When the word “but” starts off a sentence, it denotes a shift in the thought of the speaker.  Paul wrote in his letter to the Philippians to contradict the thoughts of the readers.  “I know you would feel this way; BUT, you should understand it this way…”  What Paul was doing was challenging all of his readers to rethink the circumstances of their lives.  We might interpret the events of our lives in one way, but the Bible interjects with a “BUT” and says, “no, interpret it this way.”

What did happen to Paul?  The context before and after this passage describe Paul was in chains and was sent to the higher Roman courts.  Whereas any other normal reaction to the circumstances would have been anxiety, regret, shame, disappointment, worry, stress, fear, and any other negative emotion, Paul’s response was, “the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the Gospel.”

Here Paul did not care about his own personal comfort, future prospects, finances, friends, family, or even his life.  He had been calibrated by the Holy Spirit to seek the “furtherance of the Gospel.”  It was not that the Gospel overshadowed his normal fears.  Rather, he saw when bad things happened that they were in essence opportunities for the Gospel to go forward.  But, how so, you ask?

Philippians 1:13  So that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace, and in all other places;

The imprisonment of Paul was an opportunity to visit the palace.  Think of it as a free ticket to Rome.  Other versions state that the whole palace guard was able to hear the Gospel.  The palace guard at this time was the Praetorian Guard:  9000 elite soldiers.  Imagine the potential for the Christian message to be spread from the palace guards, to their dormitories and cafeterias, to their friends and family members.

As a Christian, the Lord does not seek wishful and positive thinking in us.  Rather, He grants opportunities to His faithful servants, that at times of faithlessness, seem like crises.  When bankruptcy, embarrassment, rejection, failures, and disease occur, seek opportunities for Christ.  Hospitalizations are opportunities to witness to medical personnel.  Bankruptcies are opportunities to witness to finance counselors.  Imprisonments are opportunities to witness to corrections officers.  What is shocking is all is done, even at the expense of being falsely labeled.

Philippians 1:14  And many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.

Not only was it an opportunity to witness to non-believers, but it was a source of courage to the existing believers, “many of the brethren of the Lord.”  They became more confident by Paul’s imprisonment, preaching and teaching the Gospel message without being afraid.  Not only was the opportunity extended to those Paul came into contact with, but also those all the other emboldened believers came into contact with as well.

We never know who is watching or who is aware of our personal events and circumstances.  We have a great influence on how we respond to various events in our lives.  To the Christian, there are no bad events.  Rather, it is Providence who leads us, as long as we have the objective of spreading the Gospel first and foremost in our hearts and minds.

In this sense, the Gospel-minded individual has not much to be joyous and thankful for, but in everything is to be joyous and thankful, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning all of us (1 Th 5:18).  Let us be invincible Christians.  Let us not allow the circumstances of life to control and dictate our futures.  Instead let us allow Jesus Christ to guide and lead our motives, aspirations, intentions, values, and desires for the “furtherance of the Gospel.”

No, my generation didn’t die, sending young men to battle armies, nations, and ideas.

No, my generation didn’t die seeking an honorable death, a noble cause, and higher purpose.

No, my generation died in front of their computers, from gluttony, ignorance, and indifference, where the only passion they could muster up is a finger clicking on a mouse.

My generation died screamingly silent in apathy.

My generation died hungering for nothing but satisfaction.

My generation died diseased with overstimulation and undercontribution above and beyond any another generation before and beyond it.

No… my generation died even before it had a chance to die.

Many have reacted against this globalization with resurrected local movements, but they are struggling.  Small, local entities are cost inefficient, ineffective, sometimes myopic, and unable to compete.  However, globalized entities aren’t doing any better.  People are discouraged with impersonal corporations, cheaper materials, unhealthier options, and overwhelmed with the bulky unwieldiness of it all.

One could get stuck between the war of locals vs. globals or extract the best from both, partaking in a movement called glocalization:  to think globally; to act locally.  The internet and the world have already moved in this direction:  global encyclopedias are being corrected on the local level; global orchestras are recorded from individual video submissions compiled together; and, regimes are being overthrown in the Middle East by locals, for a few examples.  Global success can be achieved when local entities contribute the global principles to their local principalities.

What is remarkable is the Seventh-day Adventist Church has already been working on a glocalized model.  Some could accuse it of being too distant, large, authoritarian, and full of bureaucracy (ecclesiological hierarchialism).  Or others could charge it with not enough doctrinal censure, being too noninterventionist, inefficient, and full of confusion (ecclesiological congregationalism).  But in reality, the Adventist Church, functioning as described in the Church Manual, is a glocalized biblical movement.  From our church governance structure to Sabbath School and from Pathfinders to our evangelistic strategies, the Adventist church is fulfilling God’s plans to be local in spirit and global in character.

The world is currently in a state where glocalized movements can potentially explode!  For example, in just over a couple of months, one particular frivolous video was viewed more than a billion times (an unexaggerated estimate), the first in internet history!  But what made this video exceptionally popular are the grassroots parodies that followed.  Currently, other flippant videos are following this model, becoming global thanks to the local spoof interpretations that are taking place.  If the world is harnassing the power of social media and glocalization for profit, self-aggrandizement, sensuality, and eye-candy (1 John 2:15-17), how much more should God’s people be working for the furthering of the Gospel, preaching and teaching of Jesus, and the glory of God?

We are living in the glocal battle of the Great Controversy.  The greatest glocal agent, Jesus Christ, never traveled more than a hundred miles, never held political office over the masses, never attended a cosmopolitan university, never published an international book, never visited a metropolitan city (Jerusalem was hardly one of the cities we would consider today), and died homeless and poor.  But Jesus is also the most internationally-known figure on earth, with the most number of songs, artwork, and books produced about Him!  Big things can happen from small, faithful, sacrificial efforts.

What would happen if instead of parodies of foolishness were more reproductions of Christ in the mind and heart?  What would happen if local, grassroots individuals took on the mantle and call of Christ personally in their life?  A “billion times” type of result is bound to happen!  The question remains for is which local manifestation of a global movement are you going to partake in?

Revelation depicts two glocal campaigns.  One consists of three frogs coming out of the mouths of the dragon, beast, and false prophet, going to deceive and gather all the kings of the earth and the whole world (Rev 16:13-16).  Another movement consists of messages coming out of the mouths of the three angels, gathering and calling out all the nations, kindreds, tongues, and peoples (Rev 14:6; 18:4).  The former is one set of devils seeking to counterfeit globally (cf. the frogs that were the last counterfeit during Moses’ day); the latter is another set of angels seeking to warn globally (cf. the three angels that visited and warned during Abraham’s day).

If simple YouTube videos can be viewed a billion times, minimal Tweets can change societies, Facebook updates can demolish Arab regimes, then they also can be used to further the kingdom of God on this earth through the Gospel message.  Combined with arsenals of paper, leaflets of books, touchscreen applications, discs, streaming videos, blogs, and all forms of digital, analogue, and social media, each individual must be employed for the global war of the Wings against the Warts.

Immigrants are a fascinating cohort!   Individual immigrants have to be of a certain character and resilience in order to leave their home country, language, culture, and people.  It is not the everyday person that seeks to leave behind everything and everyone he or she knows, only to move to a new location to learn an entire new communication style, foreign customs, and different values.  What would make someone do this?  Either he or she heard a divine call (as in the case of Abraham), the economic, political, and/or social conditions were too terrible to tolerate, the individual’s ambition exceeded what the locals could provide, or the environment bred so much injustice that the emigration was warranted.

Immigrants are not normal citizens!  They have a certain “gusto,” or an advanced thinking level.  Either they have advanced post-graduate degrees or advanced street smarts (or connections to those who do).  They would have to have a bolstered sense of self-security and/or some other forms of psychological mechanism to deal with the shocks of change.  Immigrants are known for their definitive sense of ambition and/or ideals.  In essence, this is the character of what made and still makes up America – a nation of immigrants,  a entire nation-state of purely people who “pulled themselves up by their bootstraps,” or shinbalkuns, in this context.

Take these individuals and place them together in a localized organization all by themselves.  Wouldn’t this be a fertile ground for some fireworks?!  Psychologically, these individuals would have the paranoidal fear of being left alone in a foreign land, a deep need to be accepted, acknowledged, and recognized on a very profound humanistic level.  Immigrants would need to be constantly on guard for any perceived or inferred signs of threat, become sensitive to criticism, and be under the constant banner of achieving success either in their generation or in the legacy of subsequent ones.  Often the society immigrants are running away from is an authoritarian regime and/or a socially-oppressive culture.  Ironically, that which they are escaping from is often what they implement themselves, for this is all they know.  Any deviation from the prevailing opinion would result in ostracization.

In the midst of these immigrant characteristics, one finds the Korean subculture.  Koreans are a very homogenous people that should have been eliminated either by the numerous Chinese empires, Mongols, Japanese, Russians, Americans, or simply through internal civil factions.  But through isolationism, their unique peninsular geography, and common language, Koreans have simply survived, albeit not triumphantly.

First, the embarrassing modern history of inhumane Japanese rule and the subsequent Cold War splitting of the Korean homogenous people were major points of shame.  Add that to years of political turmoil, presidential assassination attempts (and successes), military dictators, presidential scandals (and suicides), coup d’états, and multiple university student riots and massacres — and the average Korean doesn’t have much to swank about.

Couple these with the history of economic poverty, hunger, starvation, and other financial forms of suffering.  The simple lack of food, water, and shelter molds an entire generation a certain way.  A determination to provide basic needs and assure that no one else will experience the same, becomes second nature.  And once there is adequate relief, vows for education, luxury, success, and reputation are then made.

Finally, a strong, dominant Confucian social structure equivalent to the Korean culture itself is being threatened in America.  This is a rigid system where children obeyed their parents, wives their husbands, servants their masters, younger siblings their older ones, and where the equally aged were loyal friends.  It was all about the entire social order.  Unlike the Western European and American cultures that have only existed for a couple centuries based on modern values, Asian roots date back a couple millennia!  Harmony is more valued than justice.  The collective is more important than the individual.  Conformity and unity are crucial for survival rather than creativity and originality.  If you speak up, you’ll stand out.  If you stand out, your head will stick out.  If you stick you head out, it’ll get chopped off.  Group silence is better than one odd voice.  Not being wrong together is better than being right by yourself.  Within the flash of immigration, this context is erased instantaneously and these new ideas of equality, individuality, liberty, civil liberties, and ethics place immense pressure on the Korean social identity.

So why the contradicting statements?  Why argue that church splits (or congregational divisions) occur generically in immigrant circles and not only within Korean Adventism, but then argue the points that make Koreans susceptible for church splits?  Simply for two reasons.  One, answers are never as simple as, “the church split because it’s Korean or Adventist or both.”  Oversimplification is like demanding to know what one color Michaelangelo (the painter, not the Ninja Turtle) used to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.  We must understand that social institutions and individual human beings are complex.  There should be no pretentious reasons to explain away our pain and to carelessly blame some other scapegoat.  This would be spiritually unfruitful and would even be denying our own identities.

Secondly, understanding things in their proper light provide the foundation for healing past the church split.  To understand is to sow, cultivate, and burgeon compassion – compassion for those who hurt us, those who have been hurt, and those whose eternal destinies have been displaced by church divisions.  Compassion is not pity, nor even simplistic forgiveness.  It’s not something mushy, squishy, or gushy.  It is the beginning point to survive church splits.  It is the place where we refuse to play the games of shame, dishonor, pride, respect, reputation, or anything else petty and menial.  If compassion isn’t the beginning, we merely extend the game to the next generation and are destined to reincarnate the curse.

The practical elements of compassion and insights from the biblical narrative will be discussed in part three of this series.

Part 1

Originally posted at English Compass.

“It may be true for you, but it is not necessarily true for me.”  Have you heard or used this statement before, or something similar?  Whether it is used in an argument or just as a general rule in life, this line of thinking is called relativism.

When thought upon a little bit longer, it becomes problematic:   it not true for itself.  If you hold the statement “everything is relative” to be true, then how can you be sure that “everything is relative” isn’t relative itself?

The historical events of the twentieth century make evident that relativism cannot be true or more importantly, livable in real life.  The greatest atrocities and the most appalling events occurred within the past one hundred years of human history.

Anyone who is familiar with the World Wars, nuclear arms race, racial genocide, threats of global annihilation, and a myriad of other social and political events wouldn’t hesitate to state that there had to be an objective right or wrong in all of this.

If anything is absolutely wrong, then there has to be an absolute right.  Many are careful to make statements such as this.  But all would agree that judging another person is wrong.  So are hypocrisy, judgments, and gossip.

Consequently if there are rights and wrongs, there must be a measurable standard to distinguish the two from each other.  What these point to is a law.  For humanity, there must be a law given from a perspective that transcends all humanity.  It must be a divine law.

For example, the American Founding Fathers appealed to this law when stating, “We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men were created equal; that each is endowed by his Creator with certain unalienable rights; that being life, life, and the pursuit of happiness” as quoted in the Declaration of Independence.   This meant that all humanity, even the governments of humanity, had to answer to a law higher than themselves:  a divine law.

Though self-evident and enforced by humanity, there are rights and wrongs that were originally given by the Creator of all humanity.  This is why everyone innate acknowledges basing rightness and wrongness on “Majority Rules” as faulty.

The Nazi Germans were wrong not because they lost the war, but because on a divine law level, we all knew what they were doing was wrong.  Whenever injustices are done, individuals need to transcend the majority and appeal to something higher:  a divine law.

The colonial world transcended the imperial majority powers and revolted for independence.  Civil rights activists transcended the majority and appealed to laws higher than the land.  Women, minorities, and many other groups throughout history, knowingly or unknowingly, transcended the majority, because appealing to a higher law made sense and worked.

Without this law, every man and woman is out for one’s self.  There is no source of justice to appeal to, nor any objective sense of right or wrong.   Essentially, “anything goes” and no one can do anything about it.

Where Can We Find This Divine Law?

Because of a moral decline in North America, we need the renewed restoration of divine morality.  Where can we find this divine law?  Where can we find a moral foundation established by the Creator of humanity?  Where is our final source of authority to appeal to?

The Bible points to the Ten Commandments, which were written by the finger of God Himself (Exodus 31:18).  These laws provide a moral compass in this age of relativism.  Through these laws, we are told of the character of God and the nature of human life, as originally intended.

The first four commandments teach humanity on the necessity of loving our Maker:  loyalty (Exodus 20:2-3), worship (4-6), reverence (7), and relationship (8-11).  The second six commandments teach humanity on the necessity of loving each other:  parental respect (12), life (13), purity (14), honesty (15), truth (16), and peace (17).

These are eternal principles that are the basis for happiness, justice, and love in every individual’s life.  These are the same principles that Jesus summarized as loving God and loving man in the New Testament (Matthew 22:36-40 – which were in actuality other Old Testament quotes).  These are also the same laws that have been forgotten today.

Why and How?

Some believe the Ten Commandments to be obsolete because they were old Jewish laws.  While there were many ceremonial laws of Moses that were canceled out, the Ten Commandments are eternal principles taught by Jesus (Matthew 5:17) and written by God Himself for all humanity.

Others believe the Ten Commandments as part of an Old Covenant.  Though indeed it was abolished by God, this did not include the Ten Commandments.  Rather, the agreement (covenant) that humanity would keep the law by their own human strength (Exodus 24:3, 7) was nullified.  Humanity could not obey this law.

A renewal agreement (New Covenant) was made where God would now write the Ten Commandment in our hearts (Jeremiah 31:31-34, Hebrews 8:8-13).  This meant He would forgive our sins as well as would sustain our obedience supernaturally.  Humanity could now obey this law.

In essence, the Ten Commandments which are holy, just, and good (Romans 7:12) would point out our lawlessness (1 John 3:4) and drive us back to the supernatural source God, to renew and maintain our good standing with Him and fellow humanity.

Because of our human frailties, we are all sinners (Romans 3:23) and helpless before the Law.  But the Law drives us to realize we need something bigger and better outside of ourselves:  God’s power.

Looking at evil, we realize we need the supernatural law.  Looking at the supernatural law, we realize we need a supernatural power to help us.  This is what the Bible records as grace (God’s power) and law working together:  one as a mirror to show us our lawlessness and another as the balm to heal us of our lawlessness.

The Greatest Restoration

Morality will not be restored through more education, political programs, or even the posting of the Ten Commandments on courthouses.  More education will only result in more educated evil and lawlessness.  Political programs have their own ideological agendas based on relativism.  And if not careful, we may make the same mistake of the creating an Old Covenant.

Moreover, morality will be established when the eternal principles of the Ten Commandments are posted and written in our hearts.  The principles of the law will be lived out in daily, real, everyday life:  love towards God and love towards humanity.

More than any other period of history, we need the Ten Commandments in North America today.  Won’t you accept the offer that Jesus will write the law in our minds and our hearts?  If you will let Him be the Law-giver and the Grace-giver in your life, the New Covenant will bring the fruits of forgiveness, happiness, love, and justice in your inner soul.  Let God of the Ten Commandments once again restore morality in the hearts of humanity today.

Here’s a PDF Yearly Bible/COTA Reading Plan to read through all of the Bible and the five books of the Conflict of the Ages Series to act as a Bible commentary help.

Feel free to distribute!

Two patriarchs were rich with crops and livestock galore.

Two patriarchs lived in the same region and in the same period of earth’s history.

Two patriarchs had deep, profound relationships with the Divine and heard His very voice.

Yet one was the father of many, who eventually became alone.  Another was a father of one, who would eventually become many.  One had a whole book ascribed to him.  The other was mentioned relatively shortly, but his descendants become the main characters of the Bible.  One was called perfect and made an example in front of the universe.  The other was called a friend of God and made a blessing before all the nations.

But in the end, both were asked to sacrifice and suffer.

Job

Job was a man that feared God, perfect, upright, and eschewed evil.  Yet when his children, household, goods, and health were taken away, he grieves and mourns for two chapters, seeking death.  His three friends come to argue incorrectly that Job had done something wrong, making false metaphysical and ethical statements about good and evil.  After rebuking each friend in a cycle of three debates, God finally spoke to him.

Between chapters 38 and 39, God conclusively proved that man could not understand everything and sought obedience from humanity.  There is no personal advantage in obedience.  There is no understandable rationale in obedience.  Reason and rationale have limitations.  Obedience does not.

Abraham

Abraham was a man that also feared God and called the friend of God.  He was to be the father of God’s people, protecting and guarding of the sacred law.  To him were promised more descendants that the night stars and the sands of the sea.  But in chapter 22 of Genesis, God also asked to take his child away.

Though one child, the wages were more circumstantial than the situation of Job.  Though Job had seven sons, three daughters, 7000 sheep, 300 camels, 500 oxen, 500 donkeys, and a large staff, more promises were encapsulated in the person of Isaac.  Isaac was the child of promise, the child of impossibilities, the progenitor of a people numbering more than the night stars and sands of the sea.  This child was birthed from his parents’ laughter, prematurely caused the birth of a rival nation, and the object of anxiety and hope for more than 20 tired and elderly years.

Taking the life of this child should have caused more mourning than Job’s loss.  This was an action that was highly un-understandable.  Abraham should have been asking questions, grieving, mourning, seeking death, escape, alternatives, and answers.

Silence

Yet what is so disturbing about chapter 22 is that there is no indication of these signs.  Whereas Job has more than thirty chapters devoted to complaining and discussion, there is not even one verse attributed for this avenue.  Rather, we see a methodical step-by-step journey to the top of Moriah, only to worship.  We hear a silent hike up the mountain.  We only smell the fire burning on top of the altar.  We do not see any rationalization, cursing God, hint of bitterness, seeking of alternatives, discussions, questionings of misunderstanding.  We see obedience.  This unrational (not irrational) obedience is so disturbing that the violence of a son’s murder by his father does not phase us.  Maybe Abraham knew something about faith that Job did not.

You see, Christians do not sacrifice and suffer.  We serve a Lord that owns all and does not know material loss.  Christians do not sacrifice and suffer; Christians merely obey.  We may either mourn for 30+ chapters or walk silently up a mountain, but the outcome is the same.  Obedience never needs to be understood, just done.  The world calls this foolishness, but there is no personal advantage in obedience.  Even though we may not understand ourselves, we must keep walking and say, “I will follow thee, my Savior.”  This is what Jesus did every hour of His life.

You see, there is a secret that every Christ-follower knows:  Christ Himself.  And when you know Him, you’ll love Him.  And when you love Him, you don’t think about obeying Him…you just do.

Original Post:  http://www.englishcompass.org/articles/the_secret_of_silence/

(A favorite poem of Audrey Hepburn)

For attractive lips, speak words of kindness.

For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people.

For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry.

For beautiful hair, let a child run his fingers through it once a day.

For poise, walk with the knowledge you’ll never walk alone…

People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived,
reclaimed and redeemed and redeemed…

Never throw out anybody. Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you’ll find one at the end of your arm.

As you grow older you will discover that you have two hands.
One for helping yourself, the other for helping others.

The beauty of a woman is not in the clothes she wears,
the figure that she carries, or the way she combs her hair.

The beauty of a woman must be seen from in her eyes,
because that is the doorway to her heart,
the place where love resides.

The beauty of a woman is not in a facial mole,
but true beauty in a woman is reflected in her soul.

It is the caring that she lovingly gives,
the passion that she shows,
and the beauty of a woman with passing years only grows!

A church split usually involves two (or sometimes more) groups emerging from one congregation.  Politicization occurs when each one of the groups has a vested interest at the expense of the other.  Sometimes this occurs out of cultural miscommunication within one generation; at other times, this occurs trans-generationally.  Other variants include socio-economic differences, geographic convenience issues, financial accountability dilemmas, and a myriad of hybrid breakouts.  Occasionally, loud shouting matches, mild violence, passive aggression, and/or walkouts can occur.

Now while I have been fortunate to have never witnessed one of these incidents in any of the churches I was attending, I have observed neighboring churches that split or have been part of a church that hosted the exodus of a nearby congregation.  While the adult congregation often resolves and seeks different forms of restitution, the collateral damage is primarily seen in the younger generations.  Spirituality is injured and bitterness, cynicism, and suspicion arise.  Once congenial youth fellowships become torn into half, often forcing children to choose friends based on “which side their family is on.”  While the adults learn to shrug off the “necessary nuisances” and continue with worship, witnessing, and fellowship, the youth are left in a daze without an explanation of their eroded religious world and community.

Combine these incidents with the natural sarcasm that materializes during adolescence, and one can produce a potent arrangement for misguided thinking and poisoned souls that potentially could have repercussions in their eternal destiny.  Some resort to some satirical theology (“well, we’re all sinners, right?  I guess we’ll just keep splitting churches until Jesus comes”).  Others might blame the Adventist denomination as being too myopic, strict, fundamentalist in interpretation, small, or provincial.  But the most common explanation is that church splits occur because of our Koreanness.

Blame it on the adrenaline effect of the Kimchee-laden capsaicin, the dramaholics addicted to watching all the emotional 23,098-part series (in one weekend), or the military training that all of our fathers have been brainwashed with (and their incessant stories).  When talking with our Presbyterian and Methodist brothers and sisters, we find that church splitting is insanely common in Korean congregations.  So this transcends Adventist congregations.

But take this one step further and you’ll find commonalities in Chinese and Japanese Protestant congregations.  The only reason one doesn’t hear more about them in America is because Japanese Protestants (let alone Christians) are quite rare and Christianity hasn’t taken root in the political atmosphere of mainland China yet.  So this transcends Korean congregations.

Take it one step further and you’ll find the same pattern in Romanian, Indian, Hispanic, Caribbean, and continental African churches.  This phenomenon is not an Asian problem, but a minority issue.  Being in a culture where you are not the majority lends itself to some sociological wonders.  So this transcends Asian congregations.

Extend the parameters throughout history and one will find that this is not just limited to minorities.  In American history, when the European nations immigrated to the United States, one witnessed numerous church splits, regardless of language, culture, or denomination.  So these church splits transcend minority congregations.

If the phenomenon were just limited to minorities, Asians, Koreans, or Adventists, then one would find the same activity happening back in the “mother lands” or throughout Adventism.  One does not.  But one does see them throughout immigrant congregations, even outside Christianity.  What is it about immigrants that result in these conflicts?  And what is the connection between the immigrant experience and the second-generation Korean-American Seventh-day Adventist living in North America?  This discussion and their corollary issues will be in part two.

While some stories were familiar, there were plenty that were not.  Pending on your denominational background, some may be more recognizable that others.  The temptation was to keep reading, only to face the annoyance that the account is only a page long.  The easy English was a first a nuisance, but eventually it retained a practical attribute, good for family worships, sermon illustrations, or other religious anecdotes.  The book is convenient, well put-together, and recommended for busy armchair church historians.

What was particularly valuable was the creative brain-storms that spin off while reading it.  It is amazing how truly, there is nothing new under the sun.  Historical problems of the Christian church administration are the same problems of today.  The issues within a variety of denominations then are the same issues today.  And the Biblical virtues, Christian values, and the resolute commitment to morality and truth that inspired then, still inspires the same human heart today.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”