Next month's authors

The authors of the coming month’s book are Phillip Jensen and Tony Payne. You might like to learn more about Phillip Jensen by visiting his website, where you can find a great wealth of resources in audio, video, articles and books. Similarly you can find out more about Tony Payne from the website of Matthias Media, of which he is the Publishing Director and can also read blog posts he has contributed to The Sola Panel.

Meet next month's author Peter Bolt

Next month, starting next Monday, we'll be working through Living With The Underworld, by Peter Bolt. Before we start discussing the book, we thought it would be good to find out a little bit more about the author and how the book came about. Peter has kindly answered a few questions for us. You can read a further interview about this book with Tony Payne here or download the podcast of this interview here.

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

I live in Newtown and am the head of New Testament and Greek at Moore College, where I have lectured for about 18 years. I like swimming, good humour, and walking our dogs.

How did you come to faith in Christ?

I came across some Christians in my final years of high school who told me the gospel, and I thought, if that is true, it is the best news ever; but is it true? They were gracious enough to answer heaps of my questions and eventually (after about 12 months) I decided that yes, it must be true and I gave my life to Christ.

What book has helped you the most in growing in your knowledge of God?

A book that helped me grow greatly in the knowledge of God when first a christian always makes people laugh when I tell them! The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination. Helped me see how big God is and how gracious he is. It is not about us at all. But about him. But then, he is all about us!

What prompted you to write this book?

I had dabbled with magic, death and demons for my PhD studies. As people chatted with me about these things, I realised more and more that there is a lot of uncertainty and fear about such things. A lot of people have had spooky experiences. The charismatics are actually encouraging wierd practices, not condoned by Scripture. The bible tells us that deep down there is a profound anxiety about death in us all, even if we mask it over. The more I thought about the wonderful work of Christ on the cross, and how his victory is full and complete, the more I wanted to put all this together to say: there is absolutely no reason to be afraid; no, not ever.

An interview with Carolyn McCulley

Carolyn McCulley has kindly replied to a few questions that we sent her way, and I thought you might enjoy reading her responses:

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
I am 29 and holding. Well, okay, I'm a bit older than that. I lived through the '80s as an adult, so that puts me on the "ripe" side of old. Anyway, I have worked in various forms of media for more than 20 years and I am now launching a new career as a independent documentary filmmaker. Prior to this, I worked for Sovereign Grace Ministries for ten years (also as a filmmaker, among other media tasks). C.J. Mahaney, who leads Sovereign Grace, and his wife, Carolyn, have been very supportive of my freelance writing career and helped launch me into doing books. I wrote my first book in 2004, "Did I Kiss Marriage Goodbye? Trusting God with a Hope Deferred" (Crossway), contributed to John Piper and Justin Taylor's "Sex and the Supremacy of Christ" (Crossway, 2005), and then wrote "Radical Womanhood: Feminine Faith in a Feminist World (Moody, 2008).

How did you come to faith in Christ?
My mother took me to church as a child, but I didn't have ears to hear the gospel until God regenerated me just before my 30th birthday. I was on a holiday in South Africa, visiting my sister who was studying at a Bible college. I thought I would just add church to my schedule on Sundays. I had no idea that God would upend my life and dramatically change so much about it. I was a feminist at the time of my conversion, so you can imagine how much of a challenge it was for me to become a Bible-believing Christian! The fact that God did this is proof both of His great mercy and His great sense of humor. Never in a million years would I have suspected that the Lord might use me to minister to other women.

What book has helped you the most in growing in your knowledge of God?
My local church—both the teaching from the pulpit and the daily sanctification of growing and learning with other people. As a new believer, those in my home church were like living epistles to me. I would read Scripture and then look around me for how it was lived out. That was amplified for me when I joined the staff of Sovereign Grace. I then had the opportunity to add sanctification to budgets and deadlines!

What prompted you to write this book?
As an unmarried woman in the church, I had begun to think of myself as a "third wheel" or some kind of neutered gender—not one of the guys and not doing the feminine marriage and motherhood thing. Then I realized I was identifying more with an adjective than a noun (I was a SINGLE woman), but the Bible seemed to have it the other way around. I really wanted to write a book about biblical femininity for single women so that we would see our femininity as God-given and something that blossoms and flourishes through every season of life.

Thanks!

This month's author - Carolyn McCulley

The author of this month’s book is Carolyn McCulley. We haven’t received our own interview with Carolyn, but you can find out a great deal about her from both her website Carolyn McCulley, the Radical Womanhood website and her personal blog. If you follow the internet trail from any of these sites you will find links to many other resources by Carolyn that relate to singleness, some of which we will point to throughout the month.

Meet Jean Williams

Here's an interview with Jean Williams, so you can 'get to know her' before we start reading through Pilgrim's Progress together.

How did you come to faith in Christ?

I was brought up by faithful, godly parents who taught me about Jesus from the moment I was born, read the Bible with my brother and me each night, lived and talked about their faith moment by moment, and loved and enjoyed their children. They never talked down to us: I can’t remember a time I didn’t know about difficult doctrines the Trinity and predestination, so they never seemed unnatural to me. I made many “decisions for Christ”, until the day I was 9 and a beach mission counsellor told me I only had to “pray the prayer” once: that was the day I gained assurance. At uni, I doubted and questioned my faith. The breakthrough came the day I decided to read Mark all the way through, as if I hadn’t heard every story a thousand times, to see what Jesus was really like. I was completely blown away by this wonderful, compelling, irresistible person. That day, I fell in love with Jesus all over again.

What do you most love about reading?

I love losing myself in another world. When I come to the end of a long book that I’ve enjoyed, sometimes I cry. The spell is broken, and I won’t be able to live in that world with those characters anymore. It’s like a little death.

What is your favourite novel?

It sounds like a cliché, but it’s J.R.R.Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. Now there’s a world you can lose yourself in for days. Plus C.S.Lewis’ Narnia and Perelandra series, for the same reason, and because of what they taught me about Jesus. And, like Nicole, I love anything by Jane Austen and Alexander McCall Smith. The only problem is that I’ve read some of these books so many times, I find them hard to read now, because I know which sentence is coming next!

What book has helped you the most in growing in your knowledge of God?

The Bible. Ok, ok, I know, but it bears repeating. After that, probably J.I.Packer’s Knowing God, which taught me the difference between “knowing about” God and “knowing” God, and how to meditate on God’s character and salvation. Recently, it’s been John Piper’s When I Don’t Desire God, the best book on joy and spiritual disciplines I’ve read; and Martyn Lloyd-Jones’ Spiritual Depression, which taught me how to “talk to myself instead of allowing myself to talk to me” when I’m depressed or anxious, and which I’d love to do for this book club sometime, if Nicole lets me!!

And now you’ve learned one very important fact about me: I can never limit myself to one book.

Welcome to our South African sisters!

We've got some exciting news! We're welcoming some South African sisters into our book club this month. A few months ago, we were approached by Kerry, who with her friend Hayley, wanted to work out a way to launch EQUIP book club in their country. After a lot of e-conversations, we decided that they would jump on board with us instead of start from scratch. We're very excited to be welcoming them. Here's an interview with one of the women who came up with the original idea: Kerry Newell.

Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your family and where you live?

My husband Craig and I are approaching 10 years of marriage. We have two children – a four year old boy, Jesse, and an 18 month girl, Becky.

We live in Cape Town, South Africa, a city of about 3.5 million people. Cape Town is exquisitely beautiful with an amazing mountain and magnificent beaches. There are many other parts of the country that also have incredible natural beauty. South Africa is a stunning tourist destination in that regard. South Africa is also a very diverse country with many different people groups. It has 11 official languages. You can imagine how this complicates things, when it comes to gospel initiatives and training. We've had to learn "Two Ways to Live" in Afrikaans or Xhosa (pronounced with a click) when we've reached out to other communities.

South Africa has also had a very sad past of racial division and oppression, and even though the government and laws have changed, there remains tension between people of different races. Nelson Mandela has been an icon of reconciliation, but has ultimately been unable to bring about real unity, which of course, only the gospel can. We particularly long for the day when all nations will gather around the throne, united in their praise of King Jesus.

Sadly there is a huge divide between rich and poor. Many people live in corrugated iron shacks. This is a deep challenge to the church. It is also a very violent country. Increasingly, many houses in the suburbs have electric fences around the perimeter and their alarm systems linked to armed security companies. Just about every South African, personally knows someone who has been a victim of violent crime. Murder, rape and violent armed robbery, hi-jacking are commonplace. Guns are easily available on the black market.

What are your interests?

Craig and I serve at Emmanuel Church (Church of England in South Africa) where he is the Assistant Rector. Our church is in the Northern Suburbs of Cape Town – a typical middle class area. We minister together in a number of ways, the main being the training of young adult (18-30) Bible study leaders. I am involved in leading a Bible study for moms with small kids. My time is mostly taken up with the normal things that moms all around the world do - the 24/ 7 job of running a home

One of my favourite interests is reading and being a part of a mini-book club. Actually book club is one of the highlights in my life! It's so good to get together to just laugh and talk about what we've been reading, until our husbands start text-messaging us, to find out why we aren't home yet. Once a group of women get talking, it's hard to stop them.

What are your favourite books?

It's so hard to only pick a few!

But, I have been so challenged by Desiring God by John Piper. The main theme in this book and others by him is, "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him". I was struck that our joy and God’s glory are not mutually exclusive. I was so taken by this book that I actually read it three times!

The other book that has been of immense help to me is Guidance and the voice of God by Philip Jensen and Tony Payne. Many Christians, in South Africa, are enslaved by their view, that God will give them specific guidance, a sign or a feeling, about whatever decision they have to make. This book points us to God’s clear will as outlined in Scripture so that we are free in our decisions about matters within His revealed boundaries.

Why do you want to launch EQUIP bookclub in South Africa?

Reading is powerful. The books you read shape your theology and life.

Reformed, evangelical theology is rather lonely in South Africa. We exist in an overwhelming sea of prosperity gospel teaching and just general wishy-washiness. Expository Bible teaching is often hard to find. Therefore our local Christian bookshops are a minefield. So many of the books on offer are those of false teachers or watered-down Christianity.

So firstly, we are concerned that the women in our congregations are choosing these books simply because their Christian bookshop promotes them. Hayley Tubman, a dear friend in ministry, and I were discussing this problem, feeling distressed about the books that women were choosing to read. When she told me that EQUIP had recently launched a book club, I knew that we had to investigate whether the EQUIP book club could work for us in South Africa. We soon realised that this book club could solve our problem because of the excellent selection of books.

Secondly, although some Christians do read Christian books, I would say overall, there isn't a general culture of Christian reading. A book club would be an ideal opportunity to inspire a deep love for Christian books in the context of the reading fellowship it creates.

Unfortunately, the biggest hurdle in launching this book club in South Africa has been the astronomical cost of books, proportionate to many people's salaries. Many people really struggle financially. (In a lot of cases that's a serious understatement.) And books are expensive to import. This means that books are a precious commodity. It makes a lot of people think twice before buying them. So in order to make this book club viable for people, Jenny Inglesby, (the Cape area Bishop's wife) asked a local Christian bookshop to sell the book club books at cost. Christian Book Discounters (CBD) came back to us immediately and said they would be delighted to do this. We were so overjoyed at this news! I couldn't go to sleep that night, I was so happy! It is real answer to prayer. It will make all the difference to the success of this initiative.

For the moment, we are launching the EQUIP book club in Cape Town and the surrounding areas. Hopefully we'll soon be able to go national. Christian Book Discounters (CBD) is willing to supply books wherever we need them. We’ll keep you posted as the rest of the country comes on board.

An interview with Carolyn Mahaney

If you're interested in learning a bit about this month's author, Carolyn Mahaney, here is an interview in which she discusses Feminine Appeal.

And of course, you can also read girltalk, (which is a blog she writes with her three daughters).


Photo (from girltalk) is of Carolyn (Right) with daughters Kristin, Janelle and Nicole (L to R).

This month's author - Noel Piper

We didn't manage to get our own interview with this month's author, Noel Piper, but as it happens there are quite a few other interviews with her that are already floating around in cyberspace. The bloggers at girltalk recently carried out a three part interview with her. You can read a bit about her background, her family, favourite books and pastimes in the Introduction. And here's what she had to say when asked about the benefits of studying biographies like Faithful Women and Their Extraordinary God.

"Hebrews 13:1-6 admonishes us to live godly lives and reminds us that God is our helper. Then verse 7 tells us one way that God helps us: Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you; and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith. The writer of Hebrews tells us to look toward those who have gone before us in the faith, to listen to what they say about God and to look at the way they lived and to imitate their faith.

No one’s life is exactly like mine. And some lives seem too different to be of interest or use. But, when you consider a life, you discover similar emotions, fears, needs. For instance, I’m not afraid of imprisonment, but when I read about Esther Ahn Kim’s fear, I’m reminded how to deal with the things I AM afraid of.

I think that’s the point of the very next verse, Hebrews 13:8 -- Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today, yes and forever.

My life is not exactly the same as any other person’s, but when I look at someone else’s life in a biography, it’s not ultimately her life I want to see. I want to see her Jesus, who is the same yesterday, today and forever."

If you want to learn more about Noel's life, ministry, interests and other books, I recommend reading the whole interview. Here are the links:

Introduction
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

You can also listen to an interview with her about this book on the radio program, Crosstalk as well.

An interview with Ray Galea

In July, we're going to be reading Nothing in My Hand I Bring, by Ray Galea. Before we start discussing the book, we thought it would be good to find out a little bit more about the author and how the book came about. This interview with Ray was originally published in The Lever. It has been (partially) reproduced with the permission of Baptist Evangelicals Today.

The Lever: Tell us a bit about how the book came about.

Ray Galea: I got several phone calls about eighteen months ago from people concerned that, with the Catholic World Youth Day coming up, young Christians wouldn’t be able to discern the differences between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism. We’re well over the old sectarianism which was really ugly for both sides, and that’s a good thing, but in the process we’ve actually forgotten what the real differences are, and that blood was spilled for good reasons, or rather, for real reasons, 450 years ago in the Reformation. There are profound differences and those on both sides that know what they believe will say that. So, it was an opportunity to clarify that and to particularly help young Christians be aware that the difference between a Catholic and a Baptist, or an Anglican, is profound in a way that the difference between an evangelical Anglican, Baptist or Presbyterian is minimal. It was also a chance to be able to tell my story in a way that’s respectful. I am really thankful for many of the good things that I learned as a Roman Catholic (and there were lots of good things that were true to the Bible) and yet at the same time there are profound differences as well.

TL: You spend a good deal of time in the book trying to sort out those differences. Can you summarise for our readers what you feel the most significant differences are?

RG: What we have in common, amongst other things, is the clear notion of the Trinity. We really have no significant differences in that. All confessing mainline denominations hold that there is one God and three Persons. But the differences are really on the understanding of the gospel, and the implications that flow from that. So my reluctant conclusion, and painful conclusion, is that every distinctive Catholic teaching (not every Catholic teaching, but every distinctive Catholic teaching) in some way or another undermines or erodes the person or the work of Jesus Christ. That’s at the heart of the matter. Once I became a Christian I was driven by a jealousy for Jesus, and guarding his sufficiency and his unique role. So, the classic four statements of the Reformation of Bible alone, grace alone, Christ alone, and faith alone really do capture in a nutshell what the differences are. There have since become more differences, but the foundation is different. They accept that God speaks through a two-sided form of revelation; the Bible plus oral tradition that was given to the early church and then passed on. In effect what that means is that the church stands over the Bible. As Protestants we’re convinced that the Bible alone has the final say and that every preacher and every church council has to submit to the authority of the Bible, and that you’re not allowed to bind anyone’s conscience against what can be found in Scripture. The moment you allow for oral tradition, well, it’s like a ship with a crack in the hull, and over the centuries the traditions of the church begin to seep in until finally the ship sinks under its own weight of traditions that have replaced the word of God or undermined the word of God. And that’s what you see, for example, with the teaching of the immaculate conception of Mary and the idea that she is co-redeemer; the elevated view of her sharing in the mediatorial role of Christ. Or, the place of purgatory that undermines the sufficient work of Christ – that somehow there’s work to be done after you die, before you go to heaven, where you need to be purged from your sins. You’re justified not on the basis of your faith alone, but on the quality of your faith and works. Because of this you can never really have any assurance, and you’re forbidden to have assurance, because it doesn’t rely solely on the death of Christ. It relies on the quality of your response as you co-operate with the grace of God. And the list goes on and on, but there are some examples. ...

TL: As you indicated at the beginning, those are fairly fundamental differences. How have people reacted to the book? What chance have you had to get some feedback from various types of people?

RG: I get at least two emails a week from someone who has read it, or I hear stories. From within the Christian group it’s kind of distorted because people are more likely to send you positive rather than negative things. Amongst the Christians they’ve been essentially positive. I think they’ve appreciated that I’ve really worked hard to be respectful, and not to be “narky”, and to be thankful for the good things I’ve learnt. People appreciated that. A number of people have become Christians. It’s not the sort of book I would normally give to a Roman Catholic who is yet to understand the gospel. I prefer to give them something like A Fresh Start, and then work from there. But some people have and it’s been really helpful. One teenager I know, and one person I’ve heard of just recently, have understood the gospel as a result of it, so that’s wonderful. Amongst Roman Catholics who have been given it, particularly clergy, I’ve got some, not a lot mind you, but some e-mails, accusing me of handing out the same Protestant line and misrepresenting Catholicism. But I always ask them to help me, and point out where I’ve misrepresented them. I don’t think I misrepresented the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church. They may not have liked my responses to those teachings but I’ve not yet got them clarifying where I’ve particularly misrepresented them. Amongst Catholics there are those that found it interesting, and some found out things about their own faith that they didn’t know. For others, particularly for those that think about their faith, well you wouldn’t exactly call them over the moon about it! Neither would I be, if the reverse were the case.

TL: In terms of talking to and relating to our Catholic friends, what do you think are the biggest mistakes evangelicals make?

RG: The classic is they take the offensive and want to attack Catholicism, rather than trying to preach Jesus. You do get to that point where you have to deal with the differences, there are no two ways about that. But I’ve got a pro-Jesus, not an anti-Catholic, ministry. Jesus wasn’t ashamed himself to critique church leaders around him, but at the end of the day it was about announcing that the kingdom of God was at hand, and that he was the king. We all know that whenever anyone attacks Australia from America we get defensive. We can criticise Australia all we like, but get an American attacking Australia and we get very defensive. So even at a human level no one is going to hear you if you go in boots and all. What you need to do is say, ‘let’s find out about Jesus, open the Scriptures together, and see what the nature of salvation is.’ For me, I found the most helpful set of tools to be 7 Basic Bible Studies from Matthias Media. Particularly the second study on Ephesians 2:8-9, ‘by grace you have been saved through faith.’ In my years of ministry I can count over 50 people from a Catholic background that have become Christians just through that study alone. As my friend, who is an Orthodox, once said:

‘We had all the pieces, we just couldn’t put it all together. We knew there was a heaven and a hell and that Jesus died on the cross, we just didn’t know how it worked. And understanding the death of Christ and the nature of salvation – by grace alone through faith alone, finally the penny drops and the scales fall off.’

For a much longer version of this interview as well as an article by Anthony Petterson called 'How Should We Respond to World Youth Day?'and a book review on Catholicism Today and Tomorrow, by Hefin Jones, you can subscribe to The Lever at the Baptists Evangelicals Today (BET) website.

An interview with Bryson Smith

Before we start discussing our first book (Faith), I thought it would be good to 'meet the author'. Here's a quick interview with Bryson Smith.

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

I'm married to Sue and we have 3 children - Felicity (18yrs), Olivia (15 years) & Stuart (12yrs). I think we're a close family and we certainly love spending time with each other...which is a wonderful blessing. We all live in Dubbo, in central rural NSW. We've been here for the last 18 years where we've been involved in the ministry team of Dubbo Presbyterian Church. Sue and I have come to love the wide open spaces of the country.

How did you come to faith in Christ?

I became a Christian in early high school, mainly when my older brother became a Christian. I grew up in a church going family and so I was confused when my brother became a Christian. I thought he already was one by virtue of simply going to church. My confusion led me to start genuinely reading the bible for the first time. Through this I discovered the person of Jesus in a very real way, I realised his authority over me and his love for me. So as a young teenager I came to faith in Him.

What book has helped you the most in growing in your knowledge of God?

Two books stand out to me, both of which I read at formative times in my christian life. Packer's Knowing God confronted me with the majestic scale and genius of God. Its a book I still return to every now and then and it never fails to encourage me. Guidance and the Voice of God by Phillip Jensen and Tony Payne is the other book that greatly impacted me. It really helped me to view my life from God's perspective.

What prompted you to write this book?

I'm not a very confident person by nature and so, in all honesty the thought of writing a book only came up because of the promptings of Tony Payne at Matthias Media. I'd done a few studies for them and he thought I should have a go at something a bit different, perhaps for the Guidelines series. After I'd stopped laughing at the idea, Tony persisted by provided me with a range of possible topics of which "Faith" resonated most with me.

Around the same time I was planning to preach a thematic series here in my home church and so it seemed a good idea to preach through a series on Faith and then decide whether or not to have a go at turning the series into a short book. As it turned out preaching on the topic of Faith really convicted me of the great joys to be had in thinking about it thematically. Thinking back to my early Christian years I would have benefited from a simple, clear framework of what it means to have a Christian faith. That was my aim with this book. Its not a very long book (my family jokingly refer to it as a pamphlet) but I was attempting to set things out in a concise, uncomplicated way so that even newish Christians would be be excited by what God does in us through a faith in Jesus .

We're going to start our discussion of Faith, by Bryson next Monday.