Godward Toil

Matt Perman on Connected Kingdom Podcast

Tim Challies, a brother whose work on the web I admire and appreciate, has a relatively new podcast called the Connected Kingdom (iTunes link). This week (episode 9) he hosted Matt Perman, the senior director of strategy for Desiring God. Matt blogs about productivity and other kingdom work at What's Best Next. The discussion between Tim and Matt this week will be a great interest to readers of this blog. These two godly men tackle many of the themes I've blogged about here, and do so from an intelligent, gracious, and measured way.

Here are some of the topics they discussed and the approximate timecode when each starts:

• Matt's testimony and recent biography (0:55)
• Defining productivity as getting the right things done (7:30)
• Risk of making efficiency and productivity functional idols (10:15)
• Productivity and list management software, and the "strange" mindset one can fall into  (12:50)
• Getting Things Done (GTD) strengths and weaknesses from a Christian perspective (15:15) (includes incisive contrast around the 23-minute mark between the approach to peace of mind in GTD and Philippians 4)
• The value of forgetting, and the potential tyranny of lists (27:00)
• Recommended books (28:15) (includes helpful discussion about reading Covey with discernment)
• Life at Desiring God Ministries with John Piper on leave of absence (33:30)
• Gospel-oriented book on productivity Matt is planning to write in August (35:00)

Near the end of the episode, Matt mentioned that he is writing a book this summer on productivity in the context of the Gospel. That is a book that I have desired to write (and read!) for a long time, but which I've never believed God had called me to commit to. I'm thrilled that God has given a reformed brother like Matt that desire, and the resources to accomplish it. I will pray for him in this effort. Please do the same--the Church needs it!

 

Q&A primers that sharpen and prepare

Nothing drives me to be more careful or thorough in my study of doctrine than teaching children--my own or other children that I love. Recently, I've been so helped by a couple of works in a genre of catechesis with which I was previously unfamiliar: fictional dialog. I don't even know if that is the official name of this genre of literature, but the idea is that the author teaches doctrine through an imaginary conversation between two people--one is usually a naive but interested young person or seeker and the other is a wise and learned saint. The dialog is not meant to be realistic, but rather is intentionally contrived to bring about all of the key aspects of a given doctrine. The two works in the genre that have helped me lately are The Child's Book on Repentance by Thomas Gallaudet and a A Primer on the Atonement, by John Gerstner. The Child's Book of Repentance is an old puritan book that imagines a dialog between a Christian mother and her children, who crave to know what true repentance is. A Primer on the Atonement comes from a larger book of compiled primers by Gerstner, portions of which Ligonier Ministries has been posting as a series (now on Part 5). Both of these are wonderful and have sharpened me to teach more faithfully and thoroughly. 

From the page to my life

In John Piper's moving explanation for his upcoming leave of absence, he acknowledged pride in his life:

But on the other hand, I see several species of pride in my soul that, while they may not rise to the level of disqualifying me for ministry, grieve me, and have taken a toll on my relationship with Noël and others who are dear to me. How do I apologize to you, not for a specific deed, but for ongoing character flaws, and their effects on everybody?

This touching acknowledgment of pride made me think about something he mentioned in a sermon about greatness and humility several months back: 

A Yearlong Focus and Lifelong Passion. One evidence of how crucial we feel this to be is that the pastoral staff small groups this coming year will be reading and praying over and applying C. J. Mahaney’s book Humility: True Greatness. The five of us who lead those small groups agreed on this so that the quest to put to death our pride and all its ugly fruit would not be a passing interest with this sermon, but a yearlong focus for us—and then a lifelong passion.

I have no idea how God used the small-group study of Humility to sanctify Pastor John and others in the group. But it made me know that I want to let the good books I read really have an effect on my life. God is doing a million X a million things in ordaining that we pick up a godly book to read. And when he moved men of God to write them.

On my shelf right now I have three unread books that could change everything if I take them as seriously as I imagine John Piper takes a book like Mahaney's:  DA Carson's A Call to Spiritual Reformation, Richard Phillips The Masculine Mandate, and Timothy Witmer's The Shepherd Leader.

What books are on your shelf? Will they make it to your life?

Eric Mack on "Too Busy To Pray"

Brother Eric Mack has given enthusiastic endorsement to a book I've never heard of, but now want to read:  Too Busy Not to Pray by Bill Hybels.   I've already written about my most important discovery about getting things done with prayer, but I suspect a book with a great title like Hybels could feed me with more motivation to pray even when--especially when--it seems like there's no time for it.   I appreciate anything that can add to the words and verses I can preach to myself when I'm in a battle with self-sufficiency.

Related posts:
Productivity reflections on Psalm 127
Sin is a waste of time
Who is getting things done

Follow-up from Christianity and/or Psychology talk: Resources for further study

The "Christianity and/or Psychology" talk at SUNY Brockport was this evening.  I would like to offer participants some resources for further pursuing some of the ideas we discussed.  Because of the probable overlap between blog readers interested in Christianity and productivity and those interested Christianity and psychology, I thought it could be helpful to post the resources here.   I am also posting selected resources for participants interested in exploring more about the Christian faith and Christianity and science more generally.   In both categories, I'm sure there are better and more comprehensive resources lists out there.  I offer these because I know them and, in one way or another, they have proved helpful to me personally and professionally.

Christianity and/or Psychology:

Christian Counseling and Education Foundation.  An excellent resource for biblical counseling books, conferences, training, and inspiration.    

Desiring God Ministries resources about Christianity and Psychology, and Biblical Counseling.  Resources here include free down-loadable audio files by some true giants of the faith (such as Erroll Hulse, Greg Livingston, and David Powlison) specifically about Christianity and Psychology from a 2001 conference on the topic hosted by John Piper and Bethlehem Baptist Church.  Note that there is also a short Q&A article in which John Piper comments on one of the key questions I addressed tonight and about which I have talked directly with Piper:  "Should Christians become secular psychologists?"

Foundations for Soul Care:  A Christian Psychology Proposal by Eric Johnson.   A monumental tome and a gift to the field.  I don't agree with Johnson on every point, but I do on most.  I haven't yet finished this massive book but I've read enough to know that this is the most thoughtful and scriptural attempt at integration I've read.

Instruments in the Redeemer's Hand:  People in need of change helping people in need of change by Paul David Tripp.   A wise and practical book for anyone with a heart to help others change.  This is explicitly not a book for professional counselors (though most of us can learn from it), but for ordinary Christians who do (and should do) most of the counseling in real life.

Psychology and Christianity: Four Views.   A much-cited book which should be read with caution.  This book needs to be on this list because it provides fertile ground for understanding the range of views on Christianity and Psychology.  But the book has problems, including the way it tends to marginalize and caricature the biblical counseling perspective.  Thoughtful Christians should be on alert for straw man arguments about biblical approaches.

Seeing With New Eyes: Counseling and the Human Condition Through the Lens of Scripture and Speaking Truth In Love both by David Powlison.  Seeing with New Eyes uses the book of Ephesians as an exemplary text for how to conceptualize the core problems human beings struggle with.   Speaking the Truth gives readers the methods and techniques of using God's word to speak into another's life.

Christian faith/Christianity and Science:

The Reason for God by Tim Keller.  I love Tim Keller because of the respect he shows people who doubt or oppose the Christian faith.  He respects them enough to both answer skeptics' questions and to challenge them to scrutinize their own assumptions and beliefs.  This is precisely the approach with which I was lead to the Lord, so I am so thankful to see it embodied here.  The Tim Keller resource page also has a number of outstanding messages that squarely address questions that thoughtful skeptics often ask such as "How an there be just one true religion?", "If God is good, why is there so much evil in the world?", and "Hasn't Christianity been an instrument for oppression?"

Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis.  A classic.  Arguments and metaphors presented in the first several chapters, especially, are among the most potent I've read.  This book turned me from mocker to seeker almost overnight.

Science and theology: An introduction by John Polkinghorne.  Polkinghorne, a renowned particle physicist, was the first Christian scientist I ever heard speak;  he gave a talk titled "Why Scientists Should Pray" at the University of Virginia (sponsored by the Center for Christian Study) in 1996.   He has written a number of thoughtful books on the nexus of science and religion, including this one which is generally regarded as this best and most accessible summary.  I do not align with Polkinghorne on every theological point, but he is brilliant and the most intellectually honest voice I've heard in the world of science and faith.

Blogs Explained "In Plain English"

Several people in my family and church have asked me the whys, hows, whats about blogs and blogging.  There are some good resources about how blogs can serve the Christian community, including an entire book dedicated to the subject for church leaders/planters.  This engaging little video gives the 5 minute explanation of what blogs are and why they are important in our culture.  Since some of the audience I would like to talk with via this blog is new to the whole idea, I thought it would be worth sharing.   
[via Missionary Geek]

"Eat this book" by Eugene Peterson

A phrase I used in a post last week, "my morning feeding of God's Word," reminded me of a book I've been reading by Eugene Peterson, Eat This Book: A Conversation in the Art of Spiritual Reading.  Peterson does a marvelous job of calling Christians to a participatory reading of the Bible.  What I like most about this book is that Peterson exposes many of the ways in which we tend to domesticate the Bible.   In my Bible reading lately, I have been struck by just how strange a book it is--and how strange a God we have.  My journal entries are full of phrases like "strange and wonderful."  God's ways are not only higher than our ways, they are so totally other.   When I read the Bible and really let it say what it says, I can only be humbled--and go about my daily life, tasks, and plans with an awareness of how dimly I see.

Thanks to my friend John, who gave me this book with the inscription "The Word must be lived!"  John is a dear saint and a prolific book-giver at our church.  Bless you, brother!