Leveling the Church - By Micah Fries and Jeremy Maxfield

Leveling the Church: Multiplying Your Ministry By Giving It Away - by Micah Fries and Jeremy Maxfield is attacking the notion of, what they call, the "super pastor", the idea that the pastor is in charge of everything in the church and pretty much meets everyone's personal spiritual needs. Instead, they believe that the biblical model is for the pastor and elders to train men to be able to do various tasks that many think the pastor is solely responsible for.

I wasn't quite sure what I thought of this book at first, but I've concluded that I like it overall, though with some caveats which I'll mention in a moment.

 The premise is very interesting.  As I mentioned above, the case is made that the pastor's job is not to take on everything himself, but to build up others to be able to take on ministerial tasks, like visiting the sick in the hospital, counseling, and visiting in general. As the authors put it:  "…while the pastor ought to engage in ministry actions like visiting others, such ministry is our familial responsibility.  The vocational responsibility of a pastor or church leader is, particularly, to engage develop the church community so we can all engage in acts of ministry together…"

They attack the notion that Christianity is individualistic in its nature, that it is focused upon ourselves: MY spiritual growth, MY being spiritually fed, MY being ministered to, MY needs need to be met:  "…we have repurposed the Christian faith in a way that is generically individualistic.  We claim that we don't need the church to worship, that we can worship anywhere.  We claim that no one can judge us.  We claim that our relationship with God is our business alone…….  Consider, how we regularly judge the success of a worship service.  We leave and say things like, 'That was great! I really got fed today!'  That sounds mature, and faithful.  It sounds like we are prioritizing good biblical teaching, but it is actually in opposition to biblical worship.  When we judge the effectiveness of a worship service by what it does for us, we have made ourselves the object of the worship experience."  Rather, as this book points out, we Christians are supposed to gather together regularly, meeting one another's needs(and those aren't always personally felt needs), talking, and getting to know one another, and pushing each other to live as we ought.  The authors put it bluntly:  "We are specifically encouraged to gather together so we can be in each other's business."  This group responsibility for one another's spiritual needs and well-being truly fits with the Biblical model.

As to some of the things I was wary about: There was a positive quotation of a Catholic priest with no disclaimers about his beliefs. I'm afraid that perhaps this means that the writers consider Roman Catholicism an expression of the true Gospel. But it's not, it can't be. From what I understand of the teachings of Roman Catholicism, other mediators between God and mankind are proposed besides Jesus Christ and the idea seems to be propounded that Jesus Christ's righteousness is not the only righteousness available to cover one's sins (Mary's and other saints' righteousness are also available). Also the focus and reverence of the virgin Mary is quite idolatrous (also her being another mediator for us in Heaven, and her not being a sinner). I don't remember the authors quoting or saying anything else that indicated that they espoused Roman Catholicism, rather they emphasized the importance of getting the Gospel right.  So perhaps this quotation was just something that wasn't thought through…

Second, I didn't quite understand what is meant by "Multiplication" .  I was getting mixed impressions of what they meant by that.  At first I got the idea that the goal is not necessarily to multiply the people in your church but rather to grow spiritually.  But then it started to sound like numbers of people are important.  "Our vision is to see one percent of the metro area worshiping with us on any given weekend…we had to reach new people and see them developed into multiplying leaders."  They measured baptisms, measured the amount of people in certain small groups..etc.  That leads me to the question: Who builds the church? Doesn't Christ?  Who are we to assume that we know how many people He should be adding to our particular local gathering? The number of people in our area appointed to eternal life (Acts 13:48)?  what if 1 percent is too low? What if it is too high? Besides, what if one percent of our area do believe, but are attending other biblical churches in the area? What if our particular church is supposed to stay a small body of believers? The Lord will add our number if He sees fit, but it is not our place to set a numerical goal, nor I might add (in our day and age) an ethnic, age or gender related goal of the types of people we want in our group.  The Lord builds the church, we don't pick the people He builds it with or how many people or how fast it should grow numerically.

I also a bit concerned about some implications I got from things they said about ministry, it seems as though they think that the ministry done by people ought to be an 'official' church ministry, outside of the regular sermon meeting on Sunday. "…our life in the church has to be more than a once-per-week gathering for an hour of worship.  This will mean, for example, investing in a Sunday school class or small group or serving in an area of ministry."  Don't get me wrong, I agree that we don't just sit and listen to the sermon, leave, and that's our church life.   But what if it's not an official, church recognized area of ministry that you've signed up for?   What if your ministry is meeting another church family in the week and the majority of the rest of your church family never find out that you did  that?   Or just talking and encouraging someone else while meeting on a Sunday?  Does it have to be 'official' or known by the rest of the body?

The last question I want to mention that this book brings up in my mind is, how does the Pastor equip the Saints? I see the thought that he is to equip other people to work with him and help lead, but how, really, will the spiritual growth of the people happen?  Does equipping the Saints mainly happen by the Pastor offering practical training and appointing tasks or by preaching the Word?  Biblically he mainly seems to be instructed to equip them by preaching the Word.  By reproving, rebuking and exhorting people.  Feeding the sheep - That seems to be his main instruction for equipping the Saints. 

Perhaps the other elders are to take care of practical training and appointing tasks? Or perhaps the people are to be looking for ministry opportunities on their own, look for needs that need to be met, not just for the church building, but the needs of individual members, the building up of individual members, the provoking of one another to love and good works independent of having to have a permanent, recognized part in a small group ministry geared toward any specific work.   Some of the works will be done in the large group (listening to teaching of the Word of God on Sunday), small groups (helping someone paint rooms, clean things, just getting together..etc.) and one on one works (sweeping the floor in the church kitchen, mowing a fellow member's lawn, visiting the sick, widows, elderly, or helping someone with their personal struggles).  None of the works need to be publicly acknowledge by the corporate church.

Having said all of that, I'll repeat that the book was quite good overall, very thought provoking (as you can probably tell by my ramblings).  The authors give a good demonstration that Christianity is not to be lived in isolation, but as a community, as a body of believers each member needing the other.  And they also show that people shouldn't expect the pastor to be the one to do, or even to lead, most of the ministry that happens in the church.  People shouldn't go to church just to "fill up" but to live out what they've learned, and  not just living it on Sunday but on every day of the week.   I'll end with one more quote from the book:   "… if spiritual maturity is typically measured by daily Bible reading as individuals, and if discipleship (if it happens) is typically measured by the reproduction of sound doctrine and maybe Scripture memory, and if leadership is qualified by theological education (and perhaps business savvy for directing growth strategies and managing staff recruits), then we're functionally gnostic.  We've focused our efforts on the acquisition of spiritual knowledge in the mind while disregarding the spiritual significance of daily life in the physical world.  An incomplete gospel is an incorrect Gospel."

Thanks to the folks at MP Newsroom for the free review copy of this book (My review did not have to be favorable)

My Rating: Four out of Five Stars

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This book may be purchased at Christianbook.com and Amazon.com

Quote of the Day

(Speaking of Heb 10:24-25)This passage calls us to regular gathering together as a church community.  It could be easy to assume that this simply means that we all need to be together so we can worship together, but the beginning of that passage says otherwise.  In verse 24, the author frames for us why we need to gather together:  in order to push one another to 'love and good deeds.'  This strikes us as a more intimate expectation.  This call reveals an awareness of each other's lives and an intimacy with how those lives are lived.  We are specifically encouraged to gather together so we can be in each other's business.


From the book: Leveling the Church: multiplying your Ministry by Giving it Away - By Micah Fries and Jeremy Maxfield


See more quotes on my quote collection blog: https://snickerdoodlesquotes.blogspot.com/

Devotedly: The Personal Letters and Love Story of Jim and Elisabeth Elliot

I have liked pretty much any Elisabeth Elliot (Gren) book I have read (I've read about three or four I think, but not the ones on marriage or relationships).  When I saw that this book was published, I was quite excited.  This is a book about Jim and Elisabeth's 'love story', told through many of their letters to each other and their journals.  Their daughter, Valerie, put it together and added commentary.

I was very disappointed by their relationship.  I had always had the impression that they were a model example in Christian pre-marital relationships.  After reading this book, I think that they are a horrible example to young men and women. I was quite shocked. 

They started out liking each other, but not being sure whether the Lord would have them marry. All fine and good.  But then when you get to them still not being sure whether or not the Lord would have them marry,(actually for a while,  Jim was quite sure that the Lord wanted him to be single)but they act all loverlike, with certain things they write in their letters and  in their physical relationship holding hands and other physical touching. 

In one instance, while they were still in the "maybe God wants us to stay single, not sure about getting engaged" stage, the daughter comments: "I still marvel at how little physical touch they'd actually experienced.  All they'd allowed themselves were a few embraces, hand holding, possibly a kiss on the cheek.  But how important to learn from my amazing parents that their absolute priority remained the love of God, dependence on God, and continual prayer for His leading."  Ummm…that was not right.  These were not brotherly embraces/hand holding/ kisses, these were romantic ones.  Hardly following what the Apostle Paul told Timothy, to treat the young women as sisters, "with all purity"(1 Tim 5:2)

In a letter to Elisabeth from Jim (again before getting a "word from the Lord" that they should marry). he talks about what happened some time before, when they had been together somewhere: he had been "feigning sleepiness, I crowded you against the clothing hung against the door - how your body stiffened as my hand made its way to being received by your fingers - how the whole of you slackened and my fingers were pressed to your lips. "  He goes on to say, "We will, I suppose, get used to each other, the feel and smell and look of one another…"

I don't understand that.  If marriage is not on the docket, how could you say that? How could you do that in all purity before God?

And then Jim writes in a letter, while they were still wondering about God's will for their relationship, "I dreamed about you last night.  Coming home last evening and reading your letter before I slept was like coming home to you, almost.  You came to me in bed serious and shivering.  I made you laugh and warmed you with my body.  Such things are seldom, and I enjoyed it because it seemed good and right, and not much like a dream…."

But what about what the Apostle Paul states in 1 Corinthians 7, where it is better to marry than to burn with passion? Jim was definitely struggling with 'burning with passion'(you see it even more clearly in other spots, even admitted as a struggle by himself, in this book).  It's not as though Elisabeth and Jim were strongly doubting whether the other was a Christian or not; rather they each, for the most part, were crazy about the other and their devotion to the Lord.  Their parents were not opposing the match either.  All signs, including the Bible itself, were pointing towards their needing to get married.  Pointing to God's will for them to be joined together in marriage before Him.  It's as though they didn't see Scripture as the authority unless it gave them some sort of assured feeling. Rather than heeding what it explicitly said about man/woman relationships, they waited for an extrabiblical sign/feeling.

Even Elisabeth's brother, Dave, kept warning Jim about playing with Elisabeth's heart.  But they both disregarded him, or anyone else who looked at their relationship critically.  Their daughter comments at one spot, "Though no one could seem to understand why they weren't' getting engaged and making plans to go to the mission field together…..she knew she'd put God first and knew my father was attempting to do the same thing…And as long as God's will was uppermost in each of their hearts, they were under no obligation to explain themselves to anyone or give out all the details of their prayer life and relationship dynamics". 

And then, when they finally get engaged, Jim seems to want even more physical contact and justifies it by saying that 1 Corinthians 7:1 (It is good for a man not to touch a woman) was speaking of "an unmarried man sharing another's wife", not a man engaged to be married.  The daughter quotes him, interspersing her own words,"'it does not apply to my play with Betty," which meant he could enjoy 'further liberty with her body' without being guilty of fornication, once they were engaged."  According to Jim Elliot's views, at the time,  it's okay for engaged couples to touching one another's bodies as long as they don't have sex?  Huh??? I am incredulous at several of his interpretations and applications of various passages.  I don't understand how this is keeping with the passage that says to "keep the marriage bed holy" (Heb 13:4).  

Being engaged means that the couple are set-aside for each other, no one else, but they don't belong to each other before God yet - so no playing with one another's bodies, even if it's not sexual.  God has not yet joined you together, so don't act as though He has. Wait until you are married.

All in all, I was VERY disappointed.  I was reading this book aloud with my sister, and I had to skip several spots, because they were indecent and made me blush.  Yes, Jim and Elisabeth seemed to be Christians, but that doesn't mean that everything that they did was Christ-like and should be followed.  I could not recommend this book to any couple because it does not promote true Godly pre-marital relationships.  I'll end with a section from 1 Thessalonians 4:"For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye abstain from fornication; that each one of you know how to possess himself of his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in the passion of lust, even as the Gentiles who know not God; that no man transgress, and wrong his brother in the matter: because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as also we forewarned you and testified. For God called us not for uncleanness, but in sanctification. "(1Th 4:3-7)

I received a free review copy of this book from B&H Publishers.  My review did not have to be favorable.

My Rating:  1 out of 5 Stars

This book is sold on Christianbook.com and Amazon.com

Lies Women Believe - Nancy Demoss Wolgemuth

Lies Women Believe by Nancy Demoss Wolgemuth is a book that goes through various lies that women believe about reality and counters them.  Dealing specifically with many of the lies women believe about God, themselves, sin, priorities, sexuality, marriage, children, emotions and circumstances, this book is designed as a gentle, but firm exhortation to wake women up to see the truth.

I get the impression that many of the women's writings of today cater to women's excuses, unbelief and overall selfishness. We don't need to build up our self-love, "the truth is that we do love ourselves", we need to learn to deny ourselves.  "Our most common malady is not having a low view [of] ourselves, but having a low view of God."

I also loved how the author pointed out that the thought, "I can't help the way I am" because of - fill in the blank-,  is a lie.  She uses Eve as an example: it was not Eve's circumstances that accounted for her miserable condition, it was not that she had had a difficult childhood, been unloved,  abused by her husband, had uncontrollable emotional issues, physical ailments or any of the many excuses women nowadays love to turn too.  No, Eve had a great beginning in life, she was never physically or verbally abused and was in great physical and emotional shape.  And yet she still sinned.  

There were some things I didn't like, however.  For instance, there was some stuff in the "Sexuality" chapter that I was uncomfortable with, I skipped over stuff, and I didn't think the fictional 'Eve's diary' part was very edifying in that particular chapter either (there are some things I just don't need to imagine in my head).  I know that most (probably all) of the advice and counsel is good but I simply didn't think that it needed to be dealt with that thoroughly. 

Also, I didn't agree or see the sense of why she thinks that it is okay for Christians to turn to drugs to help with depression.  It just seems to contradict what she said earlier, about the bad habit people have of turning to movies, alcohol or fun activities to change their bad emotions into happy ones rather than turning to God and His Word first.  I mean, for a Christian, what if there were pills to deal with, not only depression, but lust, anger, pride and fear? Would taking a pill for stopping lust be "killing sin"? Or just sedating it?  I thought that the weapons of our warfare are "not carnal" (2 Corinthians 10:4).  What if a disaster or something happens and those pills are no longer made or we lost access to them? Would we have built up any spiritual muscle for the fight against those emotions?  Or will they manifest themselves stronger than ever because we didn't kill them daily we merely rendered them unconscious so that we didn't have to fight them?  As Wolgemuth says, "When we find ourselves suffering under the weight of negative emotions like anger, anxiety, bitterness, despair, hatred or condemnation, we must learn to look toward God's Truth, keeping our minds stayed on Him rather than simply trying to escape or swap out negative emotions with a feel-good substitute. "   I would add depression to that list.

But overall I thought that the book was very good. Wolgemuth counters the lies with Biblical truth very well, and gives a lot of good counsel.  Here are some more of the concepts that I really liked that are based in the truth:

When people think that you're not normal, they're right! You're not normal, you are a New Creation! You are a saint, not a sinner.

Wives are not their husband's mothers, and they should not act as though they are the Holy Spirit in their husband's lives.

We are not saved by our feelings, our feelings are not facts.  We look to how what God says is true, not to our feelings to figure out reality.

And lastly, the truth may not change your circumstances, but that's okay, it will change you. God is primarily making us holy, not 'happy' - this side of eternity.

Many thanks to the folks at Moody Publishers Newsroom for sending me a free review copy of this book! My review did not have to be favorable.

My rating 4 out of 5 Stars

This book may be purchased at Christianbook.com and at Amazon.com