Christian Book Notes

The Hardest Sermons You’ll Ever Have to Preach: Help from Trusted Preachers for Tragic Times.  Edited by Bryan Chapell.  Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2011.  304 pp.  $19.99.  Purchase at Westminster Books for $12.99.

Introduction

While the names of the contributors are familiar, the subject matter, as is most often the case, is not.  Bryan Chapell has edited a wonderful preaching resource for pastors with contributions from seasoned and trusted pastors for preaching sermons during life’s tragedies.  Contributors include John Piper, Tim Keller, Michael Horton as well as some lesser known men of the cloth like Mike Khandjian and Wilson Benton.

Summary

Divided into five parts with an appendix, this resource offers theological and practical considerations for preparing a sermon in the midst of a tragedy.  Part one is  a general four chapter section on responding to tragedies.  They include abortion, child abuse, community tragedy, and national tragedy.

Part two focuses in on the tragedy of losing a child – perhaps the most difficult tragedy to have to preach (at least that has been my experience).  These seven chapters include the preaching of the death of a special needs child, a miscarriage, and the death of an infant.

Parts three and four look at various funerals.  Part three offers consolation for funerals with difficult circumstances like drunk driving, cancer, and murder.  Chapter four aids in the preparation for a funeral sermon of a public figure.  The fifth part takes a look at preaching after a suicide.

The appendix is extremely helpful in that it will guide you in the choice of scripture passages as well as what you as the pastor should do in times of tragedy.  The second appendix gives explicit and general instruction on the pastor’s role in times of tragedy.

Review

This a difficult book to review in that it is a resource book and one that is meant to be a guide for pastoral care.  Each “chapter” is introduced by a paragraph or two detailing the situation, the concerns, and the approach.  Each chapter in and of itself is the actual sermon preached.

Given the evangelical approach to this resource, the one component that shines through every sermon is the offering of hope in Christ Jesus.  While you will not be able to take these sermons and re-preach them, you will definitely have a guide in which you can craft your own.

The examples given to the reader in these sermons are real-life messages that were preached.  In other words, they were not crafted in an ivory tower by a guy who has never had to get dirty in the ministry.

Honestly, while the sermons and introductions are the main thrust of this particular book, I found the appendices to be worth the price of the book.  To have a trusted guide by an experienced pastor during a tragic time is an unbelievable comfort.

Recommendation

If you are a pastor, I highly recommend you get this resource for your ministry.  Let’s face it, we live our lives knowing, but not really believing, that tragedy can and will strike us at any time.  Preaching a funeral is difficult by itself–especially if it is a funeral for an infant or one that shocked the congregation.  Having this resource at the ready will ultimately be invaluable to the young pastor who has never had to preach a funeral of various tragedies.

Barrs, Jerram. Learning Evangelism from Jesus. Wheaton: Crossway Books, 2009. 281 pp. $17.99.  Purchase at Westminster Books for $11.87.

Not afraid to challenge the status quo, Jerram Barrs offers Christians a crash course in real life evangelism in his book Learning Evangelism from Jesus. Instead of offering yet another method of evangelism or another curriculum to reach the lost in your community, Barrs looks to the authority on evangelism in both person and source material. He looks at how Jesus Christ interacted with various people in the communities in which He traveled and taught.

Jerram Barrs, the founder of the Francis Schaeffer Institute at Covenant Theological Seminary where he currently teaches apologetics and outreach as professof Christian studies and contemporary culture.

Looking at actual encounters like the woman of Samaria in John 4 and Nicodemus in John 3 and parables like the lost sheep and the lost coin found in Luke 15, Jerram Barrs shows how Christ never had a wooden technique to his “evangelism strategy.” Jesus used all circumstances to point His listeners to repentance. He used whatever context, whether it was a poor woman or a learned scholar, to engage His hearers and point them toward repentance. In other words, Jesus shared the gospel at all times, in all circumstances, and in all contexts.

With all of the curriculum’s on Christian book shelves claiming to teach you the method to reach the lost, Jerram Barrs offers something completely different when it comes to evangelism. Instead of creating an Amway salesman equipped with a few Bible verses that are fail-proof, Barrs looks at how Christ shared His own gospel message with the people of His day. In so doing, the reader better understands how he is able to share the gospel with all people regardless of the situation.

It is my prayer that the many young missional-minded and those that affiliate themselves with the “Great Commission Resurgence” among other denominations striving to evangelize the world for the glory of God would give Jerram Barrs’ book, Learning Evangelism from Jesus a thorough read. This book should be on the shelf of every pastor and deacon and elder. It should be studied by seminarians as well as those who faithfully attend church each week.

Barrs, Jerram. Through His Eyes: God’s Perspective on Women in the Bible. Wheaton: Crossway Books, 2009. 352 pp. $19.99.

With all the discussion today regarding a woman’s roll in the church and whether or not she is obligated to stay at home with the children, we often lose sight of her most important roll—the seed bearer of the Savior. Jerram Barrs, the founder of the Francis Schaeffer Institute at Covenant Theological Seminary, presents a biblical theology of how God views and treats women in the Bible.

He begins with Eve and ends with the church, the Bride of Christ. He discusses Sarah, who even though she laughed and doubted God, is the mother of all who believe. He shows how Naomi and Ruth were not only a picture of godliness but also of redemption. He shares the tragedy of Tamar and the delightful duty of Esther. He concludes the Old Testament study of women by looking at the Proverbs 31 woman.

In the New Testament, he describes Mary, Jesus’ mother, in all of her glory. (Yes, it is a glorious thing to be able to say you carried, birthed, and nursed the Savior of the world.) We get a description of the woman of Samaria at the well and how she was loved by God even though she was disgraced in her own land. He concludes with a look at the honor a woman has when she is married. To be called a bride is one thing, but to be called a bride in the context of the church offers quite a different understanding of what it means to be a bride.

What puts this book over the top for me, is the study questions at the end of each chapter. These discussion questions offer a deep look into one’s heart regarding how one really views woman. Even better, you are challenged upon the authority of Scripture to (in most cases) rethink your views on how God sees women. This is true whether you are a man or a woman. I could see this book being an awesome (I do not use this term lightly) tool for a women’s book study.

Barrs states from the outset that he is not going to discuss the restrictive passages that have been argued about for centuries (see 1 Cor. 11; 1 Cor. 14; and 1 Tim 2). He succeeds in doing just that. What Jerram Barrs has done is offered up a book that is a must read for every man and woman. This book will empower women to see themselves as God sees them and challenge men to treat women “as Christ loved the church.”