This is an unusual book, and not just because the front cover is the kind of thing only highway engineers can appreciate! The contents are also fairly specialist - though compelling I found. This is partly because of the way in which they have been derived. Martin Downes (a new face) has conducted a whole series of interviews with a 'star studded cast' of evangelical and reformed church leaders. The result is a book (slightly obscurely) called 'Risking the Truth' published by Christian Focus Publications for £8.99 p/b. The book is laid out in Q & A format and it is fascinating to see the way different men deal with the same questions. These all revolve around error and the way in which it should be dealt with. Downes sets before his interviewees such things as: Have they been personally tempted away from the straight and narrow? Confronted pastorally by error? How can heresies be headed off? What advice would they pass down to young ministers from their experience? So you have got men like Geoff Thomas (Wales) alongside Iain Campbell (Scotland), Michael Ovey (England), Conrad Mbewe (Zambia), Joel Beeke (USA) plus a load more Americans. One theme (sub-theme?) that struck me was a repeated lesson learned from experience - the vital need to maintain personal prayer. All that is done publicly and ministerially cannot substitute for it. Without it one will not be a 'tree planted by the rivers of water' (Psalm 1) and be fruitful in word and example.
Tuesday, 23 February 2010
Risky?
This is an unusual book, and not just because the front cover is the kind of thing only highway engineers can appreciate! The contents are also fairly specialist - though compelling I found. This is partly because of the way in which they have been derived. Martin Downes (a new face) has conducted a whole series of interviews with a 'star studded cast' of evangelical and reformed church leaders. The result is a book (slightly obscurely) called 'Risking the Truth' published by Christian Focus Publications for £8.99 p/b. The book is laid out in Q & A format and it is fascinating to see the way different men deal with the same questions. These all revolve around error and the way in which it should be dealt with. Downes sets before his interviewees such things as: Have they been personally tempted away from the straight and narrow? Confronted pastorally by error? How can heresies be headed off? What advice would they pass down to young ministers from their experience? So you have got men like Geoff Thomas (Wales) alongside Iain Campbell (Scotland), Michael Ovey (England), Conrad Mbewe (Zambia), Joel Beeke (USA) plus a load more Americans. One theme (sub-theme?) that struck me was a repeated lesson learned from experience - the vital need to maintain personal prayer. All that is done publicly and ministerially cannot substitute for it. Without it one will not be a 'tree planted by the rivers of water' (Psalm 1) and be fruitful in word and example.
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