Recommended Reading

Monthly Book Reviews

Monthly book reviews by various authors.

HELP FOR YOUNG CHRISTIANS

compiled by Mike Jones, Review and Herald Publishing Association, Washington, D.C., paperback edition, 160 pages, $3.50.

For the past several years Insight magazine has featured a large number of pointed and practical "How To" articles. Now, many of these have been gathered together into a 160-page book by Mike Jones, former editor of the magazine.

For the pastor who is most likely supersaturated with important problems and questions involving his flock, the book can be of inestimable value. Written by knowledgeable people (Mike Jones, Malcolm Max-well, Jan Do ward, and LaVonne Neff are a few of the authors), the articles zero in on problems of the seventies and follow with concise, well-organized solutions. They may not work for every troubled person in your congregation, but since all answers are spiritually and Biblically based and are written by people who have successfully solved similar enigmas, the majority of solution seekers are bound to find help.

A few of the chapter titles: "How to Be Born Again," "How to Get Into a Bible Study," "How to Handle Peer Pressure," "How to Overcome Sexual Temptation," "How to Start a Good Habit," "How to Finance Your Education," "How to Know God's Will."

These and thirty-two others are systematically arranged point by point, with explanations as to why each step is important in the problem-solving process. A book of great value to every pastor.

Bobbie Jane Van Dolson

THE SATURDAY NIGHT SPECIAL

Dr. William C. Self, Word Books, Inc., P.O. Box 1790, Waco, Texas 76703.

The best way to review this book is to let the author, Dr. William C. Self, speak for himself:

"The term 'Saturday night special' is usually applied by police departments to cheap, low-caliber handguns easily available on the street. These guns often misfire, miss their target, blow up in the face of those who use them, and frequently do a great damage to the community. I heard the expression on a late Saturday night newscast immediately after I had frantically put together a 'quickie' for Sunday. In my guilt over preparing hash for my people instead of a spiritual banquet, I realized the parallel between the cheap handgun and my 'quickie sermon' for Sunday.

"But alas, the poor pastor is pressured from every side. He must produce a masterpiece twice (sometimes three times) a week for essentially the same people. He suffers from over-exposure. Along with this he must organize everything that happens. He must visit. It is a weekly pressure that my clergy friends will understand and my lay friends only ignore. There is no way that a sensitive pastor can meet all the needs of his people or the demands on his time. This is a reality of our calling.

"The people who hear you preach will never know what your ministry cost you and your family or the price you pay ... to preach to them. You really can't expect them to understand. If you haven't cried about it in the dark of night and if you haven't fussed a bit with God about it in your prayer time, you still have a long way to go. No man can preach effectively until he has cried, or bled, or both.

"This preparation for Sunday is constant. Seminaries cannot give it to you; it comes with on-the-job training. It's great to preach when you have something to say—and the Spirit of the Lord fell upon me' (Ezek. 11:5, KJV)—but awful when you have to say something.

"Still the clock ticks you closer to Sunday and you've been too busy ministering one by one to minister to the hundreds, or more, or less. Is one sheep in trouble to be sacrificed for hundreds to be helped in worship? This can't be answered once and for all time. It will be faced every week as you start the countdown to Sunday.

"The man of God is not exclusively under judgment in the preaching event, but rather all in the worship exercise stand under the judgment of the text ... or of the Holy One Himself. We are not bringing brilliant masterpieces of religious expression to the people to be judged or graded by them. We are spreading the word of God to the people of God. It has been my observation that all of us have periods of inspiration (the oasis) and long periods of barrenness (the desert).

Here is a little help for the desert." An interesting book approaching a common problem.

R. H. Ferris

TRIAL AND TRIUMPH ON A WESTERN FRONTIER

A. D. Chilson, Heritage Publications, P.O. Box 247, EIko, Nevada 89801, 1976, 192 pages, $3.50.

Here is a quiver full of fascinating stories about pioneer Adventism as it was found largely in Wisconsin from 1850 to 1927. From early correspondence, periodicals, rare manuscripts, and personal testimonies, the author has gleaned a host of very inspiring materials.

Learn how rural evangelism was carried on in those days by circuit-riding preachers. Marvel at the dedication and determination of early Adventist educators. Vicariously visit several frontier camp meetings. Become better acquainted with pioneer workers such as J. G. Matteson, O. A. Olsen, T. M. Steward, Ana Stahl, and the Westphal brothers.

You will laugh and cry, ponder or exclaim, over each of the twenty-one chapters in this book. Anyone who remotely enjoys denominational history will find it exceptionally interesting.

Ethel Young

GOD'S WAY TO KEEP A CHURCH GOING AND GROWING

Vergil Gerber, Regal Books Division, G/L Publications, Glendale, California, 1973, 95 pages, $2.25.

Vergil Gerber believes evangelism is effective only when the new believers become responsible members of ongoing congregations. He has produced this classical manual for evangelism/church growth to help evaluate our effectiveness. The book can be used effectively with church boards, leaders, et cetera.

It is designed to help each Christian focus on Biblical goals and pierce through the fog of good intentions. This manual will provide an extremely helpful tool for those interested in evangelism effectiveness. It provides some helpful aids and suggestions for evaluating the progress of our local church, conference, or union. This book is basic to those interested in the principles of church growth.

J. Lynn Martell

THE CATHOLIC REDISCOVERY OF PROTESTANTISM. A HISTORY OF ROMAN CATHOLIC ECUMENICAL PIONEERING

Paul Minus, Jr., Paulist Press, New York, 1976, 261 pages, $5.96, paperback.

Countless books have been written to explain the great ecumenical breakthrough accomplished in the Roman Catholic Church during the pontificate of John XXIII, but there has been little detailed analysis of the trends that quietly nurtured it for decades.

Great shifts of this nature are rarely the result of chance or even the work of a single man, even though he be a pope. It is the merit of the church historian Dr. Paul Minus, Jr., a Methodist, to have set forth with remarkable clarity the toil of several generations of Catholic ecumenical pioneers who, for the most part, labored amid suspicions and misunderstandings.

The book keeps faithfully to its theme: the Catholic rediscovery of Protestantism. Indeed, the most dramatic expression of the Roman Catholic Church's hesitant conversion to ecumenism has been her adoption of a fresh stance toward Protestantism. The author attempts to explain this growth by studying persons, events, and ideas that fashioned this new Catholic approach to Protestantism in the years between the Reformation and Vatican II. He discusses the internal struggles that accompanied this rediscovery, the tensions between those whom the author identifies as the preservationists (determined partisans of an unchanging church) and the transformationists (those seeking to advance beyond the limited positions of the past). The author's sympathies are clearly seen to tie with the second style of ecumenism.

Dr. Minus' judgments are moderate and carefully weighed. His last chapter does not hesitate to point out that in the current climate of resentment and distrust, even the gains of Vatican II appear to be insecure at present. It remains to be seen whether Christians will not again attempt to use religion to indulge their desire to assert superiority and dominance over other persons.

Raoul Dederen

TRANSCENDENTAL HESITATION

Calvin Miller, Zondervan Books, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1977, 185 pages, $1.95.

"What's wrong with Transcendental Meditation? I've never been so relaxed before. I can cope with my hassles now. My mind is a lot clearer. How can something so wonderful be bad?"

How would you answer questions such as this one? These same feelings are echoed by countless individuals in many places. Since it would be unwise to delve into TM yourself, you can discover the reactions of a Christian writer, Calvin Miller, who actually went as far in the TM program as he felt was safe.

In his book Transcendental Hesitation Miller explains why TM and Christianity cannot successfully be merged. You will learn how the Christian can achieve all that TM offers, and more. TM is unmasked to reveal the subtle, sinister force that it truly is. It is actually a religion, whether the followers realize this or not.

Miller puts it nicely in his introduction: "In Christianity the answer to life with all of its riddles lies not within us [as in TM], but beyond us. The ability to relate to life does not come to us because we seek inner being; we must seek, rather, for transformed being in a distinct person outside ourselves— Jesus Christ."—Page 9.

A helpful glossary accompanies this outstanding book. It should find a place in your library.

William Weber


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Monthly book reviews by various authors.

April 1978

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