Glory Now Revealed: What We’ll Discover About God in Heaven by Andy Davis

Here’s a good book about Heaven. May its tribe increase. Davis provides an interesting and biblical framework. He argues that when this present age has ended and the new heaven and new earth have come, our experience of God’s glory will be divided into three categories: God’s past glory, God’s present glory, and God’s future glory. He makes a convincing case that at that time, God’s past glory will be reveled in his mighty works throughout the history of the world; God’s present glory will be revealed in his face, his throne, his angels, his people, New Jerusalem, and the new heaven and new earth; and God’s future glory will be revealed in the unfolding events of life in the new universe.

This isn’t a “get all your questions answered” type of book like Randy Alcorn’s “Heaven.” Rather, this is a biblical and theological framework. If you digest it well, many questions will get answered along the way.

Davis is pastor of First Baptist Church of Durham, North Carolina, and a visiting professor of church history at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.

The Conservative Resurgence in the Southern Baptist Convention by James Hefley

This book uses the phrase “Conservative Resurgence” not “Fundamentalist Takeover,” which speaks volumes regarding the perspective from which this history was written. This is a very helpful, and fair, telling of one side of the story. It covers in great detail the drama over Ralph Elliot’s “The Message of Genesis” and the alleged theft of Baylor University. As the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Sulphur Springs, Texas, I was proud to see the name of former pastor Richard Jackson appear many times. 

Hefley authored and co-authored more than 50 books during his lifetime. His works spanned the literary scene from humor to academic. He founded Hannibal Books, an Evangelical Christian book-publishing company, in 1984. Hefley lived in Hannibal, Missouri, where he claimed the name for his publishing company.

What Grows in Weary Lands: On Christian Resilience by Tish Harrison Warren

Warren offers rest to those who are weary and distracted by providing wisdom from the church fathers and mothers. It is ultimately a book about about the spiritual disciplines but it also dips into a writer’s memoir. I’m OK with both.

It’s filled with paragraphs like this one: “The things of God, it turns out, are surprisingly prosaic, ordinary, and unimpressive. If salvation is to meet us at all, it must meet us in the slog. We pray. We wait. We are patient. We persevere. And God rends the heavens to meet us in the last place that we expect to find him: exactly where we are.”

I’m often in the slog, but I’m not always patient.

Warren currently is a writer and an Anglican priest. She serves as the C. S. Lewis Theological Writer-in-Residence for the Anglican Episcopal House of Studies at Baylor’s George W. Truett Theological Seminary. She is a senior fellow with The Trinity Forum and an assisting priest at Immanuel Anglican Church in Austin, Texas.

When Doctrine Divides the People of God: An Evangelical Approach to Theological Diversity by Rhyme Putman

Putman offers a framework of theological triage. It comes in two parts: 1) Why we disagree about doctrine and 2) What we should do about doctrinal disagreement. I appreciated the chapters on “When should doctrine divide us?” and “How then shall we disagree?” We live in a polarized church climate. People are quick to draw lines in the sand. The accusation of “Heresy!” is flippantly typed on social media and voiced in church hallways. Yet, disagreements about eschatology, or women in ministry, do not reside anywhere near heresy. We need to be rooted in biblical truth and demonstrate Christlike character in disagreement on non-essential doctrine.

This book pairs well with Gavin Ortlund’s “Finding the Right Hills to Die On.” Get them both and read them over and over again.

Putman is associate vice president of academic affairs at Williams Baptist University and associate professor of theology at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. He is the author of When Doctrine Divides the People of God and The Method of Christian Theology: A Basic Introduction.

I’ve recently developed a love for reading through systematics. I’m currently enjoying Robert Letham’s one volume work and Joel Beeke and Paul Smalley’s massive four volume set. The problem with most systematics? They are Reformed. I appreciate the well-articulated theology, but I disagree with much of it.

McCall and Vickers have served the church well by providing a work articulating the Wesleyan perspective. This will become a modern replacement of Thomas Oden’s “Classic Christianity.” The authors define systematic theology as the study of God characterized by conceptual organization, relative comprehensiveness, and logical coherence. They provide such a study with Wesleyan convictions and sources. They also provide a gentle, yet forceful, pushback to other theological frameworks.

This is a much needed work. May it be read thoroughly and widely. Pick up a copy. Share it with others. It should sit on the shelf next to Grudem.

The Pastor: A Memoir by Eugene Peterson

This one is in my small collection of favorites. I return to it often – like soul food. Every time I pick it up, it challenges and comforts. I’ll eventually need a new copy. But I’ll keep this one for the memories.

Peterson sparked my pastoral imagination when I was in seminary. That spark is now in full flame. I appreciate his love for Jesus, storytelling prowess, and poetic flare. He speaks of the pastor’s call through humble admission of his own flaws and desire for something better.

Perhaps my favorite parts of the memoir are Peterson’s stories of spiritual formation at the feet of his parents. His mother was a storyteller, telling stories from Scripture and life. She elaborated and embellishes stories without excuse. Peterson shares that later in life, he was frequently surprised by the glaring omissions in the text. The Holy Spirit left outcome of the best parts! His father was a butcher. In the butcher shop, Peterson learned real-life lessons on Old Testament subjects. Peterson describes that sacrifice is messy: blood sloshing on the floor, gutting creatures and gathering up the entrails in buckets, skinning the animals, salting down the hinds. And in the summertime, flies are everywhere. There is more spiritual significance to the butcher shop stories … but I don’t want to rob your of the joy of reading them yourself.

Peterson was for many years James M. Houston Professor of Spiritual Theology at Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia. He also served as founding pastor of Christ Our King Presbyterian Church in Bel Air, Maryland.

Too Great a Temptation: The Seductive Power of America’s Super Church by Joel Gregory

This book never grows old. I’ve read it well over a dozen times. I’ll read countless times more. It opens with a great opening paragraph:

First Baptist Church of Dallas sits at the intersection where the Way of the Cross intersects the American dream – Via Dolorosa at Wall Street. Such an intersection has no stoplights, not even a yield sign. Where the road to the cross and the road to success meet there can be a head-on collision between a man’s ambition and his desire to serve God. I know.

The memoir chronicles Gregory’s brief tenure as pastor of First Baptist Dallas. Preachers can mine gold from each page. Those who know the backstory might label the book as a pool of sour grapes. I disagree. It’s a warning siren. The wise will respond accordingly.

Too Great A Temptation is a cautionary tell about the seductive allure of power and prestige.   The book details the courting process that brought Gregory to the pulpit of the First Baptist Church of Dallas in 1991.  For two years he shared with the pulpit with the legendary WA Criswell.  Yet, shortly after his arrival, Gregory realized Criswell had no desire to follow through with the promise to retire.  The tension mounted until Gregory submitted his resignation on a Wednesday night in 1992 and slipped into a getaway car.  It’s a classic example of the old adage, “The grass isn’t always greener on the other side.”  The other side could be filled with unmet promises, relational turmoil, and force you out of ministry.  At the end of the two year period detailed in this volume, Gregory is selling prepaid funerals door to door. By God’s grace, Gregory ended his ministerial career preaching around the world and training the next generations of preachers.

Gregory held the George W. Truett Endowed Chair of Preaching and Evangelism at Baylor University’s George W. Truett Theological Seminary and directed the Kyle Lake Center for Effective Preaching. In 2018 he was named one of the “Twelve Most Effective Preachers in the English Language” by a poll of more than 500 professors of preaching in American seminaries and universities.

My Faith and Message an Autobiography by Herschel Hobbs

This falls into the category of “Great read, but not a great book.” It reads as if Hobbs voiced its content aloud as a secretary frantically typed a manuscript. What it lacks in eloquence and style, it makes up for in preacher stories. I wanted to read the book for Hobb’s reflection on leading the committee which produced the 1963 Baptist Faith and Message. I had to wait for the final chapter, but it finally arrived. But there is not much there. I needed about 100 more pages on it.

Hobbs was one of the leading Baptist statesmen of the twentieth century. He served as pastor of First Baptist Church in Oklahoma City for nearly twenty-five years and also wrote or edited 147 books and Bible commentaries.