STYLE OR SUBSTANCE:
The Nature of True Christian Ministry
By William Taylor and David Dargue
Christian Focus. 143 pages. £7.99
ISBN 978 1 781 912 294
This book is based on sermons by William Taylor on 2 Corinthians, and, as a weak pastor, a weak gospel proclaimer, leading a church that is weak by the world’s standards, I found it a tremendous encouragement to ‘be confident in the “weak” ministry of gospel proclamation’.
Books based on preached sermons can be difficult, the spoken word not transposing to the written word with quite the same power. That wasn’t the case here. As Taylor worked through 2 Corinthians, with that focus on weakness, I found myself greatly helped and challenged.
Of course I know that I am weak! Of course I know that the gospel is ‘weak’! But how much does that knowledge shape my expectations of ministry? Am I willing to labour through suffering and trial? Am I willing to be made truly weak by God, or just talk about my weakness?
Of course I know that all gospel ministry is hard work! But do I secretly have a list of ‘if onlys’? If only the church was bigger; if only we didn’t have this problem; if only we were a church full of evangelists who all shared the gospel every week; if only we lived in a different time when the soil was more fertile. Am I willing to remember that ‘it is an essential part of God’s economy that human weakness and divine power are found together’? Will I truly celebrate my weakness because it causes me to depend more on God?
Getting under the skin
All in all, this was a helpful book and I would recommend it to anyone in ministry. The book confronts those who seek shortcuts, or those who look to methods rather than the gospel for transformation – but it also gets under the skin of those who already agree with its major premise that substance is more important than style.
