye view. It's been alluded to already in the bolded words above, but what my intent is over these posts concerns a pattern I've become concerned about lately for a few significant reasons. Essentially, what I've become troubled by is the increasing tendency among church planting fellowships over the past twenty-five years to focus church planting efforts on what are seen as majority or emerging subcultures. The efforts are put forth to send out a church planter who is passionate about - or identifies with - a particular subculture, in the hopes that the shared affinity, concerns, likes, appearance, clothes, you name it, will serve as a magnet to draw people into the new church. Take a guy who has a heart for evangelism and also happens to really like fishing and drop him off in Tomahawk, Wisconsin. That's a really boiled down, over-simplified idea of the approach.

     So what's wrong with it? Well, frankly, nothing - inherently. There isn't anything necessarily wrong with a church planter liking the same music or sports team as the folks he's seeking to reach. It can be an asset. However, the inherent non-issue can become a real issue fast. And the fact that is an issue can stay well under the radar screen until some damage has been done. So as we move into looking at this trend in church planting - particularly the unintended "side-effects," I want to pose a few questions to stir some thought related to why this inherently benign approach can quickly undercut some very important priorities of New Testament ministry:

• How does this square with Paul's missionary heart that reveals a design to maintain a gospel-centered focus and still work to serve "all people" in the proclamation of the gospel?
• Who decides what communities/subcultures are more or less in need of church planting? Should Anytown, which has 30,000 residents (20% of which are considered "aging") and an employment environment of low-mid income manufacturing and only two decent churches, be deprived of a gospel-centered church in favor of Cooltown, which has 50,000 residents, twenty decent churches, and a large percentage of unchurched baby boomers and tech professionals?
• When targeting subcultures, what can inevitably become the missional focus - the people in the subculture or proclaiming the gospel to the community as a whole?
• What happens to the non-targeted subcultures? Honestly speaking, are there many church planting initiatives seeking to incorporate the elderly? The "religious yet unsaved"? The home-bodies? The guys working shift jobs?
• When riding cultural trends, is there a danger of losing connection with the larger history of the church throughout the world?
• And finally, When church planting takes on this approach as an identity, is there a real danger to rely (inappropriately) more on these cultural affinities than on the power of the Holy Spirit to bring dead sinners to life and put their trust in the gospel of Jesus Christ?

     These questions are important. And again, they're not meant to lop off anyone's legs. But they are there to provoke some thought about why we do what we do and how we do it. By way of extension, most of these questions are equally applicable to existing local churches and the way we approach our "philosophy of ministry" in our relationship to ministry and culture. Over the next number of days, I want to draw out what I believe are some unintended, yet major consequences that attend an over-identifying our philosophy of ministry with the targeting of sub-cultures small and large. I do hope that this can be truly edifying and perhaps stir up some of us not to avoid church planting as a ministry, but to pursue church planting with even greater vigor and dependence on the Lord Jesus Christ.

As promised, here's the song "I'm Not Cool" by Scott Krippayne:

(I appreciate the reference to the bizarre nature of the El Camino.)

Book Review : Dangerous Calling : Paul David Tripp

One of the things I appreciate about having a library card is that I can go online and find repair manuals for cars, look at them for free, and save a chunk of money on a) taking a car to the mechanic and b) showing up at AutoZone and buying one. It's a nice perk of the whole public library system, because while I may be eminently unqualified to open my own repair shop, the fact that others know what they're doing gives me some confidence to not consign all of my car repair needs to a "professional." Because frankly, at the end of the day, some of these repairs just aren't that difficult if you follow the manual. You just have to trust that someone actually knows the vehicle enough to tell you what to do.

Paul Tripp writes repair manuals for people. Solidly grounded in Scripture, the man has written some profoundly helpful materials that combine wisdom gained over the years, a readable style, helpful examples, and well-applied exposition of the Word of God. I have yet to find something of his that is not worth consulting concerning the issue it addresses and would unhesitatingly recommend that any Christian pick up a copy of one of his books to work into a better understanding of their own heart and the precious and sometimes painful process of growing in godliness.

I was excited, then, when I saw that Dr. Tripp was releasing a book geared especially towards the issues that face men called to serve in pastoral ministry. And the title of the book hits the sweet spot for communicating the core reality that serving as a shepherd of God's people is not simply about "showing up." Dangerous Calling: Confronting the Unique Challenges of Pastoral Ministry is a book that begins to tackle some otherwise sorely unaddressed issues facing pastors (both vocational and "lay" elders, more on that in a bit). Some of the chapter titles include "Big Theological Brains and Heart Disease," "More than Knowledge and Skill," "The Missing Community," "Mediocrity," and "Self-Glory." Those are just some of the titles that give a hint about what's behind the door, while the other chapters get just as involved in addressing issues that pastors face, but are rarely warned of.

In essence, Dangerous Calling is the literary equivalent of a short-term mentoring relationship with a man who has faced these issues personally and seen them unfold as a counselor to both individual pastors and local churches dealing with them. Thinking back on reading through the book, I can almost picture Dr. Tripp sitting down across from me and talking through some of the most perilous issues pastors face with a good dose of personal care and an equal dose of "don't mess this up."

While addressed to pastors - and it really should be, so far as "contemporary" books are concerned, on the syllabus for any pastoral ministry course offered in seminary - the book is also aimed at elders (who are truly pastors of the local church, even if they're not paid for the service rendered), the wives of pastors, and pastoral search committees. For that matter, it would be decent reading for any Christian to understand the unique challenges facing pastors and, perhaps most importantly, what kind of expectations are fair in their relationship to the men called to serve as soul-shepherds.

My goal here is not to go into all the content found in the book because the vast majority of it is both necessary and well-stated. But I want to highlight a major purpose of the book that, in my eyes, should be held in view as a primary purpose of why reading this book should be on the assignment list for folks in the above-mentioned groups for the coming year. That purpose is to provide a biblical and realistic context for understanding the pressures, temptations, and fragility relating to men serving in the office of elder. Because in the final analysis, we all (pastors and non-pastors alike) bring some pretty strange assumptions to the table regarding what it means to keep watch over the precious entity called the local church. With an increasingly bizarre and counter-biblical character, the "evangelical" sub-culture simply doesn't provide a consistent display of pastoral service. And the very real experience of many professing Christians jumping from one church to another with near-regularity, it's just (with great sadness) not realistic anymore to expect deep relationships to exist between shepherds and sheep. Which makes it horribly difficult to expect that a sound regard for the pastor's role and responsibilities should be found among the majority of the folks pastoring and being pastored. It's sad, it's unfortunate, it's scary, but it's a reality that exists in the 21st century American church. And that makes Dr. Tripp's book a healthy dose of medicine to start treating an illness that is literally robbing the local church of health at the pace of an epidemic.

There is great content to be found here, from treating the pastor in his temptation to seek a small empire to the much neglected need for the pastor to see himself as another part of the body that functions by the same grace and according to the empowerment of the same Spirit that all other Christians do. The book is well-worth the time and money to pick up and read and highlight and share. Elders should discuss it together, wives should nab it off the bookshelf, and pastoral search committees should read it together before coming up with a job description and application. This is certainly one of the best books I've read on the heart of pastoral ministry and I highly recommend it. Thanks to the folks at Crossway for providing me a complimentary review copy, with no expectation of a positive review.

Book Review: The Cross and Christian Ministry

I had two endorsements of this book in the back of my mind before even beginning it. The first came from my former lead pastor, whom I remember speaking very highly of The Cross and Christian Ministry. The second is the fact that there has been little, if anything, that Dr. Carson has written and I have not benefited from. So coming to the book, I had expectations that this volume would follow along those lines and be generally helpful and biblically faithful. Without surprise, Dr. Carson's work succeeds at both points.

Let me begin by saying that the Corinthian letters hold, in my opinion, some of the most necessary corrections for the American church today. The nature of the letters as corrective generally lends themselves to addressing "problems" in the life of the church. The problems developing in American evangelicalism increasingly reflect the issues present among the confused Corinthians. Which makes any venture into these letters a profitable one for the pastor/elder or Christian looking to understand what faithful ministry (and Christian living) looks like in an environment hostile to the unique design the gospel supplies to the character of Christian life and ministry. Dr. Carson also wrote a book entitled A Model of Christian Maturity, which takes up some of the issues in 2 Corinthians. Both of these books are very helpful and I would generally recommend both of them as faithful in accomplishing their stated purposes.

The Cross and Christian Ministry takes up various passages in the first Corinthian letter and applies them to the contemporary Christian and Christian leader. Without going into the details of each chapter, it suffices to say that the themes drawn from the letter are more than necessary for any Christian (most certainly the pastor) to have a solid understanding of. The fundamental disparity between the world's values and the gospel's values, between the priorities of fallen men and the priorities of Jesus Christ, are so glaringly evident to us, yet very difficult to leave the former to pursue the latter. And that's where the Corinthian letters, particularly the first, have so much to say to those of us who are tempted to assume worldly priorities and cloak them with Christian garb. Dr. Carson draws out the priorities of a cross-centered life and ministry that necessarily means change on the part of the earnest man of God.

The contents of this book are adapted from addresses delivered by Dr. Carson, which makes them inherently practical. Dr. Carson is particularly gifted in driving home solid theological content in engaging ways. Again, I have usually benefited from anything I have read written by D.A. Carson and this book stands in that line. While the book is shorter than others you might pick up by him, The Cross and Christian Ministry is still well worth the read and should be an assigned as an exit requirement for those graduating from seminary. Seasoned pastors would do well to come back to the priorities Dr. Carson draws out in this book. The Cross and Christian Ministry is a worthwhile book that supplies a much-needed perspective on genuine Christian ministry and living in light of the Cross.

(The folks at Baker Books kindly supplied me with a complimentary copy for review. I was not required to provide a positive review of the book.)