In the current debate over change, we seldom have the patience or the interest to listen to our elders. It has become tragic to hear of a generation of Christians who have come to the Lord out of their sinful past, given their money over their life-time to their church, raised their kids in their […]
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Tag: Church
Preaching to a Dying Nation
As I said in the article, I just met Dr. Hymers and read his book on my way to California. It is a book full of quotes and stats which make for good illustration material. Hymers is concerned about what he calls “decisionism.” That is his word for evangelism aimed at decisions rather than conversion. […]
The Gates of Hell Shall Not Prevail
This 1995-6 book is an apologetic for the church, not based upon scriptural argument, but based upon experiential argument, i.e. based on worldly attacks upon the church which have failed throughout the ages and continue to fail today. Kennedy correlates the strength of the church to church growth. As evidence of the vitality of the […]
The Second Coming of the Church
This is the latest in a long line of books by George Barna. Of course, being the founder of a polling company, the books are always filled with interesting charts, graphs, polls, trivia and material for illustrations. Beyond the statistical use, however, I have not been a fan of Barna’s ideas and philosophies of ministry. […]
Church History in Plain Language
This is a 1995 edition of the 500 page book (Word Pub) by Shelley, professor of church history at Denver Seminary. Once I got over the initial change of reading history written in a more relaxed style, I enjoyed and learned a lot from the book. There were times when I would have wanted the […]
Members In Particular
The sacrifice of selfish privacy which is daily demanded of us is daily repaid a hundredfold in the true growth of personality which the life of the Body encourages. Those who are members of one another become as diverse as the hand and the ear. That is why the worldlings are so monotonously alike compared […]
The Purpose Driven Church
Rick Warren is the pastor of the Saddleback Valley Community Church in Orange County, CA., an SBC church. The church has grown to over 10,000 in attendance in fifteen years of existence. Although Warren says the book is about church health, not church growth (p. 17), it is no doubt a church growth book as […]
The Tragedy of Compromise
I just received this 1994 book in the mail from a good friend. This is a review of the twentieth century from the early Liberal-Fundamental battles to the “marketing” battles today. Pickering has first-hand knowledge of many of the foremost figures in these controversies. Having seen all the water go under the bridge, Pickering is […]
The Master’s Plan for the Church
This is a 1991 Moody Press book which is a remake of an earlier Study Notes titled, The Anatomy of a Church. If, ten years ago, you thought MacArthur was a radical on church polity, you may see him today as a forthright conservative. Though differing with him in some matters of Baptist distinctives, MacArthur […]
The Coming Evangelical Crisis
The sub-title to this timely volume is, “current challenges to the authority of scripture and the gospel.” Like other Moody books of this kind, this 1996 book is a compilation of articles by men of a Reformed or conservative Evangelical persuasion. They include R.C. Sproul, John MacArthur, Michael Horton and others. This reads much like […]