Empowered Witness: Politics, Culture, and the Spiritual Mission of the Church

Dr. Alan D. Strange | Crossway, 2024, 149 pages, $17.99 | Reviewed by Mark Sampson

The current election season in the US has generated many discussions about the role of faith in our world and, more specifically, the role of the church in culture and politics. A rise of Christian nationalism (however one defines this topic), along with continuing interest in Federal Vision and Doug Wilson, calls for a clear look at the role of the church.

Dr. Strange, interim president and professor of church history at Mid-America Reformed Seminary in Dyer, Ind., is a leading expert on the work of Dr. Charles Hodge of Princeton Theological Seminary. Using the Civil War as a backdrop, Dr. Strange looks at the debates within the Presbyterian Church during this time of social and political upheaval, particularly the post-war impact on the reunification of the Southern and Northern Presbyterian Churches.

Dr. Strange writes, “The task of the church as such is not to transform the world at large or any society in it. The task of the church is to transform lives: to proclaim the gospel.” The debates within the church of Hodge’s time provide an excellent example of forgetting the true purpose of the church. Strange warns of this very same tendency in today’s church.

Some popular current leaders are seeking to use the church to attack aspects of American culture. There are certainly many examples of worthy topics. The American nation has largely turned its head from God in areas of the sanctity of life and moral conduct, for example. Hodge and others would note that the church was to address everything it had a biblical warrant to address, leaving the details for Christians, governed by biblical principles, to work out. The church cannot neglect its primary focus on the “gathering and perfecting” of the saints.

While not a rigorous academic tome (only 120 pages of text), readers may find a dictionary helpful. The robust discussion of the inner workings of various presbyteries and synods seen through the division of the Old School and New School Presbyterian Churches starting in 1837 is readable. Still, it might be more than the average non-history buff prefers to take on. In that case, the opening and closing chapters are most applicable to answering the question of the church’s role today.

Scattering Seeds of Hope: Evangelism for the Discouraged and Ineffective

Jeremy Marshall & Mary Davis | 10Publishing, 2024, 119 pages, $12.99 | Reviewed by Byron Spear

Evangelism ought to mark the life of every Christian, as Paul clearly writes that “we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us” (2 Cor. 5:20). Yet many Christians in a post-Christian Western world struggle to overcome their fears in conversation with unbelievers. Jeremy Marshall, knowing this, authors a short book that is a respectful, love-driven, and simple model of biblical evangelism.

Marshall advocates a method named after one of the most famous parables from Mark’s Gospel—scattering seeds. He writes, “Your job…is to throw out a few seeds and see what happens.” The rest, he says, is up to God. His sowing method consists of questions, Bible stories, and honest friendliness. Christians are to be scattering seeds “indiscriminately, as often as possible, and in as large handfuls as we can manage.” This is about a way of life that purposes to speak of Christ at every opportunity.

Perhaps you, like me, have shared the gospel with someone merely to relieve some evangelistic guilt. This can be as awkward as it is ineffective. Marshall’s method strives to be entirely guilt-free. Seeds, Marshall says, are small. Very small. A smile, passing comments on the comfort of faith, mentioning that you attend church. In my experience using his methods, small seeds require water and food. They are not enough.

Jeremy Marshall passed away in 2023 following a cancer diagnosis, which inspired a chapter entitled “The Power of Weakness.” Marshall used his cancer to show vulnerability, which helps soften arrogance in the evangelist. Of course, not everyone has terminal cancer. But everyone has weaknesses. Do we hide them from the world, or do we use them to reach the world? Paul boasted in his weaknesses. We also must do so.

While I understand Marshall’s enthusiasm for social media evangelism and appreciate his tempering of that enthusiasm with calls for discernment and IRL (in real life) relationships, his apologetic for Christian use of Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram falls short. While social media evangelism has a greater quantitative reach, the quality is equally and oppositely diminished. The diminished nature of the effect does not bother Marshall and his “small seeds.” However, in a time when people are not just ignorant of Christianity, but hostile to it, quality evangelism must take precedence. While there is some room for this kind of work, Christian evangelism must always be focused on real-life relationships.

Reformed and Evangelical across Four Centuries: The Presbyterian Story in America

Nathan Feldmeth, Donald Fortson, Garth Rosell, Kenneth Stewart | Eerdmans, 2022, 364 pages, $29.99 | Reviewed by Jonathan Sturm

Co-authored by four Presbyterian historians, Nathan Feldmeth (Fuller Theological Seminary), Donald Fortson (Reformed Theological Seminary), Garth Rosell (Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary), and Kenneth Stewart (Covenant College), Reformed and Evangelical seeks to offer “a faithful account of what it has meant…and what it means…to be Presbyterian and evangelical in America” (xix).

The scope of Reformed and Evangelical is ambitious, and the execution is impressive. In chapters 1–5, the authors contextualize American Presbyterianism, examining its British roots and concluding with a discussion of how the Presbyterianism transplanted to America was both Reformed (i.e., confessional) and evangelical (i.e., committed to biblicism, conversionism, crucicentrism, and activism). In chapters 6–10, the authors trace the establishment of a distinctly American Presbyterian identity. In chapters 11–18, the authors examine theological and societal challenges to American Presbyterianism, tracing the exodus of both Reformed and evangelical Presbyterians from the old mainline denominations. In chapter 19 and the conclusion, the authors analyze American Presbyterianism, offering a judicious evaluation of how American Presbyterianism currently relates to its Reformed and evangelical roots.

Two additional notes: First, Reformed and Evangelical is robust. Readers looking for a more accessible history of American Presbyterianism may prefer Hart and Muether’s Seeking a Better Country: 300 Years of American Presbyterianism (P&R, 2007). Second, those especially interested in the history of the RPCNA will find little material. They should instead consult Edgar’s two volumes on the RPCNA’s history (Crown & Covenant, 2019, 2022). But for those interested in a serious study of Presbyterian history, I highly recommend this volume.

From Garden to Glory: How Understanding God’s Story Changes Yours

Courtney Doctor | Harvest House, 2024, 256 pages, $17.99 | Reviewed by Meg Spear

People love great stories. We relish the characters and their quirks. We cringe when the bad guys seem to get the upper hand. We gasp at the plot twists. We cheer when the good guys gain ground. We sigh with palpable relief when wrongs are righted and the world is at peace again.

In her recent release, From Garden to Glory, author Courtney Doctor deftly takes the reader through a bird’s-eye overview of the Bible, identifying various key elements in the story arc, clearly showing a unified theme throughout the pages of Scripture.

Doctor serves as the director for women’s initiatives for The Gospel Coalition and earned her MDiv at Covenant Theological Seminary. She is married to a PCA pastor, and they have four adult children.

This book is designed to help us know God better, and, by way of contrast, understand ourselves better as well. Doctor wrote this book with four goals in mind: to demystify the themes of the Bible, to increase the reader’s passion for God’s Word, to perceive one’s personal role in the ongoing story of redemption, and to more fully exalt and glorify our triune God as a result.

The book is divided into 10 easily accessible chapters, each with a provocative title, including “CliffsNotes,” “Once Upon a Time,” “But Then an Evil Serpent,” “The Hero Arrives,” and “Happily Ever After.” Despite the lightweight-sounding titles and Hollywood movie references, each chapter is packed with systematic covenant theology.

I really enjoyed the big-picture exploration of the Bible and of God’s plan of salvation as it emerges from Doctor’s account. She does an excellent job of helping the reader see how the smaller parts of God’s story fit into the overall story and how God uses seemingly small people and catastrophic events for His own purposes. The final chapter on the book of Revelation was thought-provoking and worthy of more study.

Doctor urges the reader to memorize a given verse for each chapter to help track the overall storyline of Scripture, and she provides excellent discussion questions as well as opportunities for deeper study at the end of each chapter. Both of these valuable resources pull from multiple passages in other parts of the Bible, further helping to tie the themes of Scripture together.