Positively Anglican is the latest publication from the Anglican charity Church Society and it seeks to do exactly what it says on the tin, complementing recent resources like The Effective Anglican and Confident and Equipped in providing a punchy, practical, and theologically engaged encouragement for those seeking to positively uphold historic Anglicanism (as expressed in the 39 Articles of Religion, the Prayer Book, and the Ordinal).

It’s an old adage but within the church some of us can quickly slip into putting more weight on communicating what we’re against, rather than what we’re for. As the title suggests, this easily-digestible collection of essays tries to rebalance the scales. Of course there is a need for nuance and realism here. Being against one thing and for another thing do not have to be mutually exclusive positions, and no doubt some will highlight how the Church of England itself began in reaction or protestation against error. So perhaps the question this book helps to raise is ultimately, “what is our posture as we live and minister as those who would identify as evangelicals within the Church?”

Like the other two books mentioned above, most of the chapters within Positively Anglican were originally presentations from conference material. In this case they are taken from Church Society’s annual conference in 2014 & 2015 – and generally speaking it feels like they’ve carried over well into written form. There are seven contributions in total, coming from both lay and ordained voices, and ranging from the general (e.g. the experienced Peter Adam’s gutsy “Imagining our Anglican Future”) to the specific (retired bishop Wallace Benn in fascinating form on “Evangelical Episcopacy”).

It was particularly refreshing to read two female writers coming from the perspective of a complementarian view of ministry. When the Church of England’s General Synod voted to allow women to be Bishops in 2014, it also put together five Guiding Principles which are meant to ensure mutual flourishing of those who differ as to what they believe the Scriptures teach on this issue. These principles acknowledge that the complementarian position is “within the spectrum of teaching and tradition of the Anglican Communion,” and therefore “the Church of England remains committed to enabling [those who hold this position] to flourish within its life and structures”. Sometimes it seems to be assumed that it’s only men who actually hold to this position, but Jane Tooher and Andrea Ruddick’s earnest and earthed chapters evidently burst this bubble. As well as demonstrating that there are both women and men who sincerely believe the Scriptures communicate an equality and distinction between the sexes, these chapters also convey a prayerful and responsible desire to consider what this looks like in practice.

Editor Lee Gatiss also provides two chapters of his own: one looks at the legendary preacher George Whitefield, taking us back to his Anglican convictions. I was inspired, and yet Gatiss isn’t afraid to gently suggest lessons to learn where necessary either. Gatiss’ second contribution, ‘How to Transform a Church’, gives substance to the slogan, ‘Preach, Pray, Love, Stay’, which no doubt a lot of us could take to heart. There is also a opening chapter from James Taylor, reflecting on John Stott’s classic answer as to why he still ‘believed’ in the Church of England, with Taylor considering whether it’s still relevant some thirty years later.

Occasionally I felt like I was wanting a few more specifics, in terms of examples or applications, but maybe that’s to be expected when the book is comprised of fairly prompt chapters originally presented in a conference set-up. The flip-side of this is that it makes the volume just the right format for dipping into a whole range of topics whilst still being stimulating and energising.

Positively Anglican encourages a generation of men and women to own their Anglicanism in a manner that is less reactionary and more front-foot positivity, modelling a compelling vision for an evangelical Anglicanism that is heartily committed to the Church of England. It’ll be well worth putting into the hands of wardens and lay leaders, as well as ordinands, curates and incumbents.

Disclaimer: The publisher has sent me a free copy of this book, but I hope this is still a fair and honest review.

Evangelism can be a bit of a dirty word. Perhaps it makes us think of some dude wearing a Bible-verse laden sandwich-board, or someone standing in the high street with a megaphone. The problem with all those connotations is that they make evangelism out to be something that normal people just don’t do. It’s something for the experts, or maybe – worse still – for the crazy people.

Interestingly, in the Church of England, the Archbishops of Canterbury and York have just issued a call for a week of prayer for the “evangelisation of our nation”. So they obviously think it’s pretty important – but, then again, they’re Archbishops right?!

And yet, as Paul Williams notes in this little book, most of us who’d identify as Christians would recognise we’ve got something worth sharing. The gospel is good news; good news about Jesus our Saviour, Friend & King. As Christians, we’ve discovered and tasted the sweetness of that good news, and so it’s natural to want to share it with others.

But that’s often where we get stuck. We want to talk about Jesus, but we’re just not sure how to go about it or where to start. Plus, the very thought of doing so can bring us out in a bit of a sweat! And that’s where Intentional is such a helpful and practical pick-up.

Let’s start with its size. It’s part of the 10publishing series, which is intentionally (ahem) bitesize and easy-to-read. So even if you can’t remember the last time you finished a Christian book, I’d be confident you’d get to the last page of this one. For me it was a couple of intra-Cumbrian train journeys. Crumbs, some of the chapters are just three or four paragraphs!

So it’s totally manageable. But – even better – it’s full of good stuff. Canon Paul Williams is a church leader in Sheffield, and Intentional is his succinct and practical guide to helping people like you and me get a little bit better about talking to people about Jesus.

And throughout the book it’s clear this is something Paul is trying to put into practice himself. The book is full of examples – but these aren’t of sermons or talks Paul’s given in church, but of conversations and chats he is having with his mates. He’s honest about his own struggles, which means you can identify with what he says. But Paul’s also hopeful about just getting a little bit more confident and a little bit more prepared. He shares that he made a commitment to himself a few years back to never be asked a question twice that he doesn’t know how to answer. If he’s stumped or clueless by someone’s question, he acknowledges it – but then goes away and thinks through what he would say next time. What a great resolution!

Here’s three more things I particularly appreciated about Intentional:

• It begins by focusing on the ‘fear-factor’, and looks at some of the practical wisdom that the apostle Peter shared with Christians who were feeling fearful of publicly owning their faith. He reflects on this under 3 ‘C’s: Conviction; Confidence; Compassion. I think we all feel this from time-to-time, and so it’s good to be shown how the Bible speaks into our hearts here.
• Paul isn’t trying to turn us into people who spout one-way mini-preaches. Intentional is about the importance of having engaging conversations – actually caring and listening to real people – and that means being intentional about asking good questions, just as much as it is about giving decent answers.
• The sub-title is ‘Evangelism that takes people to Jesus,’ and that emphasis is another great strength. As Christians, we want to not just raise the possibility of there being a God, but help people to consider how God has made himself known: supremely in Jesus and what he has done for us at the cross. Of course Jesus’ epic love-driven rescue mission is often just not on Joe Bloggs’ radar, and yet Intentional gives helpful wisdom about taking people to a point where it could be.

Intentional is one of those books that you just think, given its size and given its content, it’s hard to imagine why you wouldn’t give it a read! I don’t think there’s many books that do the same job as succinctly, or as practically. So why not pick up a copy of Intentional from the publisher here – it’s about the price of a pint and it won’t make your breath smell funny.

Full disclosure: The publisher sent me a copy of the book for free, but I hope this is still a fair and honest review!

A recent survey of the working patterns and stress levels among almost 500 pastors, church-based women’s workers, and youth and children’s workers revealed some concerning results:

• The average respondent was doing double the number of hours they are “officially” supposed to;
• Almost half were not taking a regular weekly day off;
• One third had experienced burnout;
• 15% were working over 70 hours a week;
• And yet 80% felt guilty they were letting people down by not doing a good job.

That makes a book like Zeal without Burnout: Seven keys to a lifelong ministry of sustainable sacrifice very significant. To put it another way, we need it. (Or at least we need someone to speak into our lives on this matter). And author Christopher Ash is certainly not writing as an armchair observer. As a pastor himself, as well as the former director of the popular ministry training course, Cornhill, Christopher testifies to twice having come to the edge of burnout, requiring significant time-off and recuperation. In that sense, it reads as the book he wishes someone had placed into his own hands.

The essence of ZWB is an extended reminder that we are creatures of dust, something that Christopher believes is “a neglected truth”:

When you and I surrendered to Jesus as Lord, we did not offer him the services of a divine, or even semi-divine creature, to strengthen his kingdom; we offered him the fragile, temporary, mortal, frail life that he has first given to us. That is all we have to offer… God knows that: “for he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.” (Psalm 103 v14)

Part of this is the recovery of the realisation that we are embodied creatures. We can’t separate our ‘spiritual lives’ from our bodily lives. In other words, we can’t expect to keep operating in ministerial roles without giving attention to the way we’re made. And so Christopher gives a chapter each to four essentials: sleep; Sabbath rests; friends; and inward renewal. Even reading those as a list, the temptation is to flick past them as if they are too obvious, or even – dare I say it – not spiritual enough. And yet Christopher says this is symptomatic of trying to be more than God made us to be. These are the means God has given to sustain his creatures. Quoting the renowned Scottish minister William Still, we need to: “Know our limits… Most people crack up because they try to do what God never intended.”

Of course this also relates to our motivations in ministry and how we perceive our own identity in our role and ‘success’. Christopher takes time to lovingly but powerfully expose “ministry machismo,” overworking because of a desire to try and do everything – whether that’s because we’re trying to carve out a reputation for ourselves, or trying to prove ourselves. He also acknowledges that the ‘best of intentions’ often lead to a passion for ministry that can increasingly make unwise decisions. Sometimes it might be the congregation who we have in mind, sometimes it’s those in responsibility above us, or sometimes its a side-eye on the minister down the road. But they can all be dangerous.

I think too, in the social media age, we can all be very aware of what our ‘ministry peers’ are upto. We read the tweets (and retweets) and we see the Facebook posts. Conferences and catch-ups can become comparison stations. When folk are held up to us as leading names and exemplars in online articles and web-profiles it often leads to us measuring our own status by the level of public recognition we can or can’t achieve. Instead we need to learn something hugely counter-cultural: to “rest content in our creaturely weakness”.

One of the commendations on the back describes Christopher’s tone as “humane,” which I first thought to be an unusual term but having read the book I completely agree. Christopher writes with understanding. He understands ministry and he understands the desires and temptations ministers face and he understands the reality of burnout. To put it more precisely, he understands that serving God will bring a cost. Throughout it he commends hard work and sacrifice. And yet he also understands the temptation of foolish heroism. We need to think in terms of “sustainable sacrifice”:

“The sort of self-giving living that God enables us to go on giving day after day.”

Of course, this isn’t just for our own well-being. It’s also acknowledging the reality that a ministry crash impacts upon others too: perhaps a spouse, children, colleagues, and of course the church itself.

As someone with a few years of full-time ministry pre-college under my belt, and now looking ahead to a longer stint ‘out in the field’ post-college, Christopher’s book is a bit of a wake-up call. As well as the author’s own two experiences of burnout, the book is littered with excerpts from correspondence and conversations from others who have been through similar ‘crashes’ and ‘troughs’, many with accompanying medical implications to some degree. There are also extended testimonies placed as ‘intervals’ in between chapters, with named individuals choosing to be very honest about their own experiences. All of these help underline a very persuasive message: ‘don’t think you’re beyond this, we weren’t’.

A final post-script chapter form Dr Steve Midgley, a trained psychiatrist, pastor, and head of Biblical Counselling UK/lecturer in biblical counselling at Oak Hill College, offers a helpful angle on what’s going on with burnout medically-speaking. He also gives the important reminder that:

“Burnout isn’t the worst thing that can happen. In fact, it may sometimes be the very thing God uses to challenge us about the need for spiritual growth and change.”

Obviously the nature of the subject means the real fruit of such a book cannot be judged in the short-term. That said, an immediate response must be to look at our own patterns of living and, as Christopher puts it, “to be prepared to be very firm in changing your lifestyle and patterns of Christian service, even if it is hard.”

As I close, here are a handful of lines that particularly stuck out:

“To neglect sleep, Sabbaths, friendships and inward renewal is not heroism but hubris.”

“Like the manna in the wilderness, rest is an exercise in trust.”

“The aim of gospel work is not to be a lone hero, but to work with other gospel workers to spread the gospel of Jesus.”

“A wise measure of self-preservation and the drawing of boundaries around our time is not the denial of love, but the outworking of wisdom.”

“It makes sense to give others permission to tell us when they notice signs that we are under pressure.”

Lastly, although the saying goes, ‘don’t judge a book by its cover,’ inevitably a book’s cover and packaging do effect its first impression. In that regard, hats off to The Good Book Company for its presentation of ZWB. The small hardback format (akin to C.J. Mahaney’s Humility or The Cross-Centred Life, if you’ve seen those) and the pleasant formatting make it a delight to read, which given the topic is just as well.

Pick up a copy of Zeal without Burnout from the publisher here. There’s also the reduced offer of a ‘ministry pack‘ with five copies for only £25, with the intention of allowing a staff team or fraternal to read through the book together.

You can also watch the trailer below:

Full disclosure: The publisher sent me a copy of the book for free, but I hope this is still a fair and honest review!