Book Review: The Deacon by Cornelis Van Dam

Cornelis Van dam has blessed the Church with his book, The Deacon. Wonderfully written, easy to read, instructive, forceful, and Biblical, this work, I would suggest, is not just for deacons. Laymen may gain much insight into their duties and obligations in their local congregations and be able to do so with joy. 

Cornelis Van Dam is emeritus professor of Old Testament at Canadian Reformed Theological Seminary in Hamilton, Ontario and has several years of pastoral ministry. His style in this work is easy to read with a well developed foundation. One penetrating point he makes clear and is repeated throughout the book is that the work of the deacon is that for those suffering may "remain in the joy of the Lord, free from all bondage (cf. Lev. 25:39-46)." This point is hammered home numerous times. Indeed, he writes very little about any other duties a deacon may have such as building care, etc. His entire thrust is to care for those who need it. It is difficult to disagree with him anywhere in this book.

What the reader gets

Table of Contents:
Preface
Introduction
Part 1 - The Old Testament Background
1. The Poor in Israel
2. Providing for the Poor
Part 2 - New Testament Times
3. Christ's Teaching on the Poor and Needy
4. Ministering to the Poor in Acts 6
5. The Office of Deacon
6. Female Deacon?
Part 3 - The Office of Deacon in the History of the Church
7. The Testimony of the Early Church and the Heritage of the Reformation
8. Women and the Diaconate 
Part 4 - The Current Functioning of the Office
9. The Official Position of the Deacon Today
10. Enabling and Prioritizing
11. The Diaconal Ministry within the Congregation
12. The Diaconal Ministry outside the Congregation
13. The Blessing of the Poor 
Questions for Study and Reflection
Resources for Further Study on Deacons

As you can see from the table of contents, Van Dam walks the reader through the history of Israel and the Church in the care of those who need it. This help is not restricted to monetary or material care, either. Diaconal ministry goes well beyond that.  Is there a place for female deacons? What was there place in the history of the church? What does the Bible have to say? Van Dam covers these controversial questions.

As a deacon myself, I have a few take-aways.  As Van Dam makes quite clear, deacons need to be involved in the lives of those who are entrusted to their care. One strategy is home visits. These visits are not like an elder visit although there may be some crossover. It is simply a matter getting to know those folks who may need diaconal help one day. Another take-away is keeping in mind that giving care to those in the congregation should never be limited to something such as monetary assistance. It is far greater than deciding who gets help paying their electric bill. Is there someone in the congregation who just lost a loved one, who just found out she has cancer, or who has a rebellious child. The list is endless and the deacons can help in so many ways. 

Yet another take-away is how all of this work does not and should not be limited to the deacons. Members of the congregation often have many skills that can lovingly assist others. These works of love and kindness should not be left up to the deacons alone.

I would suggest any deacon or layman would benefit from reading this book. It gets a 5 out of 5 stars from this deacon.

Watch or listen to an interview with Van Dam here to learn more.

Book Review: When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor . . . and Yourself by Steve Corbett & Brian Fikkert

When Helping Hurts by Steve Corbett & Brian Fikkert  is a book I set my sites on some time ago but thinking it may be a load of tosh I put off reading it. That is, until I received a verbal recommendation from a trusted relative I then decided it was time to dig in. As it turns out it is not a load of rubbish but rather a well thought out analysis of how we as individual Christians, churches, and parachurch organizations have failed, often miserably, at assisting the poor and alleviating poverty and how to address these issues.

From the back cover we learn what we can expect from the book

• Foundation Concepts – Who are the poor?
• Principles – Should we do relief, rehabilitation or development?
• Strategies – How can we help people here and abroad?

And that is the thrust of the work.  These three points are fleshed out by the authors.

The book begins with a short history of how we, primarily North American Christians, got to where we are now. What happened between 1900 and 1930 that changed how we address poverty alleviation and why we are failing miserably at addressing it? Why is a Biblical world view important to the methodology of helping the poor?

Next we find out what the poor think of our efforts to help them. Its entirely possible we fail as we have no clue how other cultures, even sub-cultures within our own culture, think emotionally and politically of their plight. Failure to recognize these distinctions cause our failures in assisting the poor and therefore our evangelism. From our North American point of view are we really helping the poor or just making ourselves feel better by thinking we have? Poverty is rooted in broken relationships, with God and each other, not in financial or material wealth. Only Jesus can fix that.

In chapter 4 we begin to get into the real meat of the work. Help comes in three forms according to the authors: Relief, rehabilitation, and development. Failure to recognize these three and implement them as needed or in correct order can do more harm than good. Many churches and organizations, for example, start and stop with relief. That is, providing immediate help for a need. Though necessary it falls short of providing for the long term needs of the person or persons in need. The authors flesh this out clearly and define what steps, relief, rehabilitation, and development, to take at appropriate times.

Of chapter 7 I took special note. Short term mission trips (STM) have always left me wondering how effective they can be. How can a group of people who blow into town for only a week or two expect to provide any long lasting good? Indeed, they can be helpful as the authors explain however they are often not for several reasons the authors lay out. If only relief is provided the STM is doomed to failure. Development is often what is needed and that can’t be done in a two week STM. In helping the poor we must be in it for the long haul by helping the local churches and organizations in the area as necessary.

The authors continue and conclude with concrete strategies to help the poor in numerous ways and especially spiritually. The issue is often, "Finding armies of people to volunteer one Saturday to paint dilapidated houses is easy. Finding people to love the people who live in those houses is extremely difficult" (pg. 210). We must take the time to walk and love these folks for the long term. Are you ready? Am I ready?   

              

This is a justifiable read. The authors are intelligent and experienced. Expert analysis, true life accounts, and clear strategies are provided. I wholeheartedly commend When Helping Hurts .

Book Review: The Unfinished Church: God’s Broken and Redeemed Work-In-Progress by Rob Bentz

Rob Bentz’s book, TheUnfinished Church: God’s Broken and Redeemed Work-In-Progress published by Crossway, is an enjoyable read. Bentz incorporates personal anecdotes with Scripture and insightful examination to provide the reader with a fresh understanding of how the church, Christ’s bride, should operate in today’s world.

The work is broken down into three segments, each worth careful study. In part one he lays the groundwork for his book in The Foundation and offers background and understanding as to what it means to be part of God’s chosen community. In part two Bentz delves deeper into what it means for the church in The Construction. Here he delineates several facets where we, as Christ’s bride, should be toiling. To love one another, encourage, serve, and dwell together in peace are all aspects Bentz, with love for the Church, explicates with great clarity.

Bentz concludes with the heart of the matter in part three, The Completion. Here we read that “Sanctification matters!” Indeed it does and Bentz lays it out for us. He marks out that, “God’s church, is miraculous because it’s his activity.” And “The church is victorious; Jesus said it would be.” Believers, one and all, take part in the glorious, wonderful work though we are broken and sinful. This section was most inspiring and helpful.

The Unfinished Church was indeed and enjoyable and informative book. This would be a great book for a church library or any new believer especially. I rate this 4.5 out of 5. Get it, read it and apply it!

Crossway has provided a complimentary copy of this book through Beyond the Page.   

Book Review: When the Church Was a Family: Recapturing Jesus' Vision for Authentic Christian Community By Joseph H. Hellerman

For the last couple of years the theme of church as or is a family has appeared several times in articles I’ve read online, podcasts I’ve listened to and in my Bible reading. Due to some recent events I had been observing in my life I thought it best to explore and develop a greater understanding of this idea of church as a family. I’ve had Joseph Hellerman’s book, When the Church Was a Family on my shelf for a couple years now. It came into my possession as one of the free books handed out at Together for the Gospel in 2010. Its not the type of book I would have bought or even had a desire to read but I’m glad it was on my bookshelf when I needed it.

Hellerman is a thoughtful and engaging writer. His style, at least for this work, was interesting; he didn’t dumb down any Biblical truths nor did he over complicate his message with four syllable words that only PhD. students understand. Reading it was fluid and smooth sailing all the way.

Hellerman spends more than half the book backing up his thesis that the church is family. He points out that in the Mediterranean world family came first (strong-group society), one’s closest relatives were one’s siblings. Its interesting that it was not one’s spouse. In this world life’s big decisions, as they are today, were what am I going to do (job), where am I going to live and who will I marry. No  major life decisions were made outside the family nor would any of them been made to the detriment of the family. And so it was with the early church. The author takes us through the Old Testament, Jesus’ teaching, Paul’s teaching, the early church, and the Roman world fleshing this out for the reader. At times it was not an easy read as today, as Hellerman points out numerous times throughout the book, we just don’t think this way in today's world. And as the secular world has so influenced the modern church, we as believers do not think or behave this way, either. Many modern evangelicals would set the order of import like this

God  > Family  >  Church  >  Others

Hellerman would set the order this way

God’s Family  >  Church family  > My family  > Others

My take

God  > God’s Family  >  My family  > Church family  > Others

I would set the order this way so we do not lose sight as to what this is all about, i.e., God’s glory.

The last portion of the book is devoted to how to work out the theme of church as family. Several helpful suggestions are laid out that elaborate on examples from Scripture and the Mediterranean world. Sharing of material wealth and goods and relating to one another on a deeper level are two points I found most helpful. Conversely, I also thought this was also the weakest part of the book. Ideas and suggestions for church leaders were weak and/or blatantly obvious. Nevertheless, his personal anecdotes here and throughout the book drove his point home: the modern evangelical church is not living out the Biblical command to live as family and we need to so as to be obedient to the Scriptures.

One drawback to some readers would be the author’s emphasis that the church family is to take precedence over blood family. I, however, would agree with him. He points out that he does not want to minimize the importance of blood family but Scripture, in particular Jesus, points us in the direction of church family having first place. I’ll leave it to the reader to decide. One other area of concern for this reviewer is that at times  he so wants to press home his point that he goes too far. He shares a conversation he had with a church colleague where he stated that he would rather have folks be involved in a home group every week (because it develops the family bond) rather than be in church on a Sunday morning. This is way of the mark, of course. Sunday worship is first and foremost the worship of God and Creator and our worship is required and deserved. Everything else on Sunday is a subset of that. 

Overall, I would give this book 4 out of 5 stars. It accurately explains how church congregations should be thinking and working Biblically rather than putting themselves and families first. We are a covenant people and the world will only see this when we are a true church family.