Review: The Missionary Theologian

Posted on August 7, 2024 by Paul Schlehlein

E.D. Burns, Christian Focus, 263 pages, 3 of 5 stars

E.D. Burns wrote Missionary Theologian to show that missions must coexist with sound theology to be effective. If you previously viewed missionaries as good ‘ole boys who love talkn’ bout Jesus but don’t know the difference between a hypochondriac and the Hypostatic Union, Burns wrote this book for you.

For years, Burns has served as a foreign missionary in East Asia and beyond. As a veteran missionary myself for nearly two decades, I enjoyed hearing a cross-cultural evangelist laud the importance of biblical theology and healthy ministry methods.

Indeed, missionaries won’t succeed if they don’t know and love the Word. Churches should block the runway if ignorant missionaries try boarding the plane to a foreign land. As Spurgeon said, “We cannot send men of third and tenth-class abilities, we must send the highest and the best.” Continue reading →

Review: Father of Faith Missions

Posted on May 1, 2024 by Paul Schlehlein

Robert Dann, Authentic Media, 606 pages, 5 of 5 stars | Full Summary HERE.

Father of Faith Missions is the story of Anthony Norris Groves and his life as missionary in Persia and India.

What makes the book so spectacular is the way Dann unpacks dozens of themes around the life of Groves: suffering, apologetics, the life of George Muller, child raising, money, church planting, language study, Islam and so forth.

Groves was a man ahead of his time. He never served under a church denomination, never was promised a salary and never received a formal theological education. He lacked much. What he did have, as he liked to say, was the promises of God.

Groves was born in 1795 in the south of England. He married at age twenty-one and soon opened a surgery as a qualified dentist. Converted just before age 30, Groves wrote a little 28-page booklet just one year later. Christian Devotedness would prove to be one of the most influential Christian books of the 19th century. Continue reading →

Review: Engenas Lekganyane and the Early ZCC

Posted on April 12, 2024 by Paul Schlehlein

Barry Morton, Booksmango, 242 pages, 3 of 5 stars

The Zion Christian Church (ZCC) is the African and ecclesiastical version of the Freemasons—shrouded in mystery and secret rituals. What’s so special about the tea they’re brewing? Why is the water they splash on faces so magical? What makes their uniforms blessed? The answers are difficult to find.

Despite its twelve million members and place as southern Africa’s largest African Initiated Church, the ZCC is nearly empty of any historical or theological literature.

This book is so helpful because it pulls back the curtain on this Christian cult that dots the south of Africa. A main reason I strongly recommend Barry Morton’s book on the ZCC is that there is no other work like it. There’s simply not a lot of literature from which to choose. Continue reading →

Review: R.C. Sproul – A Life

Posted on February 14, 2024 by Paul Schlehlein

Stephen Nichols, Crossway, 371 pages, 4 of 5 stars

I was in college when my parents received a flyer from Ligonier Ministries. The first teaching series I ordered was on the Five Solas. I was hooked. I’ve loved Sproul ever since.

It was with great excitement that I read Sproul’s bio written by Stephen Nichols. The book is balanced, inciteful, warm, and loaded with doctrine and humorous stories. For a full summary of the biography, look HERE.

I thought I knew the man well. But did you know that Sproul…?

Said he was the only person in church history to be converted by reading Ecclesiastes 11:3.
Earned a doctorate from the Free University of Amsterdam, even though he never wrote a dissertation.
Would speak Dutch to Cornelius Van Til as they sat on the man’s porch outside Philadelphia.
Married Tim and Kathy Keller, who were also students at the Ligonier Valley Study Center.
Wrote all through the night the 19 affirmations and denials of the Chicago Statement on Inerrancy, after the person assigned to the task failed to produce them.
Had 18,000 students and 800 resident students pass through his study center in 1977, only the sixth year of the school.
Was aboard the deadliest crash in Amtrak history, where 42 of the 202 passengers were killed.
Described the Evangelicals and Catholics Together affair as the most difficult time in his life.
Wrote vows for the board members and faculty of Reformation Bible College, to be recited annually, which included the Apostles’ and Chalcedonian creeds, the five solas and the consensus of the Reformed confession.
Within a few days after his death, had over 17,000 responses from around the world respond to the prompt from Crossway: “I am grateful for R.C. Sproul because….”