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I have dozens of books on church revitalization. They range from trendy and shallow to not bad, but few of them are really good. That's why I am glad to have found From Embers to a Flame: How God Can Revitalize Your Church. This book manages to be both biblically grounded and practical, and is a useful guide for church leaders who would like to see their churches transformed.

The author, Harry L. Reeder III, first makes a case for why church revitalization is necessary. This is important because revitalization is sometimes ignored in favor of church planting, leaving pastors in struggling churches wondering if it's worth it. Reeder then offers a paradigm for revitalization based on the church in Ephesus, which he traces through Acts, the pastoral epistles, and from Revelation 2. Reeder describes ten strategies that fall under three categories: remember, repent, and recover the first things.

While some may find ten strategies or steps to be signs of yet another pragmatic book focused on methodology, these strategies go deeper than many I've read. I'm glad he emphasizes the importance of connecting with the past, and acknowledging and repenting of corporate sins. His focus on gospel-driven and Christ-centered ministry is also welcome and necessary. Reeder writes, "Since the gospel is such an important, powerful, and life-changing message, it should be the center of everything we do in the church of Jesus Christ." Although this should be obvious, it's often ignored. Reeder also emphasizes the importance of biblical preaching, since God uses his Word to change the hearts of people.

Reeder also covers other matters that sometimes come too early: mission and vision, the multiplication of servant leaders, small group discipleship, and evangelism.

Reeder concludes, "The church you pastor may not be a flame bringing light and heat, but I know that its embers can be stirred up - not through gimmicks, programs, or personalities, but through godly leadership to a biblical paradigm of church revitalization." It is this emphasis that I appreciate most. If you're in a church that needs revitalization, I highly recommend this book.

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A couple of years ago, the emerging church was getting all the attention. That changed when Collin Hansen wrote an article for Christianity Today called "Young, Restless, Reformed." Hansen wrote:

While the Emergent "conversation" gets a lot of press for its appeal to the young, the new Reformed movement may be a larger and more pervasive phenomenon. It certainly has a much stronger institutional base. I traveled to some of the movement's leading churches and institutions and talked to theologians, pastors, and parishioners, trying to understand Calvinism's new appeal and how it is changing American churches.

The article, and this book, are the result of a two-year journey to learn about what appeared to be a resurgence of Calvinism in America. Hansen traveled to Passion Conference in Atlanta, John Piper's home and church in Minneapolis, The Jonathan Edwards Center at Yale University, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, Mars Hill Church in Seattle, and more.

Hansen discovered thriving Calvinistic ministries that focused on theology and doctrine, as well as young people who couldn't get enough of writers like John Piper, John Owen, and Jonathan Edwards. It's a diverse movement, somewhat disconnected, and often controversial. It's also not flashy. "I tell people we're a really boring ministry," one leader said. "If God is not your attraction, you'll be bored."

Young, Restless, Reformed serves as an introduction to the new Calvinists in America. If you belong to this group, there won't be a lot in this book that's new. If you aren't part of this group, or aren't part of the American scene (like me), then this book will introduce you to what's been happening.

I sometimes talk to people who think that effective ministry today means downplaying doctrine, or emphasizing entertainment. Young, Restless, Reformed shows that many are ready for more of a challenge. It also helps explain the attraction of the Reformed movement for those who just can't figure it out.

Readers may face a couple of dangers with this book. One is overestimating the size of the Reformed resurgence. Despite its growth, it is still quite small. The other danger would be jumping on the Reformed bandwagon just to be trendy. Although these are dangers, a wise reader can learn lots from this book.

"Hunger for God's Word. Passion for evangelism. Zeal for holiness. That's not a revival of Calvinism. That's a revival. And it's breaking out in places like Emery, South Dakota." Whether or not you're Reformed, I hope we'll see more of these traits all over America, and the world. Something seems to be happening.

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Who Stole My Church? is a book that's both the same as, and different from, other books on transitioning churches.

That's not particularly helpful, so let me explain. It's the same as other books because it covers some of the same ground: changes in culture, life cycles of organizations, the history of musical innovation within the church, and the bell curve that divides people into innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards. This is helpful information, but it's ubiquitous. But that's not the unique contribution of this book.

Who Stole My Church? is different from any other book I've read on transitioning churches because it's a story, or parable, of real people who resist change in dialogue with an older pastor who leads them in processing what's happening. I said that they're real people, but I need to make it clear that this is a fictional book. But they're real in the sense that I've met every single one of them. In fact, sometimes I had to put this book down and shake my head. Was MacDonald spying on the church I pastor a few years ago? MacDonald writes as someone who knows how people struggle with change within a church. He's been there. I wish this book had been written ten years ago. As a work of fiction, it's very true to life.

This book may help the late majority and laggards to understand why churches must contextualize, even though this is a painful process. I especially like it because it's written by someone in their peer group. Those who are struggling with change will recognize themselves in the book, and will also probably feel that they have been sympathetically portrayed.

This book will also help pastors understand what's really happening as people react to change, and it may provide a model for both groups to come together and process what's happening.

I really hope that pastors who are thinking of going into an established church to lead change read this book. It will give them an idea of what they're in for.

Who Stole My Church? doesn't do everything. It doesn't help sort out what shouldn't change, and how much change is too much. It doesn't provide all the answers to what's faddish change versus significant change. It doesn't present a deep theology of the church, and it doesn't unpack all the resources of the gospel that will help us in the process. But it succeeds in what it sets out to do. It tells a story of a church that's struggling with change, helps both sides understand what's going on, and provides an example of how the resulting conflict could lead to greater health rather than disintegration. If you're in a church struggling with change, or thinking of pastoring one, you'll find this book helpful.

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I'm a certified member of the Tim Keller fan club. I listen to his sermons. I read everything he writes. I even belong to the Facebook fan club. Few thinkers or practitioners have influenced me more than he has. I am not the biggest fan out there, but I'm certainly a member of the club. This is dangerous, because nobody can live up to all that.

But Keller isn't the first to face the challenges of a growing profile and unrealistic expectations, and thankfully, he continues to use his influence wisely. The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism, now on the New York Times bestseller list, is likely to multiply his influence even more, not only within the church but also within a culture with serious doubts about Christianity.

In a sense, there's nothing new in this book. It's all out there in other places, just like all the ingredients of a meal prepared by a chef are there in the grocery store. In The Reason for God, you have presuppositional apologetics in the tradition of Van Til, as well as generous doses of C.S. Lewis, the subtle but strong influence of Jonathan Edwards, as well as engagement with contemporary thinkers and writers.

What is unique is how Keller brings all together; in other words, the way these ingredients are mixed. Keller aptly deals with common doubts and objections to Christianity, such as "There can't be just one true religion" and "How can a loving God send people to hell?" Behind every doubt is an alternate set of beliefs. "The only way to doubt Christianity rightly and fairly," Keller writes, "is to discern the alternate belief under each of your doubts and then to ask yourself what reasons you have for believing it." Keller does this with each of the objections to Christianity, showing that none of the objections make Christianity impossible or even implausible.

Doubting our doubts about Christianity is only part of the journey. In the second half of the book, Keller offers reasons for faith, demonstrating that the Christian faith makes the most sense of the world. "I ask you to put on Christianity like a pair of spectacles and look at the world with it. See what power it has to explain what we know and see."

What really stands out about this book, besides its content, is the way that Keller engages with these issues. He is civil, respectful, winsome, and ironic, but never hostile. He does not belittle those with alternate beliefs, even as he directly examines and challenges those beliefs. Keller models a way of relating to those who disagree, and provides a model for all of us. He shows how one can possess an robust and orthodox Christian faith, and yet winsomely engage with those with completely different and hostile beliefs.

Keller's wife, Kathy, has said that the mark of a good sermon is that people stop taking notes part way through. It starts rationally, like a lesson, but ends with an encounter with Jesus. The Reason for God is full of rational arguments, but it doesn't end there. By the end of the book we encounter beauty, and some of the most profound expressions of the Christian faith I've read.

Last Sunday, somebody thanked me for making this book available to them. They've been looking for a book like this for some time, and they're loving it. I don't think he will be the last one. The Reason for God is a book that deserves to be read not only by Christians, but by those who have doubts - even by those who are hostile. It covers important issues, and shows not only the rationality but the beauty of the Christian faith. Just as importantly, it does so in a way that is genuinely respectful to the reader no matter what their beliefs. I hope it will be read widely.

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A couple of years ago, I found myself disappointed with many of the critiques of the emerging church. Some were nasty, and some did a poor job of capturing the movement (or whatever you call it).

But something's changed. For one thing, I have. I can relate to what Trevin Wax has said: "Many who initially intrigued by the Emerging conversation are now distancing themselves from Emerging theology." (See Trevin's entire post.) Something else has changed as well: the quality of the critique. A case in point is Why We're Not Emergent: By Two Guys Who Should Be.

What do I like about this book?

The authors, Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck, don't take themselves too seriously. They write differently: Kevin is the more scholarly pastor, while Ted is the less academic guy who writes shorter, more experiential chapters. You get propositional arguments in this book, but you also get to visualize Ted reading Rob Bell while his wife's family cottage while discussing the contents with his brother-in-law, or sheepishly admitting that he likes Rob Bell's Nooma videos to his mother-in-law, who likes them too. I really enjoyed the voices of the authors in this book. "Emergent leaders have often cried foul when their books have been held up to academic scrutiny. 'We're not professional scholars,' they say, and neither are we. So it's a fair fight - more fair than fight, we hope."

I also like the way they approach the subject. They have read the books, and not just one or two either. They've been to some of the churches, conferences, and classrooms. They admit when they like the authors and speakers, and never forget that they're talking about real people. They like some aspects of the emerging church. They understand the difference between emerging and emergent. They don't think one voice speaks for the entire emerging church, and they speak appreciatively of those who are more theologically conservative. Kevin writes:

We don't think of our emergent sparring partners as "the bad guys." ... Hopefully our writing is of the "faithful wounds of a friend" variety and not the slanderous, mean-spirited kind. Our disagreements are strong and stated strongly, but, we trust, not bitter or cantankerous...We love Jesus and love the church. We believe emergent Christians love the same. The shape and substance of that love is what we disagree on.

Ted adds, "We strove to represent these guys accurately, and hope that if we were to run into each other at a conference, a coffee shop named Ecclesia, or a pub, we could truly enjoy each other's fellowship, cognizant of the fact that we'll be together in the kingdom."

They're also realistic about their goals. "We're not really writing this book to change people's minds because, let's face it, that rarely happens...This is our attempt at joining the 'conversation.'"

So what is their problem with the emerging church? Here they cover a lot of ground. They point out some of the problems with thinking of the journey as more about experience than a destination. They argue that humility is not the same thing as uncertainty. They argue for the value of propositions, which are not a modern phenomenon. They suggest that the emerging view of modernism is often caricatured. They gently poke fun at emergent speak. They present some of their problems with the notion, "Give me Jesus, not doctrine," and the emphasis on orthopraxy at the expense of orthodoxy. They question "whether the emerging church even has the category of theological error," concluding that some do, but also fearing that many do not. They suggest that the emerging church has an over-realized eschatology (too much "now" and not enough "not yet"). They argue for the value of boundaries, argue that preaching should not be thrown out, and highlight some of the contradictions and problems within popular emerging books. They defend the doctrine of penal substitution, which has been dismissed by some, as well as the doctrine of God's wrath. All of this and more. I really appreciated the way they engaged the theological issues within this book.

The epilogue of the book is a reflection on the letters to the churches in Revelation. "Emergent leaders need to celebrate all the strengths and shun the weaknesses of the seven churches in Revelation 2-3 - and admit that Jesus' prescription for health is more than community, authenticity, and inclusion." The letters in Revelation speak to all churches, including, they argue, emerging ones.

In conclusion: I have to admit that I was nervous in picking up this book. The last thing we need is another critique that's well-meaning but sloppy, misguided, or mean. I'm no longer nervous. I'm sure not everyone will agree with or appreciate everything in this book, but we can all appreciate three things:

• It provides greater understanding - This book will help those outside of the emerging church to understand the emerging church better, and vice versa.
• It clarifies the issues - This book is a primer on what the issues are. It goes beyond some of the other critiques I've read that focus only on one or two writers or one or two issues.
• It advances the "conversation" - I've always said that my emerging friends welcome critique when offered in the right way. I think this book qualifies. It may not change too many minds, but it may clarify some points of disagreement, and it may even lead to some discussion and correction.

I highly recommend this book. Still to come: an interview with the authors.

More from Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | NotEmergent.com

When everyone seemed to be blogging their favorite books at the end of 2007, I noticed an old book making a few of the lists: George Whitefield Volumes 1 and 2 by Arnold Dallimore. Dallimore was a pastor in my denomination who pastored a church just a few hours west of here. I've read his biography of Spurgeon before, and had always meant to get around to this one. Michael Haykin's recommendation was all the prompting I needed to finally put this volume at the top of my list.

George Whitefield is a name that is known to many who have dabbled in church history, but he is not as well known as others of his era like the Wesleys and Jonathan Edwards. Whitefield was in many ways the first celebrity preacher of North America. It was said that he could throw his listeners into paroxysms by merely pronouncing "Mesopotamia".

One unlettered man reports what it was like when Whitefield came to town to preach:

Now it pleased God to send mr whitefield into this land & ...i longed to see & hear him...& then one morning all in a Suding there came a messenger & said mr whitefield...is to preach...I dropt my tool that i had in my hand & run home and throu my house and bad my wife to get ready quick to go and hear mr whitefield preach at middletown...

i saw before me a cloud or fog i first thought of from ye great river but as i came nearer ye road i heard a noise something like a low rumbling thunder & i presently found out it was ye rumbling of horses feet coming down ye road & this Cloud was a Cloud of dust made by the running of horses...when we gat down to ye old meeting hous thare was a great multitude it was said to be 3 or 4000..when i see mr whitefield come up upon ye scaffold he looked almost angellical a young slim slender youth before thousands of people and with a bold undainted countenance & my hearing how god was with him everywhere as he came along it solemnized my mind and put me in a trembling fear...my old foundation was broken up & i see my righteousness would not save me.

This type of experience was repeated all over England and America as Whitefield came to preach.

George Whitefield was born in 1714 and lived a rather unremarkable childhood. He was friends with John and Charles Wesley, but little in his early life would lead us to expect how profoundly Whitefield would be used in adulthood.

Ordained in the Church of England, Whitefield began to preach in the open air when churches refused to admit him. He preached to thousands of people without amplification, and with great results. Whitefield eventually moved to America, preached to half of its population, and founded an orphanage in Georgia when it was still in its early days.

As you read Dallimore's book, you get a sense of how greatly God used this man. You also get a sense of the pressures that go along with a high profile ministry: jealousy, criticism, disagreements over theology, and the crushing weight of responsibility. At the end of volume 1, the stresses are still accumulating. Many seek greatness; it's good to be reminded that not many of us could handle it if we had it.

What I appreciate about this biography is that it is not hagiography. Whitefield makes mistakes and shows his immaturity. He pushes himself to extremes and devalues marriage. Yet he is also a man of incredible devotion and giftedness who was greatly used by God.

Biographies like these remind us how God has worked through ordinary people in the past, and remind us of the stress that comes with high-profile ministry. I can't wait to read the second volume.

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"Sibbes never wastes the student's time," wrote 19th century preacher C.H. Spurgeon, "he scatters pearls and diamonds with both hands." The Bruised Reed, written by Richard Sibbes (1577-1635) in 1630, lives up to Spurgeon's words. I can tell a lot about a book by how many pages I've dog-eared. In this 128-page book, I found it hard to go more than a few pages without marking a page for future reference.

The Bruised Reed is an exposition of Isaiah 42:1-3:

Behold my servant, whom I uphold,
my chosen, in whom my soul delights;
I have put my Spirit upon him;
he will bring forth justice to the nations.
He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice,
or make it heard in the street;
a bruised reed he will not break,
and a faintly burning wick he will not quench;
he will faithfully bring forth justice.

Sibbes outlines what it means to be a bruised reed, and the benefits of being bruised. A bruised reed represents us in our weakness. It's necessary to be bruised even after we have grown. "After conversion we need bruising so that reeds may know themselves to be reeds, and not oaks." Christ is not at all impatient with our weaknesses. "He is a physician good at all diseases, especially at the binding up of a broken heart." "No sound, whole soul," after all, "shall ever enter into heaven."

Sibbes also describes what it is to be smoking flax. Smoking flax represents the mixture of grace and sinfulness that exists in all who love God. "In God's children, especially in their first conversion, there is but a little measure of grace, and that little mixed with much corruption, which, as smoke, is offensive; but...Christ will not quench this smoking flax." We should not be discouraged by our weakness. The reality is that even "the purest actions of the purest man need Christ to perfume them." But Christ does indeed perfume us, and a little grace is enough. "Nothing in the world is of so good use as the least grain of grace."

Humility allows us to understand ourselves rightly, and then magnify God's name that he loves us such as we are. It also helps us to understand others who are weak when we remember our own weakness. "The Holy Spirit," he writes, "is content to dwell in smokey, offensive souls."

Sibbes constantly drives our attention to Christ, who "bestows the best fruits of his love on persons who are mean in condition, weak in abilities, and offensive for infirmities, nay, for grosser falls." The strength of this book is that it clearly outlines our weakness, and then expounds the gospel in a way that meets our greatest needs and provides hope even as we continue to encounter more of our weakness.

Oh, what confusion this is to Satan, that he should labor to blow out a poor spark and yet should not be able to quench it; that a grain of mustard seed should be stronger than the gates of hell; that it should be able to remove mountains of oppositions and temptations cast up by Satan and our rebellious hearts between God and us...It must needs be a torment to Satan that a weak child, a woman, a decrepit old man should, by a spirit of faith, put him to flight.

One striking feature of this book: Sibbes often takes aim at "popery." If you have not read a book of this vintage recently, some of these quips will seem surprising, even if one agrees with Sibbes. The book is a product of a different day than ours. Such differences in older books are good, because they force us to think through the way we assume things should be.

I read this book as part of the 2008 Puritan Reading Challenge. If the other books are half as good as this one, I'm in for a good year of reading. Martyn Lloyd-Jones wrote, "The Bruised Reed...quietened, soothed, comforted, encouraged, and healed me." It just may do the same for you.

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"I began this book with a preface which acknowledged that many people today are looking for a 'fresh expression' of the church," writes evangelical statesman John Stott. "My concern has been that in this legitimate process of exploration they will not forget, let alone abandon, certain biblical and history-proven marks of a living church."

John Stott, now in his eighties, has had a worldwide influence on evangelicalism through his writing and ministry at All Souls Church, Langham Place. Time magazine has recognized him as one of the "100 Most Influential People in the World." He has had a massive impact on evangelicalism. When I heard that Stott had recently written a book articulating his vision for the global church today, I knew I would have to read it.

Stott is no curmudgeon. He is surprisingly open to newer forms of churches. "It seems to me that traditional and 'emerging' churches need to listen attentively to one another, with a view to learning from one another...We could both afford to be less suspicious, less dismissive of each other."

Stott argues that we need more churches that are radically conservative - "conservative" in the sense that they conserve what Scripture plainly requires, but "radical in relational to that combination of tradition and convention which we call culture." He then outlines a number of characteristics that must be preserved within an authentic or living church.

The first of these characteristics is worship, which he calls "the church's preeminent duty." The glory of God drives the second characteristic of church: evangelism. Of all the forms of evangelism, local church evangelism is "the most normal, natural and productive method of spreading the gospel today." In order to be effective in its evangelism, the church must understand its double identity as people who are both called out of the world to worship God, and sent back into the world to witness and serve. It must also structure itself for evangelism, articulate the gospel in a way that is both faithful and relevant, and live as "God's new society, the living embodiment of the gospel, a sign of the kingdom of God, a demonstration of what human community looks like when it comes under his gracious rule."

Churches must also be characterized by every-member ministry. God calls all of his people to ministry. Churches must recognize that God calls people to different ministries, and allow pastors to be set free from unnecessary administration so the church can flourish.

Stott expounds fellowship, the next characteristic of church. Churches must divide into smaller groups or mini-churches to facilitate ministry to one another.

Churches must also be characterized by preaching, despite the contemporary world's unfriendly attitudes. "My task in this chapter...is to try to persuade preachers to persevere, because the life of the church depends on it...Churches live, grow, and flourish by God's word, but they languish and perish without it." Preaching must balance several tensions: it must be biblical and contemporary, authoritative and tentative, prophetic and pastoral, gifted and studied, and thoughtful and passionate.

Churches must also be giving and must have impact on society, working toward social improvement.

Stott concludes with an appeal for Timothy's in this new century. Echoing the apostle Paul, he writes: "There is such a thing as goodness: pursue it...There is such a thing as truth: fight for it. And there is such a thing as life: lay hold of it." Ministry must integrate doctrine, ethics, and experience.

The Living Church includes three appendices: a paper outlining Stott's reason for remaining within the Church of England; part of a sermon from 1974 outlining his dreams for a living church; and some reflections offered after his eightieth birthday.

The Living Church is not trendy. There is little in this book that will seem new. It is instead a call to the basics, offered with pastoral insight and wisdom. It is a call to turn away from quick fixes and instead focus on the basics of church life. It deserves careful reading and application by all who share Stott's dream of a living church.

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"I can't believe this book is getting published by a big-time publisher," writes blogger Brant Hansen. "This is going to be interesting...This book is going to honk people off."

The book he's talking about is Pagan Christianity, originally written by Frank Viola but now updated with George Barna as co-author. Here, in a nutshell, is the argument of the book:

1. The origin of many of our church practices (examples: church buildings, orders of worship, sermons, pastors, tithing, clergy salaries) is non-biblical and inconsistent with the practice of the early church. "Almost everything that is done in our contemporary churches has no basis in the Bible." (p. 4) Much of it was lifted from pagan culture.
2. Just because something does not appear in the Bible does not mean it is wrong. However, our non-biblical church practices often hinder the development of our faith and keep us from encountering the living God.
3. "The church in its contemporary, institutional form neither has a biblical nor a historical right to exist." (p. xx)
4. The church must return to its biblical roots. At a personal level, we must ask questions of church as we know it and pray seriously about what our response should be.

This book threatens a lot that pastors and churches hold dear. But that shouldn't scare us. If they're right, it doesn't matter what it threatens. This book has to be evaluated on the evidence and the strength of its arguments, not on how much it will cost us if they're right.

Most of the book traces the origins of common church practices today. They succeed in showing what should be fairly obvious: many of our practices do not appear in the Bible, which in itself does not make them wrong. Barna and Viola argue, however, that many of these practices are harmful. However, they don't always get the history right, and sometimes overstate the case. Still, they do have a point. We should question practices that get in the way of faithfulness.

It's when you get to their solution that, in my view, the wheels fall off. Viola and Barna argue: "The church in its contemporary, institutional form neither has a biblical nor a historical right to exist." (p. xx) [UPDATE: This quote is from the advance review copy. The final copy reads, "The church in its contemporary, institutional form has neither a biblical nor a historical right to function as it does." Still strong, but a definite improvement.]

Wow! There's a bit of a jump to get to this point, and I'm not sure if I missed a step somewhere. It could be that Viola and Barna are correct, but I don't think they've proved their case. Pointing out problems with a model means that the problems need addressing. It doesn't necessarily mean that the entire model must be scrapped.

It's one thing to argue that there are problems with our existing ways of doing church. I'm fully prepared to accept this. It's also okay to argue that models of church sidesteps these issues, but it could be that they end up encountering a whole set of other issues - as is the case. But is it possible for institutional models to be redeemed? Viola and Barna say no. I'm not so sure.

I'd much prefer to ask questions like these:

• Is there a way to use buildings missionally and in a way that expresses the true nature of the church?
• Can orders of service be structured so that the corporate nature of worship is emphasized, and performance is minimized?
• How can preaching and teaching promote spiritual growth and emphasize the giftedness of the body?
• How can churches move beyond being pastor-driven?
• How can our giving be channeled beyond maintenance to mission and care for the poor?
• How can we recover the biblical emphasis on baptism as initiation into discipleship, and communion as a robust communal celebration?
• How can Christian formation take place that his holistic?

These are excellent questions, and they may or may not lead to shutting down institutional churches. This book, I think, gets at the right questions, but ends up presenting the wrong (or at least insufficient) solution.

By the way, it's theoretically possible to have discovered that pretty much everyone from the church fathers on got it wrong, and that you are right - but it's highly unlikely. This is especially true in this case, because Scripture is largely descriptive (not prescriptive) in how churches can be shaped. Barna and Viola don't make a sufficient case for anyone to say that almost everyone has got it wrong until now.

Boars Head Tavern has posted a great quote from Eugene Peterson:

What other church is there besides institutional? There’s nobody who doesn’t have problems with the church, because there’s sin in the church. But there’s no other place to be a Christian except the church. There’s sin in the local bank. There’s sin in the grocery stores. I really don’t understand this naïve criticism of the institution. I really don’t get it. Frederick von Hugel said the institution of the church is like the bark on the tree. There’s no life in the bark. It’s dead wood. But it protects the life of the tree within. And the tree grows and grows. If you take the bark off, it’s prone to disease, dehydration, death. So, yes, the church is dead but it protects something alive. And when you try to have a church without bark, it doesn’t last long. It disappears, gets sick, and it’s prone to all kinds of disease, heresy, and narcissism. (Eugene Peterson)

The Tavern also has another amazing quote: those who seek to correct the church’s moral failings and produce a "pure" church are "...looking to the Law rather than to the Gospel. We need rather to look at the Gospel. It is not about what we are to do to purify the church (Law), but about bringing the Gospel to the church as she is" (from a lecture by Ron Feuerhahn).

In conclusion: Barna and Viola have raised some valid issues. Some dynamics of church life that should be present often aren't. We need to take these seriously. However, their conclusion ultimately falls short. There is room for all kinds of churches, including the institutional. What matters more than structure is the life contained within, and that can come only from God- who, it seems, is more than willing to give us that life.

More from Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | PaganChristianity.org

Jack Miller was a pastor on the verge of burnout. In 1970, while pastoring a small church in Pennsylvania and teaching practical theology at Westminster Seminary, he became so discouraged that he resigned from both his church and the seminary. He had failed.

Gradually he came to realize what was wrong. He realized he had been motivated by his own personal glory and the approval of those he was serving. "He said that when he repented of his pride, fear of people, and love of their approval," his daughter writes, "his joy in ministry returned, and he took back his resignations from the church and seminary."

Miller came to a turning point. "He had been relying on the wrong person to do ministry - himself." He began to give up all dependence on himself, and began to learn the basics of doing Christian ministry in Christ's strength. The result was greater freedom and power in his life and ministry.

Over the years, Miller wrote letters to help mentor others and share what he had learned. These letters have been collected in this book, The Heart of a Servant Leader. The letters cover topics such as our motivation for serving, repentance as a way of life, facing unfair criticism, and staying long enough in one place to be humbled. A couple of samples from his letters:

What I finally came to as I walked and prayed for you is the old old story of getting the gospel clear in your own hearts and minds, making it clear to others, and doing it with only one motive - the glory of Christ. Getting the glory of Christ before your eyes and keeping it there - is the greatest work of the Spirit that I can imagine. And there is no greater peace, especially in the times of treadmill-like activity, than doing it all for the glory of Christ.

And another:

Make sure you are enjoying yourself and not taking your work too seriously. You don't have anything to prove to us or to the world. The work is finished at Calvary, and that work alone has unlimited meaning and value. Keep your focus there. And then read Robert Ludlum and/or go on vacation.

This book has echoes of Tim Keller, or maybe Tim Keller has echoes of Jack Miller. It's about as close as most of us will get to being mentored by either one of them. There are few books that are as valuable as this one for pastors to read.

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