Weekend Reads: Encouraging us to love one another and to pray

The Unfinished Church: God’s Broken and Redeemed Work-in-Progress

By Rob Bentz

Imagine a half-built Gothic cathedral, abandoned to the ravages of time. Such a structure exists on the island of Bermuda, and it inspired Pastor Rob Bentz to write The Unfinished Church: God’s Broken and Redeemed Work-in-Progress (Crossway, 2014).

The foundation of this church is the reality of election. If you are part of the church, then you have been chosen by God, called out of the world and called to be a saint. Bentz says this is not ground for vaunting one’s moral superiority: “Nobody wants to hear about how much God loves you. What your friends need to hear … is how much God loves them!”

Two barriers to sharing that knowledge: our own weak faith and our awareness that helping others is costly. Further barriers come from our propensity to create God in our own image and reject fellow sinners who don’t conform. Bentz’s diagnostic question hurts: Are you willing to worship with saints whose worship music doesn’t match the tunes in your iPod?

Bentz unapologetically paints a picture of how things ought to be. Many books I read hedge and simper and go out of their way to remind us that we are broken, wicked people. Keep your expectations low, they suggest. Don’t get too excited about getting holier. The Unfinished Church is different. Bentz actually seems to expect that believers can and will love one another better over time. Indeed, though he’s certainly clear that this building project is unfinished, his utter conviction that it’s right on schedule shines through his prose. God’s Spirit is actually sanctifying us! Thus, what unites us is not only our sinfulness, but also the forgiveness of sin in Jesus. And that’s what empowers us to actually love others.

For a hefty shot of encouragement, you can’t go wrong with Bentz.

You Can Pray: Finding Grace to Pray Every Day,

By Tim Chester

God the Father loves to hear us pray.

God the Son makes every prayer pleasing.

God the Holy Spirit helps us as we pray.

These are the foundational points of Tim Chester’s You Can Pray: Finding Grace to Pray Every Day (P&R Publishing, 2014). As you can see, the book is simply saturated with rock-solid Trinitarian theology. But Chester doesn’t present the truth in a scary format. His mantra is simple: “Prayer is a child asking her father for help—nothing more, nothing less.”

Have you ever heard a father scorn his baby’s first words? Does he correct his little one’s pronunciation? Of course not. Indeed, the Bible tells us that if we are united to Christ our prayers are as welcome to our Heavenly Father as those of His Son. In short, prayer is easy. Chester quotes one writer to the effect that all Jesus’ teaching on prayer “can be summarized with one word: ask.”

So why is prayer difficult? Well, it is difficult because we think we have better things to do, or because we simply don’t enjoy it. Or, perhaps, it is something we regard as an achievement. Chester gently corrects all these ways of thinking, writing that prayer is “not an achievement. It’s a gracious invitation to share the pleasure of the triune God.” It is a conversation and a relationship—but it also changes the world.

What about unanswered prayers? Chester’s basic response is that God’s plan is bigger than you are, and He will accomplish it with or without your participation. Prayer offers you the privilege of participating, but God reserves the right to decide what He’s going to do.

Ultimately, Chester (quoting from Paul Miller) offers encouragement: “We don’t need self-discipline to pray continuously; we just need to be poor in spirit.” Amen.