The Tech-Wise Family

Andy Crouch | BakerBooks | 2017, 224 pp., $14.99 | Reviewed by Daniel Howe

Technologies like the smartphone have utterly changed daily life over the past two decades. How can we develop wisdom and courage when life changes so quickly and we are constantly playing catch-up?

Smart people are spending enormous sums to suck us into our digital devices, and we often find ourselves absorbed in very unhealthy ways. Andy Crouch encourages people to take an approach he calls “almost almost Amish.” Technology is in its proper place when it helps us bond with real people, start great conversations, care for our fragile bodies, acquire skill in other areas of life (sports, cooking, music, etc.), and cultivate an awe for the created world. Crouch offers “ten commitments” to help us approach technology in this way.

The first is that “we develop wisdom and courage together as a family.” Technology differs from tools. Tools help us do work; tech does the work for us. It’s ubiquitous: “easy everywhere.” Importantly, the purpose of a family is very different from the purposes of technology. Family is about the formation of persons. If you take only one practical tip from the book, Crouch begs, go to “the room where your family spends the most time and ruthlessly eliminate the things that ask little of you and develop little in you.”

Second, we give our devices time off: “one hour a day, one day a week, and one week a year.” This is one of the places where The Tech-Wise Family shines. Crouch offers excellent reflection on the Sabbath commandment and on the importance of giving rest to others. He contrasts work and rest (God-given parts of human life) with toil (endless, fruitless labor) and leisure (fruitless escape from labor at the expense of other people’s labor). Technology makes it incredibly easy for work to become toil and rest to become leisure. If you don’t do this already, try it: no phone at least during dinner each day and on the Lord’s Day. See how twitchy you get without it.

Several of Crouch’s other suggestions also focus on controlling when we decide to use (or not use) technology. Our devices should not be the last thing we handle before sleep or the first thing we handle when we wake up. Younger children should have as little screen time as possible. Screen use shouldn’t be the default antidote to boredom—which it often is because it’s engineered to be endlessly captivating and exciting in a way that reality usually isn’t. Car time is important time for uninterrupted discussion and not time to stare at or listen to our devices.

Another commitment, “Spouses have one another’s passwords, and parents have total access to children’s devices” seems obvious to only some. Children should have privacy, in their rooms or in the bathroom, but phones offer a world of trouble to get into. It is a parental duty to guard them from that trouble.

The second-to-last commitment is one Reformed Presbyterians will appreciate: “We learn to sing together, rather than letting recorded and amplified music take over our lives and worship.” Sing at home as well as at church. Finally, “We show up in person for the big events of life. We learn how to be human by being fully present at our moments of greatest vulnerability. We hope to die in one another’s arms.” Real, physical presence: this is the stuff of real life, and it is what all of our technology should be aiding and encouraging.

Christ and the Law: Antinomianism at the Westminster Assembly

Whitney Gamble | Reformation Heritage Books | 2018, 157 pp., $40 | Reviewed by Kyle Borg

What is faith? How am I justified before God? How can I explain remaining sin in my life? Can I fall from a state of grace? What is repentance? What role does God’s law have in my life? What are good works?

These questions grapple with the fundamental concept of what it means to be a Christian, and they were questions that featured prominently in the debates of the Westminster Assembly as the Divines combated the serious error of Antinomianism.

Whitney Gamble, associate professor of biblical and theological studies at Providence Christian College, has given us an in-depth narration of the figures and debates surrounding the Antinomian controversy, beginning with John Eaton and concluding with the completion of the Westminster Confession of Faith.

She ably situates the controversy as a response to Arminianism (chapter 1), documents the Assembly’s interaction with Antinomian preachers and theology (chapter 2), engages the Assembly’s debates on the extent of error found in Antinomianism (chapter 3), and narrates the way in which Antinomian theology impacted the precise definitions given by the Assembly relative to the person and work of Christ (chapter 4), faith, repentance, and good works (chapter 5), and the place of the moral law in the life of a Christian (chapter 6).

Gamble’s work is a welcome history, expanding our understanding of the significant work done at the Westminster Assembly, valuable not only to scholars and armchair theologians but also to laymen.

First, it exhibits that legalism is not the only error that challenges our understanding of daily Christian living. The Reformed tradition as summarized in the Westminster Standards was, in part, a response to Antinomianism, which, among other things, conflates justification and sanctification, concluding that believers are free from the commandments of God and from the punishment of sin. This erroneous opinion often hides itself behind expressions of “free grace” and not being “under law.”

Second, this book shows the pastoral consequences of imprecise or wrong theology. The debates fueled by this controversy were not confined to the walls of Westminster Abbey but were popularized in the pulpit and confused the pew. It is a reminder that the church must commit the preaching ministry to faithful men.

Third, it defends the need for precision in our theology. The care that was put into the wording and phrasing of the Westminster Confession of Faith is astonishing. Precision is not a watchword of our culture or our churches. We are all too often content to disregard the details.

Finally, we are reminded that disagreements do not need to ruin the church, diversity of conviction is not always alarming, and clear boundaries of what is and is not acceptable are to be pursued even at great cost.

Hitting the Marks

Barry York | Crown & Covenant Publications | 2018, 161 pp., $15 | Reviewed by Sam Spear

Available at CrownandCovenant.com

In many churches across North America, congregations gather annually to reflect on the work of the church over the previous year and to make plans for future ministry. In such congregations, believers ask themselves, What should my church be doing? Is my congregation healthy? Is it alive? How do we measure or evaluate our church’s faithfulness and effectiveness?

Some people are wondering if they should join a church. Some question if they fit in. Still others wonder if there are valid reasons to consider looking elsewhere.

In this moderate-length work that proceeds from his doctoral studies at Reformed Theological Seminary, Barry York provides insight into these questions. The book includes analysis and discussion of some modern and historical ways of understanding the functions and identity of the church, including the four Nicene qualities (unity, holiness, catholicity, and apostolicity); the seven holy possessions of the church that Martin Luther identified; confessional statements of the Westminster Assembly; and ideas from the recent book Nine Marks of a Healthy Church by Mark Dever.

Dr. York, newly inaugurated president of Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Pittsburgh, Pa., makes an argument for the usefulness and essentiality of the three marks the church identified during the Reformation and carried through in Reformed churches to today: faithful preaching of God’s Word, right administration of the sacraments, and the proper exercise of church discipline.

These marks are shown to be essential in that they flow out of the identity of Jesus Christ and are directly related to His offices of prophet, priest, and king. The usefulness of these three defining marks is shown in discussions on the life and ministry of churches that follow (or do not follow) these practices.

There is a helpful section on the individual congregant’s responsibilities in upholding the preaching ministry and observing the sacraments, along with an especially needed dose of pastoral counsel regarding individual members of the church and their roles and responsibilities in church discipline.

This book will be of interest to church planters, to core church-planting members, to young people and others in new geographical locations considering how to choose a church, and to church leadership undergoing self-evaluation. The book is equipped with study guide questions for each of the 13 chapters and could easily be used in classes or small groups.