Vital Signs: 20 ways to put whole-life discipleship at the heart of your church (IVP, London 2024. 159pp, £12.99) by Ken Benjamin, who has been the minister of Chichester Baptist Church for many years, is the Director of Church Leadership at LICC (the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity) is a helpful book for church leaders on matters such as daily prayer and Bible reading, Sunday gatherings and small group, on leaders’ meetings and programme planning, and on times of transition and when crises come.
Published in the Tyndale New Testmant Commentaries series, this commentary on 1 Peter (IVP, London 1988; revised 2024) by Wayne Grudem, a Professor of Theology & Biblical Studies at Phoenix Seminary, Arizona, is an excellent commentary on 1 Peter.
Many of the revisions are fairly minor, such as updating the Revised Standard Version of 1971 to the English Standard Version of 2001. In terms of substance, in a few places he has altered his understanding, but the major change is a new section on ‘Theology and major themes.
Two of my friends who live in Manchester are Richard and Carole Jackson. Both of them have been staunch Methodists: Richard has been a distinguished Methodist minister and Carole has been a doctor. At an early stage they were missionaries in Sierra Leone, but Richard has also had a number of churches in England, some of which have been quite large. Throughout his ministry Richard has had a passion for winning people to Jesus and for seeing churches grow. Over the years he has published a number of books which he writes in a very entertaining but thought-provoking style. In 2021 he wrote For All The Saints (196pp: £5 plus postage) which consists of over 100 funeral addresses he has given. Most recently he and Carole wrote Journeying With The Jacksons (487pp: £20 plus postage). Both these books will appeal in the first place to their many friends. However, I am always fascinated by Christian biographies, and was amused and interested in their book in which they rightly liken life to a journey. The books are available from Rev Dr Richard Jackson, 2 Almond Drive, Sale,. Cheshire M33 5QZ.
Life After Life: Why Jesus means death isn’t the end (IVP, London 2024. 147pp: £12.99) by Mark Meynell who is part of the Langham Preaching Global Leadership Team, deals with issues such as our death and the hope that the resurrection of Jesus offers us all. It rehearses stuff which in my judgment are better written about elsewhere. However, preachers will certainly find some of his illustrations helpful.
The latest booklets from Grove Books, all priced at £3.95, include: Torah and Ethics: First Testament Law and its Implications (Ethics 213, 2024) by John Goldingay, a British OT professor at Fuller Theological Seminary in California, helpfully reminds readers that the ‘Torah’ contained in the first five books of the law consists not of ‘law’ but of ‘the teaching’, ‘the instruction’, and works out the implications for preachers. Moral Courage in Christian Disciples (Discipleship 13, 2024) by Patricia Margarita Lenton de Dickin. An Argentinians who in her academic studies has focussed on reconciliation and peacebuilding and is concerned to help faith communities in their task of reconcilations, writes of the importance moral courage in the lives of those who would be faithful disciples of Jesus Christ, and says “instead of quietly colluding with greed, injustice or societal failure of peace, Christians… should develop the conviction and strength to do the good and right thing, even when the potential cost is great”.