Rob Bell Love Wins- a few thoughts

I have just finished reading" Love Wins" Rob Bell's latest book that has stirred up huge debate among Christians
Plenty of people have written proper reviews so I won't attempt that but simply give a few impressions

• It is  a small book to have caused such a big fuss.a mere 198 pages,it would have been even less if the type was not so spread out over the page, I guess to make it more visually attractive, and easier to read
• Rob Bell is a very readable writer with a neat turn of phrase He is a good story teller ,not in my view as good as Max Lucado but still very good.
• The book is full of quotations and stories from the Bible.It challenges our neatly worked out theologies and points us back to The Book and makes us consider afresh what some well known verses really mean-.that can only be good.
• Love Wins is also full of questions. .Provocative questions, dozens of them ,forcing us to think, which since we are also to love God with our minds is surely not a bad thing!
• The book contains wonderful and biblical statements about the amazing love of God.It really made me think again about the awesome strength of God's love for human beings. The message that God loves his creation so much that refuses to give up on us, forms the core of Bell’s book. 

Having said all that it appears, to me at least, that Rob has strayed beyond orthodox evangelical statements of faith and, if not into universalism, at least into pluralism,and I part company with his views at that point.

That is no reason not to get and read the book.

Rather than dismissing Rob Bell and "Love Wins" out of hand and in some case without reading the book  and even worse impugning his motives for writing the book as some leading  Christians have done,it is surely more profitable to engage with his arguments and above all wrestle with the Bible

 His critics may not be as good story tellers as Rob Bell but I suspect they would be better than him at disciplined exegesis of the Bible if they put their minds to it.

Bonhoeffer- pastor,martyr ,prophet,spy

Bonhoeffer  by Eric Metaxas, is an excellent biography of an incredible and inspiring man. Here was someone  who, at huge personal risk stood up with cold and calculated courage against the Nazi state that  ruled  Germany in the 1930's and early 40's and in the end paid for his resistance with his life.

The great heroes of western evangelicals in the twentieth century were great preachers like Billy Graham and John Stott and Martyn Lloyd Jones.

Bonhoeffer was largely ignored by evangelicals, perhaps because they wrongly regarded him as unsound, perhaps because he was certainly involved in the plot to kill Adolph Hitler, perhaps because liberal Christians have claimed him as one of their own.

 However as Metaxas himself says Bonhoeffer “was as orthodox as Saint Paul or Isaiah, from his teen years all the way to his last day on earth."

I will not attempt a review of the book, but it does document chapter by chapter, both the  terrible evil which Hitler and the Nazis were capable of, and the courage, inspired by God, that Bonhoeffer demonstrated in the face of that evil and while being oppressed by it.

Things that struck me about Bonhoeffer were;

• His deep devotional life based around prayer and meditating on God’s word, alone and with others.  That was where he got his strength from.
• His courage to speak truth even if it was unpalatable.
• His relationships with other Christians from many parts of the world, which undoubtedly informed his ministry, and gave him a much wider perspective on Christianity than many of his contemporaries.
• His insistence that Christianity is not simply something to be conducted among consenting adults in private but something to be proclaimed in the public sphere, to everyone including the powers that be -Jesus is Lord!
• His emphasis on discipleship.
• His willingness to suffer for the sake of others.

Bonhoeffer was executed  in 1945,within weeks of the end of the war, but there are  lessons  the church  today can learn from him 

If you haven’t read it I commend the book to you it is well worth reading.Metaxas has done the church a service in reminding us of this great man.

5 books that have inspired me in 2010

Its the time of year for lists Lists are actually quite a useful way of reflecting on what has happened in the last year so I am starting with my top 5 books that have inspired me this year

Missional Renaissance by Reggie McNeal.There is a lot of confusion between terms like emerging church and missional church. Reggie describes what he means by missional church..It is thoroughly orthodox,and radically evangelistic . I am convinced Reggie is on the right lines when he suggests the kind of changes that churches need to make if we are to be faithful to the gospel of Jesus Christ in the 21st century and make an impact on our post modern world.

William Wilberforce by William Hague

It is striking that the best biographies of great evangelicals are often written by those who do not share their evangelical faith,(for example Roy Hattersley's biography of John Wesley.) Hague's work on Wilberforce falls into the same category.It is well researched; sympathetic without being sycophantic ,shows a great grasp of how Wilberforce's faith motivated his entire life and demonstrates the huge difference just one committed person can make

Surprised by Hope by NT Wright

One of Wrights gifts is to force readers to engage with the biblical texts .Often he demonstrates, to me at least ,that the Bible doesn't always say what we think it says, but something else! Keep a bible nearby to refer to when you read this book In Surprised by Hope  Wright  articulates a gospel and hope for so much more than disembodied bliss.Wright thinks biblical hope is not for an escape from this earth, but to the glorious day when God will make all things new. Well worth reading to get what  one reviewer has called "a biblical perspective on life after life after death" The Peoples Preacher CH Spurgeon   by Peter Morden  . Peters book is not only a good read but also presents Charles Spurgeon as a more rounded human being who suffered from depression among other things The book taught me  4 lessons from Spurgeon's life; a passion for prayer ,a passion for the Bible,a passion for evangelism and above all these a passion for Jesus and honouring him in word and in deed! Untamed- -reactivating a missional form of discipleship by Alan and Debra Hirsch This is a book on discipleship.It  is a challenge to, and a protest against, the tame discipleship that passes for christianity in much of the western world. In my view it is not as good as "The Forgotten Ways" but is illustrated with wonderful asbojesus cartoons and in the last chapter contains the best retelling of the Kierkegaard parable of the geese I have ever read.One quote sums the book up quite well " As disciples we are called to an untamed existence.....we are meant to live wild and dangerous lives....instead \we have allowed ourselves to be dulled into a life of mediocrity where the only wild adventures we take are in our dreams" If you have read any of the books mentioned, and have comments to make, please feel free to do so.

Spurgeon!

A beautiful day and a bank holiday!

Among other things I have been reading my friend Peter Morden's book on CH Spurgeon.Peter was kind enough to give me a signed copy when he came to preach at our church yesterday.

Spurgeon was an impressive guy and I have always thought he must have been a rather an intimidating figure . Peters book is not only a good read but also presents Charles Spurgeon as a more rounded human being who suffered from depression among other things

The book also points out Spurgeons relevance for today and 4 lessons I have learned again

from Spurgeon a passion for prayer ,a passion for the Bible,a passion for evangelism and above all these a passion for Jesus and honouring him in word and in deed!

I commend the book to you! I should not I am sure have got as far as I have with this blog without mentioning Spuregon before

New sermon series

In the new year we are starting a new and very important sermon series about what it really means to be a missional church
The clue to which book we will chiefly be focussing on is in the title of the series The Forgotten Ways !
I hope at least a few people will take time to read at least one book on this important subject !

Total Church

I have been reading a lot of books recently ,as I have been thinking about what it means to be a 21st century church .There is masses of good stuff out there ,which has influenced my thinking and inspired some ideas

One of the best books I have read on church in the last year (and believe me I read a lot on the church!) is Total Church by Steve Timmis and Tim Chester

Here is the publishers blurb

"Total Church pleads for two key principles for church and mission. First, the gospel as content: being word-centred (for the gospel is truth) and being mission-centred (for the gospel is truth to be proclaimed). Secondly, the community as context: sharing our lives as Christians and offering a place of belonging to unbelievers.
Authors Tim Chester and Steve Timmis apply these principles to church planting, evangelism, apologetics, social involvement, leadership, discipleship, pastoral care, world mission and notions of success. They critique current trends within the church, arguing that emerging church movements are strong on community but weak on truth, while conservative evangelicalism is strong on truth but weak on community. Their call is a call for the best of both.
This is a timely and provocative book which deserves to be read and applied"

This is not primarily a devotional book, but (with one or two quibbles) I would say the writers have captured the essence of New Testament church and its pretty inspirational.

Why not put it in your case and read it on your holidays ?

Available from Amazon and loads of other places! (and no I am not on commission!)