Daniel Im

Pastor + Author

Church

Book Review: The Mission of God – Christopher Wright

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This is an analytical book review of Christopher Wright’s The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible’s Grand Narrative.

Rev. Dr. Christopher Wright’s passion is bringing life to the “relevance of the Old Testament to Christian mission and ethics.” In addition to his current role as the Director over Langham Partnership International after John Stott’s death, he has experience as a High School teacher, theological professor, and as an ordained minister with the Anglican Church of England.

The Mission of God is a magnum opus describing the mission of God. In other words, the thesis of this book is not only that Christian mission is firmly grounded in Scripture, but also that Scripture is most accurately read through a hermeneutical framework that is centered on the mission of God (26). In other words, “God’s mission is what fills the gap between the scattering of the nations in Genesis 11 and the healing of the nations in Revelation 22” (455).

Wright navigates readers through his comprehensive study of the mission of God by dividing his book into four parts: The Bible and Mission, The God of Mission, The People of Mission, and The Arena of Mission. In the first part, Wright describes what a missiological hermeneutic of the Bible entails. He argues that individuals need to understand the Bible’s grand metanarrative, and also that the proper way to read the Bible is messianically and missionally (31). In the second part, Wright unpacks the identity, uniqueness, and universality of the God of Israel and Jesus Christ and the ensuing implications for mission (27). He finishes the section by paying attention to the opposition of the mission of God – idols and gods. In the third part, one discovers that the primary agent of the mission of God is the people of God. This is noticeable by examining the biblical covenants and the narrative of Scripture. Wright finishes his magnum opus by concentrating on the Arena of Mission – the earth, humans, and all culture and nations.

There have only been a few books that I have read and come away with a sense of awe, humility, and a passion to reread it and act on what I have read – The Mission of God is the most recent.

What kind of me does God wants for his mission?

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Book Review: A Community of Character – Stanley Hauerwas

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This is an analytical book review of Stanley Hauerwas’ A Community of Character: Toward a Constructive Christian Social Ethic.

Stanley Hauerwas is the Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Theological Ethics at Duke Divinity School and he holds a joint appointment with Duke Law School. Hauerwas’ Methodist roots and diverse education and work experience contributes to an ecumenical theological stance that is not liberal (12). In addition to his ecumenicism, he is cross-disciplinary, as “he is in conversation with systematic theology, philosophical theology and ethics, political theory, as well as the philosophy of social science and medical ethics.”

The thesis of this book is that Christian morality and ethics can only make sense and be applied to one’s life when one is living within the continuing narrative of the Christian story. As a result, Hauerwas frames everything he writes about in this book around the concept of narrative because without narratives, there is a loss of community (18).

  1. This book is essentially divided up into three parts. The first part addresses how every community needs to be rooted in a narrative. For Christians, Jesus and the Kingdom of God is the narrative that forms the church (50). Furthermore, it is the Christian’s belief in the authority of Scripture and God that enables the church to be the contrast model/community to a society that does not value authority.
  2. The second part of the book continues to emphasize the importance of narrative in understanding the church since Christians are a “storied people” worshipping a “storied God” (91). Hauerwas claims that Christians need to cultivate hope and patience in their life in order to be a contrast narrative to this world (128). For the Christian to grow in character, it is crucial that he/she learn to participate in the story of the people of God, rather than just hear about it (152).
  3. Consequently, the first two parts set up the theoretical basis for the third part, where he applies the concepts addressed in the first two parts to discuss what kind of ethic the church should have toward the family, sex, and abortion. His discussion is framed around the fact that one cannot separate one’s views on the family, sex, and abortion from the greater narrative of the church.

I love the way Hauerwas decides to address the family, sex, and abortion in the last section, since these are the pressing ethical issues that the church needs to be firm on, in order to be a contrast society.

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Being Missionaries to Our Cities – Soma Communities

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I haven’t seen any other video that has moved me and reflected my heart’s calling more than this video.

I know that God has called me to be involved with church planting, and this is what it’s about. You have to see this.

These are my favorite quotes from the video:

  • “If you don’t have multiplication at the end of what you are supposed to do then you won’t actually do what you’re supposed to do”
  • “A lot of churches have become orphanages. They know how to have babies, and they have a couple of fathers and moms for all the babies, but not enough to care for them all. And not enough to send them off to have their own families.”
  • “My exhortation to church planters is, if they don’t have that kind of love for the people that God has put around them, then they gotta ask God to give them a bigger heart coz this isn’t about them. It’s not about their church or their successes, it’s about God’s glory and the lost people who don’t know the love of their Father.”

Enjoy:

Soma Communities – Tacoma, WA from Verge Network on Vimeo.

Book Review: Renovation of the Heart – Dallas Willard

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The following is an analytical book review of Dallas Willard’s Renovation of the Heart.

Dallas Willard is a Professor in the School of Philosophy at the University of Southern California. Although he is a philosophy professor who has published in his main area of study and teaching, it seems that Willard has found greater success in the area of publishing Christian books. He has published more Christian books than he has philosophical books, while having received more book awards for his Christian books. Furthermore, Willard’s background in academics and philosophy heavily influences his writing; for example, he refuses to assert his “how-to” points without first providing the background information and then carefully and systematically supporting his points in a well rounded manner. This method may seem logical, but it is not necessarily the norm in the array of books that come out these days.

The thesis of this book is that the spirit, mind, body, social context, and soul of an individual needs to be spiritually transformed into Christlikeness, by relying on the grace of God, and having and implementing the appropriate vision, intention, and means to Christlikeness.

Willard’s book is essentially divided into two major sections. The first section begins by defining authentic spiritual formation. Willard emphasizes how true spiritual formation is not just about the external, but it is more about inward obedience and conformity to Christ (Chapter 1, Location 215). In setting up the second half of the book, Willard states that the major obstacle to spiritual formation is self-worship, whereas self-denial is the foundation of its renovation (Chapter 5, Location 983). For spiritual formation to be effective, this self-denial needs to happen in one’s whole self – namely, these six areas: spirit, mind, body, social context, and soul (Chapter 2, Location 330). As a result, a strategy to transform each of these essential dimensions to Christlikeness composes the second section of his book.

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