Terry Virgo's Blog

Book Reviews

Planting Missional Churches
By Ed Stetzer

Ed Stetzer’s excellent book has the sub-title ‘Planting A Church That’s Biblically Sound and Reaching People in Culture’. He has done a fine job, both in terms of retaining Biblical soundness and also being phenomenally relevant to the culture. He has extraordinary hands-on expertise which has lead to all kinds of fascinating insights gathered from experience, but this book is much more than a simple ‘how to’ since it is a very disciplined work rooted in Biblical revelation as well as up-to-date relevance.

Thoroughly persuaded of the need for church planting, he writes essentially to the American market though his work is by no means relevant only there. Some of his details have a distinctly American feel, but there is so much in this book that will be of huge help to anyone engaged in church planting in the UK or, indeed, elsewhere.

His emphasis is that today’s church planter should be missional, incarnational, theological, ecclesiological and spiritual. He is abundantly clear that discipleship is the task of the New Testament Church and that every local church should be itself involved in further church planting.

He particularly ‘rings Newfrontiers bells’ when he urges the need for apostolic teams and argues that a number of co-workers joined Paul in his apostolic journeys. He goes on to point out that several churches were represented in his apostolic work and became responsible with him for the work. He even makes the strong argument that ‘not being represented in this venture constitutes a shortcoming in a local church; such a church has excluded itself from participating in the Pauline mission enterprise’. Local churches not caught up in apostolic advance have missed the point.

For Stetzer, the local church is a pumping missional machine making sure that it is very relevant to the modern culture and answering questions that the culture throws up but nevertheless being utterly rooted in Biblical revelation and never departing from Biblical truth in an endeavour to be culturally relevant.

This really is a fine book absolutely packed with extremely helpful material including a brief and helpful appraisal of post-modernism which is both succinct and insightful. In every way one feels that Stetzer is working hard to genuinely serve his reader and you would certainly be well served to get your own copy.

Magnifying God in Christ, New Testament Theology
By Thomas R Schreiner

This paperback summary of New Testament theology is a fascinating piece of work as it condenses his substantial 990-page hardback of identical title into a manageable paperback.

Initially I found the rather clipped style difficult to get into. In condensing his major work he has certainly cut away all excess material so that pure truth follows pure truth in very dense packaging.

Having said that, I have found reading the book became genuinely inspiring and helpful, although inevitably I discovered some areas of difference of opinion, particularly relating to the activity of the Holy Spirit. Nevertheless this is a thoroughly good work and if you want to study a serious New Testament theology without having to plough through hundreds of pages this is a paperback I’m very happy to recommend.

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Book Reviews

Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians has always been a particular favourite of mine with its very strong church emphasis. As John Stott says, ‘Nobody can emerge from a careful reading of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians with a privatised gospel. For Ephesians is the gospel of the church.’

I would say that John Stott’s work on Ephesians in the Bible Speaks Today series is the high spot of the whole BST series. His wise pastoral insights yet scholarly approach make this such a helpful volume and one that I would heartily recommend to someone seeking insight into this great Epistle. As he says, ‘It is through the old creation (the universe) that God reveals His glory to humans; it is through the new creation (the church) that He reveals his wisdom to angels.’

His insights into the individual’s experience are not lacking. As he argues, ‘Because you did throw off your former self once and for all, you must now throw off all conduct which belonged to your old life. Your new behaviour must be completely consistent with the kind of person you have become.’

If you want to advance further in your studies I could certainly recommend Andrew Lincoln’s commentary in theWord series. Disappointed that Lincoln argues that Paul did not write the Epistle, I am nevertheless grateful to Peter Lewis for encouraging me to read a commentary which (to quote D A Carson) ‘on most pages is superb, both at the level of dealing faithfully with the text and at the level of theological reflection. Lincoln’s grasp of the eschatology of the Epistle is profound.’ I personally greatly enjoyed working my way through it and find that I have underlinings on virtually every page.

Most recently, I am just finishing Peter O’Brien’s excellent commentary in the Pillar series. He is clearly an outstanding commentator, proving to be extraordinarily thorough and insightful, and firmly establishing Pauline authorship.

If you have time, however, (and it will be time very well spent!) you would also want to read Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones’ series of sermons on Ephesians, in the Banner of Truth series on this great Epistle, which Samuel Taylor Coleridge called ‘the divinest composition of man’, and F F Bruce regarded ‘as the quintessence of Paulinism’.

Sadly, I disagree with all of their treatment on the identity and work of an apostle. But there again you can’t have everything!

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