Jonathan Leeman has a good post at the 9Marks blog on why he wrote his latest book, Reverberation: How God’s Word Brings Light, Freedom, and Action to His People.
Here’s what he has to say:
Wanna grow as a Christian? Then apply yourself again and again to your understanding of God. That’s been the lesson John Piper has taught many of us.
C.J. Mahaney’s book The Gospel Centered Life has taught many of us the same thing about the gospel. Don’t view the gospel just as a way of getting into the faith. It’s where we must go every day to grow in the faith.
The doctrine of Scripture, however, isn’t always treated the same way, especially among church leaders. It’s more like a box you check:
- Believe in inerrancy? Check.
- Believe in sufficiency? Check.
- Believe in authority? Check.
- Now, let’s move on with building our churches.
One of the legacies of Mark Dever in my life is to discover that growing as both a Christian and as a pastor means continually growing in the depth of our understanding of the Bible and its power, just like we grow in the depth of our understanding of God and the gospel.
This is especially important for church leaders, who are going to build their congregations on one thing or another. Your beliefs about the Bible are not a box to check. The faithful pastors whom many of us admire are the men who, over the course of years, grow and grow and grow in knowing the Bible’s power.
The primary goal of Reverberation is to help Christians and pastors alike discover more deeply how the gospel-centered words of Scripture come “in a demonstration of the Spirit and of power.” To grow Christian confidence and pastoral confidence in the implausible power of spoken words.