Despite now being in my seventh-year working for a church and being a trained-up Anglican curate (not to mention the fact that I now rock up at church with a couple of my own kids in tow), the very thought of children’s ministry is still enough to bring me out in a cold sweat!

So I thank God for Alison Mitchell who has written this little gem, a treasure-trove for anyone seeking to get a handle on the nuts and bolts of children’s ministy. Alison is Commissioning Editor at The Good Book Company, with 30 years of involvement in training children’s and youth leaders, as well as being author of numerous children’s books and reams of ‘Sunday school’ kids material! In other words, you’d assume she’d be well placed to write this book – and once you start reading you realise she definitely is. 

Of course, if you’re going to name a book “starting out” in children’s ministry, then it’s pretty important you make sure it’s not too overwhelming. I want a resource that I can hand to (or work through with) a new leader or church apprentice with confidence that it’s not going to scare them off (likewise, for fresh-faced curates!). And yet it also needs to be comprehensive enough to actually be a significant help in teaching, training and equipping people. Starting Out achieves both, making the task and privilege of children’s ministry both imaginable and exciting.

The book is only eight chapters, each one short and sweet, but between them they cover a rich sweep of pretty much everything you’d want introduced. Ranging from the general (‘Why Children’s Ministry?’) to the specific (‘Digging into the Bible’ and ‘Staying safe’), they’re an engaging blend of input, questions & activities, personal examples and prayer points. We recently ran a ‘thank you and refresher afternoon’ for all those involved in the different children’s ministries at our church, and this book was a brilliant resource to draw on in shaping that time.

A few other stand-out aspects that I really appreciated:

• I was really impressed by the way Alison presented a simple ‘toolbox’ for giving leaders confidence to dig into the details of a Bible passage for themselves – and unpack its big idea. I don’t think I’ve seen/read many people doing this quite as simply.
• Some wise words on how to use – and how not to use – published teaching material.
• Alison’s ‘Focus the fun’ element is a really useful reminder that fun is good (i.e. crafts, games, activities), but it doesn’t have to be separate from ‘teaching’ – it can be focused.
• An understanding that different people (and different kids) learn best in different ways.
• Seeing craft as a “secret weapon” – not just a convenient time-filler.
• Helpful to have the subject of discipline is purposefully engaged with throughout, rather than being seen as a stand-alone topic.
• It’s always good to feel that an author is genuinely enthusiastic about what she’s writing about. Alison’s writing oozes conviction and delight.

Maybe sometimes children’s work is seen as a bit secondary, or even worse, simply an exercise in glorified child-minding. Even when we know the ‘theory’ behind its importance, in practice the time we give to preparing (perhaps compared to a sermon, etc) can be rather lacking. But Starting Out gave me fresh joy and heaps of help for the challenge of teaching the next generation about our great and glorious God and what he has done. 

You can pick up Starting Out in Children’s Ministry from The Good Book CompanyThe Good Book Company for less than a fiver – that’s a steal!

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

Sometimes the impression can be given that Christians think money, sex, and power are inherently bad things. Perhaps it’s given when we have little to say to the Christian in a position of responsibility at work? Perhaps it’s given when sex is never mentioned from the pulpit, except when we’re saying what we’re against? Perhaps… well, maybe we could go on.

But in his new book, Living in the Light, John Piper is out to turn that misunderstanding on its head. In fact, he begins by stating his argument up front:

“God did not concieve and create money, sex, and power simply to be a temptation. … [They] are not detours on the path to God-exalting joy. Along with all the rest of God’s good world, they are the path. With them, we can show the supreme worth of God.”

In other words, money, sex, and power are God-given opportunities to “make God look really good”. When was the last time you thought about what you did with your wallet, your responsibilities, or even your relationships, as having that purpose? But once you think about it, of course it makes sense. How we handle money, sex, and power inevitably reveals what we value. And therefore there’s a way of engaging with them that shows we value God above everything else.

And yet, of course, that potential can be revealing too. In that sense Piper calls them “dangerous opportunities,” because how you treat these three “puts your heart’s treasure on display”:

“[Money, sex, and power] are ways of displaying God’s supreme worth in your life, or they are ways of displaying what you think is the supreme worth of something else.”

Really the book is framed around an extended analogy, with Piper suggesting we’d do well to think about our solar system as a picture of how we’re to relate to money, sex, and power. In and of themselves they’re good things that God has created, and as such we need them to be in their right place within God’s ordering of the world. The sun, the “blazing centre” of our solar system, is God. But the nature of sin is to place other things or desires, even God-given things like money, sex, and power, at the centre of our existence and identity, rather than seeing them as planets orbiting a sun.

If that’s the diagnosis, Piper’s way of putting the solution is that we return “God’s all-satisying glory” to the centre of our solar system. This is to live in the light. Only God’s glory has the gravitational attraction to hold those other things in their right place and orbit. Only God can hold our lives together. Only then do we discover what we were truly made for:

“…money exists so that it will be plain by the way we use it that God is more to be desired than money. Sex exists so that it will be plain that God is more to be desired than sex. And power exists so that it will be plain that admiring and depending on his power is more to be desired than exalting our own… we were created to glorify and thank God – that is, to treasure the glory of God over all things, to be amazed at his glory, to admire his beauty, to enjoy him and all his perfections, to be satisfied in him, and to find a deep, settled contentment in his all-satisying fellowship.”

It’s a powerful picture, but it’s biblically persuasive too. I appreciated how Piper unpacked the ‘exchange’ language of Romans chapter 1, showing how we turn from God’s glory and instead set significant things up as ultimate things in place of God. Of course, this is often because of what these things can do for us. As Piper puts it, they become “altars and incense in the temple of pride”.

But as we have our eyes opened to what Jesus has done in rescuing us, we become captivated by a greater glory – and this transforms us. This is where passages like 2 Corinthians ch3 are key, showing that discipleship involves an internal beholding of how amazing God is, as we’re changed from one degree of glory to the next. Piper then paints for us what this transformation might look like, as each of the planets returns to its proper orbit around our worship of the Son, to make “the whole system sing with joy”.

I found these examples and articulated thought-processes very helpful in considering what this would mean in my life. In particular, I felt I’d never really considered my relationship to power, so that was an eye-opener. A small critique would perhaps to have shifted the weight of the word count from earlier on in the book, and instead developed the latter section on ‘Deployment’ (i.e. application). In particular, I wonder if it would be an even stronger book had it engaged more with poverty and singleness. However, there are always limits and calls to make – so perhaps that’s a counsel of perfection.

For someone looking to press on as a follower of Christ, Living in the Light will be a fullsome and unshrinking read. In essence, it’s a worked example of how to make much of Jesus Christ with all of our lives. If you’ve never read any Piper, it’s a great way to begin. If you’re a JP junkie, you’ll still appreciate how he pushes seeing Christ as supreme into the specifics of our lives. And with its smart hard-back glossy finish and perspective-changing approach, it’s a fab investment. Why not pack it in the suitcase over the summer and spend some decent time mulling it over?

You can also check out the book’s mini-site, where you can read samples, sign-up for a free five-day email devotional, as well as order your own copy.

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

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.