HONOUR:
Loving Your Church By Building One
Another Up
By Adam Ramsey
The Good Book Co. 114 pages. £9.99
ISBN 978 1 784 989 705
This is a timely book and part of a timely series – loveyourchurchseries.com. The subtitle clarifies the aim; loving your church by building one another up.
It is a small book that has the potential to make a big impact. It begins with an introduction on the meaning of the Biblical term ‘honour’.
The author makes it clear the concept of honour has been misused. I found what has been his experience quite alarming (mainly where leaders have wrongly used honour) – albeit sensitively expressed. His conclusion on the proper meaning of the term is best put in the writer’s own words: ‘Honour, then, is a posture of life that exalts and rejoices over both God and others. It is a lens of looking at God and honouring His glory, and then recognising that glory being woven into each person (on account of us being made in God’s image) or being woven into a position of authority. As we will see, honour is about giving appropriate weight to both, thus glorifying God, and respecting one another’ (pp.14-15).
The whole issue is then applied to many areas of church life. A Church that Honours God Above All, that is Notorious for Humility, is Biblically Competitive (now there is an intriguing idea), an Honourable Witness, Led by Honourable Leaders, that Rightly Honours Such Leaders.
This is all set out with a clear and solid Biblical basis, creative, stimulating phrases, light touches of appropriate, Australian, humour and is both engaging and genuinely challenging. It has bite and warmth. Each chapter ends with two to four good questions to stimulate thought, and at the back there is a discussion guide with six questions for each chapter. This makes it ideal for both personal and small-group study. It is difficult to imagine an individual Christian or church not profiting from this book. I will certainly recommend it for our own church to use in its home groups. I will also have a look at the rest of the series. How we need to have a good look at ourselves as churches; this little volume will help us do that well!
