How Churches Grow, Donald McGavran, World Dominion Press, London, England, 1960, 12s. 6d.
Dr. McGavran has produced a book that should be profoundly disturbing to complacent Christians. He contends that the central task of the Christian communion everywhere is to build growing churches. He decries the "cessation of church growth" common in many denominations. Caring for the machinery already in existence may be praiseworthy, but it is not enough in a church whose primary duty is to expand. After initial evangelistic expansion, maintains the author, many churches settle down to improve organizational efficiency and to build a smooth-running machine. In this process the deep concern for the unsaved is lost, and the church ceases to expand.
Missionary training declines under such a program. One theological college offering eighty courses is mentioned, but Dr. McGavran feels that completing the type of course offered does not make the graduates capable of raising up new churches and of keeping them in constant expansion. He pleads for a weaning, or disentanglement, program, by which more and more ministers are freed from machine-minding in order to promote church growth through evangelism.
A closer study of Scripture, a deeper understanding of the fact that growth is a work of the Holy Spirit through dedicated human enterprise—these are basic needs in a contemporary situation that cries out for the divine remedy. Making churches grow instead of becoming static is unquestionably a sound, timely, Heaven-inspired philosophy for every branch of God's church.
H. W. Lowe
Evangelistic Sermons of Our Day, Andrew W. Blackwood, Harper and Brothers, New York, N.Y., 1959, 383 pages, $5.95.
Andrew W. Blackwood, a preacher's preacher, has produced many books of homiletic content that have been used as textbooks in many of the seminaries of the world, and read with profit by clergymen of all faiths. His contribution to the skill of preaching has affected some two generations of young men. For twenty years he was professor of homiletics at Princeton University and presently is Chairman Emeritus of Princeton Seminary. Thus, when a man of his stature gathers from leading evangelists of our day thirty-seven foremost examples of gospel preaching into one book, we would expect a work of real value, and we are not disappointed. These representative sermons were chosen from several hundred he requested from the successful soul-winning ministers of the "older denominations" and from the evangelical preachers of the "newer churches."
Many of these messages are excellent. Some, as Dr. Blackwood says, are "good and faithful." "Good" here means they have been helpful to those who heard them, and "faithful" means that the sermon content is in accord with Sacred Scripture and is a revelation of the will of God. Only in a few places would we have to question their orthodoxy. Most of the presentations are \vhat we might call conversion sermons—sermons that preach for decision.
Dr. Blackwood's incisive introduction of twenty-eight pages is of special value to one who is interested in bringing strength to his evangelistic pulpit, and for weeding out the chaff and weaknesses of his own gospel preaching. As a preface to each sermon the compiler gives his evaluation of the man's style of preparation, organization, philosophy of presentation, what he believes was the author's purpose of saying thus and so, and the effect the message had on him. For example, of Harold B. Kuhn's sermon "A Faith Worth Saving" he said this: "Man in the pulpit evidently takes for granted that the friend in the pew has brought his brains to church and wishes to keep them busy."
The reader will appreciate such messages as Roy H. Short's "The Salvaging of Souls" (a life-situation sermon showing the Lord's way of salvaging the man Simon Peter); Harold L. Fickett's "The Gospel of Divine Grace" (has a section on the Second Advent); Harold F. Ockenga's "Jesus the Christian Example"; and others from such men as Shoemaker, Redpath, Graham, Edman, Walker, Chappell, Turnbull, Taylor, Gordon, Brom-iley, Lehmann, Sangster, and Kik, The chief value of this type of work will be in the gleaning of ideas on the how, the art, the skill, and the spirit of winning souls for the Master and His kingdom.
Andrew C. Fearing
Called to Maturity, Myron S. Augsburger, Herald Press, Scottdale, Pennsylvania, 1960, 132 pages, $2.50.
Pastor and evangelist in community crusades for the Mennonite Church, a man of letters as well as a traveler, the author of the recently published book, Called to Maturity, develops a stirring thesis. In his own words, "The new birth makes possible a spiritual fellowship, the goal of which is spiritual maturity. . . . This romance of spiritual growth keeps the Christian life a vibrant as well as a victorious experience. This conquest keeps us from becoming professional in our religious observances." The introduction states:
"There is need in our time for deep searching into the meaning of sainthood. The effects of faith must have real significance to personal living. . . . Every generation of Christians has had need for revival and nurture to escape the calamity of formalism. Over and over the people of God have been called to repent of their lukewarmness. Today again, we hear the voice of God speaking to human hearts in sharp accents of truth to recover in the church the real essence of Christian piety. The open thrust of this book is a direct encounter with thatneed. Its message lays a burden o£ holiness upon every believer. It leaves no excuse for failure."
Maturity is the key thought in this spiritual gem, the chapter development o£ which is as follows: Maturity Through Spiritual Revival in Effective Prayer; In Recognizing Sin; In Confession of Sin; Through God's Forgiving Grace; Through Understanding Christian Essentials; Through Assurance of Salvation; Through the Spirit's Inner Work; Through Dynamic Sanctification; In Victorious Living; In Satisfaction of Soul; In the Practice of Love; In Relation to the World; In Love for Christ; In Saintliness; In View of Christ's Return.
There are many stimulating challenges in this thoughtful analysis that provide helpful thoughts for the minister's meditation, as well as for themes to rally his church.
Louise C. Kleuser
