Christian Book Notes

Swanson, Kevin. Suffer the Children: The Blessing of ‘Imperfect’ Children. 42 minutes. $10.00. Purchase at Vision Forum for $7.00.

Introduction

Kevin Swanson hosts a radio show entitled Generations Radio. You can find out more information about his ministry at his website, Generations with Vision.

Summary

This sermon is not what I thought it would be. I was thinking, based on the title, that this was going to be all about children with mental retardations or disabilities or something along those lines. I was wrong. While he does use a young man as an example, he moves on to other “imperfect children” found in the church.

Ultimately, Swanson calls for radical church membership. I use the word radical because in many of today’s churches, church membership means nothing. Instead, Swanson wants to see the body of Christ unified and involved in one another’s lives and not just on Sunday mornings!

He calls for a “regulative principle” of church life; i.e., what does the Bible say about how the church should handle certain situations. He gives an example of a widow and a single woman and how his church allowed the Bible to direct how they handle each individual situation.

Recommendation

For $7.00, this cd ought to be purchased and listened to by pastors and lay leaders in the local church. Swanson challenges us all using the Bible as his means to drive home his points. Some will not agree with what he is saying (he does take the mega-church to task a bit) but no one will be able to say that he is not basing his arguments on the Bible.