magnificent Surren-
der: releasing the
riches of Living
in the Lord
Author: roger Helland
Wipf and Stock, 2012.
113 pages. $15.99
in our me-first society a life of magnificent surrender sounds about as exciting as
an abscessed tooth. Neverthe-
less, Roger Helland believes
magnificent surrender is pre-
cisely what is called for if we
truly understand what it means
to say Jesus is Lord in our lives.
Currently
serving as dis-
trict executive
coach of the
Baptist Gener-
al Conference
in Alberta,
Helland has
been a pastor,
Bible college
and seminary teacher, church
consultant and seminar speak-
er. It is Roger Helland the pastor
that readers find here, and he is
well suited to the task presented
in this work.
This book is a series of re-
flections on key texts from
Paul’s epistle to the Colossians,
described by Helland as a “stun-
ning art gallery of Christian
theology, discipleship, spiritual-
ity and mission.” In this rich dis-
play of spiritual truth, Helland
seeks insights on practising
magnificent surrender, which
“releases the riches of living in
the Lord.”
As he unpacks the mean-
ing of magnificent surrender,
Helland explores the interface
of faith and spiritual fruit, the
meaning of truly living in the
Lord, the Christian’s relation-
ship with culture, the need for
spiritual renewal, the crucial
role of prayer in our submission
to Christ, and the need to live
authentically missional lives.
Not Sure: A Pastor’s
Journey from Faith
to Doubt
Author: John Suk
Eerdmans, 2011.
211 pages. $17.50
We only need to read of John the Baptist (Matthew 11: 3) and
the Godforsaken
psalmist (Psalm 22:1)
to see that doubt is
part of the faith experience. However,
doubt is not easily
embraced in evangelical circles. The title
of this book itself will
raise a few eyebrows.
The tone is autobiographical. However, this doesn’t mean
it is written in narrative form
(though there are large chunks
of that).
Suk’s frame of reference on
his pilgrimage is the highly literate (and Calvinistic) Christian
Reformed Church. He writes
of being brought up in the doctrinal catechism of a parochial
Dutch immigrant setting.
Armed with this highly
rational faith, he finds himself
questioning God as he visits the
horrors of Hiroshima, Kenya,
and Rwanda during the years
he served as editor of his denominational magazine.
Suk draws a parallel between
stages of his pilgrimage and the
historical stages of transmission
of the Christian faith: the era of
oral tradition before the printing
press (his childhood), the literate and rational Enlightenment
(his youth and adulthood), and
the pluralistic post-modern era
causing oral and digital faith (his
present situation).
By the same token, he also
rejects simplistic reduction of
the Christian faith to a merely
emotional “personal relationship with Jesus” or the health-and-wealth gospel.
Suk would prefer the word
We live in a world
in which many enter
through faith’s door
from backgrounds
much less rational
and instructive. Suk
now gives himself
the permission to
park his faith next
to theirs. Most importantly, his
God also gives him the permission to do so. –Pye Chew
The Church at Work:
A manual for Excellent Church-Agency
relations
Author: John Pellowe
Hignell book Printing,
2012. 275 pages. $30
John Pellowe is the CEO of the Canadian Council of Christian Charities,
a Christian ministry serving
3,200 churches,
denominational offices and
Christian agencies. He brings
significant and
relevant expertise through the
research and
writing of this
very pertinent book, based
upon his doctoral thesis, for
the benefit of the Christian
church and Christian agencies
in ministry together in Canada
today.
I use the term “benefit” because Pellowe’s objective in
writing this book is to bring
together the Christian church,
in her various expressions,
and the plethora of Christian
agencies now in existence, for
mutually healthy, supportive,
accepting, respecting and vulnerable opportunities for doing ministry together.
It’s that simple, yet that
complex. Years of perceived
competition, distrust, suspicion, misgivings, and downright opposition have existed
between the Christian Church
and independent Christian
agencies seeking to serve
Christ in the marketplace of
ministry.
The short- and long-term effects have not served the Christian community well in many
cases in its attempt to win the
lost or build the Kingdom.
However, in other instances
this has not been the case, as
with agency/church-developed
ministries like Inter-Varsity,
Child Evangelism Fellowship
or Alpha.
Pellowe’s goal in completing this volume is to help readers understand and resolve for
themselves all the issues related to church-agency relations.
Three generous sections out-
