Purpose
Leadership Library Spotlight
by on Jan 29th, 2010 at 12:51 pm
Book: Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope that Matters
Author: Timothy Keller
If you are a follower of Christian blogdom, you would know just how far behind the ball I am on saying something about Timothy Keller’s latest work, Counterfeit Gods. Right at the turn of the decade, many Christian authors presented their “Top Books of 2009,” and Keller’s book was on virtually every list that I viewed. Therefore, I knew that it was at least worth a read.
Now, the Leadership Library’s purpose is not to review the latest and greatest, but arm you with resources that can be of use throughout your years of leadership in the home, church, and community. Nevertheless, Keller’s resource is one that will offer a healthy challenge to your own soul whenever you read it.
I think that it fits into a category along with Jerry Bridges’ Respectable Sins (coming soon) or, in a way, C. S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters. In each of these works, the authors expose us to the subtle ways in which we rebel against God. Whether it is Lewis’ Uncle Screwtape’s advice on how to lead a Christian astray, Bridges’ attack against the more “acceptable” offenses against God’s rule, or Keller’s refusal to let our priorities escape the worthy title of idolatry, the point remains the same: Is God our all? Do we truly wish to serve Him and Him above all else?
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...Of Whom The World Was Not Worthy...
by on Feb 24th, 2010 at 12:19 am
Have you ever had a day where you started it with a definitive plan only to have something take place that completely changed what you did for the rest of it? Maybe it happens when you come down with a sudden illness. Maybe a phone call with news from home changes the trajectory of your day. Often, these types of days are deemed “bad” because they contain some traumatizing element to them, and that is what happened to me today. It was what I would call a divine interruption because I didn’t ask for it, didn’t want it when it happened, and God wouldn’t let me rest from it even though there was work, good work, to be done with the hours that remained in the day.
I have a regular online reading routine that contains a few dozen websites. Normally, I check these sites in the morning and leave them until the next day. If I don’t discipline myself in this way, I would spend an unhealthy amount of time waiting for new articles to sprout throughout the day. However, one article surfaced on my Google Reader and I checked it out, figuring that one little peak wouldn’t hurt.
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Leadership Library Spotlight
by on Aug 26th, 2010 at 10:12 pm
Book: The Masculine Mandate: God’s Calling to Men
Author: Richard D. Phillips
“That is the Masculine Mandate: to be spiritual men placed in real-world, God-defined relationships, as lords and servants under God, to bear God’s fruit by serving and leading.” p. 9
Many Christian books on manhood will offer descriptions of what real men are supposed to do, but they fail to construct a prescriptive idea of who a man is supposed to be. Readers are given a treatment on rules, regulations, and behaviors without a proper understanding of why these rules, regulations, and behaviors should even exist and how they work together to form a man.
Fortunately, Richard D. Phillips attempts to avoid this mistake by concentrating on the reasons for man and the elements that form him. In this book, Phillips bases his definition of manhood on the first man, Adam, and the initial mandate that God gave to this initially sinless person. His reason for existence is directly linked to the fact that he bears the image of God. Man is, therefore, to rule over the world and cultivate its resources in a way that would demonstrate who God is to this same world.
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Leadership Library Spotlight
by on Sep 17th, 2010 at 12:01 am
Book: The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism
Author: Timothy Keller
“Whether your consider yourself a believer or a skeptic, I invite you to seek the same kind of honesty and to grow in an understanding of the nature of your own doubts.” pg. xxiv
Could it be that many of the people who reject Christianity do so using one set of rules against it while employing a different set of rules for their own beliefs? Have skeptics, cynics, or aggressive opponents of Christianity been as logically fair about their own affirmations as they have their objections to the teachings of Christ? Can Christians hold to the claims of Christ and truly be consistent with logic, history, and the nature of things as they appear?
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Strive To Be Relevent, Just Don't Be Relevent
by on Sep 27th, 2010 at 10:30 pm
Relevancy is sexy nowadays. Leaders, companies, churches, and ministries all seem to want to pride themselves in their ability to be relevant. Some churches have used the term, “relevant,” as the name of their organization. Others have proclaimed their relevancy in their marketing slogans and advertisements.
However, relevancy is a relative term and I fear that churches, and the men who serve within them, are seeking a relevancy that is, in the eyes of God, completely irrelevant.
Relevancy is defined by the World English Dictionary as, “having direct bearing on the matter in hand.” This definition provides easy requirements for someone to be relevant. As long as someone speaks to the “matter in hand,” they are being relevant. However, just because something is relevant to a culture, a trend, or a moment does not mean that it is relevant to reality. Holding a discussion on the combat strategies of Captain Kirk would be relevant at a Star Trek convention, but such use of time would be completely irrelevant to the reality of life.
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Extraordinary is Overrated: Why We Need Ordinary Men
by on Oct 12th, 2010 at 12:30 am
Our culture is addicted to hype and hyperbole. Every company pretends to be more than it is. One soft drink company promises happiness instead of good-tasting cola. A popular furniture company claims to improve life itself even though they really just make affordable furniture. It seems that every network television station is launching the greatest show in television history, even though they’re ready to cancel that “groundbreaking television event” after just a few episodes if it fails to be … well … groundbreaking.
Christian churches aren’t fairing much better. We’re addicted to conferences that promise to be more than just a bunch of Christians getting together to learn how to live the Christian life more effectively. Instead, we are told to expect to be part of a culture-changing, epoch-inducing movement. We have an entire industry devoted to highlighting our rock star pastors and “extraordinary” lives of Christians (which usually means that they either A) work with famous people, B) are famous people, or C) experienced a tragedy of some kind.
We cannot really know the hearts of many of the people involved with this industry and I doubt that any of us would honestly refuse such a venue to share our testimony if it were offered to us, so my point is not to cast judgment as much as it is to point some light on the obvious reality: Christians love the extraordinary.
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Leadership Library Spotlight
by on Oct 22nd, 2010 at 12:10 am
Book: Vintage Jesus: Timeless Answers to Timely Questions
Author: Mark Driscoll & Gerry Breshears
"Sadly, it is too common for churches not to speak of Jesus, which is a tragedy akin to a wife rarely uttering the name of her own husband. In our day when there are innumerable contradictory beliefs about who God is, Christians must be clear that their God is Jesus Christ alone so as to communicate the same central truth that Scripture does. No matter how many verses are used, the Bible has not been rightly understood or proclaimed unless Jesus is the central focus and hero." p. 66
The most important question in all of existence is not the origin of the universe or the meaning of life, but the true identity of Jesus of Nazareth. The eternal state of a person’s soul is entirely determined based on one’s answer to the question of Jesus’ true identity. Therefore, the most important endeavor any person can make is to discover who Jesus is, test His claims, and decide whether or not He is worthy of receiving the full weight of one’s confidence.
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The Idolatry Of Success: Confusing The Gifts For The Giver
by on Oct 25th, 2010 at 11:10 pm
I know of few people who would claim as their life’s goal a desire to fail at whatever they do. Most of us want to be effective with the use of our time, talents, passions, and responsibilities. Part of this universal desire, I think, is rooted in our humanity since God created male and female to rule over the earth and be productive. However, a subtle danger lurks closely behind these legitimate desires of being effective, and Jesus offers the true corrective to making sure that we do not slip into committing idolatry through the love of success, even ministry success.
In Luke 10:1-20, Jesus appoints 72 men for ministry. He sends them out with clear instructions of what to do in the surrounding communities. When the disciples return, they are ecstatic and full of stories that they can’t wait to tell of witnessing demons submit to them. They witnessed real power in ministry. In 21st century America, they would be tempted to quickly write a book about their encounters and launch a “Power Conference” for pastors who want to see such dynamism in their own ministries.
Jesus reservedly rejoices with them over their ministry success. Who wouldn’t want to rejoice? The sight of such spiritual movement in the lives of communities is what causes some spiritual leaders to wake up in the morning and get back to the grind of ministry! Yet, the Lord is going to refocus their rejoicing because it is based off of something cheaper than the greatest of rewards.
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Leadership Library Spotlight
by on Oct 29th, 2010 at 1:50 am
Book: Orthodoxy
Author: G. K. Chesterton
“Therefore the modern man in revolt has become practically useless for all purposes of revolt. By rebelling against everything he has lost his right to rebel against anything.” p. 37
“A strict rule is not only necessary for ruling; it is also necessary for rebelling.” p. 105
“To the orthodox there must always be a case for revoution; for in the hearts of men God has been put under the feet of Satan. In the upper world hell once rebelled against heaven. But in this world heaven is rebelling against hell.” p. 107
Douglas Wilson once wrote, “There are two ways to measure a man by his footnotes and bibliography. One is to measure his footnotes and bibliography. The other is to measure how many footnotes and bibliographies he is likely to wind up in.” G. K. Chesterton’s Orthodoxy can be measured as one of the great books in Christian literature according to the latter standard.
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A Man And His Moment: Does It Happen Or Do We Make It Happen?
by on Nov 3rd, 2010 at 12:35 am
As a student of history, I am surprised at how often the great moments or movements in history are born from the faithfulness and not the ambition of man.
This past Sunday, Christians had reason to celebrate as we marked the 493rd anniversary of Martin Luther’s launch of the Reformation. Of course, the dirty little secret is that Martin Luther didn’t nail his 95 Theses to the Wittenberg church doors with the intention of launching a new denomination or religious movement. He was a man who saw inconsistencies with Scripture and the practices of the Roman Catholic Church, and he sought to bring a correction to that disparity. Ideally, the church would have responded to Luther by making the necessary corrections and he would not have to leave Roman Catholicism. In other words, the revolution he started was accidental (from a human perspective). He was just trying to be faithful to Scripture and was eventually pushed to the point of no return.
Luther’s “moment,” which still reverberates throughout the world today, was not the result of a man’s ambition to “be something.” He is not alone among the great influencers of Christian history. Augustine made the mistake of attending a single church service in the North African city of Hippo when the church appointed him to pastoral ministry. Augustine, the great pastor/bishop of Hippo, is known for his faithful administration of a ministry that he did not seek and only hesitantly accepted out of a desire to be faithful to God and His people.