The White Horse King: The Life of Alfred the Great by Benjamin Merkle

Why should you read a book about Alfred the Great. Who IS Alfred the Great. Alfred lived in the 800’s (born 849) and was a King in the British Isles (England). During this time the Vikings (the Danes, from Europe) would travel the English Channel and attack and plunder parts of the British Isles. By the time Alfred was of age the Vikings had attacked and conquered most of the British Isles. Only Alfred’s kingdom was left and the Vikings were determined to take it. The rest of Alfred’s like was spent as a King repelling the Vikings attack.

This does not read like normal history books – it is easy and has a nice flow to it. It is definitely for those who do not know much about this period of history.

Why should you read the book? Alfred is quite a remarkable man. One who began his public life by leading an army into battle without any experience and yet realized that whatever else he must do – he must stand at the front of the army, shoulder to shoulder with his men. This was a pattern that continued throughout his life – being at the front of his armies as he fought the invading Vikings, achieving victory after victory. And even in defeat Alfred learned and grew in wisdom. A natural strategist Alfred changed the face of England. He created a standing army, ready to meet any invaders (the traditional method had been to call the men from their farms and crops to gather to fight an invading army, a slow and laborious process – Alfred soon realized that the delay in gathering these men from their farms damaged their ability fight and be flexible.) He also realized that those who died and did not return to their farms damaged local economies through lost crops.

He became a master at out witting the Viking and was a mighty fighting machine. And yet he showed mercy and compassion – allowing defeated armies to leave instead of just slaughtering them.

Alfred is smart, savy, brave and a born leader who never let set backs defeat him, but adapts and finds a way to move forward and win.

That’s why you should this book.

THE TRELLIS AND THE VINE: The ministry Mind Shift That Changes Everything by Colin Marshall and Tony Payne

Mark Dever has put this book in the top ten reads of 2009. He says “This is the best book I’ve read on the nature of church ministry.”

Possibly.

My first impression was “Welcome to the conversation – a little late, but welcome nonetheless.” What Marshall and Payne have written about here has been written about many, many times in the past 10 years or so, mainly by Emergent type folk.

A lot of their suggestions and conclusions have already been suggested and concluded in various books about church ministry. What Marshall and Payne do here is articulate it through a very biblical framework – more so than other books – as well as offer a concrete way of doing church differently, and that is what makes the book good.

Their fundamental point is simple – yet transformational if churches understood it – Disciple making should be the normal agenda and priority of every church AND every Christian disciple.

EVERY Christian’s focus should be to BE a disciple and to MAKE disciples and Churches and pastors are meant to be facilitating that process.

This requires a shift of focus for churches and ministries. Early on in the book they give 11 such shifts that must take place:

1. From running programs to building people
2. From running events to training people
3. From using people to growing people (huge shift away from church ‘volunteers’)
4. From filling gaps to training new workers
5. From solving problems to helping people make progress
6. From clinging to ordained ministry to developing team leadership
7. From Focusing on Church polity to forging ministry partnerships
8. From relying on training institutions to establishing local training
9. From focusing on immediate pressures to aiming for longterm expansion
10. From engaging in management to engaging in ministry
11. From seeking church growth to desiring gospel growth.

This cannot be achieved through superficial change, or implementing small groups. In fact, for Marshall and Payne the issue goes far deeper than just starting small groups. In fact, they argue that small groups are not the issue. The small groups need to be TRAINING groups; trained on how to read the Bible, pray with each other, work on spiritual growth. Without this drive and focus small groups are useless. Even preaching is not sufficient. Yes, you heard that right; Tony Payne and Colin Marshall say on pg 102 that, Sunday sermons are necessary but not sufficient. Preaching is ONE form of the ministry of the word – not THE form.

It is always coming back to the issue of ongoing, continuous training and discipling of ALL members of the church.

One of the most interesting discussions in the book revolves around calling. How does one know that they are called to ministry, The current model is to wait for someone to say ‘I feel called to ministry” and then the process begins.

This is not a biblical approach for the authors. They say that pastors and elders should be talent scouts. Scripture suggests that people are called and set apart by others (see Timothy). Pastors should be actively recruiting suitable people within their churches and challenging them to expend their lives for the work of the gospel.

They write:

“When we try and discern what it is that makes that role special [the one called out for ministry] in the New Testament it’s not full time verses part time or paid verses unpaid. It’s not that some belong to a special priestly class and others don’t. It’s not even that some are gifted and others aren’t because all have gifts to contribute to the building of Christ’s congregation. The key thing seems to be that some are set apart or recognized or chosen, because of their convictions, character and competency and entrusted with the responsibility under God for particular ministries.”

Their summary proposals are:

Summary Propositions

1. Our goal is to make disciples
2. Churches tend towards institutionalism as sparks fly upwards
3. The heart of disciple-making is prayerful teaching
4. The goal of all ministry – not just one-to-one work – is to nurture disciples
5. To be a disciple is to be a disciple-maker
6. Disciple-makers need to be trained and equipped in conviction, character and competence
7. There is only one class of disciples, regardless of different roles or responsibilities
8. The Great Commission, and its disciple-making imperative, needs to drive fresh thinking about our Sunday meetings and the place of training in congregational life
9. Training almost always starts small and grows by multiplying workers
10. We need to challenge and recruit the next generation of pastors, teachers and evangelists

As I have said, while the main content and issues have been raised many times, what makes this book special is the solutions and suggested models which the authors put forward as a way forward. Too many books in the past have raised the problems but have never given substantial proposals or suggestions for a way forward. This book gives a biblically focused framework to allow you to work through the 11 required shifts thus becoming a church which trains disciples to be disciple-making disciples.

Romans 2 v14-15 – part 3

C Cranfield and Karl Barth are almost alone in connecting v14 of Romans chapter 2 with v13b. Cranfield writes:

“The most natural explanation of the “For” (at the beginning of v14) would seem to be that these verses are thought of as confirming v13b…. v13b, which might at first sight appear to conflict with “And also for the Greek” of v10, does not in fact do so, since those Gentiles who do the things the law requires stand in a real positive relation to the law (v14b & v15a) and so may be regarded as included in the reference of the “doers of the law” in v13b” .

In other words, Cranfield sees a continuing between v10 and v13. The greek can do good and receive honor and glory and peace (which is salvation), v10, and therefore the doers of the law who will be justified can also be greeks. V13 refers to separate groups of people, those who hear the law (and so have the law physically – the jews) and those who do the law (anybody, Jew or Greek). To connect v14 to v12a would imply that v12b-13 is a form of parenthesis or explanation. I do not see such a division. Paul is merely establishing the fact that to have the law, to hear the law, does not mean you are saved.

The word ‘Gentiles’ is without the definite article, which suggests that it refers to some gentiles, not all gentiles. As we have said, Moo et al see this as referring to gentiles who are not converted while Cranfield / Barth sees these gentiles as Christians.

The next part of the verse: who do not have the law do by nature what the law requires has some difficulties. Traditionally the word nature has been taken with what follows. This means the verse would say the gentiles, as a result of their possession of natural law, do some of the things required by God’s law instinctively.

This is what Moo argues. He says that Paul is almost certainly referring to a greek / stoic tradition that all human beings possess as unwritten law, an innate sense of right and wrong. Hence, we do the law by nature. Moo says that for this reason, this cannot refer to believing gentiles, because believers do the law by grace, and not by nature.