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Five Life-Shaping Books
from JAC Issue #26
JAC asked a number of people to describe five books that most
helped shape their life. (beside the Bible of course!)
Major Janet
Munn
Beyond the Curse
by Aida Besancon Spencer.
This book is a biblical study of all the
controversial passages in Scripture that have been used to
keep women out of leadership and ministry in the Church. The
author does a clear, powerful and convincing study of the
original languages, cultures and contexts and applies
interprets the author's intent with that understanding. It is
a book that set me free.
Intercessory Prayer
by Dutch Sheets
Dutch Sheets analyzes the role of the believer in
partnering in prayer, according to the Word of God, to
accomplish God's will on the earth. This book has been a
fire-starter in my own heart, to pray aggressively, believing
God absolutely desires to answer, and in fact has chosen to
limit Himself, in partnership with the Body of Christ. This
teaching is an anointed anti-dote to the "whatever is going to
happen will happen" mindset -- that is a lie from the devil.
Life Together
by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
A revolutionary look at Christian community and the
non-negotiable of close interaction and relationships with
fellow believers. Bonhoeffer's spiritual authority and
authenticity shout through this book. It left me greatly
challenged in my individualistic tendencies.
The Writings of Catherine Booth
The co-founder is as relevant and sharp today as
ever. Her forceful communication and argument are inspiring,
convincing, compelling, challenging. No wonder she has been a
world changer. I re-visit her writings on Female Ministry
consistently.
Healing
by Francis MacNutt
Francis MacNutt is a former Roman Catholic priest who realized
quickly after his ordination, that the needs that confronted
him, far exceeded his power to help. The Spirit of God
enrolled him in the School of Healing, by direct tutoring from
the Spirit, and with continual practical experience. His
stories of great need, personal desperation and the power of
God manifest, have been ongoing sources of encouragement for
me to persevere in the healing ministry.
Colonel Dennis Phillips
The five books
that have most of all shaped my life are:
Genesis
I Samuel
Job
John
II Timothy
But, I think
the assignment was, "other than the Bible", and from there I
was challenged to restrict it to five, yet, here they are, and
I present them in the chronological order in which they
appeared in and impacted my life:
1. QUIET
TALKS ON PRAYER (S. D. Gordon)
This book was
already old and dog-eared when it was handed to me during the
year I was preparing to enter training (1959). S. D. Gordon
introduced this young officer-to-be to the wonder of prayer,
and his writings prompted me to take the first steps in a
life-long pilgrimage (which I am still on) in pursuit of a
holy prayer-relationship with God.
Remember, I was
getting ready for cadetship, that necessary step to becoming
an officer, and it was one of those times in my life when I
was particularly sensitive to spiritual things. So, my
20-year-old mind took it quite seriously and literally when I
read, "For if a man is to pray right, he must first be right
in his motives and life." During that time, I drew up my
first "Ten Most Wanted" list of souls to be saved, most of
them my own family, and although it took 33 years for one of
my brothers to come to Christ, every one of those ten people
came to the Lord, and I attribute my quantum leap of faith in
prayer to the detailed instruction given in this text.
2.
CELEBRATION OF DISCIPLINE (Richard Foster)
In 1980, while
serving as territorial youth secretary, I was invited to lead
the Asbury College Salvation Army Student Fellowship Retreat
and was advised by the Student Fellowship President, Kenneth
Luyk (now training principal in the USA Southern Territory)
that the theme of the retreat would be based on this book.
Reading it
changed my life.
Through all the
years of my youth and early officership, I heard senior
officers speak of the impact Brengle's books had had on them,
and I longed for such a spiritual-literary experience. It
came with the reading of Celebration of Discipline. The first
time, it took me a year to read its 200 pages because I was
driven to process each chapter (sometimes one paragraph at a
time) into my life. As with a great novel, my full attention
was piqued upon reading the first page: "We must not be led
to believe that the Disciplines are only for spiritual giants
and hence beyond our reach, or only for contemplatives who
devote all their time to prayer and medication. Far from it.
God intends the Disciplines of the spiritual life to be for
ordinary human beings: people who have jobs, who care for
children, who wash dishes and mow lawns. In fact, the
Disciplines are best exercised in the midst of our
relationships with our husband or wife, our brothers and
sisters, our friends and neighbors."
"Wow", I said
to myself. "This book is for me". And although each chapter
is overwhelmingly rich and worthy of mention, I take time
(space) here to draw attention only to Chapter 11, "The
Discipline of Worship". Dr. Foster's recommendations for one
to prepare for worship have made Sunday mornings rich and
precious for this itinerant who has worshipped everywhere from
Pasadena Tabernacle to the distant mountains of
Haiti.
Meaningful worship has little to do with how good the preacher
is or how large the congregation may be. It's all about one's
preparation to meet with God and be changed by the very
essence of His presence.
3. LEAP OVER
A WALL (Eugene H. Peterson)
If the most
creative novelists of the 20th/21st Centuries were brought
together, they could not come close to conceiving a plot as
wild, imaginative, daring, adventuresome, sexy, emotional and
dramatic as the story of David, and Eugene Peterson
masterfully draws out all of the above in Leap Over a Wall. I
have referred often to Chapter Two in which Mr. Peterson
vividly re-tells the story of David's selection to be king.
He was the least of the 8 brothers. (Maybe I identified too
strongly here in that I, too, was "the least of 8 children" -
6 of whom were brothers, but I relished the picture of David
having been virtually forgotten and overlooked by everyone
except God.)
The House of
David, yes the one Jesus was prophesied to rule over, is to be
honored and held in holy regard; yet, we find in King David
many of the same life-situations we also face, though
centuries apart. Though chosen by God and set apart for
Kingly responsibilities, David demonstrated an ordinariness
that emboldens us "ordinarians" to realize a stumble does not
have to mean a fall, and even a fall does not have to mean one
is down forever. We learn from David that it isn't what we do
for God, but what God does for us. God's providence prevails.
4. WHAT'S SO
AMAZING ABOUT GRACE (Philip Yancey)
God's timing is
perfect, and He placed this book in my hands at the very time
in my life when I needed it the most. Without naming the
time or the place, let it suffice to say I needed to learn how
to forgive. And while Philip Yancey "covers the waterfront"
on the subject of Grace, it was the chapters on forgiveness
that I read and re-read (and am still reading) that delivered
liberation to my conflicted soul. Yes, I had been hurt -
terribly so - by people who should have known better. And my
human response was to somehow get even, but there is nothing
in the life of Jesus or the entire New Testament to justify
such behavior. But how does one forgive when one is not even
asked for forgiveness. How does one forgive when justice has
been swept aside and innuendo and fact-less slander prevail?
Ah, that was when, like having a spiritual massage, I read,
"Forgiveness is achingly difficult, and long after you've
forgiven, the wound lives on." (Note: I've never had a
massage, but I understand that while a massage can make one
feel good eventually, there is a lot of pain in the
process.) "Forgiveness is an unnatural act", says Yancey
for the sinful and carnal nature within us seeks recompense
and revenge. But Jesus spent more time in the brief "Lord's
Prayer" on the subject of forgiveness than anything else.
"Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against
us." How about this for a translation, "Lord, I want you to
forgive me the same way I have forgiven others". Okay, I
understand the dynamics, but how does one become a forgiving
person? Well, you have to read the other chapters to get
your arms around God's grace, which, as we've often said, is
sufficient.
5. PRAYER,
FINDING THE HEART'S TRUE HOME (Richard Foster)
This book came
to me just before we moved to the Caribbean
Territory in 1998. Again, God's timing was perfect, for one discovers a whole new
relationship with God while serving on the mission field.
While serving in the
USA, prayer was
certainly good, helpful and inspirational, but on the mission
field, prayer becomes one's life-line, an absolute necessity
to cope and survive. At one point, Dr. Foster explains the
"Selah" so often seen in the Psalms. It is meant as a signal
for a meditative interlude. Well, reading this book required
many "Selah's", for one must not just read through it. One
must pause and ponder every point and each paragraph. I
promise, this book will take you to places of prayer you have
never imagined. In fact, just writing about it here, I am
encouraged to pick it up yet once again and return home to the
heart of God.
Commissioner
Wesley Harris
The hardest
part of responding to the JAC editor’s request is in making a
choice of only five books which have meant much to me and
seeing so many other volumes on my shelves reproaching me on
account of their being overlooked!
From no fewer
than fifty books on preaching from which I have at least
learnt how much more I need to learn, I would select
Heralds of God by J. S. Stewart. The chapter
headings indicate the substance of a book which had a profound
impact on me as a young officer. They are, ‘The preacher’s
world’, ‘The Preacher’s theme‘, ‘The Preacher’s study‘, ‘The
Preacher’s technique’ and ‘The Preacher’s inner life’. More
than twenty years after obtaining the book I felt a strong
urge to write and tell its author how much it had meant to
me. In response he sent a handwritten letter to say how my
note had cheered him in his retirement. I treasure that
letter from one of the greatest preachers of the 20th century.
Another book
which has long had an honoured place on the shelves which have
accompanied me around the world is The House of my
Pilgrimage by my boyhood hero and my encourager
when I was a corps officer, General Albert Orsborn. He was an
orator in the grand style now somewhat out of fashion but many
of my generation were blessed and inspired by his preaching as
well as by the enduring legacy of his songs. I particularly
enjoyed the book’s earlier chapters telling of early
struggles, song writing and contacts with some of the early
leaders of the Army.
I have long
made a practice of pencilling my own indices at the back of my
books and transposing the entries into a filing system for
ready reference. Among the books thus marked would be a few by
Stephen Covey and John C. Maxwell including the latter’s
Developing the leaders around you. His
emphasis on multiplying leaders and not just attracting
followers is something to be noted.
Philip Yancey
is a currently popular author described by Professor J. I.
Packer as ‘a journalist, a gadfly and a prophet rolled into
one’. His, What’s so amazing about grace
can certainly provoke new thoughts about old truths and I for
one need books that can do that.
I get the
impression that some Salvationists think that all good books
come from outside the Army. That is not true although
with our Movement unfortunately producing fewer books than at
other times in our history the perception is understandable.
However, some good books by Army writers are still coming off
the presses. The huge circulation of volumes by Henry Gariepy
has been very encouraging. Then I would mention, Who
are these Salvationists by Shaw Clifton, which
carries the weight of true scholarship without being an unduly
heavy read. It should be required study for those who imagine
that any change in the Army would be for the best. This book
has some sign posts we would do well to consult.
Captain Danielle Strickland
Obviously this
is a hard question to answer. I have included five books
(besides the Bible) that have deeply impacted my life. For
all of them there are ten others that have helped shape me. I
love to read and perhaps above all other influences reading
remains the way that I acquire knowledge that changes me. I
love that God created words.
Chasing the
Dragon:
the life story of Jackie Pullinger. I read this book as a new
Christian and it inspired me to go the distance with God. It
also created a hunger to see the hand of God at work in
supernatural ways in my ministry. This booked shaped me into
a person sold out to mission, wanting to work for and among
the poor, and it gave me a thirst for God's supernatural
power.
No Future
Without Forgiveness:
by Bishop Tutu. This book both amazed and inspired me. It
helped me to understand the power of forgiveness not just on a
personal level, but also on a national one. It gave me a
glimpse into the work that God is doing on an international
level in our world - during my lifetime. It also helped me to
see light at the end of the tunnel in a world that will be
cleaning up the debris of racial hatred and civil wars for
years to come. This book continues to challenge and shape my
thoughts on the future of our world.
Pope John
Paul II: the biography,
by Tad Szulc. The story of Pope John Paul's life rocked my
world, not to mention my prejudices. As the strong story of
faith and surrender to God unfolded I was challenged to live a
life that would be as committed and sold-out to the gospel. I
was convicted of a deep prejudice towards Catholicism that I
didn't even know existed. This book was instrumental in
changing my mind and exposing the places in my heart that
needed to be free. This also helped me appreciate the deep
faith of Catholicism and her place in the world - and our
place along with her. I found my love for the bride deepen
and widen to embrace rather than exclude my Catholic brothers
and sisters.
Intercessory
Prayer,
by Dutch Sheets. Before this book I was very unclear about
Intercession. I was often quite perplexed about what people
were doing when they prayed fervently (including wailing and
travail). I struggled within the Word to get a grasp of what
intercessory prayer meant and how I could enter the party.
This book changed that. It gave me a practical and Biblical
explanation of Intercessory Prayer- the importance of it and
the form of it and the freedom of it all. It inspired me to
not only pray but also to equip, mobilize, and unleash the
prayer warriors that I knew. This has impacted my heart and
hanged my ministry for the better.
Life
Together,
by Bonhoeffer. The classic on community. This book (along
with others by Tom Sine who I would say is the contemporary
classic on community) has shaped my life in major ways.
Bonhoeffer challenged by core belief that my 'devotions' had
to be done in isolation from anyone else... now I understand
that my time with God can be both individual and communal. I
now spend my morning devotions reading and praying with my
family as a unit of one together before God. Both Bonhoeffer
and Tom Sine have challenged me to live the Gospel out in
rough, and poor neighbourhoods, to live the opposite of the
world, to challenge the status-quo. Bonhoeffer did it by his
words but also his life (going back into the fire of Nazism)
and Tom Sine by his practical examples in his books (The
Mustard Seed Conspiracy, and Mustard Seed versus McWorld).
Both have brought me to a place today where I live in an inner
city, in order to live out the Gospel and see His Kingdom
come.
(then)
Commissioner Shaw Clifton
Selecting only five books was quite a problem. I list my
representative choices in publication date order.
The first is a collection of Anglican prayers, The
Priest’s Prayer Book compiled in 1921 by R.F.
Littledale and J. Edward Vaux. It was published by Longmans,
Green and Co., London. I picked it up second hand in Bromley,
England in March 1992 since when it has been a source of real
blessing to me, for I make much use in my private devotional
life of the prayers of others. The section on “Private Prayers
for Bishops” was especially meaningful during my five years as
a Divisional Commander, and since. Another section, “Notes on
the Practice of Holiness”, remains timeless with its simple,
direct insights. This volume is a delight to handle, with its
smooth calf leather binding and gold leaf pages. It also gives
off that heady aroma so beloved of second hand book store
junkies.
The second is Extracts From General Booth’s Journal
1921-22, published by Salvationist Publishing and
Supplies Ltd., London, in 1925. Reading these daily journal
entries by Bramwell Booth has brought me into contact with a
holy mind, a thoughtful, intelligent, visionary Army leader,
and a deeply principled, passionate man of God. The book came
into my possession when Lt. Colonel Ethne Flintoff, then the
Social Secretary in Pakistan but now leading the work in
Bangladesh, gave it to me as a Christmas gift in Lahore in
1998. It is one of my most treasured books. It is revisited
often.
Number three is a collection of First World War poetry by the
great G.A. Studdert Kennedy entitled The Unutterable
Beauty (Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1927). In these
pages I find pathos, anguish of heart and soul, earthy
eloquence and sometimes unbearable poignancy. It came into my
hands in Worthing, England in 1986 and forms part of a small,
but prized, collection of war poetry volumes on my shelves.
Book four may seem to some a surprising choice. It is the
Army’s Handbook of Doctrine published in 1940 by
International Headquarters, London. Though written five years
before my birth, it resonates with me still. It was when
reading Chapter X on “Entire Sanctification” that I was led
into the blessing of a clean heart. This happened some years
ago on an early morning commuter train going from Romford,
Essex into London’s Liverpool Street Station. I felt as though
cocooned from my fellow passengers, and when they alighted I
could hardly get to my feet in the empty train, such was the
Lord’s silent, invisible but unmistakable embrace. At the time
I was serving at IHQ as the Legal and Parliamentary Adviser.
This 1940 edition of the Handbook represents Army
literature at it best, written when we still knew how to write
for a verdict in the heart, even in our teaching and
instructional material.
Finally, the fifth volume is Jim Garrison’s From
Hiroshima to Harrisberg – The Unholy Alliance (SCM
Press Ltd., London, 1980). It opened my eyes as never before
to the folly and waste of war. All that human energy,
creativity, genius and funding poured into weapons of mass
destruction in America, and eventually elsewhere, with
millions still without food, shelter, clothing, eduction or
housing. Something is wrong deep in the human soul. Garrison’s
account of the coming of these weapons engendered in me a deep
hatred of war, not such as to make me a pacifist outright but
sufficient to take me to the very brink of that courageous
outlook. “We lay all carnal weapons down to take the shining
sword.” How heartily, but thoughtlessly, we sometimes sing
Catherine Baird’s anti-war anthem (SA Song Book1986, Song
705).
Captain
Stephen Court
One of the joys
of being the editor is that I can make up neat features like
this one. Another of the joys is being able to succumb to the
temptation to jump into the fray with my own two cents’
worth! After reading the submissions, I couldn’t resist.
I’ve read a
bunch of the books included by these greathearts commended
above. But I am happy to say that I’ve got a fresh list!
While I’ve benefited by 20th century writers (such
as Ravi Zacharias, Commissioner Ed Read, Peter Wagner, Jack
Deere, Major Chick Yuill, and Charles Colson), I’ve chosen
books by my heroes.
In 1777, John
Wesley wrote an apologetic of his doctrine of holiness called
A PLAIN ACCOUNT OF CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. He took the
high road in the extremely charged debate of the day, allowing
John Fletcher to scale the polemical heights in his CHECKS TO
ANTINOMIANISM. His simple ‘question and answer’ format was
imitated by General William Booth in Booth’s potent little
1903 book, THE DOCTRINES OF THE SALVATION ARMY (subtitled,
“Prepared for the use of Cadets in Training For Officership”).
Wesley patiently answered every critic’s question, every
skeptic’s doubt, and every cynic’s disparagement with
historically documented explanation of this Biblical
doctrine. Now, A PLAIN ACCOUNT stands in for Fletcher’s
CHECKS, and for Samuel Logan Brengle’s practical guides,
especially HELPS TO HOLINESS (a book I carried along with my
Bible on a bicycle to our neighbourhood park, where I sat,
determined not to leave until I experienced the holiness
described therein). A PLAIN ACCOUNT is precious not only as a
defence but as a promise of what is possible.
The year after
Wesley was promoted to Glory was born a man who would walk in
his huge shoes. Across the ocean, Charles Finney stoked the
fires of revival through the eastern United States. His
preaching was so hardcore and so manifestly accompanied by the
power of God that multitudes were transformed and cities were
turned upside down. His LECTURES ON REVIVALS OF RELIGION
(1835) is an account of the preaching that changed a nation.
The sister volume is the stubbornly named, AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY BY
THE REVEREND CHARLES G. FINNEY, 1792-1875 (1876). Together
they tell a divine story that rips the placid satisfaction
right out of you.
It wasn’t two
years after Finney was promoted to Glory that Catherine and
William Booth made a name change that has changed the world.
While John Wesley was the grandfather of The Salvation Army
and Finney was dubbed ‘the Presbyterian Salvationist’ by the
Booths themselves, my next choice, PAPERS ON AGGRESSIVE
CHRISTIANITY, was by the Army Mother herself (I’m hesitant
to use that term, as she was the General and the Founder, too,
but she is the only one who was the Mother). I could
have chosen any of a few books by Booth. They are merely
collections of her preaching. They are merely fire on paper!
Flames flick from her words off the page to practically lick
your clothes. Each sermon oozes spiritual authority. Almost
every paragraph shouts out to you with the urgency of the
war. This hero makes no concessions, no compromises, and no
political ‘correctitudes’. She put (and continues to put) a
holy fear in me of the kind that doesn’t cause cowering and
retreat but impels total exertion to spread the dread. This
helped shaped my life- I named a cyber journal after it (JAC)
and an annual conference (ACC- Aggressive Christianity
Councils).
Catherine Booth
was promoted to Glory in 1890. Not coincidently, Commissioner
George Scott Railton was excommunicated from the halls of
primitive salvationist power in the same year (was it
coincidental that this was the year of the death of primitive
salvationism?). While not famous as an author, GSR battled as
effectively with the pen as he did with the Bible. Backing up
every page of HEATHEN ENGLAND was a life of unleashed
resolve that GSR modeled for the world. My buddy called me
this winter from training college to get suggestions for
references. I recommended HEATHEN ENGLAND and TWENTY-ONE
YEARS’ SALVATION ARMY. He emailed a week later noting that my
name was the last one written in the CFOT borrowing cards (And
I’ve been an officer for ten years!). And that is tragic,
because the book is literally revolutionary, recounting, as it
does, contemporary history of the primitive salvationist war.
The stuff he was writing was happening outside his window.
The heroics that lace these pages are enough to gouge a hole
in your casual, comfortable Christianity and leave in its
place a wrenching hunger for the guts to live and fight for
death and glory as our 19th century comrades did,
and for the God of Railton to show up again today.
Raliton
outlived William Booth by a year. Booth has yet to get his
due as an author. He wrote some unknown classics such as
SERGEANT-MAJOR DO-YOUR-BEST, SEVEN SPIRITS: Or, What I Tell My
Officers, HOW TO PREACH, PURITY OF HEART, all less famous than
IN DARKEST ENGLAND AND THE WAY OUT. But my last choice is
VISIONS. It is a collection of visions Booth had, the
most renowned being ‘Who Cares?’ Not only is VISIONS
eloquent, it persuasively depicts the divine. Booth doesn’t
settle with capturing your imagination- he grips it with a
stranglehold. The undercurrent is that Booth is all about the
prophetic. He hears from God and conveys the message to us.
Most of us have neglected this reality in our salvationism
(Catherine prophesied that this movement shall inaugurate the
great final conquest of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ).
We can more easily marginalize modern classics by Rick Joyner
like FINAL QUEST and THE CALL. But Joyner lines up right
behind Booth’s VISIONS for prophetic impact. And while I love
the visions and the writing, I embrace the Army’s experience
and calling with the prophetic.
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