Vintage Church

Vintage Church sets up to be the continuation of where Vintage Jesus left off. Vintage Jesus upset some people as they thought that Driscoll took too many liberties in describing who Jesus was. Although I disagree with them, it is hard for me to see where those same people will have issue with this book. This book is set up to be an open an honest discussion of what the church is. At some point, if you are a pastor of a church, you will be challenged by Driscoll and Breshears and even rubbed the wrong way in their description of what a church should look like.

This is not because they are purposely trying to demean churches, but they are taking the modern church and testing them to Scripture. Driscoll himself even shows in some places that he wishes that they were better at, or where they have corrected Mars Hill over the years. Again, this is exactly what makes Driscoll so attractive, he is honest with his mistakes while pointing out others. He hammers on emergent church designs and also the traditional fundamental churches, to make sure they return to the true calling of the church as a whole.

What I believe this book will turn out to be is a handbook for church planters or those who are desiring to test what they are doing within their churches. The book is set up like the others that Driscoll has done in recent years. Meaning, he puts forth a topic through the Scriptures and culture and then Breshears answers commonly asked questions on that topic of the chapter. Vintage Church sets up everything from answering questions on preaching, ordinances and church discipline to how to utilize technology as a church. This book is very practical and reminds me of "The Deliberate Church" by Mark Dever and Paul Alexander. The difference is that Driscoll and Breshears cover more ground and looks more into the culture and missional aspects of the church.

In the end, the readers for this book will be pastors and elders, and not as many congregants will enjoy this book like they did with Vintage Jesus. This doesn't make the book bad, it just makes it targeted. I felt that the book was really a grown up version of Confessions of a Reformissional Rev. That book told the story of the beginning of Mars Hill, and this tells the current story. This is my only "gripe" with this book is that it seems to more of a polemic for the current way that Mars Hill is doing things. So, when you get to topics like "What is a Missional Church" and "What is a Multi Site Church" the descriptions are more of what Mars Hill is doing and less of a general look into these topics. But, should I really expect anything less of a book written by a pastor who believes (as do I for the most part) his church is doing the correct mission of Christ?

I also did enjoy the reminders to big churches that not all churches should be big, and the reminder to small churches, that not all churches should be small. Criticism of each other usually comes from each side of the issue, but Driscoll and Breshears really exhort each one to do the calling that Christ has called them to. But, because Driscoll's church is huge, some of his practical wisdom on how to live out church are going to fly over the head of those pastors in small churches. Some of the things discussed in technology and multi site are just not going to be able to be utilized by small churches. This is fine though, because the book is for all to read, not just big churches or small churches.

Although this book could have been titled, "Vintage Mars Hill" or "Confessions: Part II", the book delivers a very good understanding of the church. My favorite part of the entire book was simply, "What is a Christian Church?" Driscoll puts to shame those who believe that online churches, or coffee shop churches are true churches. Driscoll walks through what a church should include to be a true Vintage, or Scriptural, church. I very much enjoyed this description so that one does not get together with a friend for coffee and call it church, or a church gets off target and loses focus of what a church should encompass.

If you are a church planter, or one that is about to engage in new church plant, pick up this book. If you are a leader in a church that is looking to restructure or desire to test yourself to make sure that you are a biblical church, pick up this book. If you are a dated church that desires to reach today's generation, pick up this book. You will not be disappointed. I would also highly recommend that one pick up The Deliberate Church and The Master's Plan for the Church
alongside Vintage Church for great study and great resources on the Christian church according to Jesus. Highly Recommended.

Link to Buy

Crossway

Westminster Books

Simple Church

When I started to read this book, I had absolutely no grounds for either thinking I would love the book or hate the book. I just wanted to read it. I actually had never heard of it as I am not a Senior Pastor, but what caught my attention is the desire to see our church focus on what God has the church here for. Not our programs, events, etc. but just literally..."Why did God leave the church here on this earth?" I thought this book would aid in this understanding.

What is interesting is a lot more study and data went into this book than I had really thought. From the sounds of it they had over 400 churches do surveys, they went and spoke to different church leaders in both person and over the phone (from what I can gather). This truly was a big deal. The whole basis of this book is to see what "kind" of churches are surviving our post Christian era. The reason this thought came to mind is that Eric Geiger had started to take a simpler model for his own church that he is the Executive Pastor at and see if they had "caught on to something."

This book is very well written on how to get your church from a busy program oriented church to a more simple focused church on what the church feels as though Christ has called them to be. Here is what I mean. It is a top down approach instead of a bottom up approach. You are to start with the process that new converts/new members are to start at in the church and bring them through to maturing believers in Christ. Whatever you believe this looks like in steps you need to start there first. So, an example might be that you believe everyone should "Know Jesus, then start maturing in their faith, serving God and then seeking the lost" then you should design everything you do to correspond with each one of those steps. If one of your programs doesn't fit, then throw it out. It might be hard at first, but this is to really keep the church on mission. Also, if you have too many programs for one of the steps, it needs to be thrown out as well. This is meant to stop churches from doing a lot of things mediocre to doing a smaller amount of things very well. This is the very basic idea of this book. But I just hit on the tip of the ice berg.

While I believe the book is well written and well documented I believe that they would like their stats to be better than they actually are. When they sent out the surveys they had statements and had the church leader respond with, "Strongly Disagree, Disagree, Mildly Disagree, Mildly Agree, Agree, Strongly Agree." They then took the stats and wrote a book based on each finding.

Here is my issue with some of the stats. They aren't constant and not very overwhelming at places. They aren't constant because when the leaders responded weakly to a question they might include, "We found that vibrant churches agreed to some degree to the following 'X' amount of the time." When the leaders responded strongly then they would say something like, "We found that vibrant churches agreed or strongly agreed to following 'X' amount of time." So, the findings were all over the board in some instances. This didn't happen much, but enough to catch my attention.

The other thing that I found odd, was that they were overly impressed with a statement even if only a minority of the vibrant church leaders agreed with a statement. Let me give you an example:

We asked church leaders if they have a system in place to evaluate if people are progressing through their process. Of the vibrant churches 27% strongly agreed or agreed with this compared to 9% of the comparison churches. Vibrant church leaders agreed or strongly agreed three times that of comparison church leaders that they measure the effectiveness of their process.

This means that 73% of the vibrant churches weren't "sold" that this was important but this is supposed to wow me because it is three times that of comparison churches? Not really. This was discouraging that this was thought to be overwhelming evidence on some of these questions.

With all that said. This book is still very very good. I really enjoyed the practicality of the book and the effort that Eric and Thom put into to find what is being put into place in churches across America. I actually fully believe in what they are talking about, I just don't believe what they have to say about every single question asked is as overwhelming as they would like us to believe. This happened a lot in the book, but it wasn't the focus of the book, so I can look past it.

I would really recommend this to any church that feels as though they are doing a lot, but accomplishing nothing. Lots of programs, but few converts and few people being changed for the glory of God. Very easy read, very practical and something that you won't look to and say, "impossible." Highly Recommended

Link to Buy

What is a Healthy Church Member?

This book put out by Thabiti Anyabwile called, "What is a Healthy Church Member?" is a very short book and not terribly "deep" in theology. Neither one of these is a hindrance to this book, but actually very accomadoting. The reason I say this is because you can literally give this to anyone in your congregation and they will have no reason to say no. It isn't gonig to be over their head, as it is very practical and straight forward, and it won't take up much of their time, as it is only 114 pages and the pages are only 5" x 4".

The book is part of 9 Marks Ministries and is an extension of Dever's "9 Marks of a Healthy Church."

The topics in this book are as follows (every chapter starts with, "A Healthy Church Member is...):

An Expositional Listener

A Biblical Theologian

Gospel Saturated

Genuinely Converted

A Biblical Evangelist

A Committed Member

Seeks Discipline
A Growing Disciple

A Humble Follower

A Prayer Warrior

If you are good at math or you can count like a horse, you will notice that there are ten marks and not nine. Anyabwile says that he gives the last as an "extra" for us readers, and I was thankful.

This book is very practical and the chapter titles might look overwhelming at first, but they really are put forth in a very well balanced manner and are very challenging for everyone from the Pastor, layman or congregant.

Anyabwile states the following:

This little book is written in the hope that you might discover or rediscover what it means to be a healthy church member of a local church, and what it means to contribute to the overall health of the church

I think that Anyabwile did just that as it really is a challenge to all who set foot in church each Lord's Day.

I would highly recommend this to read and then to hand out afterwards to any member in your church. Link to Buy

The Deliberate Church

This is a great handbook for any preacher. It is seriously a handbook for the church. It gives great reminders and ideas for those that have been in a church for years and for those who have either just planted a church or that have taken over the reigns as lead pastor. Some of the greatest advice in the book focuses not only on the theological implications of the different methodologies in the church but in exactly how to implement different things in churches so that you don't scare off the sheep.

This book is amazing in its practical instruction on certain issues, even the particulars of how to run an elders meeting. So, it is truly designed for use throughout one's ministry and to be used almost as an encyclopedia of sorts of a "how to" for the local church. The book is broken up into four parts:

Part I: Gathering the Church

In general this section focuses on expository preaching, prayer, missions, membership and discipline

Part II: When the Church Gathers

This section focuses on worship and the regulative principle of worship, the ordinances, the role of the pastor, etc.

Part III: Gathering Elders

This section focuses on things such as the biblical mandate for elders, the searching for those men, staffing, etc.

Part IV: When the Elders Gather

This section is very practical and walks through how Dever's church handles elder meetings and the role of the lead pastor in those meetings. Very practical.

All in all this is a great book. I do not agree with every aspect of it, but those that I don't agree with I never felt as though Dever was "pushing his convictions" but was just putting them forth. This is great to see a man of God just showing the way their church do things without purporting it as the ONLY way, but A way. Very encouraging to see and more understanding of why Dever has been so successful in starting and maintaining the ministry of "Together for the Gospel" with others that don't see eye to eye with him on every aspect of the non-essentials.

I would very much like to see this book on the top of every list of books that pastors are ready and wanting to read. Very much needed book when the next great "how to grow your church no matter what" is probably just around another corner. Link to Buy

Radical Reformission: Reaching Out Without Selling Out

Loved it. I have given Mark Driscoll a hard time in the past but I can tell you he is starting to change how I look at the culture and Jesus Christ, in a good way. The thing I like the most about Pastor Driscoll is that he does not water down the gospel or theology in any way to reach the lost, but instead focuses on going to where the lost are instead of waiting for them to walk through the church doors.

He walks through many things in this book, but the main theme is making sure that we are Hudson Taylor's here in the states and also to understand that sin is not contagious, you can't catch it like a cold. He walks you through how Christ lived and was around sinners so much that people, the religious people, called Him "glutenous and a drunkard." Mark tells the story of him running into one of the men that was crucial in his conversion, where the man reveals that he is gay. Mark then asks the man to visit the church again and the man balks by saying, "Why should I go to your establishment when you would never set foot in one of mine?" So Mark takes the challenge and goes to a gay bar with the man. Please don't judge this story until you read it and see the outcome of it. Because to be honest, it shook me up and brought me to my knees in repentance of thinking, "I would never be seen there!" Part of me was revealed that I was one of the religious people calling Christ, "a gluten and a drunkard."

We must engage sinners with the gospel where they are! We don't engage in their sin, but we must engage the sinner. That is what this book is about, engaging the culture because the culture is where the sinners are.

Please read this book no matter your perspective on ecclesiology as it will at least open your eyes to those around you a little more. There is some course jokes as usual from Pastor Driscoll, some funny, some a little tough to swallow, but get past that and see the content. I would highly recommend this book. Link to Buy

MIssion Minded

This little guide book is one that should be of good help to any pastors and/or elders looking to see some different ways to think about our "mission" as churches. I didn't really know what to expect as I started the book and the author seems to think a lot like people like Driscoll and Chandler, which for me, is a good thing.

Peter Bolt describes what we should not be: a church so stuck in our traditional ways of doing "church" that we don't think of other ways for the members to reach the community. I know what your thinking, "is this another seeker mentality?" I would say, yes, but in a good way. The author is not telling us ways to change the Lord's Day service, but asking us to think on how we use our members to reach our community throughout the week. The author even makes a case for expositional preaching instead of topical.

This is a very practical book where the author even lays out worksheets to provide helps for the pastor to take a look at the people and programs of the church to find the holes that need to be filled, and the places where we spend way too much of our time. Showing even how to find the people that are appropriate for different ministries within and outside the church.

I was pleasantly surprised and would tell readers to at least pick up this little guide book so that we can at least think more about what we are doing in and out each week as we seek to serve our living God. Link to Buy

Listening to the Beliefs of Emerging Churches

I was pretty apprehensive about reading this book. I really didn't know what to expect and didn't know really what the approach was going to be with this book. To be honest, the only reason that I picked up the book is because I went to the Resurgence Conference and Mark Driscoll was one of the contributors. I am glad I didn't "judge" Driscoll for being a part of this book before I read this, because I thought he was distancing himself from the people that contributed to this book. After reading, let's just say that Driscoll is definitely NOT a part of what is commonly known as the Emergent church and he is really a lot different than those a part of the wider used term, "emerging church."

The only thing that I got from this book, besides Driscoll admonishing the other contributors (Burke, Kimball, Pagitt, Ward), is to make sure that our theology is put into practice. I can say that it did make me think from that perspective. Outside of that, this book was very shallow and far from, and I mean FAR FROM, biblical ecclesiology. Mark Driscoll had to continually "exhort sound doctrine" to these other "pastors" and return them to the Scriptures. Driscoll was the only pastor that truly held to Sola Scriptura, while the others look more to our culture and those around them to form their ecclesiology, orthopraxy, and most dangerous: orthodoxy.

The two "pastors" that people need to really be warned of is Doug Pagitt and Karen Ward. They are far from Christendom (which they would admit and happily accept) and should not be given an ear to listen to. Burke and Kimball were on the edge but still held to the complete authority of Scripture, although I would definitely not adhere to a lot of the ways that they practice their theology and more specifically, their ecclesiology.

Again, Driscoll was the lone bright spot and because of the far reaching post-modern ideas of the other contributors, Driscoll sounded like John MacArthur more than an emerging pastor. Througout the discussion, just when you thought Driscoll was getting "soft" he "brought it" again.

As far as the frame of the book, it is set up to give each "pastor" a chapter with the other four being able to respond to that pasor's contribution. The original intent was for each author to show their thoughts on the Trinity, the atonement and Scripture. I found only Driscoll's chapter to be the only one who "followed the rules." But, what else should we expect from these emerging leaders? The sad thing is that since the authors were so shallow, Driscoll was forced to defend basic orthodoxy and wasn't able to give a great in depth study or defense of the above said topics.

If you would like to read about these different views on the emerging church, I guess it is okay to read, but it is just so messed up as far as their thinking on how church should be run that it is hard for me to recommend. I am glad I read it so that I could see that Driscoll is NOT Emergent in any way. He is far from Pagitt and McLaren and should be seen as the lone bright spot out of these that contributed to the book.

Please be discerning if you pick this book up and like a Berean, test all teachings to Scripture.

Link to Buy.

Confessions of a Reformission Rev.

This book was one that I was pretty excited to read. Not because of me wanting to be emerging or anything of the sort, but I just wanted to know more of the man who has been instrumental in turning many young people to Christ up here in the Seattle area. Although, I used to go to his church for a little while back in the early 2000's I still knew very little of Mark Driscoll or the history of Mars Hill.

Much has been written about him, mostly against him in conservative circles for his association with the emergent movement. I will tell you that this book does clear up anybody's thinking that he is still involved with the emergent movement, for he is far from that movement and mindset, which I was surprised of. The reason I say this is that he calls out Brian McClaren, and those in his circle, with their wrong views of Scripture

This book is the story of not just Driscoll, actually very little about the man Driscoll and more about the church Mars Hill, from beginning, up to the time of the book (2006) and even included some things they were hoping to implement. I actually came to this book very skeptical of his tactics and not knowing at all his "goals" in ministry. What I came out believing about Driscoll is a high respect for his love of the lost. This is evident: Mark Driscoll loves the Lord Jesus Christ with all his heart, soul and mind, and truly loves his neighbor as himself. I would hope no one would deny this.

As far as his "tactics" or "strategies" in place, I find them a bit edgy, and I think Driscoll would take that as a compliment. Driscoll talks much of having a certain number of attendees as his goal and he seek(ed)(s) how the best way to achieve these numbers are possible. He admits in the book that he spoke to many people on this subject, from pastors like Rick Warrren to people who study secular organizations. This part of the book is what discouraged me in that the numbers were so very important to him. What did not discourage me is that his goal was not to have "fluffy" Christians, but truly Christ following, missionary minded Christians. Which again makes me separate him from the seeker movement and people like Finney, from the Second Great Awakening.

Although I disagree with his thoughts on how to reach the lost, and even calls my method of handing out tracts "silly," I will say that I respect him that he truly wants to see true repentance from the lost city around him.

If you pick up this book you will be challenged to love the lost around you, but what I fear is the method that is taking place at Mars Hill. Some of his theology I have a hard time with (prophetic dreams) and also his courseness, not only in his jokes but also his speaking to those that he serves with and is called to shepherd.

If you are truly interested in understanding Mars Hill and Mark Driscoll, this is a must read that will allow you to understand him from his mouth not others. But, that does not mean that I agree with his implement strategies. Link to buy

Pulpit Crimes

This book reminded me a lot of the style that was done in Steve Lawson's book, Made in Our Image. Meaning, James White hits a lot of topics without going into a lot of depth. Which is fine, because that was his intent, just don't think you are going to get a thorough look at each "Pulpit Crime" in this book.

James White hits topics such as expository preaching, worship music, seeker churches, pluralism, homosexuality, mishandling of the ordinances, women "pastors" and others. I really enjoyed White's discussion on those who water down the Gospel to being nothing more than "a" plan instead of "the" plan of salvation. He really makes sure the reader understands the danger of not preaching the absolute truth of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The one topic that he covered that I really enjoyed was his chapter on, "Felonious Eisegesis." It went through the dangers of not only the word faith movement, but also those traditions that are held so close to the vest by a lot of us in our denominations or doctrine. He did a great job of allowing the reader to understand that we all have "traditions" that can sometimes guide our exegesis of Scripture. When looking at a sub-heading called, "Tradition Trafficking," you would expect that to be a chapter about the Roman Catholic church, but the entire part of this chapter was devoted to our protestant traditions allowing our interpretation of Scripture. I found this very interesting and he used the story of him and Dave Hunt to show his arguments for his case.

The one thing that I did not like at first, but understood by the end, is that James White does not "name names." He does this so that the book doesn't become "dated" because of the names mentioned. We have seen this happen with MacArthur's "Charismatic Chaos" when in actuality the book is very much for today, but gets little mention because it is "dated because of those mentioned." I mentioned above, Dave Hunt, but James White does not name his name but I am very familiar with his discussions in the past so I was able to pick up the "unmentioned person" that Dr. White was talking about.

Again, very good book as a "fly-by" on a lot of topics. If you would like an in depth book on the exegesis of preaching itself, I would recommend Lawson's "Famine in the Land" instead. But, that was not this books intent and for that I can definitely recommend and probably will read again sometime in the future. Link to Buy

Family Worship

This little pamphlet from Donald Whitney is a great little read. It goes over the importance of returning the spiritual leadership and discernment to the home by the father and/or husband.

Whitney goes through Family Worship in the history of the Bible, Church and modern day denonminations. This book, or better put, pamphlet, is crucial for your family if you are not currently doing a time of worship with your family daily.

Whitney outlines how to do Family Worship, from the studying of Scripture, singing, prayer, catechizing and memorization of Scripture. He helps outline a specific time depending on the family structure, whether you are married w/o children, with young children, older children, grown children, and divorced families with single moms.

I highly recommend this small little pamphlet on the issue, and highly commend our brothers in the Presbyterian and Reformed traditions who remain to keep this as one of the heights of their duties. Following is a quote from the book on the Presbyterian's demand for this daily worship:

If the father failed (in not doing family worship), they were to be
admonished privately. And for any husband or father who continued to neglect his
spiritual responsibility to his family, The Directory of Family Worship gave
these instructions:

He is to be gravely and sadly reproved by the session(that is,
the elders); after which reproof, if he be found still to neglect Family-worship,
let him be, for his obstinacy in such an offence, suspended and debarred from the
Lord's supper, as being justly esteemed unworthy to communicate therein, till he
amend.

Link to buy

The Master's Plan for the Church

Very thorough and to the point in so many aspects of the church. From backing up why a plurality of elders to church discipline. A very good read that will point the reader of what God truly wants from His church based on the biblical model set forth in the New Testament. I extremely liked the area describing the elder; his qualifications and disqualifications based on what the Greek text provides.

In the back of the book in the appendixes he then tackles questions regarding different aspects of the church, such as major questions regarding elders and deacons. He defends many topics including having one of the elders being the lead (teaching pastor) to why the elders can, but not as a rule, be paid. I would recommend this to anyone wanting to reconfirm what the Bible teaches on the church and not our traditions passed on generation upon generation. Link to buy