"The Road Ahead" by Paul Chappell

Earlier this year, my wife and I had the opportunity to attend the Spiritual Leadership Conference at Lancaster Baptist Church in California. I had heard a few of Pastor Paul Chappell's recorded sermons, and I had even read one or two of his books. West Coast Baptist College was one of the institutions I had considered attending when I graduated high school.

But to be there at the church was quite an experience. It is very clear that the church has a lot of energy and passion for evangelism and for ministering to their community. The conference was excellent in so many ways! While I was there, I picked up this book (and a few dozen more...).

One thing I've learned about Paul Chappell is that he has an extremely fresh and soundly biblical perspective on ministry. He lies somewhere between old-school fundamentalism and the new breed of independent Baptist churches (such as some of the newer BBF churches - at least, from what I've seen in our neck of the woods). He is very hard to label without strictly defining (or RE-defining) the labels you are trying to stick on him. So, some of what he says in this book may catch you off-guard.

This book is a challenge to - and an honest evaluation of - the independent Baptist movement. He challenges us to shed some of our long-held (but grossly unbiblical, and border-line sinful) ideas about ministry, pastoring, and our relationships to other churches and Christians. It is no secret that the word "fundamentalist" gives us an automatic black-eye in the eyes of some in our culture. How are we to evangelize in such an environment? How can we present the love and grace in the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ while so many see the name "Baptist" as indicative of intolerance, bigotry, and hypocrisy? There have been too many preachers filled with anger and pride, and too many moral failures have been covered up and mishandled.

With a strong plea to rally around the unchanging Word of God, Pastor Chappell gives some very helpful advice for independent Baptist pastors as we look to the future of our movement. He also includes some very interesting information on the history of the independent Baptists - some of which I'd read before, but some of it was new to me.

Paul Chappell writes with sincerity, Godly wisdom, and a love for the truth. He also has a passion for the men and women in ministry. This book was encouraging and convicting, stirring and sobering.

If you are (or if you have a friend or loved one who is) a young independent Baptist preacher, who perhaps is wrestling with the idea of being "branded" as one of "those Indie-Fundies", and is considering leaving the movement or dropping "Baptist" in their church's name - this book is a must read. There is hope.

I thank God for men like Paul Chappell who look beyond the idols of personalities and the petty conflicts regarding methodology. Let's get back to the real heart of ministry. Fantastic book.

"What Love is This?" by Dave Hunt

Dave Hunt was a tremendous Bible teacher. He passed away in April of this year (2013). As I read this book, it became clear to me that this man had a passion for the Word of God. The amount of research that went into this book is absolutely astounding. I have read more "technical" theological books that weren't as well-researched and had much shorter bibliographies - and far fewer footnotes. There were literally at least 50 or so footnotes per chapter!

Dave Hunt tackled the sticky problem of Calvinism not in order to start a fight, but to expose the true roots of Calvinism (the Roman Catholic church) and to present the Biblical evidence that shows so strongly against it. After seeing the history of the doctrines of Calvinism, as well as the shockingly evil behaviors and heretical beliefs of a few of it's earliest adherents (John Calvin, Martin Luther, and St. Augustine), one wonders how ANY Bible-believing Christian could call themselves after the name of such heretics.

The sheer volume of verses in the Bible that the Calvinist is forced to re-interpret to fit the points of TULIP should be the first warning. Why not let the Bible speak for itself? Why "wrest" it to say anything? The weakness of the Calvinism framework is clearly exposed. Their web of strange doctrines fails to hold up under scrutiny. Dave Hunt does a SUPERB job of reviewing all 5 points of traditional Calvinism, and demolishing their presuppositions with the plain teaching of Scripture.

He uses HUNDREDS of quotes of prominent Calvinists' own writings in order to accurately represent their beliefs. He also does not shy away from the very tough Scriptures that are favorites of Calvinists to support their views. But, as you can see in this book, even in these tough passages there is NO Biblical support for 5-point Calvinism. This was important to me - because some of these very verses have troubled me for years. Calvinism seemed to lack the ring of truth to me, but these verses were very thorny; and I had no explanation for some of them.

Dave Hunt also took the noble and honorable step of letting some of his Calvinist friends review the early manuscript so they could correct him if he caricatured Calvinism wrongly. He included many of their critiques, and answered them accordingly.

This book is not nearly as technical as "Whosoever Will", which I reviewed here. But the use of Scripture in "What Love is This" was, in my opinion, more compelling than the arguments in "Whosoever Will".

If you have wondered about some of those troubling Bible passages, or if you have not come to a decision about Calvinism, then read Dave Hunt's book. Calvinism will be seen as an atrocious - and blasphemous - heresy.

The only negative is that much of the book is repetitive - because the 5 points of Calvinism are all contingent on each other, so many of the Scriptures and arguments show up in several places. But as a resource, this book is priceless.

I thank God for courageous and godly men like Dave Hunt who teach the Bible with simplicity and power. I pray that God will raise up more men like him.

"Love Worth Finding: The Life of Adrian Rogers and His Philosophy of Preaching" by Joyce Rogers

As I said in my review of his book, Unveiling the End Times in Our Time, there is no preacher that I respect more than Adrian Rogers. If possible, that respect increased after reading this book.
This book was written mostly by Joyce Rogers (Adrian's wife), although there is an interview-style section at the end that is mostly Adrian's words. Keep in mind that this book was also written before he passed away. In fact, it was written as a sort of tribute to him towards the end of their time in the pastorate at Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis.
So, with the aforementioned information in mind, there is only one minor criticism of the book. It is not terribly detailed as a biography. Most of the major events of Adrian Rogers' life and ministries are present, including the death of one of their children and the struggles of the Southern Baptist Convention. But, at times the book presents very generic information. Again, this is only a minor criticism. This book is far too thin to be a very detailed biography.
On the positive side, Joyce Rogers presents her words with the skill and perspective of a loving wife writing about her godly husband of many years. She shares the excitements, joys, triumphs, and also disappointments, failures, and tragedies that they experienced together.
The philosophy of his preaching (which is the interview section) was good, but not great. He didn't reveal any information that you could not have probably guessed just by hearing a few of his sermons. Keep the Gospel the focus of your message and life, bathe everything in prayer, don't preach it if you aren't living it, study the Bible constantly, etc. These are all good things - just don't read the book expecting to find an academic treatise on preaching. But if you enjoy hearing Adrian Rogers' unique way of presenting truth - even if it's truth you've heard before - then the philosophy of his preaching is sure to be enjoyable.

I regret that I never heard Adrian Rogers preach in person. In my opinion, he is truly one of the greatest preachers of all time. He was a man of great integrity, with a very winsome demeanor in the pulpit. If you don't know much about his life and ministry, this book is a great source of first-hand information for the casual reader.

"On This Day In Christian History" by Robert J. Morgan

I had very high hopes for this book.... I love inspiring stories of great Christians from all periods of history and find them to be fantastic encouragers in my own walk with God. Morgan's book didn't quite meet my expecations.
For the detailed information: this book contains 366 (thanks to leap year) one-page articles, each dated, that tells of a significant story that happened on that day. There is also a topical index at the back, which can be helpful. Many of the names and stories were brand new to me, so it was good to be exposed to them. Each day also had a Bible passage at the bottom. That's about all the positive things I can say about it; now for the negative....
This book seemed to focus mainly on Catholic monks and popes. Many of the stories feature martyrs, which is not a bad thing. However, most of the martyrs were killed by a different "brand" of Christianity (for example, Catholics persecute the Protestants, or vice-versa). I found it very disturbing how much violence was carried out under the encouragement of Catholic and Protestant churches and leaders. Not being Catholic or Protestant myself, I was disappointed that very few evangelical (and I'm very liberally including independent and Southern Baptists in the "evangelical" category) show up in the pages. I was also shocked that there were only a handful of references to sources of any kind.... If this is a book of historical information, you would think that there would be footnoted sources, or at LEAST a bibliography. Nope.
The biggest disappointment for me had to be the Bible passages. Morgan uses the Contemporary English Version of the Bible for his passages, and my personal opinion is that this is a horrible translation of Scripture. It has gone beyond interpretational translation (dynamic equivalence, where the MEANING of the phrase is given in a comparative way, as opposed to formal equivalence which strives to translate the WORDS literally as much as possible). In fact, it seems like some phrases are just too colloquial... But I could have lived with the abundance of Catholic stories, and I could have even lived with the CEV Bible passages.... however, some of the passages just seemed very randomly chosen.
All in all, I would still give this book 3 out of 5 stars. We can always learn so much from history, and the stories really can encourage us to be better Christians.
I received this book from the publisher as part of the Booksneeze Blogger Review program. I was not required to give a positive review, and the opinions expressed are my own.